ASUS Z270I Strix ITX Motherboard Review

Introduction

Through our first set of Z270 reviews we discovered that the ASUS Strix – in F and E guises – was a surprisingly good motherboard. With the Strix brand suitably established it makes a lot of sense for ASUS to use this identity to offer the public an alternative to their long-established ROG brands of the Maximus and Rampage.

The ASUS Strix fits this space perfectly, being aimed squarely at the gaming audience but with enough features to pique the interest of anyone who wants to have the latest Intel Chipset underpinning their system.

We know that not everyone wants a full size ATX motherboard in their system, either because they have their heart set on a case that’s only an ITX option, or just for reasons of space. That’s where the Z270I Strix ITX ‘board comes in, promising all the features we saw from their F and E options but in the more compact form factor.

Does it live up to the promise of its big brothers?

Technical Specifications

It might only be a single PCI Express, dual-channel RAM motherboard because of the real estate limitations from the ITX form factor, but it is only there that there is an obvious reduction in featureset over the bigger motherboards. The Z270I still has Intel LAN, dual-band WiFi, plenty of USB connections, support for up to 4266MHz DDR4… wherever you look there is a feature to entice you. But let’s not discuss them all here and leave nothing for the next page. Time to take a closer look.