ASUS ROG STRIX Z270I GAMING ITX Review

Author: MAC
Date: May 7, 2017
Product Name: ROG STRIX Z270I GAMING
Part Number: ROG STRIX Z270I GAMING
Warranty: 3 Years

A little over a month ago, we reviewed the ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac, which proved to be a spectacular little mini-ITX motherboard. With a beefy VRM, an M.2 slot, onboard Wi-Fi, Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0 video output, and excellent overclocking capabilities, it had just about every feature that we could hope for in a little motherboard. Nevertheless, we are always on the look out for competition and we think that we found some: the ASUS ROG Strix Z270I Gaming.

Since it is the only mini-ITX model in the Z270 Republic of Gamers (ROG) lineup, the Strix Z270I is the spiritual successor to the Maximus VIII Impact Z170 model that we reviewed back in December 2015. While the Impact was a standout product in many respects, it slightly disappointed us due to its inclusion of a U.2 port instead of an M.2 slot. Thankfully, ASUS is a company that learns from their mistakes, and this new Strix Z270i actually features two full-speed M.2 slots. That is hugely impressive given the significant space constraints that engineers have to deal with on a tiny 7″ x 7″ piece of PCB. While M.2 SSDs are indeed the ideal storage devices for a compact system, this model still wisely includes a respectable four SATA 6Gb/s ports. The aforementioned ASRock model has six SATA ports, but one less M.2 slot. Which configuration is superior is ultimately going to be a matter of personal preference.

At $170 USD / $240 CAD, this motherboard is not cheap, but it is certainly not expensive for an ROG model with strong specs. Starting with the basics, the Strix Z270I has been outfitted with a robust 10-phase digital power design, 10K Japanese capacitors, two DDR4 memory slots that can handle speeds of up to DDR4-4266, and one strengthened PCI-E x16 slot. The USB connectivity is decent with four USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.0 header, and one USB 3.1 Gen2 header. While this motherboard does have a USB Type-C port on the rear I/O panel, it is limited to USB 3.0 speeds. When it comes to networking, there is one Intel-powered gigabit LAN port and onboard Wi-Fi in the form of a dual-band Qualcomm 802.11ac solution with MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1, and a 2×2 external antenna. Those who plan on utilizing their processor’s integrated GPU will have the option of connecting their display to an HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2 video output, only the latter of which supports 4K at 60Hz.

As you would expect from an ROG model, the onboard audio duties on this model are handled by a SupremeFX solution. This implementation is obviously based on the Realtek ALC1220A HD audio codec, but also features two dedicated Texas Instruments headphone amplifiers and audio-grade Nichicon capacitors. The codec has its own electromagnetic interference (EMI) cover and it is also protected by a PCB-level isolation line, which helps keep noise out of the audio signal. Another benefit of SupremeFX is compatibility with the ASUS audio software suite that consists of Sonic Studio III and Sonic Radar III. Unlike most gaming-oriented motherboards, the audio section on this model doesn’t have any illumination, but there are a row of LEDs on the top-right corner and as you will see they put on a heck of a show. If that’s not enough lighting, there is also an RGB header which will allow you to install any LED light strip and control it with the AURA utility.

Overall, the specs look promising, but it’s the implementation that matters. We will be checking out the UEFI BIOS, playing with the numerous utilities, testing the historically excellent ASUS automatic overclocking features, and just generally giving the Strix Z270I a proper shakedown. Let’s see if we come away impressed.

Packaging & Accessories

Now that we have gone over the Strix Z270I’s features and specifications in the intro, it is time to examine the packaging and then crack open the box to take a look at the bundled accessories. Let’s check it out:


While this motherboard is part of the Republic of Gamers series, the Strix models don’t ship in same black and red packaging as the usual ROG motherboards. Nevertheless, the tiny box is pretty sleek looking with a largely all black theme and some rainbow colored graphics that highlight the onboard RGB LED lightning feature. On the back of the packaging, you will find quite a bit of information regarding all of the interesting features that have been packed onto this model, as well as a handy rear I/O panel diagram and an abbreviated specifications list.


When you open the packaging you are greeted with the motherboard – wrapped in an anti-static bag – in a cardboard tray with a flap. Under that tray is another tray with a flap that holds all of the accessories, manuals, installation CD, etc. As you will see below, this model ships with a very respectable quantity of accessories, at least some of which are pretty neat.




Aside from the obvious software DVD and user guide, this model ships with SATA label stickers, a sheet of ROG stickers, a drink coaster, and even a coupon code for CableMod cables. They have also thrown in an all black rear I/O shield, four SATA 6Gb/s ports, some screws and standoffs for the M.2 slots, two M.2 2242 mounting kits, and a flexible front panel header cable. Since this model has onboard wireless connectivity they have also included a 2T2R Wi-Fi antenna which has 2 transmitter (T) and 2 receiver (R) antennas.

Since RGB LED lightning is all the rage, the Strix Z270I does come with an RGB header on which you can plug a light strip to via the included RGB LED extension cable. ASUS have also bundled their CPU Installation Tool, which helps with the installation or removal of the processor from the CPU socket. Please check out our great showcase of this feature at the bottom of this page.

A Closer Look at the STRIX Z270I

As should be pretty clear from the above picture, the Strix Z270I is a very small motherboard based on the mini-ITX form factor. As such, it measures a tiny 6.7″ by 6.7″, which you can visualize as being almost half of a standard A4 sheet of paper. Despite this shortage of PCB space, ASUS have done an incredible job of shoehorning features onto this motherboard. Some of those features – like dual M.2 slots – are unbelievable engineering achievements given the lack of PCB space. The end result is obviously that there are ports and headers placed in every nook and cranny, and some of them – like some of the fan headers – can be quite difficult to access if you have a CPU heatsink and/or graphics card installed. Having said that, the placement of most of the ports and headers are as ideal as could be expected. We will examine all of them more closely in the installation section.

While this is a good looking motherboard, that doesn’t really matter so much with mini-ITX models since by the time the CPU cooler, RAM, graphics card, and various cables are installed it will be nearly completely hidden. So whether you love or hate the black and textured aluminium aesthetic really shouldn’t make a difference in the end.


The VRM on this model is pretty complex, with a lot of additional components compared to many other motherboards. However, fundamentally speaking, what we are dealing with is a 10-phase power design that utilizes an ASUS-rebranded Digi+ ASP1400BT PWM controller and a mix of ON Semiconductor 4C86N and 4C09B MOSFETs. ASUS have used these MOSFETs on most of their STRIX and TUF Z170 and Z270 motherboards, so they are proven parts.

The phase breakdown appears to be six for the CPU cores, two for the integrated GPU, and one each for the VCCIO (memory controller) and VCCSA (system agent). We say ‘appears’ just because there’s an unusual mix of high-side MOSFETs, low-side MOSFETs, miniscule drivers, buck controllers, different-sized power chokes, etc. so it’s hard to follow exactly where everything is going.

Behind the 8-pin CPU power and next to the aforementioned PWM controller is the 4-pin CPU fan header. There is another fan header – this one designed to handle water pumps/high amperage fans – sandwiched between the Wi-Fi module and the MOSFET heatsink. This particular header is quite difficult to access once you have all the parts installed.


As is the case with most mini-ITX motherboards, the Strix Z270I only features two DDR4 memory slots. While that might limit the amount of RAM you can install, it certainly has no effect on performance since ASUS have certified this model for overclocked memory frequencies up to DDR4-4266. We are going to be testing a DDR4-4000 memory kit on this model, so keep reading to see how well it handled these astronomical memory speeds. Like on all ASUS ROG motherboards, this model features the handy Q-DIMM memory slots which are clipless on one side. To the right of the memory slots is the Q-LED area which are LEDs that give you the status of the CPU, DRAM, VGA, and the boot device.

The 24-pin ATX power connector is in the top-right corner of the motherboard – which frankly is only place for it on a tiny motherboard – and next to it is the RGB Header, the controller that manages the AURA SYNC lighting feature, and the front panel header. You can plug in any 12V/2A 5050RGB LED lighting strip on that RGB header, and have it fully powered by the motherboard and controlled by the AURA utility.


This motherboard features four SATA 6Gb/s ports, all of which are supplied by the Z270 PCH and as a result support RAID 0/1/5/10 plus Intel Rapid Storage Technology. We are quite pleased that ASUS chose not to include a U.2 port, since that interface can be added by the user via a ASUS Hyper Kit M.2 to Mini SAS HD adapter. Instead, they have focused their efforts on the coolest part of this motherboard: the innovative M.2 Double-Decker Heatsink. Not only does this tiny heatsink cool the Z270 PCH – which is not a difficult task since it puts out very little heat – but it is also an ingenious way of adding an M.2 slot to the front of a mini-ITX motherboard. If you run out of horizontal room, might as well go vertical, which is exactly what ASUS engineers did in order to maximize all available space. The M.2 SSD is essentially just sandwiched between the part of the heatsink that cools the PCH and the top cover that is used to cool the SSD itself.

The front-mounted M.2 slot is a full-speed PCI-E 3.0 x4 slot, with a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 32Gb/s, and support for SATA, PCI-E, and PCI-E NVMe M.2 solid state drives. It also supports Intel’s Optane Memory technology. Because of a lack of room this slot can only handle 2280 form factor M.2 drives – which are 99% of the models on the market – and not the longer 22110 models. As mentioned in the introduction, this one of two M.2 slots on this tiny motherboard. The other one is located on the back on the motherboard, and we will take a look at it on the following page.

In the top-left corner of the image, you can spot one of the fan headers that we mentioned above, which is arguably the second CPU fan header since this one is designed to handle a water pump/high amperage fan.

To the left of the PCH heatsink is a Nuvoton NCT6793D Super I/O monitoring controller, which handles things like temperature and voltage monitoring as well as fan control. The TurboV Processing Unit (TPU) chip is an ASUS-exclusive part that is responsible for the automatic overclocking functionality.

A Closer Look at the STRIX Z270I pt.2

As should be clear by now, this motherboard has a single PCI-E x16 slot and all of the processor’s sixteen PCI-E 3.0 lanes are funneled towards it. This is a SafeSlot that has been mechanically reinforced with a metal cover, as well as additional anchor points, for superior retention and shearing resistance. Obviously, there is no SLI or CrossFire support.


The Strix Z270I features a new variation of the SupremeFX onboard audio. While there is an EMI shield covering it, we know that this audio solution is based on the Realtek ALC1220A codec. The difference between the ALC1220A and the more common ALC1220 is that the A version is missing the I2S (Integrated-Interchip Sound) bus interface that is used to transfer digital data to a DAC. Since this motherboard has no third-party DAC, I2S is obviously not needed.

What’s impressive about this SupremeFX implementation is that it features two headphone amplifiers, which means additional power and impedance sensing for both the front and rear headphone outputs. One of the headphone amplifiers is a very common Texas Instruments R4580I op-amp (for the front panel), while the other is a higher-end Texas Instruments OPA1688 op-amp (for the rear panel). This latter component is part of the Burr-Brown Audio product series and it is EMI hardened.

As we have come to expect from just about every quality motherboard, Nichicon audio-grade capacitors are used in the audio subsystem. There is also a small PCB isolation line that surrounds the audio section and protects it from external electromagnetic interference (EMI). All of this serves to help to preserve the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio and thus ensure the highest possible sound quality.

Here we have the rear I/O panel, which is pretty well appointed. Starting from left to right, there is the USB 3.1 header, one USB 3.0 port, one USB 3.0 Type-C port, four USB 2.0 ports, DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4 video outputs, one gigabit LAN port, two USB 3.0 ports, the WiFi/Bluetooth antenna ports, and the five analog audio jacks plus the S/PDIF output.

The gigabit LAN port is powered by the ubiquitous Intel I219-V controller. The port is protected by a LANGuard surge protector and it can be managed using the ASUS GameFirst IV utility.

The onboard Wi-Fi module supports both dual-band 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1. Although it is not mentioned anywhere in the official literature, there is a sticker on the module itself that says “Model: QCNFA364A”. With that information we can easily determine that the module hides an M.2 2230 card with a Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 wireless chip on it. The Device Manager also reveals this information.

This 2×2 solution supports maximum wireless transfer speeds of up to 867 Mbps with MU-MIMO technology. Although we personally haven’t yet made the leap to the 802.11ac standard, our 802.11n connection was rock-solid courtesy of the clearly capable 2T2R antenna that ASUS included in the accessories bundle. ASUS uses this Wi-Fi module on even the $629 USD Maximus IX Extreme, so it is by no means a budget part.

One of the more controversial aspects of this model is that it includes a USB 3.1 header, but not a USB 3.1 Type-C port. While it does have a Type-C port thanks to a ASMedia ASM1543 Type-C switch, that port is limited to USB 3.0 speeds. Why is that? Well instead of being powered by an ASMedia ASM2142 USB 3.1 Gen2 host controller – like the USB 3.1 header is – the Type-C port is ultimately running off of the PCH, which does not natively support USB 3.1. Clearly, ASUS was not able to fit two of the rather large ASM2142 chips on this motherboard, so it they had to make a choice. Whether this is a negative depends on whether you would rather have one USB 3.1 Type-C and USB 3.1 Type-A port – like on most motherboards – or one USB 3.1 header that can provide two high-speed USB ports to your case.


As you would expect, there are a bunch of little ICs all over the back of the motherboard. Some are related to the CPU VRM, others the RAM VRM, and then there’s just miscellaneous components. We are pleased to see that all of the heatsinks and modules are held in place by metal screws instead of plastic push-pins. By flipping the motherboard over, you also get a good look at the nine RGB LEDs that are placed on the top-right edge of the motherboard. As you will see in our AURA SYNC section, they produce a pretty impressive lightshow.

Last, but certainly not least, on the back of the motherboard is where you will find the secondary M.2 slot:

While this secondary M.2 slot is also a full-speed PCI-E 3.0 x4 slot, with a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 32Gb/s, it does not support SATA-based M.2 solid state drives, only PCI-E ones. This eliminates a lot of the cheapest M.2 options, but it does mean that you can install two high performance PCI-E NVMe drives, or even one PCI-E drive and one Intel Optane Memory module. You can also RAID the two M.2 slots together to achieve insane transfer speeds/latencies (RAID 0) or just increased reliability via mirroring (RAID 1).

Hardware Installation

In the Hardware Installation section we examine how major components fit on the motherboard, and whether there are any serious issues that may affect installation and general functionality. Specifically, we are interested in determining whether there is adequate clearance in all critical areas.


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Given its compact size this motherboard has a fairly spacious CPU socket area, but the mounting hardware for any heatsink/liquid cooler will need to be installed over the capacitors and power chokes on the left side of the socket. As long the cooler manufacturer followed Intel’s reference dimensions there should be no clearance issues.


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While the primary CPU fan header is easy to reach, the secondary CPU fan header/water pump header is sandwiched between the back of the Wi-Fi module and the MOSFET heatsink. The system fan header is caught between the back of the graphics card and the PCH heatsink. Essentially, both of these fan headers are a nightmare to access once you have the heatsink and/or graphics card installed.


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While we did not encounter any clearance issues between the standard height memory modules and our large CPU cooler, we weren’t quite so lucky with the taller modules. Because of their irregular fin design, while we were to secure the fan clips on one side, there was a clearance issue on the other side. This is an exceedingly common problem even on full-sized motherboards with four memory slots. The solution is obviously to find another way hold the fan in place, or to mount it on the other side of the heatsink.


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While there is very little space between the back of the graphics card and the memory slots, the fact that they are clipless on one side means that there is no need to take out the GPU before installing/removing the memory modules. The 24-pin ATX power connector and the 8-pin CPU power connector are both placed in their usual convenient location, so that makes assembling and disassembling the system just a tad easier.

As you can see, a full-size graphics card will overhang the motherboard by quite a lot on the right side, and a little bit on the bottom edge as well. Investing in a mini variant of a graphics card would be wise if trying to build the smallest possible system.


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While the two SATA ports on the right side of the motherboard are easily accessible when it comes to installation, the SATA clips are facing the memory module you can’t easily unlatch them without removing the RAM or using some kind of tool. The other two ports are obviously more difficult to reach, especially if you install a large heatsink. We definitely think that round instead of flat SATA cables would be beneficial for a build given their greater flexibility.


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Installing an SSD in the top-mounted M.2 slot is a trouble-free affair. You simply need to unscrew the top cover of the heatsink, plug in and screw down the drive, and remount the cover. You shouldn’t need to remove your CPU heatsink, but you will have to remove any graphics card installed.


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Installing an SSD into the rear-mounted M.2 slot is also easy, but obviously you will need to remove the motherboard in order to uninstall the drive from a fully built system. While that is not really convenient, especially if you have complex liquid cooling installed or did a bunch of cable management, it is the only way that ASUS could easily fit a second M.2 slot on a mini-ITX motherboard.


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We were able to install our Prolimatech Mega Shadow heatsink without running into any issues, but its large rear mounting bracket did come pretty close to a few solder points. This is the case on most motherboards, so nothing to worry about there.

UEFI Explored

This new generation of motherboards carries forward the familiar ASUS UEFI bios layout. Although fundamentally similar to past versions, this latest implementation has obviously been tweaked with a bunch of new Kaby Lake-oriented features. As we have come to expect from ASUS, this is a very smooth and responsive UEFI BIOS, incrementally better than anything we’ve experienced from other manufacturers. The UEFI BIOS is divided across two distinct modes. The EZ Mode is simplified and features a mouse-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for basic tasks, while the Advanced Mode has all the settings, options, and features that you could ever want. From within the EZ Mode you can switch to the Advanced Mode by pressing F7, and vice-versa to get back to the EZ Mode.


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The EZ Mode makes pretty good use of the graphical user interface (GUI) and was designed to be used with a mouse. It obviously does not have all the functionality of the Advanced mode, but it is not meant to. It simply gives novice users an easy way to visualize and alter some of the most common settings. The Q-Fan Tuning feature can be found in both BIOS modes, but fundamentally it gives you full manual or preset-based control over the systems fans. The EZ Tuning Wizard is particularly interesting since it brings overclocking to an even simpler level. Basically, the wizard asks you how you generally use your system, what kind of CPU cooler you have installed, and based on your answer it comes up with an appropriate tuning level for your respective system. It worked perfect during our short time toying with it, and the fact that it never actually mentions “overclocking” should help alleviate some of the fears less knowledgeable users might associate with the word. The EZ Tuning Wizard can also be used as a very user-friendly way of setting up a RAID array.


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The My Favorites tab allows you to have all your most useful or most used settings in one place, so you no longer have to search through the whole bios to find what you need time and time again. My favorites used to come as a blank page, but now ASUS have included what it believes are the most used BIOS settings. You can obviously edit this selection, and add or remove any settings that you want.


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The next tab in the BIOS is the Main section, which displays the standard storage devices and some basic system information. This System Information section lists some rudimentary specification info, including the BIOS date & version, the type of processor and the amount of memory installed. You can also set the system language, and an administrator and/or individual user password.


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Next up is the Ai Tweaker section, which is where all the fun happens. Once the manual option is selected in the Ai Overclock Tuner setting, the BIOS opens up to reveal all of the essential system clock control options: CPU multiplier with an all-core and per-core option, BLCK frequency, CPU strap, memory frequency, memory timing options, and all the voltage options.

The OC Tuner feature allows novice users to automatically overclock their systems without having to mess around with clocks speeds, multipliers, and voltages. The are two options in this feature, a multiplier-only tuning mode or a multiplier and BCLK tuning mode. You can read more about this automatic overclocking feature in our Overclocking Results section.



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As its name suggests, the DRAM Timing Control section is where you will find all the memory-related settings. Within this section you can select and change all the memory settings, and each memory channel has its own section, from which you can alter the primary and secondary timings. It has just about every memory modifier that an enthusiast or overclocker would need to fine-tune their modules. There’s really an overabundance of options and it is quite impressive.


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The DIGI+ Power Control section has a whole slew of advanced power regulation settings for the CPU cores, CPU VTT and VCCSA (system agent/memory controller), and DRAM channels. This motherboard is setup well enough so that you should never actually have to tweak any of these settings though, unless you are really pushing the limits with phase-change or LN2 cooling. The exception to this is obviously Load-Line Calibration (LLC), which is a worthwhile feature that eliminates droopage on the CPU vCORE, and which we will take a closer look at in our Voltage Regulation section.


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The Internal CPU Power Management section is where you can enable or disable all the CPU-specific features like SpeedStep and Turbo Mode, as well as setting the Turbo limits. ASUS have really bolstered this section with an overwhelming array of CPU power tuning settings.


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The Tweakers Paradise sub-menus has a ton of fairly obscure settings that should come in handy in the hands of experts top-level overclockers. The only setting that might be familiar to your average well-versed power user is FCLK Frequency, which should be set to 1Ghz whenever possible to ensure best possible performance. ASUS sets this by default.


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Occupying the middle to bottom section of the Ai Tweaker are the prodigious voltage options. As you would expect, all the key system voltages are present and accounted for, as far as bunch of other voltage options that we have frankly never even seen before. For some of the key voltages like the CPU Core voltage and the CPU Cache voltage, ASUS have allowed four separate entry modes. The Auto and Manual modes are self-evident, the Offset Mode allows you to specify how much higher (or lower) the voltage should be in reference to stock level, so something like +0.10V or +0.15V. The Adaptive Mode allows you to set both a base voltage and higher Turbo Mode voltage that is enabled under heavy system loads. This helps minimize the amount of voltage running through an overclocked processor when it’s not under load.

Usually we would now say that we wish there were more drop-down menus in this section. Although can manually type in whatever you want, but that is not particularly useful when you don’t know or don’t remember what the default voltages are. Thankfully, ASUS have thought about this, and they have included real-time voltage read outs next to all the key system voltages. This is an fantastic addition and we couldn’t be happier to see it here.

UEFI Explored pt.2


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The Advanced tab is where you can tweak countless settings and enable or disable all of the motherboard’s components. The CPU Configuration sub-menu is where you can manipulate all the CPU-specific features like the Thermal Monitor, Hyper-Threading, Virtualization, Enhanced SpeedStep, Turbo Mode, C-States, etc.



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The Advanced Tab is also where you can enable/disable or just find all the various settings and options for all the onboard devices like the audio, LAN, USB 3.0, SATA ports, etc. As you can see, there is a bewildering and overwhelming array of settings and options here. It is downright remarkable.


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The Monitor section contains the anti-surge setting, but is mostly dedicated to monitoring the various voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds. This whole section is really quite impressive, it has all the essential temperature and voltage readouts, as well as truly excellent and comprehensive fan control functionality.


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The Boot tab is essentially where you set storage device priority, select the boot drive, enable/disable the full screen logo, and ton of other boot settings that can help with the installation or troubleshooting of various OS installations.




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ASUS EZ Flash 3 is a built-in utility that greatly simplifies the BIOS updating process. You can easily update your BIOS from a ROM file located on your hard drive(s) or USB flash drive(s). It’s quick, painless, and it takes the worry out of BIOS flashing.

The ASUS Overclocking Profile feature gives users the option to save and switch between BIOS profiles, for example an everyday profile and a benchmarking profile. Not only is this infinitely quicker than manually inserting every setting, but the profiles can be saved and shared among other Maximus VIII Impact owners.


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Before you save your settings and exit the BIOS, there is a handy window that lists the changes you made during this session. It’s a well thought out and implemented idea. The new General Help pop-up that you can find in the top-right corner is very handy for those who can’t remember all the new function key tasks.

Included Software

Ai Suite III

The most important and all-encompassing utility in ASUS’ impressive suite of software is the aptly named Ai Suite III. Whereas ASUS used to have a handful of standalone apps for different functions, many were consolidated under the Ai Suite moniker back in 2011. This system management utility is the hub from which you can monitor system clock speeds, voltages, temperatures, and fan rotation but more importantly it allows users to do both automatic and manual overclocking from within Windows. Although it’s basic UI has been established for a while, ASUS regularly adds to the capabilities to this utility, so let’s check it out.

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There are six main sections that are the focus of the Ai Suite III utility, and they are all linked to the Dual Intelligent Processors 5. As a refresher, DIP5 refers to two co-processors – the TurboV Processing Unit (TPU) and the Energy Processing Unit (EPU) – that are tasked with for optimizing the system with a focus on either better performance and improved energy efficiency.

The 5-Way Optimization section is the coolest, and is where you will find the 5-Way Optimization automatic overclocking feature. There is also the Energy Processing Unit (EPU) power saving or performance profiles, Fan Xpert 3 fan speed optimization status, DIGI+ VRM optimization, awesome new Turbo App functionality, and some display-only information regarding TurboV Processing Unit (TPU). We’ll go into it in-depth below.

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On the left hand side of the Ai Suite utility is an arrow that activates a pop-out menu when clicked. Here you will find features like PC Cleaner, which will scan your PC and get rid of junk files to free up disk space. The EZ Update tool allows users to update their motherboard’s BIOS either directly from the internet or from a downloaded file. System Information just contains a bunch of basic system information regarding your CPU, motherboard or RAM. You can also find you can find your serial number, BIOS version, etc.

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At the bottom is a static strip that displays information on CPU and DRAM frequency, real-time voltage and temperatures measurements, as well as CPU and case fans speeds. You can also set safe thresholds for voltages, temperatures and fan speeds as well as setting alerts to warn you of any serious fluctuations. It is essentially a replacement for the Probe II utility.

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Clicking on the 5-Way Optimization button reveals the coolest part of the whole Dual Intelligent Processors 5 utility. There is a certain level of fan optimization functionality in this section, but what’s really interesting is the automatic overclocking feature. You have the option of 3 different overclocking levels depending on whether you have an unlocked processor or not. We don’t want to reveal too much here, so go check out the Overclocking Results section to see how well this auto-overclocking feature worked.

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The TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) tab is where you can manually adjust the BCLK frequency, CPU multiplier and Cache/Uncore multiplier. You will also be able to change the CPU multiplier, either per core or as a group. There are also an impressive eleven adjustable system voltages. You can adjust all these settings on-the-fly without having to reboot the system.

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The EPU (Energy Processing Unit) tab is you will be able to fine-tune the various selection of power saving or performance profiles. This is a versatile feature for those who truly care about maximizing energy savings.

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The DIGI+ VRM tab is where you will find the power options for the CPU, System Agent/Memory Controller, and RAM. There are adjustable settings for load-line calibration, current capability, voltage frequency, and phase control. There are different power controls for each memory channel since they are independently powered.

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The Fan Xpert 4 tab is, as you might expect, where you can fully manage and optimize your CPU and system fans. While there are now a series of four fan presets (Silent/Standard/Turbo/Full Speed), you can also manually adjust the full fan speed curve to your preferences, or simply use the fully automated Fan Tuning feature.

Included Software pt.2

AURA


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The RGB LEDs that are placed on the underside of the motherboard and the RGB header can be controlled using the AURA lightning control utility. The light can be adjusted to any number of different colours and customized to create cool lighting effects. The presets can cause the LEDs to change shades to indicate CPU temperature, pulsate with the beat of your music, cycle through all the colours, fade in and out, flash on and off, or just statically display one colour.

ROG CPU-Z


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ROG CPU-Z is a special edition of CPU-Z especially created to match the aesthetics of ASUS Republics of Gamers motherboards. It is kept as up-to-date as the regular version, and is available at the same place: CPUID.com

MemTweakIt


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MemTweakIt is memory tweaking tool which allows for modification of just about every primary and secondary memory timing within Windows, and without having to reboot the system. It’s a joy to use and a great tool for overclockers.

GameFirst IV


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GameFirst IV is a utility designed to help reduce latency courtesy of cFosSpeed traffic-shapping technology. This utility provides users with a lot of control and monitoring capabilities over every application that is accessing the network. It displays CPU usage, NPU usage, ICMP and UDP average ping, and the network utilization of every system process and program. This tool also allows you give priority to certain applications, and throttle or block others to free network resources for other applications. It is your one-stop tool for monitoring and controlling all network traffic.

Sonic Radar III


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The idea behind Sonic Radar III is simple enough, once configured in the above utility, it is basically a radar overlay that shows the positional location that sound is coming from in games. It is essentially a gaming aid, or a really useful tool for those who are hard of hearing or those who just can’t have sound enabled in a given scenario (gaming at work anyone?).

Separate from Sonic Radar is a utility called Sonic Studio III, which is an audio suite that allows users control over six audio controls like Reverb, Bass Boost, Equalizer, Voice Clarity, Smart EQ (Smart Volume), and Virtual Surround. It also provides access to the Perfect Voice noise-cancellation feature and Casting Enhancer audio streaming.

RAMCache II


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The Strix Z270I also comes with the very simple RAMCache II utility. For those not familiar with this concept, a RAMCache utilizes a portion of your RAM in order to cache your system’s most commonly accessed data. Since the read, write and latency performance of RAM is significantly faster than any conventional storage device, the use of a RAMCache can definitely speed up certain tasks. Using this utility is as simple as selecting the storage device that you want to dedicate a cache to, and then selecting the amount of system memory to allocate to the RAMCache.

Test Setups & Methodology

For this review, we are going to be testing the performance of the ROG STRIX Z270I GAMING in five configurations: default settings @ DDR4-2133, default settings with XMP enabled (DDR4-3866), two automatic overclocks, and our manual overclock. The components and software are the same across all five configurations, and aside from manually selecting the frequencies, timings, and voltages in the manual overclock configuration, every option in the BIOS was at its default setting.

Intel Core i7 ‘Kaby Lake’ LGA1151 DDR4 Test Setup

For all of the benchmarks, appropriate lengths are taken to ensure an equal comparison through methodical setup, installation, and testing. The following outlines our testing methodology:

A) Windows is installed using a full format.

B) Chipset drivers and accessory hardware drivers (audio, network, GPU) are installed.

C)To ensure consistent results, a few tweaks are applied to Windows 10 Pro (Creator Update) and the NVIDIA control panel:

  • UAC – Disabled
  • Indexing – Disabled
  • Superfetch – Disabled
  • System Protection/Restore – Disabled
  • Problem & Error Reporting – Disabled
  • Remote Desktop/Assistance – Disabled
  • Windows Security Center Alerts – Disabled
  • Windows Defender – Disabled
  • Screensaver – Disabled
  • Power Plan – High Performance
  • V-Sync – Off

D) All available Windows updates are then installed.

E) All programs are installed and then updated, followed by a defragment.

F) Benchmarks are each run three to ten times, and unless otherwise stated the results are then averaged.

Here is a full list of the applications that we utilized in our benchmarking suite:

  • 3DMark Vantage Professional Edition v1.1.3
  • 3DMark11 Professional Edition v1.0.132.0
  • 3DMark 2013 Professional Edition v2.2.3491
  • AIDA64 Engineer Edition v5.80.4000
  • Cinebench R15 64-bit
  • FAHBench 1.2.0
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Benchmark
  • Grand Theft Auto V
  • HEVC Decode Benchmark (Cobra) v1.61
  • LuxMark v3.1
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
  • PCMark 8
  • SuperPi Mod v1.9 WP
  • Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark v1.0.0.0
  • WinRAR x64 5.40
  • wPRIME version v2.10
  • X3: Terran Conflict Demo v1.0

That is about all you need to know methodology wise, so let’s get to the good stuff!

Feature Testing: AURA SYNC

The RGB LED lighting implementation on the Strix Z270I can’t really compare to that of a full-sized motherboard, simply because there is not enough room to put a bunch of LEDs. However, it is a heck of a lot better than on the ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac, which has no LEDs at all.

The AURA SYNC feature – which we first encountered on the Maximus IX Hero – is a good one. What this feature brings to the table is the ability to synchronize all your AURA SYNC compatible components, be it a graphics card, keyboard, or mouse. Basically, using the AURA lighting control utility – which you can see below – you can have all of the RGB LEDs that are integrated into those parts display the exact same colour or all just have matching lightning effects.


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On the Strix Z270I, the RGB LEDs are placed on the underside of the motherboard, specifically the top right edge. This lighting area can be controlled using the new AURA lightning control utility. The lights can be adjusted to any number of different colours and customized to create cool lighting effects. The presets can cause the LEDs to change shades to indicate CPU temperature, pulsate with the beat of your music, cycle through all the colours, fade in and out, flash on and off, or just statically display one colour.

There is also an RGB Header on which you can plug any 12V/2A 5050RGB LED lighting strip, and have it fully powered by the motherboard and controlled by the AURA app. That header is near the 24-pin ATX power connector.


While LEDs are mounted on the back of the motherboard, they are well placed along the top-right edge so the illumination shines unobstructed. As you can clearly see above, the overall effect is quite eye-catching because the LEDs are fairly powerful. Given how small ITX cases are, we definitely think that these LEDs and one light strip is more than sufficient to create an awesome effect.

Overall, if you’re willing to put in the effort and play around with the AURA utility and its endless selection of colours and effects, you can create some eye candy that will add a lot of flair to your build.

Feature Testing: Onboard Audio

Since fewer and fewer consumers seem to be buying discrete sound cards, the quality of a motherboard’s onboard audio is now more important than ever. As such, we figured that it was worthwhile to take a closer look at just how good the analog signal quality is coming out of the onboard SupremeFX audio subsystem that is implemented on the STRIX Z270I. As mentioned earlier, this model features the modern Realtek ALC1220A codec, two Texas Instruments op-amps, Nichicon Fine Gold audio capacitors, and a PCB-level isolation line.

Since isolated results don’t really mean much, but we have also included some numbers from the plethora of motherboards that we have previously reviewed. While the budget GIGABYTE Z170-HD3 motherboard is based on the Realtek ALC887, a lower-end 7.1 channel HD audio codec, all of the other models feature onboard audio solutions that are built around the higher-end Realtek ALC1150 or ALC1220 codecs, but feature different op-amps, headphone amplifiers, filtering capacitors, secondary components and layouts.

We are going to do this using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, since sound quality isn’t really something that can be adequately explained with only numbers. To do the quantitative portion, we have turned to RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA), which the standard application for this type of testing.

Since all modern motherboards support very high quality 24-bit, 192kHz audio playback we selected that as the sample mode option. Basically, what this test does is pipe the audio signal from the front-channel output to the line-in input via a 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male mini-plug cable, and then RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) does the audio analysis. Obviously we disabled all software enhancements since they interfere with the pure technical performance that we are trying to benchmark.

Simply put, the Strix Z270I blows every other motherboard that we have ever tested out of the water when it comes to its audio numbers. This is also only the second Intel-based motherboard that we’ve tested that has achieved an overall rating of “Excellent”. The noise level, dynamic range, and stereo crosstalk numbers are all exemplary, and the best that we have ever seen on a motherboard.

As we have mentioned in the past, we aren’t experts when it comes to sound quality, but at this high level we suspect that just about anyone should be satisfied. We listened to a variety of music and spoken word content using a mix of Grado SR225i and Koss PortaPro headphones, Westone UM1 IEMs, and Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakers, and the playback was clean and loud. Frankly, we have no criticisms whatsoever. We strongly suspect that most owners will likewise be very happy with this motherboard’s onboard audio capabilities, especially those who primarily use headphones since both the front and rear outputs are amplified.

Feature Testing: M.2 PCI-E 3.0 x4

One of the big advancements of the Skylake/Z170 LGA1151 platform was the fact that it brought the M.2 slot to the mainstream. Not only did it make this new storage connector available at a more reasonable price, but it was now properly implemented too. While most first-gen X99 LGA2011-v3 motherboards had an M.2 connector, many were speed limited or had a caveats list a mile long. All Z170 motherboard boasted about their “full speed” PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, and in our reviews those claims generally held up. Thus far, Z270 motherboards have exhibited similar high performance levels from their M.2 slots. While there still isn’t an M.2 SSD that can make full use of this interface’s theoretical maximum bandwidth of 32Gbps (4GB/s), we settled on one that can crack the 2000MB/s barrier: the Samsung SSD 950 PRO 256GB.

Despite now being usurped by the SSD 960 PRO, this high performance NVMe PCI-E SSD combines Samsung’s powerful UBX controller with its industry-leading 3D V-NAND and is capable of sequential read speeds of up to 2,200MB/second and write speeds of up to 900MB/sec.

One of the ways that we will be evaluating the performance of a motherboard’s M.2 interface is by verifying that is capable of matching or exceeding these listed transfer rates. The other is by checking to see whether it performs as well as when we install the SSD 950 PRO onto a expansion card plugged directly into a PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot. The PCI-E lanes that the M.2 slot requires can come from either the processor or more usually the Z270 PCH, and we are interested to see how well that lane splitting was implemented and whether it is causing any performance issues.

One of the coolest aspects of the STRIX Z270I is the fact that it features two M.2 connectors, which can mean less cable management issues if you decide to ditch wired storage. Although you can RAID the two together, we aren’t going to be able to test that out since we don’t have another SSD 950 PRO laying around. Nevertheless, we are interested in determining whether there is a performance difference between both connectors.

M.2 front vs M.2 back vs PCI-E

As can see, the performance of the two M.2 slots on the STRIX Z270I was excellent. They both performed pretty consistently with each other, and they came within 1% of the performance of the PCI-E slot, which is well within benchmark variances.

While transfer rates are obviously an important metric, we figured that it was also worthwhile to take a peak at instructions per second (IOPS) to ensure that there wasn’t any variance there either:

M.2 front vs M.2 back vs PCI-E

Once again, the differences are essentially non-existent and well within the margin of error for this benchmark. As a result, we think that it is fair to say that the overall M.2 interface on the STRIX Z270I has been very well implemented and should ensure that you get optimal performance from any current or future M.2 x4 solid state drives.

Auto & Manual Overclocking Results

It wouldn’t be an HWC review if we didn’t include some overclocking results, so we thoroughly tested this motherboard’s capabilities, especially its auto-overclocking functionality. There won’t be any ground breaking insights on how to overclock Kaby Lake – since it’s just Skylake Plus – but our personal pointers are to increase the vCore up to around 1.35V if you’re cooling can handle it, while increasing the VCCIO up to 1.20V, and the System Agent voltage up to 1.25V if you plan on increasing the cache or memory frequency. If you are trying to achieve the highest possible DDR4 memory speeds, increasing the VCCIO to 1.25V and vSA to 1.35V might be worth trying out. These last two are really only needed if you plan on seriously pushing the Uncore/cache frequency or the memory frequency. On the memory front, we are sticking with (up to) 1.40V in order to alleviate any possible bottlenecks and to stay inline with all our previous DDR4 reviews. By the way, if you have an unlocked K-series processor, there’s no reason to go crazy increasing the BCLK if you can achieve similar results by just tweaking the various multipliers instead.

Auto Overclocking

The STRIX Z270I features three types of automatic overclocking. There is the TPU feature and the Overclocking Presets sub-menu that you can find in the UEFI BIOS, and the 5-Way Optimization feature that is located in the Ai Suite III utility. Both of the BIOS-based options rely on presets and they are very quick since all you need to do is select your preferred option and exit BIOS. We are going to focus on these two BIOS-based approaches first.

The TPU feature only offers two choices, TPU I or TPU II. TPU I applies an overclocking preset that is designed for those with air cooling, while TPU II is a more aggressive option for those with liquid cooling or very high-end air cooling. In practice, TPU I overclocked our Core i7-7700K to 4.6GHz at between 1.26V to 1.28V, while the The TPU II option upped the core clock to 4.8GHz at 1.31V to 1.34V. Both options set the cache/uncore to 4200MHz – the reference default – while the memory speed was bumped to a respectable DDR4-2933. Since were using a very high-end DDR4-3866 kit, the XMP preset was not applied but TPU will often do so for most memory lower-clocked kits. Although this BIOS-based automatic overclocking option is very fast, it is based on ‘safe’ presets and as such it produces slightly less impressive results than an intelligent software-based approach.

With that in mind, ASUS also offers the 5G OC Profile preset. This preset promises a 5.0GHz overclock, which was too tempting not to try, so let’s see if it worked:

Boom! 5GHz at 1.392V is a an impressive result. By the way, that 1.392V figure is a maximum. Depending on the workload the voltage varied between 1.36V in multi-core loads and 1.38-1.392V in single-core loads.

Now while 5Ghz is fantastic, nearly all the Z270 motherboards that we have reviewed have achieved this feat. The only difference is that the ASRocks pushed the Vcore to 1.46V, while the GIGABYTE only needed 1.38V. So basically the STRIX Z270I falls nicely in the safer range. While none of the three also overclocked the memory – we suppose you can’t have your cake and eat it too – the ASRock did push the cache/uncore to 4.5GHz.

Although these BIOS-based automatic overclocking options are very fast, and can clearly now achieve some top-level results, the intelligent software-based approach has almost always managed to achieve a better overclock. We are going to see if that still holds true.

But first, to recap, within the Ai Suite III utility there is the 5-Way Optimization automatic overclocking feature. While this feature also makes use of the TPU – which stands for TurboV Processing Unit – it is regarded as an intelligent approach to automatic overclocking because it does not rely on presets. Instead, it slowly increases your processor’s clock speed and voltage, tests for stability, monitors fan speeds and temperatures, and repeats until it has found the sweet spot. Nowadays, you can even specify a clock speed to start from and even what maximum temperature you feel comfortable with.

With all of that said, let’s see what 5-Way Optimization is capable of:

Since we are always aggressive when it comes to overclocking, we selected the TPU II and Extreme Tuning options applied to all cores. First, the process determined the maximum CPU multiplier, which ended up being 48X – same as the BIOS-based TPU II option. It then started to slowly increase the BCLK and Vcore while stress testing, crashed as it should, and finally settled on 4.97GHz at 1.376V. By increasing the BCLK, both the memory and cache – which had been at DDR4-2933 and 4200MHz – were subsequently pushed up to DDR4-3039 and 4350Mhz. So overall, we do have to say that this is a much more well-rounded overclock than the Gamer’s 5G profile in the Overclocking Presets list.

With that out of the way, it is time to see what we can do manually:

Manual Overclocking

Since the Gamer’s 5G OC profile had proven that this motherboard was capable of running our Core i7-7700K at 5.0GHz at 1.392V, we decided to maintain that frequency and focus on lowering the Vcore in order to reduce heat output and just general wear and tear on our shiny new 14nm processor. As you can see, we were able to lower the voltage down to more manageable 1.36V, without losing any day-to-day stability. Next we focused on maximizing cache and memory performance. We were able to push the cache from 4.20GHz up to 4.60Ghz – while letting the board choose the appropriate voltage – and that helped make sure that there wouldn’t be a bandwidth bottleneck once we started pushing the memory clocks.

Now as you can see, this motherboard was able to run our G.Skill DDR4-3866 memory kit at its rated speed and timings. This was easily achieved since we simply applied the memory kit’s XMP profile. We didn’t try pushing it any higher since it would have negatively impacted the CPU and cache frequencies, which were our primary concerns.

Having said that, since the STRIX Z270I was showing some promise in the memory overclocking department, we decided to swap in our Corsair DDR-4000 memory kit:

Memory Overclocking

This motherboard is certified for DDR4-4266, but we were obviously never going to reach that high. The STRIX Z270I did successfully apply our DDR4-4000 kit’s XMP profile – a feat achieved by a small handful of other motherboards – and we were even able to manually push it a little bit higher to DDR4-4100. Given a bit more time, we are quite confident that we could have reached even higher.

Overall, as we have come to expect from ASUS, their automatic overclocking features are excellent. With possible results ranging from 4.6GHz to 4.8Ghz to 4.97Ghz to 5.0Ghz, no matter what performance level you choose you can attain it in an essentially hands-off manner. Our manual overclocking was also very successful and the motherboard never hindered our efforts.

System Benchmarks

In the System and Gaming Benchmarks sections, we reveal the results from a number of benchmarks run with the Core i7-7700K and STRIX Z270I at default clocks, with the three best automatic overclocks, and using own our manual overclock. This will illustrate how much performance can be achieved with this motherboard in stock and overclocked form. For a thorough comparison of the Core i7-7700K versus a number of different CPUs have a look at our “Intel Kaby Lake i7-7700K & i5-7600K Review” article.

SuperPi Mod v1.9 WP

When running the SuperPI 32MB benchmark, we are calculating Pi to 32 million digits and timing the process. Obviously more CPU power helps in this intense calculation, but the memory sub-system also plays an important role, as does the operating system. We are running one instance of SuperPi Mod v1.9 WP. This is therefore a single-thread workload.

wPRIME 2.10

wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton’s method for estimating functions, with f(x)=x2-k, where k is the number we’re sqrting, until Sgn(f(x)/f'(x)) does not equal that of the previous iteration, starting with an estimation of k/2. It then uses an iterative calling of the estimation method a set amount of times to increase the accuracy of the results. It then confirms that n(k)2=k to ensure the calculation was correct. It repeats this for all numbers from 1 to the requested maximum. This is a highly multi-threaded workload.

Cinebench R15

Cinebench R15 64-bit
Test1: CPU Image Render
Comparison: Generated Score

The latest benchmark from MAXON, Cinebench R15 makes use of all your system’s processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene using various different algorithms to stress all available processor cores. The test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects containing more than 300,000 total polygons and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights and shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. This particular benchmarking can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. The result is given in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

WinRAR x64

WinRAR x64 5.40
Test: Built-in benchmark, processing 1000MB of data.
Comparison: Time to Finish

One of the most popular file archival and compression utilities, WinRAR’s built-in benchmark is a great way of measuring a processor’s compression and decompression performance. Since it is a memory bandwidth intensive workload it is also useful in evaluating the efficiency of a system’s memory subsystem.

FAHBench

FAHBench 1.2.0
Test: OpenCL on CPU
Comparison: Generated Score

FAHBench is the official Folding@home benchmark that measures the compute performance of CPUs and GPUs. It can test both OpenCL and CUDA code, using either single or double precision, and implicit or explicit modeling. The single precision implicit model most closely relates to current folding performance.

HEVC Decode Benchmark v1.61

HEVC Decode Benchmark (Cobra) v1.61
Test: Frame rates at various resolution, focusing on the top quality 25Mbps bitrate results.
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

The HEVC Decode Benchmark measures a system’s HEVC video decoding performance at various bitrates and resolutions. HEVC, also known as H.265, is the successor to the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding) standard and it is very computationally intensive if not hardware accelerated. This decode test is done entirely on the CPU.

LuxMark v3.1

Test: OpenCL CPU Mode benchmark of the LuxBall HDR scene.
Comparison: Generated Score

LuxMark is a OpenCL benchmarking tool that utilizes the LuxRender 3D rendering engine. Since it OpenCL based, this benchmark can be used to test OpenCL rendering performance on both CPUs and GPUs, and it can put a significant load on the system due to its highly parallelized code.

PCMark 8

PCMark 8 is the latest iteration of Futuremark’s system benchmark franchise. It generates an overall score based upon system performance with all components being stressed in one way or another. The result is posted as a generalized score. In this case, we tested with both the standard Conventional benchmark and the Accelerated benchmark, which automatically chooses the optimal device on which to perform OpenCL acceleration.

AIDA64 Memory Benchmark

AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a diagnostic and benchmarking software suite for home users that provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives.

The benchmarks used in this review are the memory bandwidth and latency benchmarks. Memory bandwidth benchmarks (Memory Read, Memory Write, Memory Copy) measure the maximum achievable memory data transfer bandwidth. The code behind these benchmark methods are written in Assembly and they are extremely optimized for every popular AMD, Intel and VIA processor core variants by utilizing the appropriate x86/x64, x87, MMX, MMX+, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE4.1, AVX, and AVX2 instruction set extension.
The Memory Latency benchmark measures the typical delay when the CPU reads data from system memory. Memory latency time means the penalty measured from the issuing of the read command until the data arrives to the integer registers of the CPU.

Gaming Benchmarks

Futuremark 3DMark (2013)

3DMark v1.1.0
Graphic Settings: Fire Strike Preset
Rendered Resolution: 1920×1080
Test: Specific Physics Score and Full Run 3DMarks
Comparison: Generated Score

3DMark is the brand new cross-platform benchmark from the gurus over at Futuremark. Designed to test a full range of hardware from smartphones to high-end PCs, it includes three tests for DirectX 9, DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 hardware, and allows users to compare 3DMark scores with other Windows, Android and iOS devices. Most important to us is the new Fire Strike preset, a DirectX 11 showcase that tests tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Like every new 3DMark version, this test is extremely GPU-bound, but it does contain a heavy physics test that can show off the potential of modern multi-core processors.

Futuremark 3DMark 11

3DMark 11 v1.0.5
Graphic Settings: Extreme Preset
Resolution: 1920×1080
Test: Specific Physics Score and Full Run 3DMarks
Comparison: Generated Score

3DMark 11 is Futuremark’s very latest benchmark, designed to tests all of the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. At the moment, it is lot more GPU-bound than past versions are now, but it does contain a terrific physics test which really taxes modern multi-core processors.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage v1.1.2
Graphic Settings: Performance Preset
Resolution: 1280×1024

Test: Specific CPU Score and Full Run 3DMarks
Comparison: Generated Score

3DMark Vantage is the follow-up to the highly successful 3DMark06. It uses DirectX 10 exclusively so if you are running Windows XP, you can forget about this benchmark. Along with being a very capable graphics card testing application, it also has very heavily multi-threaded CPU tests, such Physics Simulation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which makes it a good all-around gaming benchmark.

Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark

Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark
Resolution: 1920×1080
Anti-Aliasing: 4X
Anisotropic Filtering: 8X
Graphic Settings: High

Comparison: Particle Performance Metric

Originally intended to demonstrate new processing effects added to Half Life 2: Episode 2 and future projects, the particle benchmark condenses what can be found throughout HL2:EP2 and combines it all into one small but deadly package. This test does not symbolize the performance scale for just Episode Two exclusively, but also for many other games and applications that utilize multi-core processing and particle effects. This benchmark might be a little old, but is still very highly-threaded and thus will keep scaling nicely as processors gain more and more threads. As you will see the benchmark does not score in FPS but rather in its own “Particle Performance Metric”, which is useful for direct CPU comparisons.

X3: Terran Conflict

X3: Terran Conflict 1.2.0.0
Resolution: 1920×1080
Texture & Shader Quality: High
Antialiasing 4X
Anisotropic Mode: 8X
Glow Enabled

Game Benchmark
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

X3: Terran Conflict (X3TC) is the culmination of the X-series of space trading and combat simulator computer games from German developer Egosoft. With its vast space worlds, intricately detailed ships, and excellent effects, it remains a great test of modern CPU performance. While the X3 Reality engine is single-threaded, it provides us with an interesting look at performance in an old school game environment.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Benchmark

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward
Resolution: 1920×1080
Texture & Shader Quality: Maximum IQ
DirectX 11
Fullscreen

Game Benchmark
Comparison: Generated Score

Square Enix released this benchmarking tool to rate how your system will perform in Heavensward, the expansion to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. This official benchmark software uses actual maps and playable characters to benchmark gaming performance and assign a score to your PC.

Grand Theft Auto V

DirectX Version: DirectX 11
Resolution: 1920×1080
FXAA: On
MSAA: X4
NVIDIA TXAA: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: X16
All advanced graphics settings off.

In GTA V, we utilize the handy in-game benchmarking tool. We do ten full runs of the benchmark and average the results of pass 3 since they are the least erratic. We do additional runs if some of the results are clearly anomalous. The Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is ostensibly multi-threaded, but it definitely places the bulk of the CPU load on only one or two threads.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Resolution: 1920×1080
Graphical Quality: Custom
Mesh/Shadow/Texture Filtering/Vegetation Range: Ultra
Lighting/Texture Quality/Ambient Occlusion: High
Depth of Field/Order Independent Transparency/Tesselation: Enabled

With its high resolution textures and several other visual tweaks, Shadow of Mordor’s open world is also one of the most detailed around. This means it puts massive load on graphics cards and should help point towards which GPUs will excel at next generation titles. We do three full runs of the benchmark and average the results.

Voltage Regulation

Since it isn’t one of the higher-end ROG models and it’s also tiny, we aren’t surprised that the STRIX Z270I does not have any onboard voltage measurement points, which is what we usually rely on in order to accurately measure the various system voltages. As a result, in this abbreviated overview, we utilized the AIDA64 System Stability Test to put a very substantial load on the system while also monitoring the stability of the all-important CPU Vcore line. This was achieved with a 60 minute stress test, and in order to increase the strain on the motherboard’s voltage regulation components we overclocked our Core i7-7700K to 4.8Ghz at 1.35V (in the BIOS). Although voltage droop is part Intel’s specifications, we utilized the Load-Line Calibration (LLC) settings in order to see if this motherboard has what it takes to maintain a rock steady vCore line.

Although the above only represents an approximately 15 minute portion of the 60 minute run, we watched attentively throughout and there were never any serious dips or spikes. The Vcore line was straight as an arrow. Although we tried numerous combinations, we could not get the Vcore to precisely 1.35V – only 1.344V or 1.360V – but that’s not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things.

Power Consumption

For this section, every energy saving feature was enabled in the BIOS and the Windows power plan was changed from High Performance to Balanced. For our idle test, we let the system idle for 15 minutes and measured the peak wattage through our UPM EM100 power meter. For our CPU load test, we ran Prime 95 In-place large FFTs on all available threads, measuring the peak wattage via the UPM EM100 power meter. For our overall system load test, we ran Prime 95 on all available threads while simultaneously loading the GPU with 3DMark Vantage – Test 6 Perlin Noise.

Despite the size and feature differences, as well as the simple fact that they have entirely different CPU VRMs, the Strix Z270I and the achieved fairly comparable power consumption numbers. When compared to the Strix’s stock and XMP numbers are higher across the board, but things start evening out when you look at the overclocked configurations. Overall, the Strix Z270I posted power consumption results that are very much inline with our expectations, which is to say not the lowest anywhere and not the highest anywhere.

Conclusion

When we reviewed the ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac, we basically fell in love with how feature packed and versatile it was for a mini-ITX motherboard. It had six SATA ports, a full-speed M.2 slot, and ample USB connectivity, all of which made it perfect for a day-to-day system. However, the inclusion of an HDMI 2.0 port also made it ideally suited for a 4K home theater PC (HTPC). The cherry on the sundae was Thunderbolt 3, which further opened up this model to a whole host of interesting possibilities like running a triple-screen 12K setup.

The ASUS ROG STRIX Z270I GAMING that we reviewed today is not as flexible as the ASRock. For starters, no HDMI 2.0 means that it’s not ideal for your living room, which has historically been one of the main selling points of compact systems. We could similarly criticize the lack of Thunderbolt 3, but that is such a niche feature that there aren’t a ton of consumers out there actively seeking it. Now having said all of that, what the ASUS might lack in broader capabilities it makes up for by excelling in certain key areas that could be really useful in a compact high performance PC.

The dual M.2 slots ate obviously a huge selling point, creating possibilities like being able to install two high speed NVMe drives or one high performance boot drive and a cheap large SATA M.2 drive for games and applications. Either way, you might be able to do away with conventional SATA drives/cables entirely with this motherboard, and less cabling is always a plus in a small ITX case. If you’re building a LAN gaming box with the ASUS you’re also getting a little razzle dazzle thanks to the onboard RGB LEDs and the RGB header, both of which the ASRock lacks. The Strix Z270I also has the vastly superior SupremeFX audio solution, both in terms of objective numbers and the fact that it has headphone amplifiers for both the front and rear outputs.

The ASUS has a USB Type-C port that is limited to USB 3.0 speeds, but it does have a futuristic USB 3.1 header that can provide two USB 3.1 ports to a compatible case. The ASRock has a full-speed USB 3.1 Type-C port with Thunderbolt 3 capabilities. Which of those two configurations is best is hard to judge. Both motherboards are on an equal footing when it comes to automatic and manual overclocking, which is to say that they can both reach the 5GHz mark with a Core i7-7700K and they can both handle DDR4-4000+ memory speeds. The ASUS has more appealing, more polished, and more gamer-focused applications, while the UEFI BIOSes between the two motherboards are ultimately quite similar in functionality.

While price would usually help differentiate two such closely matched products, we have no such luck this time. They both retail for about $170 in the United States, but the ASUS can be found for about $240 in Canada whereas the ASRock is at least $280. Ultimately, we like them both, and which one you should select depends entirely on your own needs. If you choose the ASUS Strix Z270I Gaming, you’re getting a brilliant piece of engineering that has the features that would be look for in a compact workstation or gaming PC.

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