ROG Strix Z270i Gaming reviews around the web

Rhialto

Gawd
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
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Feel free to add review you'll find about this board in this thread.

I'll keep this first post for [H] review if it happens.

March 15th, there it is, [H] review!
 
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Z270i first review here and comes with a video you'll find below.

Interesting to see board boarsd just came out and revision is 1.02 already. I'm curious if it's better to put M.2 under the board or under the heatsink above PCH, look like a gimmick for marketing. 5.1GHz (7700K) and 4266MHz for memory, wow!

 
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this board is basically the new maximus gene form factor?
 
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"I" designations on ASUS motherboards have always indicated that it was a mini-ITX offering.
 
thanks for the clarifications all. this is the board I'm most interested in. I'm still on that 2600k / Maximus Gene Z (x79 iirc) and finally ready to build something new. I've loved the form factor of the current rig, and want to stay small-ish. just see no value in large towers anymore, for me.
 
thanks for the clarifications all. this is the board I'm most interested in. I'm still on that 2600k / Maximus Gene Z (x79 iirc) and finally ready to build something new. I've loved the form factor of the current rig, and want to stay small-ish. just see no value in large towers anymore, for me.

Modern chassis are well designed enough to negate most of the advantages larger computer cases used to provide. There are still some outlying individuals that have storage, GPU or cooling needs (or wants) that go well beyond what a small or medium sized case can provide. This is increasingly rare however.
 
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thanks for the clarifications all. this is the board I'm most interested in. I'm still on that 2600k / Maximus Gene Z (x79 iirc) and finally ready to build something new. I've loved the form factor of the current rig, and want to stay small-ish. just see no value in large towers anymore, for me.
Hey same here, see my setup in signature! That was the only Gene-Z made. This was my second build in μATX and was ready to move even smaller and I also think this board will be it and for the case I'm currently looking at the M1 even though my current box would be fine... I will just leave it as it is, good second computer for my 11yo daughters. Can't wait for the day we will be able to play coop games like MWO in the same room and coordinates our moves. :woot:
 
Hey same here, see my setup in signature! That was the only Gene-Z made. This was my second build in μATX and was ready to move even smaller and I also think this board will be it and for the case I'm currently looking at the M1 even though my current box would be fine... I will just leave it as it is, good second computer for my 11yo daughters. Can't wait for the day we will be able to play coop games like MWO in the same room and coordinates our moves. :woot:

ya! see the old rig in my sig as well. was just looking at cases. was going to head over to lian li's selection, after looking at the Silverstone stuff. I too, could reuse the Silverstone.. but.. a 5+ yo case, despite cleaning, etc.. just gets dusty. was even thinking about SFF size. That M1 is sexy too. I only need space for 1 m.2 for C:\, 1x 3.5 HDD for data, and probably a 1080gtx. I will also likely go H80 or H100 again, AIO, as the one I'm using continues to be stellar.
 
Similar needs and would love a 1080 but $ is as issue... and I was never attracted by AIO, always looking for the most silent I could go. Was so glad to ditch the HDD a year ago when I switched my 600MB Velociraptor for a 512MB SSD, no more HDD spinning noise made a big difference. M1 is made by Lian Li btw. Not the cheapest but since you can afford a 1080... :-p and the community is huge!
 
Feel free to add review you'll find about this board in this thread.

I'll keep this first post for [H] review if it happens.

I don't know if we'll review this specific motherboard, but I wouldn't be surprised if we did at some point.
 
Damn no Wi-Fi module? Really liked this board before that and I am hoping I'm too tired and overlooked it

Ordinarily, I wouldn't worry about a WiFi module all that much in this case I'd agree with you if that turns out to be the case.
 
Ordinarily, I wouldn't worry about a WiFi module all that much in this case I'd agree with you if that turns out to be the case.
Yeah I'm out then. I need the ability to use Wi-Fi. My mitx boards typically travel and sometimes Wi-Fi is all that i get.
 
Wait it does have Wifi LOL. I knew I was too tired and they couldn't have left it out.
 
Yes, it does have WiFi which is no surprise. I don't care about WiFi on desktop motherboards but it seems to me that virtually all mini-ITX motherboards should have it. What's odd is that ASUS isn't using its beefy daughterboard loaded with power phases. This one seems to be a more conservative design than we are used to seeing from ASUS. I'll know soon enough as I've got one going on the bench this weekend.
 
well..I decided to jump with a 1080 ti, 6 mos same as cash, once that is paid off, Ill build a new box around that. still inclined to go this 270i
 
Z270i first review here and comes with a video you'll find below.

Interesting to see board boarsd just came out and revision is 1.02 already. I'm curious if it's better to put M.2 under the board or under the heatsink above PCH, look like a gimmick for marketing.

I have this board (I'll have to check the revision when I get home) and run two M.2 drives. An EVO 960 500GB on the underside NVMe slot and a Crucial MX300 1TB on the SATA/NVMe slot with the heatsink. Both SSDs run at about the same temp, 40-45c (ambient ~25c, Motherboard 30 idle, 35 load). I've never seen either hit 50c, even with a prolonged CPU/GPU/RAM stress test. Though, I've never stressed or benched the drives themselves, because LOL why would I do that?

No gimmick. The heatsink works.

I think the BIOS needs a little work. When you cold boot from power off (turn on PSU, immediately turn on unit) the board will fail to POST and will give you a CPU error light. Turns out it's an issue with RAM set to XMP. Return RAM to stock and the issue never happens. Wait ~10 seconds after switching on PSU w/wo XMP and it boots no problem. Do it too quickly and it fails.

In which case, you just have to quickly switch on/off the PSU and the system will boot again (with or without a "POST Failed" message) just fine. Zero instability once booted. Zero problems if you just leave the PSU plugged in/switch on. I'm getting a replacement pair of RAM to see if was just my sticks, but I'm doubtful.

The official Asus position is passing the buck and saying "XMP isn't guaranteed".
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?92032-Asus-Strix-Z270i-Issues-Red-CPU-LED/page5

On the subject of RAM, out of the box, the DRAM auto voltage defaulted to 1.5v. Yikes.

Built-in sound is kinda flat. Installing Asus's sonic studio and using the equalizer (or another equal of your choice) is required to get any kind of bass or treble.
 
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I have this board (I'll have to check the revision when I get home) and run two M.2 drives. An EVO 960 500GB on the underside NVMe slot and a Crucial MX300 1TB on the SATA/NVMe slot with the heatsink. Both SSDs run at about the same temp, 40-45c (ambient ~25c, Motherboard 30 idle, 35 load). I've never seen either hit 50c, even with a prolonged CPU/GPU/RAM stress test. Though, I've never stressed or benched the drives themselves, because LOL why would I do that?

No gimmick. The heatsink works.

I think the BIOS needs a little work. When you cold boot from power off (turn on PSU, immediately turn on unit) the board will fail to POST and will give you a CPU error light. Turns out it's an issue with RAM set to XMP. Return RAM to stock and the issue never happens. Wait ~10 seconds after switching on PSU w/wo XMP and it boots no problem. Do it too quickly and it fails.

In which case, you just have to quickly switch on/off the PSU and the system will boot again (with or without a "POST Failed" message) just fine. Zero instability once booted. Zero problems if you just leave the PSU plugged in/switch on. I'm getting a replacement pair of RAM to see if was just my sticks, but I'm doubtful.

The official Asus position is passing the buck and saying "XMP isn't guaranteed".
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?92032-Asus-Strix-Z270i-Issues-Red-CPU-LED/page5

On the subject of RAM, out of the box, the DRAM auto voltage defaulted to 1.5v. Yikes.

Built-in sound is kinda flat. Installing Asus's sonic studio and using the equalizer (or another equal of your choice) is required to get any kind of bass or treble.

XMP has been a joke ever since X99 released. It's been hit and miss at best on every chipset I've seen released since that time.
 
Turns out you need to up the VCCIO and System Agent to 1.1-1.2v to cold boot with XMP. The RAM is fine. The BIOS just undervolts the memory controller.
 
Turns out you need to up the VCCIO and System Agent to 1.1-1.2v to cold boot with XMP. The RAM is fine. The BIOS just undervolts the memory controller.
Interesting, I'll try to remember this when I'll build. You read that somewhere?
 
I've never had a problem cold booting with XMP, so this is all really strange to hear.
 
Just as a heads up, Asus dropped a new bios on Friday. It fixes the cold boot bug. It also eliminated the temp spikes I had been getting on my 7700K and overall temps under load are >15c lower.

Must flash, IMO. Version is 0704.
 
It also eliminated the temp spikes I had been getting on my 7700K and overall temps under load are >15c lower.
Is temp really lower or it was just a bad reading from sensor? I mean 15ºC lower is a lot!
 
Is temp really lower or it was just a bad reading from sensor? I mean 15ºC lower is a lot!

My guess is that it's actual temps (proc did throttle at 100c) and the voltage readings were wrong. I had to marginally bump voltage to maintain my OC. But I'm a neophyte compared to others here, so I wouldn't say for certain.
 
Is temp really lower or it was just a bad reading from sensor? I mean 15ºC lower is a lot!

Sometimes the way the sensor data is calculated is changed by BIOS code. This can lead to vastly different temperatures after a simple BIOS upgrade.
 
Sometimes the way the sensor data is calculated is changed by BIOS code. This can lead to vastly different temperatures after a simple BIOS upgrade.
That is what I mean and could be verified by comparing temp read by BIOS and an utility in Windows, prior to updating of course.
 
Really liking this board so far, glad I finally got off the fence and upgraded from a half decade old board, because there are a lot of little niceties in a modern chipset and bios (or maybe ASUS is just the gold standard in UEFI bios interfaces).

What's an ideal overclocking workflow? I went through Raja's guide here - which is based on the Adaptive approach to voltage adjustment - but I'll see purists on other forums swear that Manual is the way to go.

Goal is 7700K @ 5GHz stable at the lowest voltage. I'll probably need to re-lid in any case.
 
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Goal is 7700K @ 5GHz stable at the lowest voltage. I'll probably need to re-lid in any case.
I never try to push to the limit, I always try to find that limit and then lower a few hundreds MHz. Let say I can get it to work at 5 GHz but it crash once a week and it looks safe for a month at 4.9 GHz then I will set it at 4.8 GHz all the time without being on the edge and ever thinking of a possible failure again. Heck I may even go down to 4.7 GHz so I know CPU still have plenty of room and it's running in a totally safe zone. I don't care for only 100 MHz difference at this point. So if you don't get 5 GHz, think of 4.8 GHz which usually mean lower voltage too which also translate to lower temperature so less to dissipate.

About re-lid, I'm embarrased that Intel cannot do better from factory as I usually avoid doing such mod. I'm still on hold for the new setup, hope to have it before end of the year and I wish Intel will release (another) slightly souped up version with better tim so re-lid won't be necessary this time, I mean if they want to discourage people from doing that with the risk of breaking their precious CPU. That could well happen now that they have competition with Ryzen scoring well.
 
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