discussion ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 Motherboard Review

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Feature Testing: AURA RGB Lighting

Feature Testing: AURA RGB LED

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The ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 joins an ever increasing number of motherboards that feature some form of RGB LED lighting. ASRock have dubbed their implementation AURA RGB LED, which we think is disturbingly close ASUS’s Aura RGB Lighting. On this model, the fully adjustable RGB LEDs have been positioned under the chipset cooler, under the plastic shroud that covers that the audio subsection, and direction into the plastic rear I/O panel shroud.

These RGB LEDs can be controlled using the new AURA RGB LED utility or even a special section in the UEFI BIOS. 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, just statically display one colour, and more.

Click on image to enlarge​

Thanks to the fairly large LEDs that ASRock have used on this motherboard the lighting itself is very impactful. Thanks to the tweakability, you can create whatever visual aesthetic that you have in mind. Having said that, the overall effect is not quite as cool as on the ASUS X99-Deluxe II – which has LEDs built directly into the PCI-E slot clips – but it is about on par with the ASUS B150 PRO GAMING/AURA, which forgoes the MOSFET cooler lighting and replaces it with a light strip to the right of the memory slots.

If you make proper use of the huge amount of effects and colours at your disposal, you can create some very striking visuals that will add a ton of flair to your build. Here’s a quick (and rough) look at what the AURA RGB LED lighting feature looks like live:

<iframe width="700" height="394" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RnVmeSwJ70Q?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>​

 

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Feature Testing: Onboard Audio

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 the quality of the analog signal coming out of the Sound Blaster Cinema 3 onboard audio subsystem that has been outfitted to the Z270 Gaming K6. As mentioned earlier, this model features the brand spanking new Realtek ALC1220 codec, a proven Texas Instruments N5532 op-amp, Nichicon "Fine Gold" audio capacitors, and a PCB-level isolation line in order to protect from electromagnetic interference (EMI).

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.

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As you can see, the Z270 Gaming K6 posted some good - but not great - audio results, distinguishing itself with excellent stereo crosstalk numbers. Until we test a few other motherboards featuring the Realtek ALC1220 we can’t really give any substantive opinions regarding this new codec, but it’s not looking terrible. We do wish that ASRock had added an EMI cover since it would have potentially improved the noise level and dynamic range results.

Qualitatively speaking the audio quality was perfectly fine when 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. As we tend to repeat, we aren't experts in this area, but we suspect that your average user will be perfectly satisfied with this motherboard's onboard audio capabilities.

 

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Feature Testing: M.2 PCI-E 3.0 x4

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. With this new Z270 launch we expected similar performance levels from the M.2 slots, and that is what we are here to find out. 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.

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Despite now being usurped by the SSD 960 PRO, this high performance NVMe PCI-E SSD combines Samsung's awesome UBX controller with its industry-leading 3D V-NAND and is capable 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 ASUS Hyper M.2 x4 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 ASRock Z270 Gaming K6 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 top vs M.2 bottom vs PCI-E​

As can see, the performance of the two M.2 slots on the Z270 Gaming K6 was excellent. They both performed consistently with each other, and they even slightly outperformed the PCI-E slot.

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 top vs M.2 bottom 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 M.2 slots on the Z270 Gaming K6 have been very well implemented and should ensure that you get optimal performance from any current or future M.2 x4 solid state drives.

 

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Auto & Manual Overclocking Results

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 Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 motherboard supports three types of automatic overclocking, one software-based and two found within the UEFI. Within the multi-purpose ASRock F-Stream software suite there is the EZ OC feature, which is a semi-intelligent approach to automatic overclocking. It can accessed by selecting the Performance Mode option and then clicking on the Advanced sub-menu. There aren't really any available options, you just need to click on the Start button and the utility starts off the overclocking process at default clocks and slowly increases to the the frequency until a reasonable sweet spot is found.

Within the UEFI BIOS, there are two different modes - EZ Mode and Advanced Mode - both of which offer distinct automatic overclocking features. In the EZ Mode, there is a CPU EZ OC button that once you click and save will automatically apply an overclock preset. In the Advanced Mode, there is the Optimized CPU OC setting, with five available options, ranging from Turbo 4.6GHz to Turbo 5.0GHz. This is another feature that relies on presets, so it can't customize the overclock to best suit your particular system. On the plus side, it is as quick and easy as selecting the desired option and exiting the UEFI.

With all of that said, let's start off with the software-based EZ OC feature:

Click on image to enlarge​

As you can see, the EZ OC feature set a fairly mild overclock. We watched the CPU speed start off at 4.2GHz, then 4.3GHz, then 4.4GHz, and it eventually settled on 4.54GHz. The whole process took only a couple of minutes and the system never needed to restart. Aside from a miniscule increase caused by the higher BCLK, the memory speed was not touched, nor was the cache frequency, which ASRock sets to 4.2GHz by default.

Click on image to enlarge​

The first of two types of automatic overclocking found in the UEFI is the CPU EZ OC button. Since it's found in the EZ Mode part of the UEFI, this feature is super simple; you just click on the icon, save & exit, the system reboots and the overclock is applied. This preset increased the core clock to 4.6GHz, which is fairly minimal increase, but at least there was a nice 200Mhz bump in the cache frequency when compared to the stock 4200Mhz.

Click on image to enlarge​

In the Advanced Mode section of the UEFI, there is the Optimized CPU OC setting with five available options ranging from Turbo 4.6GHz to Turbo 5.0GHz. We tried the most aggressive preset and much to our surprise it worked perfectly. Apparently, 5.0GHz isn’t that hard on Kaby Lake. Regrettably, this preset set a very high Vcore of 1.45V, which isn’t a chip killer but will produce a ton of heat. That much voltage will likely overwhelm most mainstream cooling solutions whenever the processor is placed under any type of load. Nevertheless, with our Corsair Hydro H100i GTX we managed to stress test this overclock, and it was perfectly stable...but a little warm. We also appreciate the fact that this preset bumped the cache frequency up to 4.5GHz, but we would have liked to see a corresponding overclock of the memory.

Manual Overclocking

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Since the Optimized CPU OC feature had established a 5.0GHz overclock at a high 1.45V, we decided to settle on that very respectable frequency and work on lowering the Vcore as much as possible to reduce the heat output. Much to our surprise, we were able to lower the voltage down to 1.36V without losing any stability. This lowered the heat output, and allowed us to overvolt/overclock the cache without worrying about aggravating the heat situation. We eventually reached 4.6GHz, while also increasing the memory speed to DDR4-3733. Despite the fact that this motherboard is rated for DDR4-3866, we simply could not reach that high with our G.Skill Trident Z F4-3866C18D-16GTZ memory kit. This motherboard simply would not apply that memory kit’s DDR4-3866 XMP profile. We also tried our luck with an Corsair DDR4-4000 memory kit, and that RAM also would not run above DDR4-3733 on this motherboard. Clearly, ASRock still have a bit of work to do on the memory overclocking front.

Nevertheless, overall we were quite satisfied with this motherboard automatic and manual overclocking capabilities. While two of the automatic options set fairly minimal overclocks, the third managed to push our Core i7-7700K to an impressive 5.0GHz. Yes, it did set way too much a Vcore, but an informed user should know how to identify that and manually lower the voltage to the required level.

 

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System Benchmarks

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 ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 at default clocks, with two different DDR4 memory speeds, with the two 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.

 

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Gaming Benchmarks

Gaming Benchmarks

Futuremark 3DMark (2013)

3DMark v1.1.0
Graphic Settings: Fire Strike Preset
Rendered Resolution: 1920x1080
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: 1920x1080
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: 1280x1024

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: 1920x1080
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: 1920x1080
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: 1920x1080
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: 1920x1080
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: 1920x1080
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.

 

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Voltage Regulation / Power Consumption

Voltage Regulation

Since it is a gaming-oriented model, we aren't surprised that the Z270 Gaming K6 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 90 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.

As you can see, the Z270 Gaming K6 has very good power output regulation, but the vCore line was clearly not straight as an arrow. In fact, it rippled pretty consistently throughout the entire test - you are seeing an approximately 15 minute portion of the 90 minute run above - but it only ever wavered between 1.345V and 1.350V. That is mere 0.37% ripple, and it certainly meets our standards.


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.

Since it would have been impossible to compare our power consumption results to Z170 motherboards using a Kaby Lake chip, we decided drop-in our old Core i7-6700K to make it an even comparison. As you can see, when compared to some ASUS Z170 models (click here for pop-up), the ASRock achieved lower idle numbers, but both the CPU load and overall system load results were a bit higher. Part of this higher load results might be due to the fact that were are using a larger memory kit, but even if it wasn’t we are more than satisfied with these numbers.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

The ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 is a solid motherboard that essentially performs as advertised. There are no noteworthy design or layout issues with the board, aside from the fact that the primary CPU fan header is a little too close to the MOSFET heatsink. However, that slight niggle stood out just because we’re constantly swapping fans, while most users plug them in once and that’s it until they upgrade years later. Other than that, the layout is downright great. Specifically, the excellent PCI-E configuration that allows for two dual-slot graphics cards and two open PCI-E x1 slots, or even two triple-slot graphics cards and one open PCI-E x1 slot. This flexible layout isn't really a new development, nor is it exclusive to this model, but we are just glad that manufacturers have widely adopted it for most of their full-size ATX LGA1151 motherboards. Speaking of multiple graphics cards, we were pleasantly surprised to see that ASRock have bundled a SLI HB Bridge to ensure optimal performance when running two GeForce GTX 1070's or 1080's in SLI. This high bandwidth SLI bridge usually retails for $30 USD, so it is a very nice addition.

We also love the fact that they omitted any SATA Express or U.2 ports. The simple fact of the matter is that there just is not enough support for those two interfaces among storage device manufacturers. Therefore, why waste valuable I/O connectivity when you can add another couple of SATA 6Gb/s ports that will be useful to a much larger user base.

If you skipped the introduction, here is another rundown of this models’s specs list: a 12-phase CPU power design, high-quality 12K Japanese capacitors, three steel-reinforced physical PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots with support for 2-way SLI or 3-way CrossFireX, three PCI-E 3.0 x1 slots which are open-ended to accept longer expansion cards, eight SATA 6Gb/s ports, one M.2 Key E slot, and two full-speed PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 slots that support Intel’s upcoming Optane technology. There are also two high-speed USB 3.1 ports, one Type-A and one Type-C, four USB 3.0 ports, two USB 3.0 headers, three USB 2.0 headers, and an RGB LED header. Rounding things out are two Intel-powered gigabit LAN ports, two physical BIOS chips, a debug LED display, and DVI-D/HDMI 1.4/VGA video outputs.

For starters, we would have gladly sacrificed the VGA output for a DisplayPort. Having said that, since this is a gaming-oriented motherboard it would be a damn shame if there wasn’t a proper graphics card installed. Moving on, the rear I/O panel is a little sparse with only five USB Type-A ports, but it’s not the end of the world when you consider that this motherboard has five internal headers that can supply an additional 10 USB ports. When it comes to networking, the two gigabit LAN ports are not something that we usually see at this price point, and we like the fact that ASRock used both one modern ethernet controller and one older but widely supported controller. We also love the addition of the M.2 Key E slot. While we understand that excluding onboard Wi-Fi was necessary in order meet a certain price target, that slot makes super easy for a user to install one of the numerous M.2 Wi-Fi cards available. The antenna cutouts on the rear I/O panel also help make sure that adding wireless connectivity is a painless procedure.

When it came time to test the Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 3 onboard audio, we were excited because this was our first time with the new Realtek ALC1220 codec. We expect to see this codec on all but the most budget-constrained Intel 200-series motherboards. While the audio numbers were generally good to very good, they weren’t substantially different than the average ALC1150-based onboard audio implementation. Considering this model’s price point, we would have liked to see an EMI cover on the codec, as that might help the numbers a bit. Overall though, when actually listening to the audio output with a mix of headphones and speakers, we had zero complaints.

The AURA RGB LED lighting feature is a timely addition, and it both looks good and works very well indeed. We like the fact that ASRock used really beefy RGB LEDs – much larger than we have seen before – that can really put out a ton of light. Both the software utility and the UEFI sub-menu gave us ample control over the lighting effects and colours. We do think that some LEDs should have been added somewhere near the memory slots in order to keep up with what the competition is doing, but maybe we will see that in some higher-end models. We also can’t help but have mixed feelings about the fact that ASRock are really encroaching on ASUS’s AURA RGB nomenclature with the name that they chose for their lighting feature.

When it came time to overclock, the Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 proved itself to be very capable. The three automatic overclocking features worked very well, achieving results ranging from 4.5GHz to all the way up to 5.0GHz. Since this was our first time overclocking the new Core i7-7700K, we were very surprised to see that 5.0 result, especially since it was all done auto-magically. However, that most aggresive of the five Optimized CPU OC options did set an elevated 1.45-1.46Vcore. In our opinion, that is too high for a day-to-day system, even if it is stable – which it was – and even if you can keep the temperatures under control. With that in mind, we now knew what the limit was and started working on our manual overclock. Priority number one was to figure how low we could drop the core voltage while still maintaining that very high clock speed. In the end, we settled 1.36V, which seems pretty good to us for 5.0GHz. The motherboard didn’t hiccup once during our manual overclocking efforts, and we were also able to increase the cache frequency to 4.6Ghz. Regrettably, things weren’t so perfect on the memory front. We were able to run our memory kits at up to DDR4-3733, but we did not have success going higher, even when simply trying to apply our G.Skill Trident Z’s DDR4-3866 XMP profile. This is not unusual for a new platform, and there might be a new BIOS that improves the situation, but we do have to point out that we experienced a similar situation on the ASRock Z170 Extreme4+.

The other area where we consistently ran into a few difficulties was the software package. While the primary apps that we would actually use on a regular basis all worked well, a few of the other utilities either wouldn’t install or did not function properly once installed. Now we are dealing with a pre-release motherboard, and it’s not absurd that the software is not perfectly tailored to this new CPU/chipset combo, but just be advised that it is currently a work in progress.

In the end, the Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6’s launch price of $180 USD will undoubtedly place it in a very competitive arena. We don’t actually know what the field is going to look like yet, but that price point is a high volume one that all manufacturers fiercely compete for. Based on what we have seen today with this model, ASRock have a compelling product that should be on everyone’s radar. The design and hardware choices that they made are generally excellent, and if they can iron out the few software abnormalities and improve memory overclocking a tiny bit, the Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 will be hard to beat.