ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac
Why pay more for less?
This mini-ITX board from ASRock departs from the company’s usual policy of aiming for the more affordable end of the market, with a price tag of $200 or so. That’s rather pricey for mini-ITX board, let alone a micro-ATX board, so what makes ASRock think they can justify hitting our bank accounts a little harder than expected?
As a mini-ITX board, there isn’t a whole lot of PCB space to include features, yet ASRock has managed to pack it with components. It’s not often we see a mini-ITX board with a full six SATA 3 ports, but this is offset by the fact that there’s only a single PCIe lane, in the form of a PCIe 3.0 x16 lane. There’s just one M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slot; for this price, another on the rear would have been an expected inclusion. Twin memory slots are overclockable up to a top speed of 4000MHz, which is common for the Intel Z370 chipset within.
Offsetting this is the integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi module which, unlike many other boards, doesn’t need to be installed in your valuable M.2 slot. There’s also dual Intel LAN Ethernet ports, offering network connectivity. Audio support is somewhat disappointing, relying on Realtek’s ageing ALC892 codec, though it’s got the usual upgraded capacitors and amps to help boost audio quality. While there are two HDMI ports, they’re only capable of 4K at 24Hz, though the additional DisplayPort output can do 4K at 60Hz.
Other than the additional SATA ports, we’re unsure why ASRock is charging a premium for this board when other competitors offer more for less.