Colorful iGame-Z170 Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

Here is the first picture of Colorful's premium socket LGA1151 motherboard, the iGame-Z170. The company plans to carve out at lease three unique SKUs out of this PCB (second picture below), the iGame-Z170 being the base model. As its name suggests, the board is based on Intel's upcoming Z170 Express chipset, and is designed for 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors. Some variants of this board, such as the iGame-Z170U, will feature DDR4 DIMM slots (up to 64 GB), while others will feature DDR3 (up to 32 GB).

The board offers a pretty decent feature-set, including a 14-phase CPU VRM, two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated) wired to the CPU, a third PCI-Express x4 slot wired to the PCH, three other PCI-Express x1 slots; storage connectivity that includes six SATA 6 Gb/s, one SATA-Express, and one M.2 10 Gb/s; two USB 3.1 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and a modern onboard audio solution with ground-layer isolation, and audio-grade capacitors. The iGame-Z170 series will launch some time in Q3, 2015. The three will likely be exhibited at Computex 2015, this June.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Chaitanya]

Before I can see 6th gen CPU, where can I purchase a 5th gen i5 CPU ?

 

[btarunr]

Before I can see 6th gen CPU, where can I purchase a 5th gen i5 CPU ?

Do you really want 4 cores, no HTT, and 4 MB cache?

 

[DZZRtt]

Looks much like ROG. but i like it

 

[deemon]

only 10Gb/s M.2 slot (PCIe 2.0) => FAIL BOARD

Not compatible with Intel 750 SSD and Samsung SM951 maximum speeds.

 

[Assimilator]

I see exactly ZERO VGA or DVI outputs.

THANK.
F**KING.
GOD.

It's about damn time that mobo manufacturers stopped cramming IGP outputs onto supposed "high-end" boards. Hopefully Skylake will be the generation that this practice finally dies for good.

 

[dorsetknob]

two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated)

Wow that is Progress (BIG SARCASM)
what a waste of time if you got 2 excellent graphics cards and want the best crossfire YOU WANT (electrical x16/x16 when both are populated)

 

[RCoon]

Colorful is usually Asia only.

It's about damn time that mobo manufacturers stopped cramming IGP outputs onto supposed "high-end" boards.

I use my iGPU outputs as well as my 970 outputs. Secondary monitor runs off the iGPU, which means zero performance loss on the GPU, as well as no black screens on the secondary monitor when running a fullscreen application. It's also a super easy way to enable QuickSync encoding without faffing with virtual monitors.

Plus, instead of DVI, all you get is a single HDMI out and a second LAN port (which probably won't support aggregation), not to mention a tonne of USB ports you're never going to use/be able to reach sensibly for memory sticks. How many people actually use rear USB 3.0 slots when they have 2 front ports?

I agree on the VGA front though. Needs to die immediately. Just would have liked to see at least 2 digital out ports like HDMI and DP.

Wow that is Progress (BIG SARCASM)
what a waste of time if you got 2 excellent graphics cards and want the best crossfire YOU WANT (electrical x16/x16 when both are populated)

I'm guessing Sata Express, M.2 10Gb and USB 3.1 take up a butt-load of lanes, accounting for the x8/x8 only PCI-E 3.0 lanes. Plus x8 is more than enough for a high end single GPU anyway.

 

[dorsetknob]

Colorful is usually Asia only.



I use my iGPU outputs as well as my 970 outputs. Secondary monitor runs off the iGPU, which means zero performance loss on the GPU, as well as no black screens on the secondary monitor when running a fullscreen application. It's also a super easy way to enable QuickSync encoding without faffing with virtual monitors.

Plus, instead of DVI, all you get is a single HDMI out and a second LAN port (which probably won't support aggregation)



I'm guessing Sata Express, M.2 10Gb and USB 3.1 take up a butt-load of lanes, accounting for the x8/x8 only PCI-E 3.0 lanes. Plus x8 is more than enough for a high end single GPU anyway.

I would say HIGH END Gamers using a crossfire solution with PCI-E 3.0 grade cards want no would DEMAND full x16/x16

For them and there are alot of them skylake will be a no upgrade path

 

[RCoon]

I would say HIGH END Gamers using a crossfire solution with PCI-E 3.0 grade cards want no would DEMAND full x16/x16

For them and there are alot of them skylake will be a no upgrade path

If they're that anal about pointless bandwidth, they'll go X99 instead.

 

[Caring1]

The inclusion of DDR3 is a positive for those not wanting the expense of DDR4 Ram.

 

[Caring1]

I see exactly ZERO VGA or DVI outputs.

THANK.
F**KING.
GOD.

It's about damn time that mobo manufacturers stopped cramming IGP outputs onto supposed "high-end" boards. Hopefully Skylake will be the generation that this practice finally dies for good.

Does HDMI count? I can see one of those.

 

[Assimilator]

I use my iGPU outputs as well as my 970 outputs. Secondary monitor runs off the iGPU, which means zero performance loss on the GPU, as well as no black screens on the secondary monitor when running a fullscreen application. It's also a super easy way to enable QuickSync encoding without faffing with virtual monitors.

...

I agree on the VGA front though. Needs to die immediately. Just would have liked to see at least 2 digital out ports like HDMI and DP.

Does HDMI count? I can see one of those.

Yeah I meant the overly large display outputs (VGA and DVI) must die. Generally the VGA + DVI combo takes up space that could fit 8 USB ports, which is just ridiculous. I'm perfectly happy with HDMI, although I'd prefer DisplayPort.

How many people actually use rear USB 3.0 slots when they have 2 front ports?

My current build has 9 USB 3.0 ports at the rear and 8 at the front. So the answer is, "at least one person".

 

[Uplink10]

Premium with only one ethernet port? It's not going to cut it.

 

[Chaitanya]

Do you really want 4 cores, no HTT, and 4 MB cache?

Not for me personally but these i5-4670 & 4690 offer the best value for money in intel platform and sell in large numbers. The way Intel chips are priced in India, compared to i7-4770k/4790k upgrading to i7-5820k adds only 4000-5000(~80US$) to total cost of system. Due to this in last couple of months I have seen sales of those chips amongst gamers drop quite a bit. I would like to see replacement for those i5 chips in 5th generation sooner than later.

 

[Uplink10]

And most importantly i5-4690 supports Inte-vPro.

 

[deemon]

Premium with only one ethernet port? It's not going to cut it.

Because we all have 2Gbs networks at home ... or why exactly do you need more? Need for 2+ ethernet ports is rather niche thing and nothing to do with premium.

And if you really do, then you can buy PCIe card for 6£:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/tp-link-wired-network-card-tg3468
for what else are you going to use those short PCIe slots anyway other than ethernet cards?


Also if you look the second picture ... don't they all have 2 ethernet ports? (angle is a bit bad ... but seems those are ethernet ports.)

 

[Uplink10]

or why exactly do you need more?

If a motherboard has minimum 2 ethernet ports you can use it as a router.

It is also good if you have a separate network completely independent (no subnetting) on which you can have NAS device or any device only you want physical acces to.

Load balancing is also wanted because 125 MB/s maximum is very slow especially if you are transferring large amount of data.

Nowadays some people also have or will have 1Gbps internet connection which means you need at least 2 GbE ports and even then the connection probably won't be fully utilized.

And you can also use more GbE ports if one route stops working (faulty switch) you still have second working route.

Second GbE port adds numerous possibilities.

 

[PLAfiller]

That's a Colorful iGame mobo? I don't believe it. Where are the huge-ass additional heatsinks? Where is the painting kit? Where is the packaging the size of a guitar case? And you call this an iGame product...get outta here

 

[praze]

For those who want to know what it looks like with accurate color correction (the article's photo is off-balance)...

Edit: also this (original has glare)...

 

[ZeDestructor]

If a motherboard has minimum 2 ethernet ports you can use it as a router.

It is also good if you have a separate network completely independent (no subnetting) on which you can have NAS device or any device only you want physical acces to.

Load balancing is also wanted because 125 MB/s maximum is very slow especially if you are transferring large amount of data.

Nowadays some people also have or will have 1Gbps internet connection which means you need at least 2 GbE ports and even then the connection probably won't be fully utilized.

And you can also use more GbE ports if one route stops working (faulty switch) you still have second working route.

Second GbE port adds numerous possibilities.

One word: VLANs and a half decent managed switch. They even make em down to 5 ports (like the netgear GS105T for example). This is enough to turn a single-port mobo into a router quite easily, as well as safely segregate networks (funnily enough, that's why VLANs were invented)

More importantly, what are you doing using a high-performance desktop as a router? A pithy dual-core Atom can easily push multiple gigabits of NATted traffic when running something like OPNSense or pfSense (less for VPN because of crypto, obviously, but why are you VPNing to your LAN when you're already on the LAN?).

As for maxxing out a Gbit line, a single Gbit port is all you need. If you can't max out the line in terms of RAW bandwidth (as opposed to usable bandwidth once you strip overheads - HTTP/FTP/SSH/blah control data, TCP/UDP, IP, Ethernet, and any other encapsulation) with a single port in these days of fast CPUs, you're doing something wrong somewhere else.

The only valid argument you make is the redundancy argument, and I'll agree with that.

That said, I personally run aggregated ports on my desktop and VM hosts, because I transfer a fair bit between the two, and would like to not have congestion when I push or pull a VM (or more, as the case may be).

 

[Steven B]

Edit: also this (original has glare)...

its a poster, just look at the internal headers.

 

[deemon]

If a motherboard has minimum 2 ethernet ports you can use it as a router.

Weirdly you didn't have a problem this mobo lacking wifi and antennae, so you could use it as an AP...
or a parallel port for your printer........
Also if your computer case has wheels, you could use it as a skateboard

Seriously. Last time I had to use computer as a router was somewhere between 1990 and 1998. Around then were introduced (relatively) cheap consumer standalone small boxes that did this times better and more effectively with their routing ASICs than any computer.

 

[praze]

its a poster, just look at the internal headers.

Indeed, it's a vinyl poster that someone took a picture of. I just removed the glare and color corrected so that the black levels were more accurate and the subtle blue tint was removed (because boredom).

 

[ZeDestructor]

Weirdly you didn't have a problem this mobo lacking wifi and antennae, so you could use it as an AP...
or a parallel port for your printer........
Also if your computer case has wheels, you could use it as a skateboard

Seriously. Last time I had to use computer as a router was somewhere between 1990 and 1998. Around then were introduced (relatively) cheap consumer standalone small boxes that did this times better and more effectively with their routing ASICs than any computer.

Most routers just run a shitty MIPS or ARM chip. No ASICs in there. Now, switching on the other hand, that has gone very much the way of ASICs.