Friday, May 12th 2017
ASUS Announces a Pair of ROG STRIX Mini-ITX Motherboards: H270I and B250I
ASUS has further increased its Intel 200-series chipset-based motherboards with the addition of two Mini-ITX motherboards. The H270I and B250I join the ROG staple of motherboards from ASUS, which means these come packed with features and are being marketed for gamers. Though the features are looking a bit thin, which was to be somewhat expected given the lack of PCB real-estate to house them.
These two motherboards do not support any kind of OC, and memory speeds are thus limited to the stock Intel 2400 MHz (and further limited to two sticks of memory up to a 32 GB total.) Furthermore, there is a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, a gaping absence of PCI ports, but a saving grace of two M.2 ports in each motherboard. Which are, yes, very hard to see: one of them fits in the front of the PCB, under the double-decker heatsink design over the PCH that allows an M.2 drive to be stacked on top of it, which means the PCH and the M.2 drive are cooled by the top of the heatsink. The other, which we can't see in the pictures, is located on the back of the motherboard. Both M.2 connectors can handle full-speed PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSDs, as well as Intel Optane Memory, but only one of them supports SATA-based M.2 solid state drives.
Let's dive on connectivity: both motherboards have 4x SATA 6Gb/s ports and support Intel Rapid Storage Technology, although only the Strix H270I has RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and Intel SRT capabilities. The H270I supports 8x USB 3.0 ports (6x rear, one header for 2x front ports) and the B250I supports 6x USB 3.0 ports (4x rear, one header for 2x front ports) and two USB 2.0 ports (two rear). The H270-based model also has 2x gigabit LAN ports (1x Intel I219V and 1x Realtek RTL8111H), while the B250-based model only has 1x gigabit LAN port powered by Intel's I219V controller.
Both motherboards feature on-board dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1, and a 2x2 external antenna. Display outputs come in at 1x HDMI 1.4 and 1x DisplayPort 1.2 video for Intel's IGPs, while onboard audio duties are handled by a ROG SupremeFX eight-channel HD audio solution, based on the Realtek ALC1220A codec. There are 3x fan headers - one that supports a water pump or a high amperage fan - and access to ASUS' Fan Xpert 4 UEFI/software fan controls.
Source:
AnandTech
These two motherboards do not support any kind of OC, and memory speeds are thus limited to the stock Intel 2400 MHz (and further limited to two sticks of memory up to a 32 GB total.) Furthermore, there is a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, a gaping absence of PCI ports, but a saving grace of two M.2 ports in each motherboard. Which are, yes, very hard to see: one of them fits in the front of the PCB, under the double-decker heatsink design over the PCH that allows an M.2 drive to be stacked on top of it, which means the PCH and the M.2 drive are cooled by the top of the heatsink. The other, which we can't see in the pictures, is located on the back of the motherboard. Both M.2 connectors can handle full-speed PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSDs, as well as Intel Optane Memory, but only one of them supports SATA-based M.2 solid state drives.
14 Comments on ASUS Announces a Pair of ROG STRIX Mini-ITX Motherboards: H270I and B250I
I guess now even B series chipsets are ROG..
They have basically all the goodies that Z270 variant has - just the chipset is different.
Also the audio on ASUS ROG is usually above average..
But most significantly, ASUS mobos generally are known for long and trouble-free operation - an opinion that's fully in-line with my experience (albeit with the CSM/PRO models, not gaming stuff).
Gigabyte is trying to be a more cutting-edge manufacturer... And the only way to keep your gear up to date is to replace often...You're not alone. I got tired of waiting and went Intel (I generally preferred Intel CPUs anyway - just wanted to see what Ryzen stuff will offer).
The rumor is that designing an AM4 mITX mobo is not easy. I find this very weird considering it's a SoC and everyone expected great scalability - important for laptops and AIOs.
Instead we get a suggestion that it was not possible to convert any of already available LGA1150 designs...
Thanks for that laugh.
Since Kaby Lake motherboards are divided into: ROG, Prime, TUF, Commercial and Workstation.
Now ROG is the universal gaming brand (Pro Gaming was removed).
Similarly, Prime became the new consumer brand (including models that used to have no special name earlier).
These 2 mITX mobos are succeeding the (highly regarded) mITX Pro Gaming models from previous generations. They were really missed by clients.I don't understand your problem. They're fixing the lineup a bit and that's welcome - it was a mess lately.
Snobbery? :) You have an expensive ROG mobo and you don't want lesser stuff to share the premium name? ;)
Do you wear a ROG T-shirt? :P
Nothing wrong with expanding product line ups.
Just don't ruin a good name by throwing in lesser names. That's how brands fail.
My next board will be an ASRock OC Formula board. Tired of gimmicks from ASUS. I had a ROG board with that GameFirst shitware and all it did was throttle my 1Gbps fiber connection, after disabling I got full speed back.
Fixing their lineup? Fixing their prices more like it. B series mobo, nothing special. Slap on special ROG and ROG becomes not so special anymore and the brand loses reputation. Then they use the STRIX name along with ROG branding, talk about messy naming schemes.
I thought B chipset could only support a single M.2 x4 drive?