Alphabetical order! Next up in our motherboard roundup from the 200-Series launch is ASUS’s offering. Let’s see what they have for us!
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This appears to be the only Mini-ITX offering that ASUS has in the 200-Series launch, but in it’s defence, it is fully featured. The main notable feature is a double-decker heatsink – enabling both your PCH and M.2 SSD to be cooled with a single heatsink! This board also includes the new USB 3.1 front panel connector… exciting times. The board also features Aura Sync RGB LED, 802.11ac WiFi, DDR4 4266 MHz, Dual M.2 SSD ports, SATA 6Gb/s, Intel I219-V LAN, and ROG SupremeFX audio.
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Well, we’re done with M-ITX (awww!), so here’s the top of the M-ATX charts for ASUS, the ROG STRIX Z270G Gaming. The board includes Aura Sync RGB LED, 802.11ac WiFi, DDR4 4000MHz, Dual M.2 SSD ports, SATA 6Gb/s, HDMI, and a front-panel USB 3.1 Type-C connector. ASUS’s ‘Safe Slot’, a variation on the armoured PCIe slots, makes an appearance here as well as on the above M-ITX board. The two x16 slots can be used for SLI, as well as CrossFire.
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The next step down is the PRIME Z270M-Plus, an Intel LGA-1151 mATX motherboard with LED lighting, DDR4 3866MHz, dual M.2, Intel Optane memory ready, HDMI, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0 and CrossFire Support. No SLI here, sorry.
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ASUS’s H270M-PLUS gains some SATA compared to it’s Z chipset brother, but loses that second sweet, sweet 32Gb/s capable M.2 slot for a measly 16Gb/s slot.
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Some colour returns with the PRIME B250M-PLUS, but at the expense of losing a (usually blocked by a GPU anyway) PCIe x1 slot. Apart from that, it seems that this board is similarly spec’d to the one above.
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Ahh, the budget end of the spectrum. The second M.2 slot is now gone, as are 2 RAM slots, but you do get a smaller board as a result.
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A strange blend of the above two units, this mid-range board marks the return of dual 32GB/s M.2 slots, but you only get a single PCIe x16 slot. Beggars can’t be choosers!
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Well that’s ASUS’s releases so far. Thoughts? Tell us how you feel in the forum.
