Z27O Motherboards
Z27O MOTHERBOARDS
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That’s not to say it looks bad. The black and white
design has its charm and most of the components
are colour coordinated. More importantly, this
board provides solid performance and overclocking,
plus low power consumption.
You also get all the features you should need.
Two M.2 SSD slots, an M.2 W-Fi card slot, plenty of
connectivity and some basic onboard sound.
The only real stumbling block is the IO panel,
which has too many legacy connections and too few
USB ports, plus there are no USB 3.1 ports despite
the presence of one Type-C connector.
If you’re happy with the basic feature set, then
the Z270 Pro4 delivers. It demanded the lowest
power draw on test while having no problem
running our fast RAM.
Its UEFI is also a doddle to navigate, though try
as we might we couldn’t get the 7700K up to 5GHz.
We stuck with 4.8GHz instead, which still
delivered performance within 2% of
that of the fastest on test.ASROCK Z270 PRO 4
This protects the board and makes it look better
too. On the flipside, it can be quite an inconvenience
if you drop a screw and get it stuck under that lot.
There are also several RGB-lit zones, including a
Republic of Gamers logo in the middle of the board.
RGB lighting is getting a little out of hand at the
moment but the balance here is about right and it
can all be controlled from the desktop software.
It’s a top-tier board, so you get masses of
features including 2x USB 3.1 and 6x USB 3.0 ports
on the backplate, with support for several more via
headers. There are also two M.2 SSD slots, though
their positioning is far from ideal. You also get top
notch audio and inbuilt ac-Wi-Fi.
All this, and extensive overclocking options from
a UEFI that’s simple and quick to navigate. We
couldn’t get the memory to hit its XMP-defined
3200MHz top speed but the board overclocked the
7700K CPU to 5GHz with no problems.
Its resultant performance took second
place in our charts.ASUS MAXIMUS IX CODE
http://www.asus.com £290
This is the cheapest board on test, and in many ways it
shows: a shiny finish, lack of cover for the IO, plain silver CPU
mount and a lack of lighting. It all adds up to a board that
immediately looks less premium than the others.
This is just a couple of steps down from Asus’s most
expensive Z270 motherboards and as such it’s packed with
features and performance. The most striking thing about it,
however, is that it’s covered head to toe in plastic armour.85 % 87 %
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