The ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Motherboard Review

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

Board Features

ASRock’s design approach with the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is an attempt to fit as many features on a Mini ITX motherboard as possible while sustaining a relatively reasonable retail price tag, trying to entice virtually all of the advanced PC users; overclockers, advanced gamers and HTPC enthusiasts. A quick look reveals the presence of high-end controllers and advanced power circuitry. The company even installed features that we would have never expected to see on a Mini ITX motherboard, such as a SATA Express connector. Despite all that, the price tag is not as salty as we originally anticipated, with the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac currently retailing for $159, a reasonable price for an advanced gaming motherboard.

In The Box

We get the following:

• Driver Disk
• Quick Installation Guide
• Software Setup Guide
• Rear I/O Shield
• Two black SATA cables (one straight, one with a 90° connector)
• Wireless antenna

ASRock decided that the correct place to be frugal is the bundle, omitting any extra accessories that would increase the price tag of the motherboard. Inside the box we only found the typical user’s manual/software guide, a drivers/applications DVD, a metallic I/O shield, and two SATA cables. There is also a single square antenna that works for both the WiFi and Bluetooth. Its WiFi range does not seem to be significantly different than that of a typical antenna but the Bluetooth reception was astoundingly powerful, at least in comparison to that of cheap USB to Bluetooth adapters. During our testing, the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac seamlessly pushed an audio stream to a Bluetooth speaker nearly 8 meters away and through a 12 cm wooden wall.

Overclocking with the ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac

ASRock is placing a lot of marketing effort on the promotion of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac as an “overclocker’s” motherboard. On paper, ASRock did install a relatively advanced power circuit and high-quality components with a very significant overhead that are equal to or better than what we usually find on most motherboards around this price range, regardless of their size.

A dive into the motherboard’s BIOS reveals a very good selection of frequency and voltage control options, yet most have a very narrow range. For example, the CPU voltage can “only” be set up to 1.5 volts. That will be more than enough for the average home gamer and casual overclocker but may be limiting for experts with exotic cooling solutions.

Methodology

Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with PovRay and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.

For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Overclock Results

Although we were hesitant at first, the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac proved to be a very stable overclocking motherboard, pushing our Intel 7700K ES all the way up to 5.0 GHz. What kept us from going further is the thermal performance of our CPU, which is a lousy thermal performer due to its poorly seated lid. Despite the very high CPU temperature and its relatively high-power demand at 5 GHz, the  Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac successfully completed prolonged stability tests.

The automatic CPU overclocking options, or the “optimized CPU overclock settings” as ASRock likes to call them, do work but they are hardly optimized. As ASRock had to play it safe and maximize the stability of a potentially poor overclocker CPU, the CPU voltage that each of the automated options sets is quite high. This can result to much higher energy consumption and temperatures with chips that are mediocre to good overclockers and do not require as high a voltage. Our own 7700K failed the test at 4.8 GHz due to the exceedingly high temperatures, whereas manual control allowed us to perform fully stable overclocks at 4.8 GHz and beyond. Ultimately, what limited us was the thermal performance of our CPU and not the motherboard.

The Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac also handles high BCLK frequencies well, with the maximum fully stable frequency that we managed to reach being 182 MHz. Note that the newer motherboard designs decouple the CPU bus from the rest of the frequency domains in order to allow for these high BCLK overclocks, meaning that the performance of other components and the system’s overall bandwidth remains unaffected. On the contrary, frequency misalignments can cause an overall performance drop. Thus, this technique is useless to users who have unlocked CPUs and should be used only to overclock locked CPUs.