It’s never too late to announce a Z270 motherboard. This time it’s ECS (or Elitegroup). It looks pretty high-end, but this market is saturated and very tough to crack. If the price is right … then let’s see how users will react.
ECS introduced its premium socket LGA1151 motherboard, the Z270-Lightsaber. A successor to the Z170-Lightsaber the company unveiled way back in January 2016, the board is packed to the brim with features. To begin with, it draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, conditioning it for the CPU with a 14-phase VRM. The socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory; and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated). The third x16 slot is electrical gen 3.0 x4, and wired to the Z270 PCH, and four PCI-Express 3.0 x1 slots make for the rest of its expansion.
Storage connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, and a 32 Gb/s U.2 port, with NVMe booting and Intel Optane support. USB connectivity includes two 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 ports, both of which are type-A, and eight 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 ports (six on the rear panel, two via headers). The onboard audio solution includes a 115 dBA SNR CODEC sitting on an elevated PCB of its own, besides ground layer isolation for the audio circuit that includes a replaceable TI NE5532AP OPAMP, and audio-grade capacitors. The gigabit Ethernet connection is driven by Killer E2500 controller. The board also features standardized RGB LED headers over two zones. The board also features dual-BIOS with manual switching between two EEPROMs. The company didn’t reveal pricing.
Source: Techpowerup
