Asrock Z97E-ITX/ac (LGA-1150) Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac is available for $134.99 from Newegg USA. For our consumers in Europe, OverclockersUK stock it for £109.99. ASRock backs this with a 3-year limited parts warranty.

Summary

Wow, to put it simply. ITX form factor motherboards are still relatively new in the PC market, but they have taken the world by storm, allowing users to build smaller and more economical computers, usually ending up as Home Theatre PC’s (HTPC) in the main room of the house. The ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac is simply astounding, providing equal or better performance to its full-sized Z97 alternatives. It packs every feature you could possibly ask for, maybe a full-sized M.2 port location would have helped, but that’s being picky.

The sheer performance of this little motherboard is awesome. I couldn’t knock it if I tried. It outperformed the comparative competition in almost all tests. If it was behind, the difference was negligible. It comes from a reputable manufacturer, so you can expect this to perform as good on day 1 to the day it packs up in many, many years. Not only the performance of this is amazing, but its price point. There are other options out there for the ITX consumers to choose from, but these are not the full-fat Z97 chipset with all the features this packs in. It includes 6 SATA ports for internal storage and an additional 16 USB ports including internal headers. There were times in the recent past where full-sized ATX motherboards struggled to equip that many storage options. The software, which you have the option of downloading, is very well thought out and includes a lot of useful apps and widgets to monitor the computer and also general programs like Google Chrome are offered as a two click download.

I can honestly not find a single bad point about this motherboard, it includes everything that you would come to expect from Z97 ATX, but packed into a matchbox. One thing which I have picked up on, which isn’t motherboard related; the Appshop is a little unresponsive. You have to hover over the button, move away and move back over for the button to react to the cursor presence.

If I was to recommend anything, being really picky again here, I would relocate the SATA headers to the edge of the board, or even underneath. Most, if not all, computer cases nowadays have a rear CPU tray cutout for easier access to the rear CPU socket; this motherboard is small enough to easily have rear mounted SATA headers and pass the cables through the cut out (you read it here first guys and gals). Along with the relocation of the SATA headers, I would also move the M.2 port; its current location cannot accept full-sized M.2 SSD cards, which proved bothersome during our testing.

Pros

• Outstanding performance for ITX size
• High quality audio
• Excellent networking options: Killer NIC and Intel 802.11AC
• No performance penalty for its size

Cons

• Half sized M.2 slot
• Appshop could be a little reactive
• Average Audio performance let the overall rating of the motherboard down.

“The ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac, a perfect combination of ATX power and features in an ITX package. Ideal for a smart HTPC set up and one of the best Mini-ITX boards available today!”

Thank you to ASRock for providing this review sample.