ASUS PRIME Z270-A Motherboard Also Detailed

[Raevenlord]

Finally putting the lid on all of ASUS' leaked and detailed motherboards, comes, the PRIME Z270-A, which doesn't belong to a special, bang-and-whistle-filled product line, and is just concerned with getting the job done. It clads itself in a simple and appealing white and gray color-scheme, and is expected to keep most of the important features in ASUS' more expensive product lines.

The PRIME Z270-A comes with ASUS' 8+2+2 Phase Digital power design, fed by an 8-pin connector, that features 10K black metallic capacitors, MicroFine Alloy Chokes, NexFET PW (Power) block MOSFET and DIGI+ Power Control Utility for real-time adjustment, courtesy of the new ASUS Extreme Engine Digi+ technology that improves CPU stability and overclocking. It features four DDR4 DIMM slots that can support up to 64 GB of memory with speeds of up to 3866 MHZ (O.C+), and expansion slots on the motherboard include three PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16/x8/x4 electrical), four PCIe 3.0 x1 and dual M.2 slots that deliver up to 32 GB/s transfer speeds, with the PCIe slots being armored for higher resistance.





As for storage options, count on six SATA III 6 GB/s ports, as well as USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 front headers. The PRIME Z270-A also comes with the latest SupremeFX S1220A CODEC, De-pop Circuit, Premium Nichicon audiophile grade capacitors and a stainless steel cover. On the I/O front, we are looking at 2 USB 3.1 (Type-A, Type-C) ports, 4 USB 3.0, 1 x Intel I219-V Gigabit LAN, HDMI 1.4, DP 1.2, DVI, PS/2 port and a 7.1 Channel Audio Jack.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[dj-electric]

If i had to pick one so far from a design perspective - this is it.
Nothing beats clean white. Nothing.

 

[Raevenlord]

If i had to pick one so far from a design perspective - this is it.
Nothing beats clean white. Nothing.

Agreed. This is one beautiful motherboard.

 

[m0nt3]

The back I/O panel looks vacant. Maybe I am just used to seeing tons of USB ports. Could do without the PS/2 port, personally anyway.

 

[Recon-UK]

USB ports no longer exist with ASUS.

 

[proxuser]

Why the hell they dont just put 10 usb ports there ? Just curious.

 

[Grings]

Asus insist on sticking with some legacy parts on these white boards (or what appears to now be the prime series)

I wish they would just bundle a hdmi or dp to dvi converter, they could fit another row of usb's in if they dropped the dvi

edit: Why have they messed with the group of capacitors under the cpu socket in photoshop? look at it on the box compared to the board picture
edit2: nevermind, its a watermark, lol

 

[Prima.Vera]

USB 3.0 or 3.1 ?????

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

If i had to pick one so far from a design perspective - this is it.
Nothing beats clean white. Nothing.

Agreed. This is one beautiful motherboard.

Looks just like my Z170-A board. Wish RBG option was cheaper.

 

[SirMango]

Still only 5 USB A ports on the back, just like the Z170-A. Ridiculous.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Still only 5 USB A ports on the back, just like the Z170-A. Ridiculous.

Ya I have run out of USB ports on my computer. My keyboard takes up 2 by itself.

 

[JaKSLaP]

Why Would they add more usb ports?
In this day and age keyboards take up 2 ports, plus 1 mouse. That leaves you with only two left, idiots.

Also No ones needs a PS/2 port anymore, that stuff went out in 2002. It so hard to even find one these days, and i should now cause i build legacy windows 98 machines.

Also, the inclusion of a DVI port is also ridiculous it makes the board look old and dated. One last point, vendors should really start taking noted from Gigabyte how to build Sky lake board, Dual M.2 Ports are a must.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Why Would they add more usb ports?
In this day and age keyboards take up 2 ports, plus 1 mouse. That leaves you with only two left, idiots.

Also No ones needs a PS/2 port anymore, that stuff went out in 2002. It so hard to even find one these days, and i should now cause i build legacy windows 98 machines.

Also, the inclusion of a DVI port is also ridiculous it makes the board look old and dated. One last point, vendors should really start taking noted from Gigabyte how to build Sky lake board, Dual M.2 Ports are a must.

They should add more usb ports because I personally have a lot of devices that are usb. not sure if you are being facetious or not with that statement. ps/2 ports can be handy for troubleshooting if usb refuses to work.

DVI is still widely used. not everyone uses dp or hdmi

 

[notb]

As I'm a typical "target" for such motherboard (in fact I might buy it), I should be able to defend the back I/O.

First of all: USB is polled, so by definition it's simply such a bad choice for a keyboard...

Generally: PS/2 is a port, but USB is a bus. PS/2 port is used by 1 thing, but USB connects many clients. As a result:

1) PS/2 needs very basic drivers, so PS/2 keyboards are supported in many more situations. They work before USB driver is loaded (and if there is no USB driver...).

2) PS/2 offers full n-key rollover. USB limits you to 6 keys. So when you pay massive amounts of cash for your great mechanical keyboard, you might want to connect it via this poor old PS/2.

3) Other things connected to USB will impact keyboard lags.

2,3 may be an issue for gamers etc.
1 is almost a deal-braker for some linux users, virtualization admins and so on.

 

[micropage7]

If i had to pick one so far from a design perspective - this is it.
Nothing beats clean white. Nothing.

yeah but white has one problem, over time it would turn to yellow

 

[KyleThmpsn]

Am I the only one who thinks adding "PRIME" to the beginning of all their main series motherboards is kind of silly? I'd much rather see them called Z270-A, B250M-A, etc. PRIME just seems pretty unnecessary to add to a model name.

 

[Xyriut]

This is their low end line. You need to move up to ROG to get more USB ports (including 3.1), less antiquated PS2 nonsense ports, proper audio and better voltage regulation.

If you need more USB, get the Hero IX.

 

[notb]

This is their low end line. You need to move up to ROG to get more USB ports (including 3.1), less antiquated PS2 nonsense ports, proper audio and better voltage regulation.

If you need more USB, get the Hero IX.

Saying that PRIME is a low-end line is somehow unfair. In the current chipset generation almost all motherboards ASUS sells are PRIMEs. This lineup if very diversified - from very simple models to those really feature-packed like Z270-A (the best of the Z270-* line).
If you're after looks, feature completeness or some unique properties of the ROG/WS/TUF series, you can of course buy one of them (the WS being really the only sensible choice).
But the PRIME lineup has most of what even a demanding user might need - including ASUS's high-end sound hardware, USB 3.1 and so on. Thunderbolt 3 is missing, but I'm sure we'll see it in PRIME motherboards when some cheap peripherals will appear. At this point even a stupid port replicator costs $200.

You're also very wrong about the PS/2 . It's actually a huge fail that ASUS decided to remove it from the most expensive motherboards. It's very cheap, takes little space and is hugely useful for both gamers and powerusers. This is the sole reason why many mechanical keyboard owners moved to other mobo manufacturers.

It seems MSI understands this much better. They kept PS/2 even in their X99A GODLIKE - a motherboard that doesn't even have a video output included, because they don't expect anyone to use it with the integrated GPU (again: functionally a mistake, but whatever). Of course their PS/2 is VERY RED and called "PS/2 Gaming Device Port" to make it more manly and hardcore, but inside it's pretty much the same thing we've seen since 1987.