14 DAY TRIAL // Mini-ITX motherboards are fancy. They are small, tight, and can hold lots of firepower if one really puts their mind to it. To add to this sort of firepower, ASUS decided that a full-fledged motherboard wasn't enough, and thought the power of an Z170 chip should be increased in mini-ITX motherboards as well.
In this regard, ASUS introduced its Z170I Pro Gaming mainboard, which is evidently dedicated to Intel's newest Skylakes and comes with a powerful feature set. It not only uses high-quality/high-performance components but it promises advanced overclocking capabilities as well.
Using the already famous LGA 1151 socket, the new Z170I Pro Gaming will support all the new Intel CPUs, starting with the most powerful Skylake-K models to the lowliest Celerons. It features four-phase digital voltage regulator that consists of high-quality solid-state inductors and capacitors, which means you can perform solid overclocking on all available mini-ITX mainboards.
Obviously, the motherboard can even run DDR4 memory at frequencies of 4,000MHz (4GHz), thus providing processors up to 64GB/s of bandwidth, which is incredible even for desktop versions of motherboards made for overclocking.
ASUS crammed massive performance potential in this little board
Slot-wise, the Z170I Pro Gaming mainboard comes with two DDR4 memory slots and one PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot for graphics cards. It even has one M.2 connector (with PCI Express 3.0 x4 interface) for advanced SSDs in 2242/2260/2280 form factors, one SATA Express connector, two Serial ATA-6Gb/s ports, 7.1-channel Supreme FX audio with headphone amplifier and 115db sound-to-noise ratio stereo output, two USB 3.1 type-A ports, and six USB 3.0 ports.
Connectivity-wise this device comes with dual-band 2.4/5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi module with MU-MIMO support, as well as Bluetooth v4.1 technology which is excellent when attempting to stream media via its Bluetooth or WiFi, while gamers should know that the new mainboard comes with GameFirst technology, which prioritizes gaming traffic and minimizes latencies.
Overall, this is the most powerful mini-ITX mainboard currently on the market that can easily rival any of its bigger sisters in full-size desktops. ASUS didn't disclose any pricing or availability details for the moment, but we can expect for it to be pretty expensive.
