Verdict and Conclusion
How does the Zotac Z77-ITX-A-E WiFi perform? Quite well, really.
It is perfectly functional for a standard desktop/gaming build, containing most of the same features as a full sized board as well as some that most full sized boards don’t offer.
The price is right in between the cheaper ASRock Z77 ITX board and the more expensive Asus flavor. This Zotac board looks like it has more features than either of them. The more expensive Asus board spent the money on the power section, while the ASRock left out some stuff the Zotac board has. At a MSRP of $179 this isn’t exactly a cheap board, but you pay for the small package. In any case, I’d call the price “decent” for what you get.
The features set is very impressive, especially that you get both a WiFi card and a mSATA slot (at the same time!), along with all the usual ports you’d expect on a desktop board.
The placement of parts on the rear of the board makes mounting a CPU cooler that requires a backplate tricky, I suspect the all-in-one water coolers like the Tt Water 2.0 series backplates will fit. They’re plastic in any case so they won’t short things out.
I like the looks of the board and the LEDs, for whatever that may be worth. Generally speaking I don’t spend a lot of time gazing lovingly into my computer.
The overclocking functions are a bit odd but work well. The “Additional Turbo Voltage” adds much more than it says it does, about three times as much! This is an issue in my opinion. It’s entirely possible that there will be a BIOS update will fix the issue, but right now it’s an issue.
The accessories package is nice, including a CPU power cable extension that turned out to be crucial for the mITX case install, as well as antennae for the WiFi and a USB3 header with full height and low profile brackets. The mini-DP to full size Display Port adaptor is nice too. I could have done without having to punch some holes out of the rear IO plate, but that’s a minor annoyance.
What you would need dual gigabit LAN plugs for on a mITX board I don’t know, but if you do need dual ports Zotac has you covered! Pretty impressive really.
Dual HDMI ports as well as a mini-DP port give you the option of having lots of monitors, but if your monitor doesn’t support HDMI or DisplayPort you’re going to need to buy an adaptor or a new monitor. A DVI port would consume some space, but would be nice to have. I don’t know if a connector block that combines HDMI and DVI exists, but one ought to fit under the MOSFET heatsink.
The board getting my RAM set correctly with me only having to enable XMP and set the ram voltage is quite nice, I’ve run into multiple full ATX boards that can’t do that!
All told there are plenty of pros:
- Tiny size, full functionality.
- Overclocks well.
- Plenty of connectivity, including dual gigabit Ethernet ports.
- Three monitor outputs, including full size HDMI.
- Built in WiFi and Bluetooth.
- mSATA slot for SSDs.
There are a few cons too:
- “Additional Turbo Voltage” BIOS setting adds more than it says it does.
- Having to punch the Antenna ports out of the IO plate was annoying.
- No DVI port.
- Mounting CPU coolers that require backplates is tough.
All told I give it an 8.9/10 score, the CPU voltage issues when overclocking pull it out of the 9 bracket for me. I’m quite impressed with it on the whole and definitely recommend you consider it if you’re after a LGA1155 ITX motherboard!
SCORE
8.9/10
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