ASRock Z270 Fatal1ty Motherboard Teased

[btarunr]

Here are some of the first pictures of a production version of an ASRock Z270 Fatal1ty-branded motherboard. While there's no picture of the board in full, Expreview scored pictures of its key sections, including its CPU VRM area, showing us prominent "Z270" badging on a VRM heatsink, a Fatal1ty logo on the PCH heatsink and its print on the PCB; and an Intel Gigabit Ethernet on the rear I/O hood, and Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 3 logo on the audio area hood; all pointing to this being a production version.

The rear I/O picture reveals two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, provision for a WLAN card, four USB 3.1 ports (of which one is type-C), two USB 3.0 ports, 8-channel HD audio with a TOSLINK connector; and display outputs including DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. Storage appears to include eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and at least one M.2 slot (with Intel Optane support out of the box). Not much else is revealed by these pictures. Intel 200-series chipset motherboards are expected to launch alongside 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processors, in January 2017.



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[RejZoR]

Feels weird having new chipset again and Z170 was released 1 year ago.

 

[Chaitanya]

Feels weird having new chipset again and Z170 was released 1 year ago.

And worst of all little to no improvements over 100 series of chipsets. atleast in past there were some improvements made to this family with each iteration.

 

[TheLostSwede]

You missed this one...

Looks like one M.2 110 slot and one M.2 80 slot.

 

[xLegendary]

Looking good, kinda military look added to it.

 

[newtekie1]

Not a big fan of the Fatal1ty boards, I always liked the Extreme4/6 boards better.

Feels weird having new chipset again and Z170 was released 1 year ago.

The transition from Z87 to Z97 was just about the same time frame. Same was true with Z68 and Z77. The tick tock chipset release schedule has been the norm for a while now.

And worst of all little to no improvements over 100 series of chipsets. atleast in past there were some improvements made to this family with each iteration.

4 more PCI-E 3.0 lanes is at least something. It helps for sure when people want to start using more M.2 storage. There was even less difference between Z87 and Z97...

 

[Caring1]

Not a big fan of the Fatal1ty boards, I always liked the Extreme4/6 boards better.

They're releasing an Extreme4 as well.

 

[newtekie1]

They're releasing an Extreme4 as well.

Oh, I'm sure they'll be an Extreme6 as well. Just saying the Fatal1ty tease doesn't really peak my interest.

 

[alucasa]

That Fatal1ty tag tends to carry extra 20 ~ 40 CAD in Canada, so I avoid those at all cost.

2 M.2 slots, eh. convenient.

 

[Assimilator]

Seeing D-Sub on these boards makes me so very very sad.

 

[newtekie1]

Seeing D-Sub on these boards makes me so very very sad.

I have to agree. I'd rather just see a DVI-I connector and the space for the VGA connector used for something more useful. Leave D-Sub on the low end board, fine, but not on anything using the top chipset like this.

 

[D1RTYD1Z619]

Oh, I'm sure they'll be an Extreme6 as well. Just saying the Fatal1ty tease doesn't really peak my interest.

Right. Is he,Fatal1ty, even relevant anymore?