Layout

ASUS decided to give the ROG Strix Z270I Gaming a color scheme that's kept in black and grey. The PCB is matte black, the VRM aluminum heatsinks are silver-greyish the PCH cooler is black with a sheet metal cover that's received the ROG logo in silver. Apart from that there is the RGB lighting, which ASUS calls AURA. It allows you to make the board shine in your preferred color. The layout itself is well thought and since ASUS is always taking Intel's reference specifications regarding socket clearance into account, there is enough space to install large aircoolers.

The ASUS ROG Strix Z270I Gaming comes with a digital 10 phase power design. In general the power design on this board is more than adequate for the job at hand. It's even good for overclocking. Digging a little bit deeper into the details we find a PWM controller that's been labelled ASP1400BT, which regulates the 10 phases. Those cosist of 4C86N Dual-N-Channel MOSFETs from On Semiconductor and 10K capacitors. Overall this is a high quality power design although ASUS decided to go for a doubled phase design.

This board has been equipped with a total of two DIMM-slots. Officially supported is everything up to DDR4 4133 (O.C.). There is engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders. Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 2.0.

On the ROG Strix Z270I Gaming the southbridge is being cooled by a passive cooling block. A closer look at the VRM area shows there are two more individual passive heatsinks without heatpipe again. The overall build quality of the blocks is good, which makes for a product that feels very nice, when you're holding it in your hands. In the case of the PCH heatsink ASUS has come up with a special feature. The block consists of two parts. Removing the top plate reveals a thremal pad onto which a M.2 SSD can be put to receive additional cooling.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 14 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 15 - UC Bench
Page 3 - Features	Page 16 - Super Pi 1M / 32M
Page 4 - Layout	Page 17 - wPrime 1024M Multi Core
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O	Page 18 - Cinebench
Page 6 - BIOS	Page 19 - Tomb Raider
Page 7 - Test setup	Page 20 - Metro Last Light
Page 8 - Preview / Gallery	Page 21 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 9 - 3D Mark	Page 22 - Power Consumption
Page 10 - 3D Mark 11	Page 23 - Performance Rating
Page 11 - 3D Mark Vantage	Page 24 - Price Comparison
Page 12 - PC Mark 8	Page 25 - Conclusion
Page 13 - SiSoft Sandra 1