EVGA Z370 Micro Motherboard Starts Selling

[btarunr]

EVGA's premium micro-ATX motherboard based on Intel Z370 chipset, the Z370 Micro, started selling at USD $179.99. The board was announced alongside the rest of the company's Z370 lineup, earlier this October. Designed for enthusiast-grade micro-ATX builds, the EVGA Z370 micro features a standard 240 mm x 240 mm PCB, but with cutouts for the angled 24-pin ATX and 6-pin PCIe power inputs. Besides the two, it draws power from an 8-pin EPS and 4-pin ATX power connectors, conditioning it for the CPU with a 10-phase VRM. The CPU socket features 150% higher gold content in the pins. The LGA1151 socket is wired to two reinforced DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel memory, and two reinforced PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC or x8/x8), with SLI support. An x4 slot makes for the rest of the expansion.

Storage connectivity includes two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots (from which one is occupied with the WLAN card), and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Eight USB 3.0 ports, and a number of USB 2.0 ports make for the USB connectivity. Network connectivity includes an Intel-made WLAN card with 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1. The lone 1 GbE interface is driven by an Intel i219-V controller. A Realtek ALC1220 CODEC drives the 8-channel HD audio. Overclocker-friendly features include dual-BIOS with manual switching, POST debug 7-seg display, angled case-fan headers, onboard POST speaker, and power/reset buttons.



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[natr0n]

I spy globs of gluegun.

 

[texas64]

I spy globs of gluegun.

I guess the engineering team didn't tell the marketing team to avoid photos of the back of the board! No foul taking pictures of prototypes but come on!

 

[newtekie1]

I spy globs of gluegun.

How else to you expect them to hold on the memory slots? They aren't soldered on after all.

 

[Ruru]

8-pin, 4-pin AND a PCI-E power connector?

 

[hyp36rmax]

That's a unique design for the 24-pin.

8-pin, 4-pin AND a PCI-E power connector?

Those additional power connectors provide stability for overclocking. My ASUS X99M-WS has two 4+4 CPU EPS and an additional PCIE 6-pin also.

 

[dj-electric]

That's a unique design for the 24-pin.



Those additional power connectors provide stability for overclocking. My ASUS X99M-WS has two 4+4 CPU EPS and an additional PCIE 6-pin also.

Uhm... You know how dramatically is the difference between those platforms... Right?

 

[hyp36rmax]

Uhm... You know how dramatically is the difference between those platforms... Right?

Of course. That was just a surface comparison. You're thinking too hard about this...

 

[CheapMeat]

I love the cutouts, especially the right angled 24-pin. I wish waaaay more boards did this.

 

[SortOfGrim]

I love the cutouts, especially the right angled 24-pin. I wish waaaay more boards did this.

This. And the 90 degree connectors

Although I would have loved if they angled the EPS and usb 3.0 connectors too.

 

[Valantar]

I love the cutouts, especially the right angled 24-pin. I wish waaaay more boards did this.

Yes. This. More of this. Please. Right-angled 24-pins are great, but that cutout really brings it home.

Why this board needs a 6-pin PCIe connector, though, that's beyond me. It has three PCIe slots. Do they expect all of them to be populated with 75W components? RX 560 CrossFire x3?

 

[Ruru]

This. And the 90 degree connectors

Although I would have loved if they angled the EPS and usb 3.0 connectors too.

I miss the 90 degree USB3.0 on my old Z87 Sabertooth.

 

[micropage7]

that power pins reminds me of PATA

 

[CheapMeat]

How many people still even use the COM port on consumer/prosumer boards? Could have put the extra 6-pin there if needed or something. Definitely agree that being practically in the middle is kinda odd and wire management wise ugly.

 

[newtekie1]

Why this board needs a 6-pin PCIe connector, though, that's beyond me. It has three PCIe slots. Do they expect all of them to be populated with 75W components? RX 560 CrossFire x3?

Any motherboard that is expected to be used with more than one GPU should have an additional power connector like this board, IMO. I've fried a 24-pin connector with just two GPUs before.