ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac: Mini-ITX Motherboard With Dual NICs, WiFi, Triple Display For ~$130 USD

Written by Michael Larabel in Motherboards on 12 October 2017 at 09:30 AM EDT. Page 1 of 3. 42 Comments.

If you are looking to build a small HTPC system, NAS / network device, or other petite system, the ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac is a bargain motherboard for Intel's new Coffee Lake LGA-1151 processors. This brand new motherboard retails for around $130 USD while offers dual Gigabit NICs, dual HDMI + DisplayPort, 820.11ac WiFI, 6 x SATA 3.0 ports, and a M.2 slot all within a mini-ITX form factor.

With many Intel Z370 motherboards retailing for $200 USD or more, the Z370M-ITX/ac is surprisingly inexpensive while offering a lot for those wanting a mini-ITX board. That's what led me to this board when needing another motherboard to buy for our Coffeelake CPU Linux tests... This board is among the least expensive Z370 boards out right now while having a lot of interesting capabilities for fitting on its 6.7 x 6.7 inch PCB. Plus as I've found out, plays well with Linux.

The ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac is designed for the 8th Generation Coffeelake processors, supports DDR4-4000+ memory in its OC mode, offers a lone PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot due to its mITX size, offers two HDMI ports and one DP to be able to drive three monitors simultaneously, 7.1 channel HD audio via the Realtek ALC892 codec, six Serial ATA 3.0 ports, one Ultra M.2 socket for NVMe SSD storage, eight USB 3.1 Gen1 ports (six of which are on the rear I/O panel), dual Intel Gigabit LAN, official support for Intel Optane memory, Intel 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2.

I purchased this Z370M motherboard last week for $135 USD from NewEgg.com plus a $10 mail-in-rebate to further drop the price this month. This board remains in-stock at major Internet retailers for around the $130 price point. Given it's a budget ASRock motherboard, the only bundled accessories are a few SATA cables, two antennas for the 802.11ac WiFi, M.2 screw, rear I/O panel, and the documentation / Windows driver CD.

The overall layout of the Z370M-ITX/ac is fine and I didn't have any complaints about it. Due to the small size, only two DDR4 DIMMs are supported, the stock Intel heatsink fit fine, and I didn't run into any other spacing issues.

I love that this mini-ITX Intel motherboard offers support for driving three displays and used two HDMI + one DP, rather than a DVI port that occupies a lot of space. This also allows for fitting the six USB 3.1 ports at the rear, dual Ethernet ports, tow USB 2.0 ports, audio, and the dual antenna connections for the onboard WiFi.


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