**The ASUS PRIME Z270-A Motherboard: A Comprehensive Review**

When it comes to building a PC, choosing the right motherboard can be a daunting task. With so many options available, it's essential to research and compare different models before making a decision. In this article, we'll take a closer look at the ASUS PRIME Z270-A motherboard, a high-performance ITX board that promises to deliver exceptional performance and features.

**Key Features and Components**

The ASUS PRIME Z270-A motherboard boasts an impressive list of features that cater to enthusiasts and professionals alike. One of its standout features is the RGB LED lighting system, which can be controlled through the AC software or other systems. This allows users to customize their lighting effects according to their preferences. Additionally, the board supports a wide range of peripherals, including sound cards, GPUs, and storage devices.

One notable feature is the presence of two M2 slots, which offer excellent flexibility for users who want to add more storage or upgrade their existing drives. The motherboard also features a reinforced PCI Express by 16 expansion slot, designed to handle heavy graphics cards without compromising stability. This ensures that users can run demanding applications and games without worrying about the risk of damage to the motherboard.

Another notable feature is the inclusion of a CMOS battery, which powers the board's chipsets and enables automatic booting. The battery is easily accessible through a two-pin wire connection, making it relatively easy to replace when needed. This feature is particularly useful for users who may not have access to local hardware stores or prefer to order online.

The motherboard also features a four-pin all-in-one fan header, which can be used to control the fan speeds of internal peripherals. This provides excellent flexibility and allows users to customize their system's cooling setup according to their needs. With this feature, users can create complex cooling configurations that optimize system performance and reduce noise levels.

**Performance and Stability**

In terms of performance, the ASUS PRIME Z270-A motherboard delivers exceptional results. The board's stability was put to the test during our testing sessions, with no issues or crashes encountered under heavy loads. We also noticed that the motherboard performed flawlessly in Linux environments, including Fedora 25. The sound card worked seamlessly, producing high-quality audio signals without any noise or distortion.

The Wi-Fi module, powered by a Qualcomm chip set, demonstrated impressive performance and range. We were able to connect to wireless networks and enumerate devices with ease, thanks to the board's reliable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities. While not designed for extreme performance, the Wi-Fi module handled everyday tasks without any issues.

**Support and Compatibility**

One of the most significant advantages of the ASUS PRIME Z270-A motherboard is its excellent support for various peripherals and systems. The board supports the latest graphics cards, including NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 and AMD Radeon RX 480, which can be used in conjunction with virtual machines to create a powerful gaming setup.

The motherboard also features SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization) extension capabilities, which enable seamless GPU passthrough from virtual machines to host operating systems. This feature promises excellent performance and compatibility for users who want to run demanding applications on their PC.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, the ASUS PRIME Z270-A motherboard offers an impressive range of features and capabilities that cater to enthusiasts and professionals alike. Its exceptional performance, stability, and support for various peripherals make it an excellent choice for building a high-performance PC. With its comprehensive feature set and robust design, this motherboard is sure to impress users who demand the best from their computing experience.

**Forum Discussion**

If you're considering purchasing the ASUS PRIME Z270-A motherboard or have already done so, we invite you to share your thoughts and experiences on our forum. Have any questions or concerns about the board's performance, compatibility, or features? Join the conversation with other users who are also building their own PCs using this motherboard.

**Update**

Please note that our testing and findings may be updated in the future as new drivers, firmware, and BIOS updates become available. Be sure to check our forum for any updates and changes related to this motherboard.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe a too strict this is the Li 270 I IPS from Asus verse strips Strix out how the Strix was like a bad omen in Greek and Roman mythology but maybe not I mean I think it'd be pretty cool if I had a motherboard that fed on the blood of humans or whatever so we set this thing up and put it through its paces and I'm happy to report that with the AI suite you know Auto overclock it did overclock the i7 7700 K processor that I used for testing to 5 gigahertz on two cores and 4.9 gigahertz on all four cores and that's a 1.3 9 volts now that CPU will go to 5.0 on all 4 cores at about 1.3 volts but the software airs on the side of caution and airs on the side of stability I didn't do any testing with the negative AVX instructions or anything like that because I do know that the CPU requires a negative multiplier for the AVX instructions for maximum stability so the AVX part of the CPU of course is not going to run at 5 gigahertz but still for a completely automatic overclock on an open-air test bench that's pretty darn good the big feature on this motherboard though is that it has 2 m dot two slots there's one just above the graphics card so it should have plenty of breathability there's also one m dot two on the bottom of the motherboard to give you even more into connectivity now in dot twos do get kind of toasty I did my testing with the toshiba RV 400 the thing comes with a removable heatsink I think I still like the removable heatsink to be removed when you're working with an MDOT - like the toshiba Rd 400 now the the he think does contact the m dot 2 on the bottom as well as the top in fact there's an included thermal pad that you can peel the plastic off and actually stick a thermal pad to the m dot - and I probably should do more extensive testing to see if it's better with or without the shield but just sort of anecdotally running the test through speed fan I think the temperatures are slightly better without the shroud for the particular Toshiba RB 400 but again not so a sense of testing now in terms of other testing we did do a full suite of Linux testing we did I'll MMU testing so you can do PCI Express pass through if you want I did the testing with the Radeon or X 480 and I'm happy to report I think that there were nine i'll MMU groups you can see the output of LS PCI showing the iommu groupings also on the screen you can see the the isle regions for the individual you know Iowa regions that are available on the motherboard one quirk in UEFI you have to enable VPD and virtualization in two different places so there is that for our testing we used a Crucial Ballistix memory this is a you know basically the kid of memory that was on sales a pretty decent and the ballistics memory worked fine even with the overclocking even with the you know the CPU hitting five gigahertz let's take a look at the connectors at the back of the motherboard now first up in the top corner of the motherboard this is a front panel PCI Express 3.1 gen2 connector so you have to have a case of the supports you know your 10 gigabit per second USB 3.1 ports in order to use this connector disappointingly in the Box there is no kind of adapter or anything to break it out to the old style connector or like a you know an expansion slot covering over the old days when a motherboard would come with like a bracket that was meant to go at the back of your case to give you USB ports because not all cases even had front panel USB well this is a new generation of USB and a new generation of connectors and I would have liked to have seen a breakout connector or something like that maybe there's an accessory for that and if there is you can link to it in the description and I'll update the description of the video with that but next to that we've got our USB 3.1 gen2 connectors provided by ER as media controller one type a in one type C then we've got our four USB 2.0 ports then we've got DisplayPort and HDMI for the built-in IGP solution from intel fear you know can be like skylake whatever you might be running this is compatible with skylake cpus of course for your i 767 third you know 6600 whatever you might be running that works as well as the Intel KB like CPUs then we've got two more USB 3.1 gen2 on that's five gigabit per second USB ports then we've got our Wi-Fi go module which is a service by Qualcomm afros chipset this is a 2 by 2 configuration it also has built-in Bluetooth then next to that we've got our Sound Blaster 120 DB certified signal-to-noise ratio audio solution it is a you know creative implementation of the of the sound card so if that some things you're looking for then it's you know certified by creative it does have optical s/pdif out as well as your standard analog audio out and of course there's a an audio front panel connector Asus refers to the sound solution as supreme FX and of course it does have the fine grade Nishikawa audio capacitors as one would expect from the solution like this at the top edge of the motherboard we got our first 4 pin fan header it is DC and PWM then we've got our 8 pin CPU power connector and part of our voltage regulator heatsink assembly now there's two heat sinks that are associated with the CPU voltage regulation circuitry and both of those heat sinks are not connected in any way so there's there's no like thermal connection or anything like that we've seen heat pots on some motherboards but this particular one does not have a heat pipe for any kind of connection there we've got our two ddr4 dimm slots and really small right next to the power connector the apx power connector on the front edge of the motherboard there are some diagnostic LEDs that you can use to you know figure out what the system is the system will sort of give you some hints on oh the CPU is having problems or the memory is seated and things like that with these little diagnostic LEDs that are scattered around the board and the first grouping is there at the top edge of the board just below our ATX power connector is a header for an RGB strip so if you want to put in an RGB header strip and control it from the Asus are a software you can totally do that then we got our front panel connector and our 2 SATA 6 gigabits per second ports then just below that you've got your front panel USB 3.0 header just below the USB 3.0 header is another diagnostic LED so that you can see the readout now also along the front edge of the board here are individually addressable RGB LEDs that you can also control from the AC software so you've got a lot of different options you can ty control into your individual music preferences or you can also you know control the LEDs through software or system temperature or you know according to a preset pattern whatever that you might want to do then of course on the bottom edge to the motherboard we've got our PCI Express by 16 expansion slot this is reinforced it's the Asus patent-pending reinforced slot design it's designed to deal with you know huge shearing forces from very heavy graphics cards that you might have in your system then right behind the front panel connectors or two things one your CMOS battery which is a you know sort of got a two pin wire connected to the motherboard so it's not you know a normal coin cell if the CMOS battery goes bad you're not going to be able to just go to any local store and replace the CMOS battery you have to use the vertical one I don't really see that it's a big deal it's a standard form factor for batteries you just have to order it online as opposed to getting it at your local hardware store no big deal and then there's also a four pin all in one pump header right behind the Wi-Fi go module so if you've got a you know closed loop all in one sense a ridiculous that you're running in your ITX world you can totally control it from that four pin fan header so with our testing and you know the fun stuff with this motherboard what's the verdict it's a competent motherboard it has a nice set of features for what it is and has 2 m2 slots honestly the two empty slots is the biggest deal for me because you know I can do lots of really horrible things like convert the m dot 2 back into PCI Express which I'm sure that it's not it's not exactly an on label you so it's definitely an off-label use but I can totally convert the m dot to slot above the graphics card into a PCI Express slot for an internal peripheral if I really want to and still have my m dot 2 for storage on the bottom of the motherboard I think that should make its way into a build or a special project or whatever I can convince somebody to sponsor it I'm going to ask the fans to sponsor that that would be silly so that's pretty cool I also liked that it was really stable and seemed to be well supported in Linux booting into Linux and checking the peripherals and everything was Fedora 25 everything worked out of the box the sound work even the watch I go module because you know the Qualcomm chip set I was really worried about that you know a lot of other motherboard vendors have picked the Intel chipset over Qualcomm this generation but the Qualcomm chips that work fine and the Bluetooth seems to be working fine as well in it I can enumerate devices join wireless networks that sort of thing it is a two by two configuration so I mean we're not talking about like super crazy performance on the on the Wi-Fi module here but it did show up in a separate aisle in the new group so you could pass that through to a virtual machine if you want to with the advent of Linux kernel 4.10 and virtual GPU I'm really really hoping that vendors other than Intel will support you know the SR iov extensions for graphics cards so that graphics cards like the rx 480 and not necessarily like a fire GL or something expensive like that will support DP you pass through to virtual like Windows virtual machines under Linux but it will actually share with the host operating system so I'm really hoping we see driver support like that the motherboard supports it the motherboard for its part because it's a lot all your hardware has to support it has to support properly and I'm happy to report the hardware the motherboard is doing what it's supposed to as towards the iommu groups go and as far as you know that that types of thing go so that's good as well and you know of course the sound card worked under Linux Sound Blaster it's it's a pretty similar implementation to what we've seen it's just assembled with you know a little bit better components so that you get that 120 DB so it will signal to noise ratio and it is Sound Blaster certified if that's important to you so supreme effects creative labs if that's your thing there you go that's pretty much it there's not really a lot else to say it's an ITX motherboard with 2m - what else you want to know if you pick up one or you think about picking up one or you want to chat with other forum members about their thoughts on this or or see any details or if there's an update you can better believe it you'll find it on the forums at level one techs I'm one though I'm signing out I'll see you therethe a too strict this is the Li 270 I IPS from Asus verse strips Strix out how the Strix was like a bad omen in Greek and Roman mythology but maybe not I mean I think it'd be pretty cool if I had a motherboard that fed on the blood of humans or whatever so we set this thing up and put it through its paces and I'm happy to report that with the AI suite you know Auto overclock it did overclock the i7 7700 K processor that I used for testing to 5 gigahertz on two cores and 4.9 gigahertz on all four cores and that's a 1.3 9 volts now that CPU will go to 5.0 on all 4 cores at about 1.3 volts but the software airs on the side of caution and airs on the side of stability I didn't do any testing with the negative AVX instructions or anything like that because I do know that the CPU requires a negative multiplier for the AVX instructions for maximum stability so the AVX part of the CPU of course is not going to run at 5 gigahertz but still for a completely automatic overclock on an open-air test bench that's pretty darn good the big feature on this motherboard though is that it has 2 m dot two slots there's one just above the graphics card so it should have plenty of breathability there's also one m dot two on the bottom of the motherboard to give you even more into connectivity now in dot twos do get kind of toasty I did my testing with the toshiba RV 400 the thing comes with a removable heatsink I think I still like the removable heatsink to be removed when you're working with an MDOT - like the toshiba Rd 400 now the the he think does contact the m dot 2 on the bottom as well as the top in fact there's an included thermal pad that you can peel the plastic off and actually stick a thermal pad to the m dot - and I probably should do more extensive testing to see if it's better with or without the shield but just sort of anecdotally running the test through speed fan I think the temperatures are slightly better without the shroud for the particular Toshiba RB 400 but again not so a sense of testing now in terms of other testing we did do a full suite of Linux testing we did I'll MMU testing so you can do PCI Express pass through if you want I did the testing with the Radeon or X 480 and I'm happy to report I think that there were nine i'll MMU groups you can see the output of LS PCI showing the iommu groupings also on the screen you can see the the isle regions for the individual you know Iowa regions that are available on the motherboard one quirk in UEFI you have to enable VPD and virtualization in two different places so there is that for our testing we used a Crucial Ballistix memory this is a you know basically the kid of memory that was on sales a pretty decent and the ballistics memory worked fine even with the overclocking even with the you know the CPU hitting five gigahertz let's take a look at the connectors at the back of the motherboard now first up in the top corner of the motherboard this is a front panel PCI Express 3.1 gen2 connector so you have to have a case of the supports you know your 10 gigabit per second USB 3.1 ports in order to use this connector disappointingly in the Box there is no kind of adapter or anything to break it out to the old style connector or like a you know an expansion slot covering over the old days when a motherboard would come with like a bracket that was meant to go at the back of your case to give you USB ports because not all cases even had front panel USB well this is a new generation of USB and a new generation of connectors and I would have liked to have seen a breakout connector or something like that maybe there's an accessory for that and if there is you can link to it in the description and I'll update the description of the video with that but next to that we've got our USB 3.1 gen2 connectors provided by ER as media controller one type a in one type C then we've got our four USB 2.0 ports then we've got DisplayPort and HDMI for the built-in IGP solution from intel fear you know can be like skylake whatever you might be running this is compatible with skylake cpus of course for your i 767 third you know 6600 whatever you might be running that works as well as the Intel KB like CPUs then we've got two more USB 3.1 gen2 on that's five gigabit per second USB ports then we've got our Wi-Fi go module which is a service by Qualcomm afros chipset this is a 2 by 2 configuration it also has built-in Bluetooth then next to that we've got our Sound Blaster 120 DB certified signal-to-noise ratio audio solution it is a you know creative implementation of the of the sound card so if that some things you're looking for then it's you know certified by creative it does have optical s/pdif out as well as your standard analog audio out and of course there's a an audio front panel connector Asus refers to the sound solution as supreme FX and of course it does have the fine grade Nishikawa audio capacitors as one would expect from the solution like this at the top edge of the motherboard we got our first 4 pin fan header it is DC and PWM then we've got our 8 pin CPU power connector and part of our voltage regulator heatsink assembly now there's two heat sinks that are associated with the CPU voltage regulation circuitry and both of those heat sinks are not connected in any way so there's there's no like thermal connection or anything like that we've seen heat pots on some motherboards but this particular one does not have a heat pipe for any kind of connection there we've got our two ddr4 dimm slots and really small right next to the power connector the apx power connector on the front edge of the motherboard there are some diagnostic LEDs that you can use to you know figure out what the system is the system will sort of give you some hints on oh the CPU is having problems or the memory is seated and things like that with these little diagnostic LEDs that are scattered around the board and the first grouping is there at the top edge of the board just below our ATX power connector is a header for an RGB strip so if you want to put in an RGB header strip and control it from the Asus are a software you can totally do that then we got our front panel connector and our 2 SATA 6 gigabits per second ports then just below that you've got your front panel USB 3.0 header just below the USB 3.0 header is another diagnostic LED so that you can see the readout now also along the front edge of the board here are individually addressable RGB LEDs that you can also control from the AC software so you've got a lot of different options you can ty control into your individual music preferences or you can also you know control the LEDs through software or system temperature or you know according to a preset pattern whatever that you might want to do then of course on the bottom edge to the motherboard we've got our PCI Express by 16 expansion slot this is reinforced it's the Asus patent-pending reinforced slot design it's designed to deal with you know huge shearing forces from very heavy graphics cards that you might have in your system then right behind the front panel connectors or two things one your CMOS battery which is a you know sort of got a two pin wire connected to the motherboard so it's not you know a normal coin cell if the CMOS battery goes bad you're not going to be able to just go to any local store and replace the CMOS battery you have to use the vertical one I don't really see that it's a big deal it's a standard form factor for batteries you just have to order it online as opposed to getting it at your local hardware store no big deal and then there's also a four pin all in one pump header right behind the Wi-Fi go module so if you've got a you know closed loop all in one sense a ridiculous that you're running in your ITX world you can totally control it from that four pin fan header so with our testing and you know the fun stuff with this motherboard what's the verdict it's a competent motherboard it has a nice set of features for what it is and has 2 m2 slots honestly the two empty slots is the biggest deal for me because you know I can do lots of really horrible things like convert the m dot 2 back into PCI Express which I'm sure that it's not it's not exactly an on label you so it's definitely an off-label use but I can totally convert the m dot to slot above the graphics card into a PCI Express slot for an internal peripheral if I really want to and still have my m dot 2 for storage on the bottom of the motherboard I think that should make its way into a build or a special project or whatever I can convince somebody to sponsor it I'm going to ask the fans to sponsor that that would be silly so that's pretty cool I also liked that it was really stable and seemed to be well supported in Linux booting into Linux and checking the peripherals and everything was Fedora 25 everything worked out of the box the sound work even the watch I go module because you know the Qualcomm chip set I was really worried about that you know a lot of other motherboard vendors have picked the Intel chipset over Qualcomm this generation but the Qualcomm chips that work fine and the Bluetooth seems to be working fine as well in it I can enumerate devices join wireless networks that sort of thing it is a two by two configuration so I mean we're not talking about like super crazy performance on the on the Wi-Fi module here but it did show up in a separate aisle in the new group so you could pass that through to a virtual machine if you want to with the advent of Linux kernel 4.10 and virtual GPU I'm really really hoping that vendors other than Intel will support you know the SR iov extensions for graphics cards so that graphics cards like the rx 480 and not necessarily like a fire GL or something expensive like that will support DP you pass through to virtual like Windows virtual machines under Linux but it will actually share with the host operating system so I'm really hoping we see driver support like that the motherboard supports it the motherboard for its part because it's a lot all your hardware has to support it has to support properly and I'm happy to report the hardware the motherboard is doing what it's supposed to as towards the iommu groups go and as far as you know that that types of thing go so that's good as well and you know of course the sound card worked under Linux Sound Blaster it's it's a pretty similar implementation to what we've seen it's just assembled with you know a little bit better components so that you get that 120 DB so it will signal to noise ratio and it is Sound Blaster certified if that's important to you so supreme effects creative labs if that's your thing there you go that's pretty much it there's not really a lot else to say it's an ITX motherboard with 2m - what else you want to know if you pick up one or you think about picking up one or you want to chat with other forum members about their thoughts on this or or see any details or if there's an update you can better believe it you'll find it on the forums at level one techs I'm one though I'm signing out I'll see you there\n"