Zotac Z68-ITX WiFi Review
Introduction
Today we’re taking a look at the latest motherboard from Zotac. Based around the recently released Z68 chipset this is a seriously compact ITX form factor board with built in WiFi.Â
Indeed there are a few features on the Zotac that make it worthy of a second look as a potential board. There is Intel’s HD3000 GPU, room for a full-on discrete GPU should the mood take you and all the normal things we’d expect out of a Z68 based motherboard.
What really raises our eyebrows is the overclocking potential, something that isn’t always available on such tiny boards, but we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. Let’s take a look at the specifications.
Technical Specifications
As you can see with support for 2133MHz DDR3, SATA 3, USB 3.0 and a x16 PCIe slot this isn’t short of all the latest gadgets. It’s especially nice to see the on-board WiFi is of the 802.11n variety so it should get a great signal wherever you choose to place it, vital as obviously ITX boards lend themselves to HTPC applications.
| Model | Z68ITX-A-E |
| Manufacturer | Intel |
| Chipset | Z68 Express |
| GPU | Intel® HD Graphics 2000/3000 ready |
| Name | 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ series 2000 Series Intel® Core i3, i5 & i7 ready Support up to 130-watt TDP |
| Socket | LGA1155 |
| Memory Type | DDR3 |
| Memory Speed | 2133 MHz |
| Slots | 2 x 240-pin DIMM |
| Capacity | Up to 16GB |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x PCI Express x16 1 x Combo mini-PCI Express / mSATA (occupied by WiFi card) |
| DirectX | DirectX 10.1 |
| OpenGL | OpenGL 2.1 |
| Ethernet | 2 x 10/100/1000 Mbps |
| WiFi | 802.11n/g/b (300 Mb/s) |
| Analog | 8-ch HD |
| Digital | S/PDIF |
| DVI | NA |
| HDMI | 2 (HDMI 1.4a) |
| VGA | NA |
| DisplayPort | 1 (min-DP) |
| SATA | 2 (SATA 6.0 Gb/s) 2 (SATA 3.0 Gb/s) |
| eSATA | NA |
| IDE | N/A |
| PS/2 | 1 (keyboard/mouse) |
| Serial Port | NA |
| USB Ports | 4 USB 3.0 (2 on back panel, 2 on pin header) 8 USB 2.0 (4 on back panel, 4 on pin header) |
| Firewire | N/A |
| Cooler | Passive (without fan) |
| Form Factor | mini-ITX |
| Windows | Windows® Vista/7 premium ready |
| SLI Supported | No |
| Maximum Resolution | 2048×1536 |
| Package Contents | 4 x SATA cables 1 x I/O back plate 2 x WiFi antennas 1 x 8-pin power extension cable 1 x USB 3.0 header (full-size bracket) 1 x USB 3.0 low-profile bracket 1 x Vertical mini-PCI Express full height bracket (for mSATA SSDs) 1 x mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter |
