ASUS STRIX Z270E Gaming Motherboard Review
Today we have the opportunity to review a new motherboard release for Intel's Kaby Lake family of CPUs, the ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E Gaming Motherboard. The STRIX range of Asus products are always the most gamer oriented products, but the ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E Gaming Motherboard inherits much of the features of the Maximus line of motherboards combine bold aesthetics with premier performance and incredible audio to deliver unrivaled gaming experiences with a style.
Now let's see what ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E board have for us.
Features
ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI DVI M.2 ATX Motherboard with onboard AC Wifi and USB 3.1
- 5-Way Optimization with Auto-Tuning and FanXpert 4 automatically tailors overclocking profiles to your unique build for maximum OC performance and dynamic system cooling
- Unmatched personalization with ASUS exclusive AURA Sync RGB lighting, two additional RGB headers and a 3D-printing friendly mount
- Maximize your connectivity and speed with Dual M.2, front panel USB 3.1, onboard 802.11ac Wifi and Intel® Optane™ Memory compatibility
- Two Patent-pending SafeSlots feature an injection molding process that integrates metal framing for a stronger, firmly anchored PCIe slot built for heavyweight GPUs
- Industry-leading 8-channel HD audio with the ROG exclusive SupremeFX S1220A driven by Japanese capacitors
Specifications
Package
Board comes in a nice black cardboard box with model number, image of the board and details about supporting technology and features.
Inside the box
ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING comes with very nice set of accessories :
- User's manual
- ASUS Q-Shield
- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s cables
- M.2 Screw Package
- CPU installation tool
- Supporting DVD
- ASUS 2T2R dual band Wi-Fi moving antennas (Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compliant)
- SLI HB BRIDGE(2-WAY-M)
- ROG Strix stickers
- 10-in-1 ROG cable label
- Extension Cable for RGB strips (80 cm)
- 3D printing mount package
- ROG coasters
Looks
Board made with a black PCB of size ATX (30.5 X 24.4 cm) featuring an impressive metallic black / silver color scheme.
Layout
Detailed layout of board.
1. Intel LGA 1151 socket supporting Intel 7th Generation Processors
2. ASUS STRIX Z270E is equipped with 4 DIMM DDR4 memory slots supporting max. 64GB at 2133MHz in normal and up to 3866MHz when OC.
3. ATX Power connector (24-pin EATXPWR)
4. ATX CPU Power Connector 8-pin ATX12V_2x4.
5. Back I/O Ports - 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s), 1 x DVI-D, 1 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, 2 x USB 3.1 Type-A + Type-C, 4 x USB 3.0 (blue) , 1 x Optical S/PDIF out, 5 x Audio jack(s), 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi GO! module (Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth v4.0
6. 7. 10. 15.1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin), 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin), 4 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (4 x 4 -pin)
8. 18. 2 x Aura RGB Strip Headers
9. 16. USB 3.1 front panel connector , 1 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 3.0 port(s) (19-pin) and 2 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s)
11. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)
12. M.2 Socket 3 with M Key design, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (Supports both SATA & PCIE SSD)
13. EXT_Fan header.
14. System Front panel(s) (Q-Connector)
17. TPM connector and ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header
19. Front panel Audio connector
20. Expansion Slots - 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8), 1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x4 mode), 4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1
Removing Heat-sinks
Heatsinks are made up of dense aluminum with thermal pad installed, giving great passive cooling to VRM MOSFETs and Z270 chipset. Armor with back I/O include a LED PCB mounted under
Component Layout
Let's now see what all components ASUS have planned for this board.
1. 2.Digital 10-phase CPU Power VRM Section controlled with ASP1400BT controller IC with set of ON Semiconductors NTMFS4C09B & 4C06B MOSFETs rated up to 40A each, 60A Ferrite Chokes, and 10K Black Metallic Capacitors.
3. A separate DRAM Power section
4. ASMedia ASM2142 is PCIe-to-two-port USB 3.1 controllers
5. ASMedia ASM1442K a high speed TMDS level shift chip for High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) and Digital Video Interface (DVI) video out.
6. Intel i219v integrated GBit LAN solutions.
7. ASMedia ASM2142 is PCIe-to-two-port USB 3.1 controllers for USB 3.1 front panel connector
8. Asmedia ASM1480 PCIe bus switch chips
9. The nuvoTon NCT 6793D chip provides the super I/O functions, such as fan control and system monitoring
10. Intel Z270 Chipset.
11. UEFI BIOS is stored in a Winbond 25Q128FV 128MB chip.
12. ASUS custom TPU controller chip.
13. ASUS STRIX Z270E audio subsystem is based on on SupremeFX S1220 codec (a customized ALC1220) with 10 DAC channels, simultaneous 7.1-channel playback, independent 2.0-channel, multiple-stream stereo to front-panel outputs, and an EMI cover for purer audio quality.
A semi-transparent line on motherboard separates the whole audio section from the rest of the board in order to minimize interference. Audio section is having premium Nichicon Gold Capacitors for audio filtration. In addition ASUS used TI R4580I Op-amp for rear audio amplification.
RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) suite is used for testing test ASUS STRIX Z270E audio against against Asus Xonar U7 External Sound card. You can see clearly the difference between Noise level, dynamic rang and Total harmonic distortion percentage produced by on-board audio.
RMAA Asus Xonar U7
RMAA ASUS Audio
Testing
| CPU | Intel Core i7 7700K |
| Board | ASUS STRIX Z270E |
| RAM | 2 X 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR4 2800Mhz |
| SSD | SAMSUNG 256GB SSD |
| Cooler | Cooler Master Nepton 240M |
| GFX | ASUS STIX 950 |
| PSU | Cooler Master V1200 |
| Display | AOC 22 inch |
| OS | Windows 10 |
BIOS
Bundled Softwares
Benchmarks
Overclocking
Power Consumption
Wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.
Pros
- Great looks
- RGB LEDs
- Nice Audio
- Good bundled Software
- Easy Overclocking
Cons
Conclusion
The ASUS STRIX Z270E Gaming Motherboard is a good looking and great designed motherboard for mainstream and gamers with tones of USB connectivity, Giga LAN and a fast WIFI onboard. With superb audio and AURA RGB LEDs.
Finally, if you are looking for a new Z270 build the ASUS STRIX Z270E Gaming Motherboard has everything a gamer need to take full advantage of Kaby Lake platform, giving top performance and gaming experience with good ability of Overclocking.
Manufacturers Info
Site Link
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