The Board - A Closer Look

Firing up the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 GAMING K6+ outside of a case for that first test after assembly is easy thanks to the provided Power and Reset buttons, while the dual-BIOS implementation means you can have a bit of overclocking fun without the fear of BIOS corruption. Switching between BIOSes requires you to move a jumper ASRock handily placed below the BIOS chips.


We have an Intersil VRM controller pushing the 12 CPU phases, and a rather robust DIMM VRM to support those highly clocked DDR4 DIMMs I know you'll want to buy if you're into pro gaming. The reduction in latency offered by high-clocked DDR4 DIMMs easily beats anything DDR3 could offer for 24/7 usage.


Added USB support is provided by ASmedia controllers, and like all other Z170 boards I have tested, there's an IDT chipset to help with BCLK scaling.


Audio is provided by the amazing Realtek ALC1150 that offers excellent audio performance when paired with proper circuitry. The isolation provided to this audio circuit definitely is a part of what makes the Realtek ALC1150 perform at its best.


As is traditionally the case on Fatal1ty products, we have a KillerNIC LAN controller and Nuvoton Super I/O for that PS/2 port and fan monitoring and control.


I saw a chip hidden under the rear I/O cover, so I removed the cover to find that it's an ASMedia TMDS switch for the HDMI port.