Motherboard

ASRock has really upped its game over the last few years. A decade ago, the company was most successful at the budget end of the market. But that image has long gone. Recently, we looked at a decidedly high-end X99 chipset board in the shape of the ASRock X99 WS-E/10G. …

Earlier this year, Intel issued a microcode update to motherboard manufacturers to close the loophole that allowed customers to overclock their locked, non-K series Intel Skylake CPUs. However, it looks like ASRock has found a way around this, re-enabling the BCLK overclocking option once again on two of its new …

Hitting the mid-high end market hard is the Supermicro C7Z170-SQ. Taking inspiration from the past and adding modern components is sure to rock the competition with server grade components, high-speed M.2 and USB-C 3.1 included.  Perched precariously at £210, the Supermicro C7Z170-SQ looks to be the motherboard that has been …

It seems like the AM3+ platform has been around forever, yet competitive value options on the CPU side mean that motherboard vendors are still battling for a slice of the pie with 970 and 990FX offerings. How do you make a chipset approaching its 5th birthday valid in 2016? Gigabyte …

Motherboards aimed at professional usage have quite different requirements to those aimed at consumer activities like gaming. For a start, whilst gamers are swiftly moving onto the Z170 chipset and Intel Skylake procesors, because quad-core is usually enough, workstations have generally stuck with X99 and Haswell E processors, due to …

Right now, the mini-ITX scene is extremely popular for gamers and enthusiasts. A combined effort by component manufacturers has seen greater emphasis being put on innovative mini-ITX cases, short graphics cards, and more confined cooling solutions. And let’s not forget the system builders deploying small form-factor (SFF) offerings such as …

Today, EVGA officially introduced its latest motherboard, the Z170 Classified K, boasting next-generation features, support for extremely high-speed RAM, USB 3.1 and 4-way SLI.  On top of that, EVGA has made some changes to board layout and equipped it with the latest GUI BIOS that focusses on functionality for enthusiasts. …

Tackling the premium gaming market, MSI outfits the Z170A Gaming M7 with a number of features that will have eager buyers licking their lips. Alongside the eye-catching red and black colour scheme, hardware features include an enhanced audio system, two high-speed M.2 slots, and USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C ports. …

ASUS has even more announcements in store for us today with the announcement of the new TUF Sabertooth Z170S Motherboard, which Asus says is designed tough and built to last. The ATX board  features an arctic-white digital camouflage finish and has plenty of high-end features to boot. The Asus TUF …

The availability of multiplier-locked Skylake chips has sparked an even greater emphasis on the need for low-cost motherboards to partner with such processors. ASRock’s affordable Z170 Extreme4 utilises the Z170 chipset’s host of worthwhile features but minimises add-on components in order to maintain aggressive pricing. Aside from the Z170 chipset’s …

If you’ve been planning on making the jump to Intel’s Skylake platform or even the X99 chipset, then chances are you’re planning to spend a fair bit on a new motherboard. Fortunately, right now MSI is running a cashback promotion, which should help lessen the burden on your wallet when …

MSI has expanded its range of X99 and Z170 chipset motherboards, with a new pair of Carbon mobos, each sporting its new “mystic light,” features, which adds RGB LEDs to the PCB – because RGB lighting needs to be everywhere. They also feature carbon-fibre styling, which we’re told helps represent …

Asus has today revealed the latest addition to its ROG Maximus lineup with the ROG Maximus VIII, a top of the line motherboard with tons of overclocking features and an integrated EKWB water cooling block. There are even some RGB LEDs to allow users to further customise the look of …

Over the weekend, we heard that several motherboard makers had begun working on BIOS updates to enable overclocking on some of Intel’s locked Skylake processors. The feature was first made available on an Asrock motherboard, which was used by overclocker ‘Dhenzjhen’ to increase the BCLK (base clock) of a Core …

The rumour mill has powered back up this week, bringing us information regarding AMD’s future AM4 socket motherboards, which could launch as early as March next year, according to new reports. The new socket will support AMD’s upcoming Zen processors, along with Bristol Ridge APUs, it will also bring along …

As much as many of you could be considered hardware enthusiasts, who love building, tweaking and overclocking for the pure fun of it, the majority of us also use those systems for gaming. Which means it’s always nice to get a free title when you buy some new hardware. That’s what’s …

Asus is expanding its Skylake lineup with its new Maximus VIII Hero Alpha motherboard, bringing some important additions to the feature set, including a new USB 3.1 controller, support for memory speeds over 3800MHz, five-way optimisation and for the first time, RGB strip headers. Other key changes over the previous Maximus …

With Skylake chips still selling through retailers for a significantly greater price than Intel may have intended, the HEDT X99 platform quickly becomes an even more appealing option to power users. The six-core Haswell-E 5820K is faster than Skylake’s flagship 6700K and is available for around £40 less. The next …

MSI has launched the second season of its Pro Talk web-show that talks to various high-profile individuals related to gaming hardware, with Mike ‘hastr0’ Rufail, who’s credits include being a pro-player in the earlier days of Call of Duty’s Esports scene, as well as now managing Team EnVyUs. Hosted by …

Asus’ TUF series of motherboards takes a different approach towards the market when compared to the gaming, overclocking, and ‘standard’ line-ups each vendors has in its product catalogue. Built primarily for reliable stability through enhanced thermal management and validated industrial design, can the Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 live up to …

MSI has completed its PRO Series motherboard line up today with the addition of the Z170A SLI Plus motherboard, packed with features in a stealthy, black design. At first glance, you can spot the similarities between the Z1z0A and X99A SLI Plus motherboards, though plenty of features have been enhanced …

ASRock has pulled out all the stops for the launch of its new Fatal1ty Z170 pro-gaming motherboard, with the inclusion of a bundle of features to help it appeal to a wide range of system builders; as well as offering support for all of the latest standards of hardware. Skylake …

ASUS might be known for producing some of the world’s most premium gaming and overclocking motherboards, but it’s never done anything quite like this one before. Bundling monstrous on-board heatsinks, with an overclocking companion tool, many, many USB ports and a number of other features with the Skylake supporting Z170 …

Thunderbolt 3 is the holy grail of USB connections. Using type-C as it’s base, it’s reversible, can deliver as much as 100 watts of power and it can throughput data at a blistering 40Gbps, making it twice as fast as Thunderbolt 2 and far faster than standard USB 3.0 connections. …

You don’t necessarily need an ultra high-end motherboard to achieve a great overclock. This was proven by OC team ‘The Overclocking Knights’ this week, who used MSI’s Z170A Gaming M7 motherboard to push an Intel Core i7 6700K all the way to 6744MHz (6.74GHz), breaking the PiFast World Record. The team also …

It is almost undeniable that performance is the primary currency when purchasing components for a pixel-pushing gaming machine. But in the same way that enthusiasts may appreciate a fast car for its sleek lines and eye-catching paint job, appearance is another of the important parameters to gamers building a system …

ASUS has just showed off its latest motherboard, the mini-ITX ROG Maximus VIII Impact, bringing the benefits of Intel’s latest platform to small, compact rigs. With a new platform, comes new benefits, including 5-way optimization, Pro Clock technology and a full-scale voltage regulator module for those that like to squeeze …

An undisclosed maker of motherboards has already added mentions of AMD’s upcoming accelerated processing units in the binary of its BIOS. It is highly likely that AMD’s latest reference BIOS versions already include support of the company’s future microprocessors. As a result, mentions of the chips migrate to commercial products. …

Intel Corp.’s latest “Skylake” processors officially support only DDR3L and DDR4 memory, but there are motherboards for the new chips that can also use DDR3. While the chips can work with previous-gen memory, prolonged usage of such dynamic random access memory (DRAM) can damage microprocessors, according to Intel. DDR4 memory …

Asrock has introduced its new Fatal1ty-branded mini-ITX high-end motherboard for gaming PCs. The new system board is designed for Intel “Skylake” processors and sports numerous advanced features that modern PC platforms can offer. Among the highlights are unique voltage regulator module, extreme overclocking capabilities, HDMI 2.0 connector that supports 4K …