Intel’s Kaby Lake processors are nearly here, and Asrock announced a dozen new motherboards based on Intel’s 200-series chipsets to support the new CPUs. These boards differ in many aspects, but Asrock has opted to equip all of them with its Aura RGB LED technology.
Not all of these boards will ship with RGB LEDs pre-installed, necessarily. The Aura RGB LED technology just includes a software utility for controlling RGB LED lights and an on-board header for connecting RGB LED light strips. Some boards are likely to launch with RGB LEDs built in, but it isn’t clear at this time which ones will and which ones won’t.
For gamers who want to avoid network lag at all costs, Asrock designed a few of its top-end Z270 motherboards with three NICs, one of which includes a 5Gbps Aquantia NIC. Asrock didn’t indicate specifically which Aquantia NIC it used, but as Aquantia primarily develops enterprise-grade networking solutions, it will likely be more than enough for most gamers. If you feel you need an even faster internet connection, you can take advantage of the two additional Intel NICs on the motherboard.
Most of the boards Asrock announced today also come equipped with Realtek’s new ALC1220 audio codec, which the company boasted is capable of achieving a 120dB SNR. Asrock complements this by utilizing Nichicon gold-series audio capacitors, EMI shielding, and gold-plated audio jacks to further reduce noise.
Asrock's highest-performance motherboard announced today is the Z270 SuperCarrier, which in addition to having all of the features above, also comes with a PLX chip and can support up to four GPUs in SLI.
Overclockers will be excited to hear that Asrock is once again utilizing third-party clock generators on some of its motherboards. These additional clock generators make it easier to BCLK overclock your CPU, and it's also what enabled Asrock and a few other OEMs to support overclocking of non-K CPUs on Skylake’s 100-series chipsets.
Asrock didn’t indicate which of these boards would come with a third-party clock generator, but it is something to keep an eye on if you plan to overclock.
These motherboards should be available on January 5. Pricing information is not available at this time.
| Asrock 200-Series Motherboards | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model/Spec | Form Factor | Memory Support | Power Phases | SLI Support | M.2 | Networking | Audio | Ports |
| Z270 SuperCarrier | ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 3866MHz | 12 | 4-Way | -3 x Key M-1 x Key E | -Aquantia 5Gb/s NIC2 x Intel NICs-802.11ac | Realtek ALC 1220Purity Sound 4 + DTS-Connect | 10 x SATA-III2 x Intel Thunderbolt 3 Type-CRGB Header |
| Z270 Gaming i7 | ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 3866MHz | 12 | 2-Way | -3 x Key M-1 x Key E | -Aquantia 5Gb/s 2 x Intel NICs-802.11ac | Realtek ALC 1220Creative SoundBlaster Cinema 3 | 10 x SATA-IIIUSB 3.1 Type A+CRGB Header |
| Z270 Taichi | ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 3866MHz | 12 | 2-Way | -3 x Key M-1 x Key E | -2 x Intel NICs-802.11ac | Realtek ALC 1220Purity Sound 4 + DTS-Connect | 10 x SATA-IIIUSB 3.1 Type A+CRGB Header |
| Z270 Gaming K6 | ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 3866MHz | 10 | 2-Way | -2 x Key M-1 x Key E | Dual Intel LAN | Realtek ALC 1220Creative SoundBlaster Cinema 3 | 8 x SATA-IIIUSB 3.1 Type A+CRGB Header |
| Z270 Extreme4 | ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 3866MHz | 10 | 2-Way | -2 x Key M-1 x Key E | Intel I219V LAN | Realtek ALC 1220Purity Sound 4 + DTS-Connect | USB 3.1 8 x SATA-IIIType A+CRGB Header |
| Z270 Killer SLI | ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMM | 8 | 2-Way | -2 x Key M-1 x Key E | Intel LAN | N/A | USB 3.0 Type-C |
| Z270 Gaming K4 | ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMM | 8 | No | -2 x Key M-1 x Key E | Intel LAN | Creative SoundBlaster Cinema 3 | USB 3.0 Type-C |
| H270 Performance | ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMM | 8 | No | -2 x Key M-1 x Key E | Intel LAN | Creative SoundBlaster 3 | USB 3.0 Type-C |
| Z270M Extreme4 | Micro-ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMM | 6 | 2-Way | -2 x Key M-1 x Key E | Intel LAN | Purity Sound 4 + DTS-Connect | USB 3.1 Type-A+C |
| H270M Performance | Micro-ATX | 4 x DDR4 DIMM | 6 | No | 2 x Key M | Intel LAN | Creative SoundBlaster Cinema 3 | USB 3.0 Type-C |
| Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac | Mini-ITX | 2 x DDR4 DIMM | 8 | No | -Key M-Key E | -Intel LAN-2T2R 802.11ac | Creative Cinema 3 | Intel Thunderbolt 3 type-C |
| Z270M-ITX/ac | Mini-ITX | 2 x DDR4 DIMM | 6 | No | Key M | -Dual Intel LAN-802.11ac | N/A | N/A |
