Motherboards News - Page 28

I've been excited for AMD's next-gen Zen CPU architecture since day one, and that excitement has built up over the last 12 months into the official Ryzen CPU architecture AMD teased earlier this month.

Ryzen will rock up to 16 threads of CPU performance with an 8-core processor starting at 3.4GHz, and performance in the levels of the Core i7-6800K and 6900K from Intel. Now we're hearing that motherboard makers have been "rather aggressive about placing orders" for Ryzen-capable motherboards, as they "believe demand for the new platform will increase AMD's share in the worldwide desktop processor market in the second quarter of 2017", reports DigitTimes.

Better yet, we're getting an idea of how far along the Ryzen CPU and compatible motherboards are, with DigiTimes' report continuing: "The sources pointed out that they have started receiving high-end X370, mainstream B350 and entry-level A320 chipsets from AMD and are now in the final stage of finishing related testing and motherboard designing".

Specs and details ASRock's new Fatal1ty and Extreme4 Z270 motherboards have surfaced, giving us a good look at the boards ahead of their CES 2017 showcase.

With Intel's seventh-gen Kaby Lake CPUs on their way, hardware-makers are busy readying their fleets of new 200-series motherboards, giving consumers lots of possible upgrade mobo paths to Z270 chipset adoption. ASRock's new Fatal1ty Gaming K6 and Extreme4 mobos use the LGA1151 socket and support both 7th-gen Kaby Lake and 6th-gen Skylake processors, and also have native support for Intel's new high-end Optane 3DXpoint 3D NAND SSD storage lineup.

Let's start with ASRock's Extreme4 Z270 motherboard. This is a standard ATX motherboard that features HDMI, DVI-D, and D-Sub display slots (no DisplayPort), three PCIe 3.0 x16 lanes (two of which are outfitted with steel bracing) that support up to three AMD GPUs in CrossFireX or two NVIDIA GPUs in SLI.

'Tis the season for Kaby Lake leaks, with MSI ready to unleash their Z270 and H270 motherboards during CES 2017 - but the leaks are here, and MSI's new boards are looking mighty fine. MSI's 200-series motherboards include the GAMING, Tomahawk, Bazooka, and Pro brands - making me want to build a new gaming PC with a "Bazooka" themed motherboard.

MSI's next-gen 200-series motherboard lineup:

Now, onto the motherboards that piqued my interest. Starting with the MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon, which rocks some beautiful Mystic Light RGB goodness, we have 4 x DDR4 DIMM slots that support 4000MHz+ RAM in OC mode. The DDR4 DIMM slots are protected by MSI's steel armor which will protect the PCB of the motherboard when installing your RAM.

Intel is poised to unleash its next-gen Kaby Lake family of processors at CES 2017 in January, and now we're getting a glimpse of Colorful's incredible stack of 200-series motherboards.

Colorful's upcoming 200-series motherboards will use both the Z270 and B250 chipsets, and will fall into the iGame and Tomahawk series. Colorful's iGame Gamer Customization is their high-end motherboard that sports a slick red and black color scheme, and armor plating that is placed across the entire board.

The board will include an 8-pin power connector, 14-phase IPP digital power supply for overclocking, VRMs are found under large heat sinks for heat load management, 4 x DDR4 DIMMs that support up to 64GB, 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 ports, 4 x PCIe x1 ports, 1 x M.2/U.2 port, and 6 x SATA 6Gbps ports. There's also Killer LAN, HDMI/DisplayPort outputs, USB 3.1, 6 x USB 3.0, and 8 x USB 2.0 ports. We should expect a price of $250 or so.

Intel is ramping up towards their release of Kaby Lake, led by the enthusiast Core i7-7700K processor (which runs at 100C under load) - and now, we have leaked details on the entire Z270-based line up from ASUS.

ASUS's next-gen Maximus, Strix, and TUF series products are on their way, and they look delicious. ASUS will be revealing 8 motherboards based on the Z270 chipset, but there will be other H170-based boards released, aimed at mid- and budget-minded consumers. All of the ASUS Z270-based boards will be enthusiast/overclocker/gaming boards, and we are beyond excited.

The best of the best from the Z270 series by ASUS will be the ROG Maximus IX Formula, with the usual upgrades over the Z170-based motherboards, but it rocks an awesome integrated I/O and backplate.

Intel will be launching its Kaby Lake architecture and flagship Core i7-7700K processor in early 2017, with 200-series chipsets to launch alongside the CPU, with Z270 and H270 motherboards now spotted from Supermicro.

Supermicro is branding their new motherboards under their SuperO brand, designed for gamers and enthusiasts. There are four motherboards listed on SuperO website, with pictures and features listed, as for the four new motherboards, we're looking at:

This is the C7Z270-CG, which has a NVIDIA-ready black and green theme, with a huge PWM supply that is cooled by a heat pipe. There's 4 x DDR4 DIMMs, ready for up to 64GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM. 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 ports and 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Storage enthusiasts won't be left out, with 2 x M.2 slots that will support next-gen M.2-based SSDs for blistering 2GB/sec+ speeds, and we also have 6 x SATA 6 ports.

Intel will soon introduce their next-generation CPU architecture, and now we know that 100-series motherboards from ASUS will support the upcoming Kaby Lake processors - while the impending release of the 200 series will support them from day one.

ASUS series100 motherboards can be updated with Kaby Lake support through a BIOS update, using either a USB drive in the UEFI, or within Windows. You can get the new BIOS update on the ASUS website.

Here's a list of the ASUS 100-series motherboards that will support Kaby Lake CPUs after the BIOS update:

Intel's next-gen Kaby Lake architecture is around the corner, with a tease of the Core i7-7700K processor and it packing a massive 40% improvement over the Skylake architecture in single-threaded performance - but now, we're seeing Z270-based motherboards from ASRock teased.

The two motherboards from ASRock are in the Z270 Gaming K6 and Z270 Pro 4, with the Gaming K6 featuring a red and black theme, and will be aimed at the - uh, hmm - gaming market.

ASRock will most likely aim its Z270 Pro 4 at the mainstream market, and as for when we'll see the new Z270-based boards from ASRock, we should be aiming for CES 2017.

Update: It appears this post from WCCFTech has to be taken with a rather large grain of salt, as @null1ng on Twitter tweeted us, directing us to these images - showing that the photos used in the article aren't right. Ugh.

AMD's next-gen AM4 socket is still on its way, with a new look at a high-end AM4 motherboard from ASUS and their ROG brand. The ROG Crosshair VI Impact motherboard supports the AM4 socket, bringing support for the upcoming Summit Ridge and Bristol Ridge processors, which will be released later this year.

ASUS is set to add all of the features that AMD's next-gen processors will offer, with the Bristol Ridge-based range of APUs to hit the next few months, and the new Summit Ridge-based FX processors in Q4 2016 - both of which will be powered by AMD's new Zen architecture. What will the ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Impact motherboard bring to the table? Not only will the AM4 socket appear, but we will be able to use existing AM3+ coolers on the board, as well an external VRM PCB that connects to the motherboard.

During each of the past five Computex I have attended, GIGABYTE has always had a private suite in Taipei 101 to showcase their prime products. Admittance to this suite is by invitation only, and there was just so much to show I have decided to dedicate an entire article to coverage.

The X99-Designare EX is GIGABYTE's top-of-the-line mainstream model. Moving away from the traditional "Ultra Durable" naming scheme and trying some new words, the X99-Designare EX is one of the first GIGABYTE motherboards you will be able to purchase under this new model name. The motherboard fully supports the 6950X Broadwell-E 10 core CPU, and I used it in our review of the new CPU. The motherboard uses a PEX8747 to expand CPU PCI-E 3.0 lanes to support dual U.2 ports, M.2, and a slew of PCI-E lanes. The board also has dual Intel Gbit LAN and build in Wireless AC/BT. GIGABYTE also make sure to include those RGB LEDs for enthusiasts who might want some extra bling.

The Z170X-Designare is one of GIGABYTE's new motherboard, not seen before Computex. It carries all the latest features such as U.2, USB 3.1, dual Intel Gbit LAN, and can support three Intel 750s in RAID 0 (it's written on the PCB). The motherboard also has a secret power converter for 100W USB Power Delivery 2.0 support on the USB Type-C connector. It also carries multiple RGB LEDs.