More Z270 motherboard reviews? When?

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sram

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dear Kyle and all,

When will we start seeing more Z270 mobos's reviews here? Specially ASUS ROG one's? I've got my i7 7700K and i need a mobo for it. I can't pull the trigger before reading your reviews. I usually go very high end with mobos. I need nvme and best overclocking performance.


The upgrade bug is killing me and i can't wait any longer, hence the question^_^

So, what's the plan?

Thanks
 
Soon. It takes a while to do all the testing, edit images, create graphs and then write the actual articles.
 
I was just coming into this sub to make the same post! Glad I'm not the only one.
7700k is on the way.

I'm thinking ROG Maximus IX Hero, but for $240 I'm not that thrilled with only one LAN, no Thunderbolt3, no WIFI...and honestly a pretty bare board.
I know it has more "engineering and ROG testing", but at this rate the 270 Prime @ 169 is looking like pretty much the same thing.

The GIGABYTE Z270X Gaming 7 didn't impress too much either at @ $240. BIOS looks a bit wonkey...and not very premium.

Must be we're being pushed to + $300 boards now?
 
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mathot said:
I was just coming into this sub to make the same post! Glad I'm not the only one.
7700k is on the way.

I'm thinking ROG Maximus IX Hero, but for $240 I'm not that thrilled with only one LAN, no Thunderbolt3, no WIFI...and honestly a pretty bare board.
I know it has more "engineering and ROG testing", but at this rate the 270 Prime @ 169 is looking like pretty much the same thing.

The GIGABYTE Z270X Gaming 7 didn't impress too much either at @ $240. BIOS looks a bit wonkey...and not very premium.

Must be were being pushed to + $300 boards now?
Click to expand...

The UEFI for the Z270X Gaming 7 works pretty well. Its not as nice as the ASUS motherboard UEFI but its better than what MSI has.
 
Dan_D said:
The UEFI for the Z270X Gaming 7 works pretty well. Its not as nice as the ASUS motherboard UEFI but its better than what MSI has.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dan, it may have been the MSI board I was thinking of too.

What's your current recommendation? Wait for more reviews or just pick the best Asus and call it a day?
 
mathot said:
Thanks Dan, it may have been the MSI board I was thinking of too.

What's your current recommendation? Wait for more reviews or just pick the best Asus and call it a day?
Click to expand...

I don't have enough of a sampling to really say. I've only worked with a couple at this point. Most of the mid-range ASUS, MSI or GIGABYTE offerings are probably safe picks based on the last 10 years of experience with them. ASRock is usually fine if you go with one of their higher end offerings. I won't know for sure until I get through some more of these things. Unfortunately, I had to rebuild the cooling setup on the test bench this week. It was damaged during my recent move.
 
I wonder why the Z270 SuperCarrier has no reviews... seem to be their flagship product for the Z270.
 
lukart said:
I wonder why the Z270 SuperCarrier has no reviews... seem to be their flagship product for the Z270.
Click to expand...

There are potentially several reasons for this.

1.) ASRock may not sample that motherboard to anyone, or only to select sites they know will give it a favorable review.
2.) A motherboard like that can take longer to test than an average motherboard depending on the methodology of testing a site employs.
3.) There simply aren't any motherboards available to send to media sites. Even seeing a motherboard for sale in retail doesn't mean that the PR department of a company has the allocation of stock they need to distribute these motherboards to all your favorite tech sites.
4.) Reviewers simply aren't done with the articles yet. This is sort of like #2 but it can have to do with the influx of motherboards reviewers likely have on hand right now. I've got several I'm working on or about to be working on. If Kyle was sent a Z270 Supercarrier today, you probably wouldn't see a review on it for several weeks.
5.) The manufacturer may not be sampling a given model until issues are worked out with it. Sometimes last minute issues come up which could delay the motherboards being sent to reviewers. ASRock isn't going to send a motherboard out unless they are fairly certain of a favorable review. Case in point, ASRock won't sample motherboards to us. We have a spotty history of giving them favorable reviews. This is because we give our truthful opinions on a motherboard, whatever those may be.
 
lucidrenegade said:
I'd love to see a review of the Biostar Z270GT9
Click to expand...

We probably won't, but you can ask Kyle. I don't have any control over that. With BioStar's limited North American presence we just don't concentrate on the brand. I think it's been two or three years since I tested a BioStar motherboard.
 
I'm waiting and would love to see the ASUS ROG Maximus IX Formula being reviewed here. Please don't tell me it is not in the list.:nailbiting:
 
Looking for mini itx reviews myself. Very sparse, but boards are becoming available now so hopefully the reviews will come soon.
 
Really I'm only posting as I want to get 'sufficient privileges' to post a picture of my new, awesome ncase m1 build in that thread, but I can't yet.
 
I'm using an msi z270i motherboard and watercooling. Have the Asus z270i strix on pre-order, so I'm going to see which one overclocks an i7-7700 better and sell the other one. I'm guessing the Asus will be better. I guess I could do my own mini-comparison review of the two boards.
 
You people realize there's nothing stopping you from running the 7700k on an Asus ROG z170 boards, right?

https://rog.asus.com/technology/rog-motherboard-innovations/usb-bios-flashback/

ASUS Flashback lets you update the BIOS with no CPU installed.

Second, there is ABSOLUTELY no difference between the z270 chipset and the z170, except for the invented "four extra PCIe lanes." The chipset is still constrained by the same DMI 3.0 4x connection as the z170, so you can't possibly make use of those extra lanes. Pure marketing-invented BS.

No need to wait for z270 REVIEWS, you can find your dream ROG z170 board right away, as long as it supports Flashback.
 
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True, but the Asus strix has 2 M.2 slots, versus none for the Z170 ROG board. 6 months down the road when Optane is available I could buy one and plug it in the free M.2 slot and instant upgrade.
 
whateverer said:
You people realize there's nothing stopping you from running the 7700k on an Asus ROG z170 boards, right?

https://rog.asus.com/technology/rog-motherboard-innovations/usb-bios-flashback/

ASUS Flashback lets you update the BIOS with no CPU installed.

Second, there is ABSOLUTELY no difference between the z270 chipset and the z170, except for the invented "four extra PCIe lanes." The chipset is still constrained by the same DMI 3.0 4x connection as the z170, so you can't possibly make use of those extra lanes. Pure marketing-invented BS.

No need to wait for z270 REVIEWS, you can find your dream ROG z170 board right away, as long as it supports Flashback.
Click to expand...
Yeah I know that. It is just getting the latest and greatest and for bragging rights you can say.
 
whateverer said:
You people realize there's nothing stopping you from running the 7700k on an Asus ROG z170 boards, right?

https://rog.asus.com/technology/rog-motherboard-innovations/usb-bios-flashback/

ASUS Flashback lets you update the BIOS with no CPU installed.

Second, there is ABSOLUTELY no difference between the z270 chipset and the z170, except for the invented "four extra PCIe lanes." The chipset is still constrained by the same DMI 3.0 4x connection as the z170, so you can't possibly make use of those extra lanes. Pure marketing-invented BS.

No need to wait for z270 REVIEWS, you can find your dream ROG z170 board right away, as long as it supports Flashback.
Click to expand...

Z270 supports Optane and has 4 more PCI-Express lanes. I'm one of the people who called Intel out on DMI 3.0 not being sufficient, but you have to keep in mind that this is in regard to theoretical numbers. The reality is that while DMI can be saturated by a couple of M.2 drives, this condition likely only occurs in benchmarks and in very rare scenarios. Sure you could start a huge network transfer from a big ass USB 3.x drive or something while benchmarking your SSD's and saturate the bus. This isn't normally how the system would get used. Essentially, the bandwidth issue is mostly a theoretical problem when considering the maximum throughput of the devices that use the DMI 3.0 link. I'd wager it is rarely if ever an actual observed issue. Additionally, ASUS motherboards have supported BIOS Flashback for years. Anything you buy that's LGA 1151 compatible will support the feature.

When you start going for three M.2 devices, dual NICs and whatever else they can throw in, I'd agree that you are to a point where DMI 3.0 could really be insufficient in real world situations.

sram said:
Yeah I know that. It is just getting the latest and greatest and for bragging rights you can say.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Z270 might overclock Kaby Lake CPUs better than Z170 does. The newer designs also offer better fan control in some cases and better RGB lighting and potentially other features one might be interested in. I don't think Z270 is necessarily worth getting over an existing Z170 motherboard, but it makes sense if you are building a Kaby Lake system now.
 
I would say, there's no Z270 SuperCarrier reviews as they want more visibility in the coming months with a new model hitting the press.
Now everyone is showing off their stuff and when its more quiet I guess they will put it out there...

Doesn't sound like a bad move I would say...
 
Due to pricing mainly I chose a Z170 board for a new Kabylake build.
I have yet to read anything that makes it worth the cost getting Z270.
 
Dan_D said:
Not necessarily. Z270 might overclock Kaby Lake CPUs better than Z170 does. The newer designs also offer better fan control in some cases and better RGB lighting and potentially other features one might be interested in. I don't think Z270 is necessarily worth getting over an existing Z170 motherboard, but it makes sense if you are building a Kaby Lake system now.
Click to expand...

This thread is charting KBYL overclocks on both Z170 and Z270 boards;

http://www.overclock.net/t/1621347/kaby-lake-overclocking-guide-with-statistics

Most appear to be based on binned CPUs from Silicon Lottery, which makes sense especially if one already has a well performing SKYL/Z170 combo.
 
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