asus z270-k thread

[chrcoluk]

So I got one of these delivered today (well wednesday). To build a quick mining rig on, cheap g4400 cpu and 4 gig of value ram.

Didnt get a lower priced chipset as the discount wasnt big enough I felt, so my thinking was if I ever update my main rig to skylake or kirbylake I already have a motherboard.

First I noticed the box was tiny, smallest ever motherboard box I seen, after opening the box, it feels like asus have really skimped on the package.

The top phases around the cpu have no heatsink, probably not needed but never seen that before on an asus board made in last 10 years or so, there was no asus q connector thingy for the led/switch connectors, this seemed a trademark item for them and I guess now its limited to top end boards, 2 sata cables, and thats it. They seemed too embarrassed to list (whats in this package) in any of the provided documents.

Bios also seems to have a lot less options than my asus z87 board, but I guess its possible some items are hidden due to the cpu I have put in it. I hope they havent started making certain bios options ROG line only.

Anyone else brought a z270 asus prime board?

 

[chrcoluk]

comparison page here (I hope)

https://www.asus.com/uk/Product-Com...4Ptsz2I,iXTm2EUHmCZTeXUL,28fVXHb87ad1y4PY&b=0

Comparing the 4 prime motherboards I can see only the top -A has features that used to be on the lower sku's. So asus been more agressive to get people to buy the top end sku's.

Seems I got the 2nd best out the 4, almost brought the -P which is the worst, but due to OCUK misprinting the specs I jumped to the -K. (thought the -K didnt have 3.1 usb ports, OCUK listed as 3.0).

Ok after looking at the comparison page, I got a sort of list here on what has been downgraded from previous gens, if upgrading it seems you have to be pretty careful else it will feel like a downgrade.

No q-connector adaptor supplied. Previously you got this even with bargain basement asus board. Dont know which gen they made this change.
Only half the cpu phases have a heatsink. (my z87-plus has for all the phases).
Only the -A has EMI protection for sound circuitry, much more z87 models had it.
On my -K no voltage options for cpu, most of digi options missing vs my z87 board. (these options may reappear on a unlocked cpu dont know), also all voltage regulater options missing.
Lowest z270-p board has a realtek nic, on z87 all the boards had intel.
No onboard power switch or post status indicators, on z87-plus I had these, I remember paul in a video asking JJ if future gens would get it across the board, seems asus has gone the other way and pushed it further higher end only.
Inferior sata port layout on all boards below the -A, I see no practical reason other than to make you buy higher boards just for the layout.
Less fan connectors vs previous gen prime boards (excluding the -A).
My -K also doesnt have the usb recovery bios feature my z87 has.
Previously all prime boards had the X way optimisation feature, now exclusive to -A and above.
TPU is now limited to -A and higher models, used to be on all boards.
MEMOK exclusive to -A and above, cannot remember if used to be on all boards but used to be on more of the boards for sure.
One less PCI-E x16 slot, and only the -A has the x8/x8 cpu lane sharing, whilst that was an option on most of the z87 prime boards.
Rapid Storage Technology used to be on all boards which had intel raid support, now is ommited from all prime boards except -A.

The fact none of these lower boards have been reviewed in the media, seems to give them a license to strip then down heavily as no one will question it, I used to never be worried about overclocking etc. on these boards, but now I wonder if they stripped out the voltage control how much would overclocking be compromised when in previous gens even on the base board you could get top end overclocking. O_o

 

[mattyfez]

I can only assume the bios has locked out the overclocking functions due to the chip you have put in it.

As for the other 'issues' it's a fairly cheap board as z270 goes, so it's not going to have all the bells and whistles of a more 'enthusiast' board.

Apart from the q connector, that's a bit rubbish it doesn't include one.

 

[chrcoluk]

Well I am comparing to the same cheapo boards on previous gens.

Go back a few gen's and the equivalent to prime had all those features, its not a comparison vs ROG but a comparison vs equal spec'd price boards of previous gens, asus have been sly here.

Basically 4 years ago you could get all those features on a £120 asus board.
Now you need to spend £165 to get some on the z270-a or £185 for all of them on the cheapest ROG board. (£200 for ROG board with decent amount of slots)

Rapid storage technology is a ? tho, it does support RST drivers, and if enable raid mode in bios it says RST in brackets. I think they possibly mean the RST performance CPU mode that speeds up i/o when CPU is in C 2/3 state, as that option is visible on my z87-plus but missing on the z270-k.

 

[chrcoluk]

seems the nerfing was done as recent as z270

if I brought the z170-pro its almost same cost as z270-k but has nearly everything in that removed feature list.

So I would have traded kirby lake support for a much better board.