The ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Motherboard Review
by E. Fylladitakis on September 19, 2017 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- ASRock
- Mini ITX
- Z270
- 7700K
- Z270 Gaming ITX/ac
The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review
Software
The driver DVD comes with a very basic automated installer software with five tabs. The first tab lists all of the drivers and software that are compatible with this motherboard, plus Google’s Chrome Browser and Toolbar, even though these have their own tab. There is an “Install all” option that automatically installs everything, without leaving any room for the user to select what should be installed and what not. The Sound Blaster Cinema 3 utility and Adobe’s reader can be installed via the Utilities tab, manuals and guides can be found under the Information tab and, finally, the company’s contact information is all that can be seen under the Contact tab.
The core software package that accompanies the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is the ASRock App Shop, which doubles as a software and as an updates installer. Extra software packages that can enhance the system’s devices, offer more options, and even games can be downloaded and installed. Some software packages such as the “Fatal1ty Mouse Port” cannot be found in the supplied DVD but can be downloaded through the App Shop for free.
ASRock’s F-Stream utility is the single software package that allows almost full control of the motherboard’s BIOS options via the OS. In its “OC Tweaker” tab we found most of the settings that are accessible via the BIOS screen, allowing for casual overclockers to experiment with minimal risk, as the settings reset when the system restarts. It is also handy for people who do not want a permanent overclock forced via the BIOS but prefer to boot with stock settings and force an overclock whenever they want or after the OS has booted.
The ASRock XFast LAN technically is the well-known cFos software with ASRock’s skin. This software allows the user to prioritize network traffic according to his/her needs. For example, it can be set to prioritize the traffic of a specific game/application over a downloading/file sharing app or server. This is particularly useful for applications where seamless network traffic can be vital, such as, for example, when there are IP security cameras connected to the computer and they should not be disturbed by the downloading of a large OS update or other files.
Finally, the Sound Blaster Cinema 3 application offers very limited extra audio control for audiophiles and HTPC enthusiasts. Technically, it can only control the SBX Surround technology setting that enhances the audio surround. It has four preprogrammed profiles, music, film, game, and voice, plus a custom profile that allows the user to program SBX surround as he/she sees fit. Regardless of it including virtually only one tweakable option, the SBX Surround is rather effective, especially in the case of limiting 2.0 and 2.1 speaker configurations.
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jjj - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
6 months after launch and AT is yet to review a single Ryzen mobo.nathanddrews - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
You should buy some and send them to AT.sonny73n - Wednesday, September 20, 2017 - link
"You should buy some and send them to AT."Without AT's permission or agreement to do a review? Or are you just being a foul mouth?
Oxford Guy - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
How about buying Asrock one of its 170 boards so it can fix the BIOS for it with the code Intel gave them in April.But, hey — who needs to worry about random crash bugs from a hyperthreading flaw?
Gavin Bonshor - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
You can expect a wave of them coming very soon :)Ian Cutress - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
We've had zero dedicated motherboard reviewers at AT for most of the year, as I'm spending all my time on CPU testing (or perhaps you'd want me to forgo the CPU tests?). I've been building a team in the interim to take care of MB review duties. Should be in full swing from about this point on.jjj - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
Interesting attitude and misleading statement.You had 4 mobo reviews after the Ryzen launch , staff or no staff and it's statistically significant that none is for a Ryzen mobo. If you add context like interest in the product, value offered, it becomes more than odd.
What's the cause, that's for you to figure out and adjust but that seems unlikely given your attitude. - "or perhaps you'd want me to forgo the CPU tests?)"
In the end, you lose money by not serving the market.
DanNeely - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
All by a single reviewer - who also does all the case, PSU, and keyboard reviews too and thus has limited free time available - and on a single platform. The latter is because as a distributed team Anandtech doesn't have a single office to store all their stuff. Each reviewer needs his/her own set of parts to test with; and for consistency the same parts (particularly the CPU for OCing) need to be the same for everything done on the platform. To avoid spending large amounts on shipping and customs fees that means any part time mobo reviewers are probably only going to have a single platform. E. Fylladitakis is doing Z270. One or more of the newbies is working on Ryzen.There was a tweet a few days ago (don't recall if from Ian or Ryan) about having gotten 5 submissions from the new mobo reviewers that need edited. Since we haven't seen anything except the x399 overview article on the subject from a newish Author (Joe Shields started in July) they're presumably all still being revised to site standards. I'd imagine at least some of the Ryzen mobo reviews you're looking for are coming soon.
Gothmoth - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
since anand is gone it´s spiraling down the drainrealistz - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
Forum is a mess too. It's run by pro-AMD mods.