Skylake-Based Z170 Gaming Mini ITX Motherboard

Oh my, what a board! ASrock is really pushing their reputation with the SFF community, I've gotta say. Let's see if the details are right too, full length M.2 and PWM fan headers would be nice, they apparently have two case fan headers already, which is nice. If the quality of the audio circuit is right as well, they might make a fortune on this board, it seems to have it all. Would've been nice if they could've utilised the I/O space a bit better, though. There are quadruple stacked USB3 ports, I would've liked to see that.
Then again, they have three display outputs which I suspect can all be used at once, so that's rather useful as well.
 
How long till we get multiple M.2 ports? No more excess power and sata cables.
 
you will be able to get multiple M.2 ports in the higher end ATX boards.
 
I'm waiting for the board and Skylake to lauch... I haven't upgraded my desktop system in forever it seems.
 
silk186 said:
you will be able to get multiple M.2 ports in the higher end ATX boards.
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I feel like in the days of surface mount components, we should have two M.2 slots on the back of at least one high end mITX board with Skylake.

Then again maybe something like this will happen once M.2 WLAN chips become widely available, so manufacturers will just go with two M.2 slots instead of using an mPCIe one.
 
I'd actually rather have vertical M.2 mounts on the front side. Either like the Impact's M.2 or the WiFi card on the X99E-ITX.
 
I'd very much appreciate raised M.2 slots - Right over the board's heatsink. Rear and vertical m.2 / mPCIe mounts don't play well with all SFF offerings.
 
Nice thread. We should keep it open and start post all new itx skylake mobos we find.
Not only z170 but all above h110 atleast.

I would like to see a board with double M.2 slots, one under and one on top.
Other then that it's only a board with the best wi-fi on the market built in.
 
Black5Lion said:
What's U.2?
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The port that has basically made sata express still born. It was previously known as SFF8639. It's the port that the Intel 750 2.5" ssd requires. There are a few m.2 to u.2 adapters. Pretty much all motherboard manufactures are making them. The question is when will we see them on mainstream motherboards. I'd like to see options for two u.2 instead of 2 m.2. Why? In sff systems rear mounted systems with no airflow wil end up with high end m.2 drives overheating and throttling themselves. The other benefit is u.2 ssd will always have much larger storage options.
 
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Black5Lion said:
What's U.2?
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the new M.2

Includes power from PCIe lanes, likely so the Full-Slot-PCIe and M.2-Like-SFF cards use the same standards. Also allows for a smaller wired connector so it doesn't need to be attached to the motherboard... and for some reason I am thinking it allows for quicker bandwidth because of that extra power, but I may be wrong there.

Anyways, "Its the future" for SFF SSDs.
 
jamesgalb said:
the new M.2

Includes power from PCIe lanes, likely so the Full-Slot-PCIe and M.2-Like-SFF cards use the same standards. Also allows for a smaller wired connector so it doesn't need to be attached to the motherboard... and for some reason I am thinking it allows for quicker bandwidth because of that extra power, but I may be wrong there.

Anyways, "Its the future" for SFF SSDs.
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M.2 is for blade type ssds now and in the future.
U.2 is for highend 2.5" ssds now and in the future.

Right now the only real consumer option for u.2 is m.2 to u.2 adapters.
 
wreckem said:
M.2 is for blade type ssds now and in the future.
U.2 is for highend 2.5" ssds now and in the future.

Right now the only real consumer option for u.2 is m.2 to u.2 adapters.
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Yeah this needs to be clarified. M.2 is the new mPCIe/mSATA. U.2 is the new SAS/SATA/SATAe/ePCIe connector system.
What it basically specifies is a connector that is compatible to current SATA drives, but can also carry PCIex4 signals so it acts as a replacement for the current SATA express connector. It is the same size a regular SATA Data + SATA Power connector have on the back of an HDD/SSD today, just in one connector that has a multitude of additional pins.
Maybe, just maybe, we will see a standard for eGPUs with this type of connector?
 
As far as I can tell from the SFF-8639 specsheet, U.2 is the connector standard for the SSD end, and for the SSD end ONLY. What happens at the other end of the cable (i.e. the motherboard end) is undecided. It might be the HD Mini-SAS connector that has shown up on M.2 converter cards, or it might be something else entirely.
 
EdZ said:
As far as I can tell from the SFF-8639 specsheet, U.2 is the connector standard for the SSD end, and for the SSD end ONLY. What happens at the other end of the cable (i.e. the motherboard end) is undecided. It might be the HD Mini-SAS connector that has shown up on M.2 converter cards, or it might be something else entirely.
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Ah right, I found the naming of those different ends a bit confusing. Does the SATAe port on mainboards actually carry enough power for a 3.5" HDD? I guess it must because U.2 is compatible with those.
 
Not too sure why everyone is against a rear-mounted m.2 slot as you can easily apply thermal pads to the drive and dissipate heat directly to the case; because the drives themselves are the size of a stick of gum the case should easily be able to handle the amount of heat.
 
CarbonVirus said:
Not too sure why everyone is against a rear-mounted m.2 slot as you can easily apply thermal pads to the drive and dissipate heat directly to the case; because the drives themselves are the size of a stick of gum the case should easily be able to handle the amount of heat.
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The problem is that not every case has a motherboard backplate cutout or one large enough.
I'd personally want to see more solutions like the Asus Impact has, because it has the least issues with placement. The only problem is that it sometimes still requires removal of the CPU heatsink or GPU to get out of the board.
 
The problem is that not every case has a motherboard backplate cutout or one large enough.
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Wouldn't that inhibit heat transfer through the tape though? I am talking about having the drive on the back, with heat transfer tape between it and the case backpane, allowing the drive to transfer its heat to the case in the same way a heatsink that is taped to say a VRAM module would.
If you mean that some cases have HUGE cutouts in the backpane that could cause issues with it lining up to make contact with the tape, you could just put an actual heatsink directly on the drive; I would do that even if the drive was on the front of the board!
 
CarbonVirus said:
Wouldn't that inhibit heat transfer through the tape though? I am talking about having the drive on the back, with heat transfer tape between it and the case backpane, allowing the drive to transfer its heat to the case in the same way a heatsink that is taped to say a VRAM module would.
If you mean that some cases have HUGE cutouts in the backpane that could cause issues with it lining up to make contact with the tape, you could just put an actual heatsink directly on the drive; I would do that even if the drive was on the front of the board!
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taping the back-mounted M.2 drive to the case would seem scary as hell if you had to remove the motherboard for any reason...
 
You could always just place a strip of tinfoil or other heat transfer material on the side making contact with the case to ensure it isn't sticky; it would look terrible but it would keep it from sticking to the case and it's on the backside anyway so as long as it transfers the heat who cares :D
 
It seems an awful lot of risk and fidgeting for something that can be solved with a simple 20x20mm heatsink for a few $$$.
 
Issue with the heatsink is it's not going to fit behind the mobo; if the standard distance between the mobo and backpane is around 7mm, and the m.2 drive is around 5mm, that leaves only 2mm to fit anything. By placing heat transfer tape and a non-stick sheet of tinfoil (or some such material) between the drive and the case, it would effectively turn the entire mobo backpane into a heatsink.
Just my idea for the situation; plus by placing the slot on the back, you can free space up on the front for other things like 4 RAM dimm slots :D
 
CarbonVirus said:
Issue with the heatsink is it's not going to fit behind the mobo; if the standard distance between the mobo and backpane is around 7mm, and the m.2 drive is around 5mm, that leaves only 2mm to fit anything. By placing heat transfer tape and a non-stick sheet of tinfoil (or some such material) between the drive and the case, it would effectively turn the entire mobo backpane into a heatsink.
Just my idea for the situation; plus by placing the slot on the back, you can free space up on the front for other things like 4 RAM dimm slots :D
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That is essentially what the broadwell based Intel NUC's did. They used some polymer based thermal interface pad to spread the heat from the m.2 ssd's to the bottom steel plate on the chassis. Works really well to, the sm951 doesn't throttle with that solution and that was with ssd>polymer>steel. Imagine how well ssd>polymer>aluminum would do.
 
What's the audio chip onboard? I didn't see it mentioned. ALC1150 I hope.
 
CarbonVirus said:
Issue with the heatsink is it's not going to fit behind the mobo
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I meant when the M.2 socket is somewhere more convenient.
That's just it: M.2 behind the motherboard isn't that ideal, for the reasons I have mentioned. On the board through a daughtercard is much more flexible and allows the highest compatibility. I also remember the Z97E-ITX/ac (this board's predecessor) only supported very short M.2 cards which meant basically none of the interesting ones were compatible.

This ASRock board is just the first of many. The Z97E-ITX/ac was also the first to make it to market but soon it was followed-up by Asus' offerings, along with MSI, Gigabyte and EVGA. I was focussed on that Z97E board but in the end decided it wasn't a good fit for me. I still have the Z87E-ITX though, still planning a build for it.
 
CarbonVirus said:
Not too sure why everyone is against a rear-mounted m.2 slot as you can easily apply thermal pads to the drive and dissipate heat directly to the case; because the drives themselves are the size of a stick of gum the case should easily be able to handle the amount of heat.
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It should, but keep in mind that you don't have the whole case for heat dissipation, just the general area round the spot where the thermal pads touch the wall.
 
I like rearmounted M.2s. As the huge cooler often is in the way of everthing on the frontside of the mobo.

A OS disc that you won't change until you rebuild the system is just to leave on the rear.
 
I like them on the backside of the motherboard. If the motherboard tray doesn't provide enough access, that is nothing a dremel can't fix.
 
sgtspiff said:
I like rearmounted M.2s. As the huge cooler often is in the way of everthing on the frontside of the mobo.

A OS disc that you won't change until you rebuild the system is just to leave on the rear.
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^This
I want one drive that's on the motherboard itself so I can install the OS on it and have no messy cables. It's especially useful with modular power supplies since I won't need to plug any sata connectors.
If I want more storage I can always use other drives with cables, but don't take my options away.
 
kooki said:
Gigabyte also showed a itx z170, apparently.
https://youtu.be/9AbaZeE5wFc?t=10m28s
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Pros:

  • Black simplistic color scheme, with black caps.
  • Right angled SATA Express ports. Not sure SATA Express will offer anything of value though, I haven't seen any PCIe SSDs that supports this connector?
  • M.2 available. Full speed. Good stuff.
  • Type-C USB connector.
  • Good audio solution.
  • Intel NIC.
  • Best Hackintosh support.
  • Vertical wifi card solution. While such could interfere with cpu coolers, the card and it's green pcb with sticker stays relatively out of sight.

Cons:

  • No U.2 port. Perhaps too new, but this should have been the logical next step. Do we have to wait for a SkyLake refresh to get these ports? Probably...
  • No DisplayPort again.
  • USB 3.0 connector in the middle of the board, close to CPU...
  • Likely poor fan control in the UEFI. Uses fan power/temperature degree, that's it.

What was missing from Computex was Asus mini-itx offering. We only know there was a leak of names, Z170i Pro Gaming... and we all know what that means. A red-black themed motherboard. If this is true, there will likely not be an Impact motherboard this time. With H170i-Plus being their alternative for non-gamers, it's likely trimmed down in some ways, plus a hideous color scheme to complete the suffering.

I just hope that this Z170i Pro Gaming has a better M.2 solution, i.e can accommodate M.2 with heatsinks better, since people have complained about that. With Intel launching SkyLake on Gamescom in the beginning of August, we should see Asus offerings soon.

If you combine the good things from all mini-itx boards, one can easily get the "perfect" motherboard. But somehow, it's impossible for a single manufacturer to release one.
 
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rawrr said:
Did you think that Asus's black and gold theme was ugly?
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If you are referring to the Z97i-Plus, I believe it has brown pcb, with gold heatsinks. Yeah, not my style. Can think of a lot more appealing themes.

seanclayton said:
We need a White and Black board!
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Agree. Hoping to see something different. A return toward something more classy as the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe would be nice. But it seems Asus has downscaled their ITX offerings since then.
 
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