The PIO (Parts-In-One, basically a DIY All-In-One) motherboard form factor is still fairly rare, but over the last year or so several models from various manufacturers have popped up, at least in pictures and product pages. All the PIO boards so far (that I’m aware of) have used the lower-end Intel chipsets, but ASRock now has an enthusiast option utilizing the Z170 PCH with the new Z170M-PIO2.
As expected for a PIO board, its main feature is a angled PCIe connector along the top edge of the motherboard, allowing for a slim layout without the need for risers or extenders. On the Z170M-PIO2 the expansion slot operates at PCIe 3.0 x16.
The rest of the specs are comparable to a mid-range Mini-ITX motherboard: 1x USB 3.0 header, M.2 slots for Wi-Fi and storage (PCIe 3.0 x4), 4x SATA ports, 2x USB 2.0 and 2x USB 3.0 ports on the rear IO, Realtek Gigabit NIC, Realtek ALC887 audio with PCB isolation, black PCB, etc.
Overall it’s a neat looking board but none of the other PIO boards are readily available outside of Asia so maybe this will be the exception but I’m not holding my breath.
Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum here.
