Question 1

What do I need to connect this to the internet with the on-board WiFi? It looks like there are connections for antennas... is this 100% necessary or does it have WiFi right out of the box? If I do need an antenna, could someone make a suggestion based off of what they purchased? Thank you!

Accepted Answer

As with most of ASUS latest motherboard, it comes with the Bluetooth and WiFi antenna combo included in the box. It's a straightforward small solution, that I really like, a small module that rotates to standing position or flat position and it's magnetic, so you can attach it to the back of your case of wherever you want. So the simplest answer it's YES it has Wifi out of the box and you only have to attach the wifi antenna that's super easy to hide no like those rigid ones

Question 2

Is this a full tower or half tower motherboard?

Accepted Answer

It clearly says "Mini ITX," which is the smallest size and will make a very compact pc.  I would suggest that you research the Mini ITX, Micro ATX, and ATX form factors before you shop further.

Question 3

I have a MyDigitalSSD 240GB BPX (2280) M.2 PCI Express 3.0 x4 (NVMe) ordered and on the way.  I'm narrowing-down itx motherboard choices.  Will there be any problem with setting-up this motherboard to use the M.2 NVMe as a boot drive?  Thank you, I just want to be 100% sure before I ordered.

Accepted Answer

No there shouldn't be any problems as long as it's installed correctly. Most of the time its plug and play with SSD, but sometimes you may need to configure a few things.

Question 4

Hello, I purchased this motherboard along with an i7 7700k and got the CRYORIG H7 Tower Cooler. The coolers plastic backplate did not fit without making contact with components on the back side of the motherboard so I had to shave down some of the plastic on the backplate to make it fit well. I am getting CPU overheating and BSOD when stress testing CPU. I need to know which air cooler is the best for this motherboard? I plan on doing minor overclocking of the CPU. I ordered the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO because it seems to be the popular choice of many. Does that cooler fit this motherboard with no issues?

Accepted Answer

I actually have the mid size cryorig cooler on mine, and also had to shave down its back brackets a good bit to get it to fit. I used the provided thermal paste and I get GREAT thermals. You definitely have an issue. Go into the Asus hardware and test the cooler at 100% fan speed, and benchmark that. It should sound loud letting you know it's maxed. If you still have thermal issues, either your paste is bad, or the cooler. Otherwise it may just be an under agressive fan profile

Question 5

Can the 2x M.2 drives be put in RAID 0?

Accepted Answer

I have not done it but the manual says you can.  I just purchased a single Samsung 960 pro.  I felt it was safer using the fastest single drive instead of raid 0 - 2 slower drives.  From the reviews I read, there was very little speed increase from 2 raid 0 Samsung 960 drives.

Question 6

would this be compatible with a kraken x62?

Accepted Answer

According to builds on pcpartpicker, yes.
They used it, and I am using the Corsair H100i V2 AIO with mine.

in some builds they used a mini usb and just connected it to an outside port since the board doesn't have an onboard usb 2.0 header.

my setup is Pump plugged into the Pump header and my two radiator fans are plugged into the CPU fan header and instead of using the Corsair Link software I just use speedfan to control and monitor everything.

Good luck!

Question 7

Does this motherboard support NVME?

Accepted Answer

There are two M.2 connectors on this board. One is on the front and has a heat sink, and uses either a SATA 6 transport with the AHCI interface ... or ... a PCIe x 4 transport with a NVME interface.  The second is on the back of the motherboard where there will be no airflow in many cases; this one supports only PCIe x 4 and NVME.

Question 8

The case I am going to use has room for 2 SSD's.. with this having 2 m.2 ports I guess that means I can have a total of 4. So, would it be possible to have 2 m.2 drives and 2 SSDs, but use RAID to have them be treated like 1 big drive? Or would the separate SSDs have to be treated differently somehow?

Accepted Answer

I don't think you can raid M.2 drives only the 4 SSD's.  I would recommend getting a Samsung 960 pro M.2 for boot drive and a large SSD for storage ( or second M.2 for storage).

Question 9

Do I need to use the wifi antenna to connect headphones to bluetooth? Also is the bluetooth aptx?

Accepted Answer

I have connected my cellphone to my motherboard without issue, without using the antenna. I however am unsure of the aptx support.

Question 10

If I'm going to use air cooling and no RGB (going for silent and dark), do I need a USB 3 to USB 2 adapter for the motherboard connector? Any case I'm going to choose would only have USB 3 outputs... is USB 2 necessary at all direct from the board in that case?

Accepted Answer

The ASUS STIX Z270I motherboard has one 20 pin connector for the front panel USB 3.0 I/O.  Most new case have a cable that will mate with this header.  Other than the USB 3.1 header on the motherboard, all the other USB3.0 I/O connectors are access at the back panel.

Brand	ASUS
Series	ROG
Model	STRIX Z270I GAMING

CPU Socket Type	LGA 1151
CPU Type	Celeron / Core i3 / Core i5 / Core i7 / Intel Core 6th Gen (LGA 1151) / Intel Core 7th Gen (LGA 1151) / Pentium
Supported CPU Technologies	Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 * Not Compatible with Intel 8th Gen CPUs

Number of Memory Slots	2x288pin (DDR4)
Memory Standard	DDR4 4266(O.C.)/ 4133(O.C.)/ 4000(O.C.)/ 3866(O.C.)/ 3733(O.C.)/ 3600(O.C.)/ 3466(O.C.)/ 3400(O.C.)/ 3333(O.C.)/ 3300(O.C.)/ 3200(O.C.)/ 3000(O.C.)/ 2800(O.C.)/ 2666(O.C.)/ 2400/ 2133
Maximum Memory Supported	32GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

Serial ATA (SATA)	4 x SATA 6Gb/s
M.2	1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)1 1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)1 * 1 For a 2242 storage device, use the bundled 2242 mounting kit.
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

Audio Chipset	ROG SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC S1220A
Audio Channels	8 Channels

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ASUS ROG STRIX Z270I GAMING LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Motherboards - Intel

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LAN Chipset	Intel I219-V
Max LAN Speed	1Gbps
Wireless LAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Supports dual band frequency 2.4/5 GHz Supports MU-MIMO
Bluetooth	Bluetooth V4.1 4 4 Support for the Bluetooth specifcation depend on the Windows version. Windows 7 / 8 supports Bluetooth 4.0.

HDMI	1 x HDMI
RJ45	1 x RJ45
DisplayPort	1 x DisplayPort
USB 3.0	3 x USB 3.0 Type-A [blue]
USB 1.1/2.0	4 x USB 2.0
USB Type-C	1 x USB 3.0
S/PDIF Out	1 x Optical
Audio Ports	5 Ports
Antenna Connectors	1 x ASUS Wi-Fi GO! module (Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth v4.1)

Onboard USB	1 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 2 USB 3.0 port(s) 1 x USB 3.1 front panel connector
Other Connectors	1 x RGB Header(s) 1 x TPM connector(s) 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) 1 x Chassis Fan connector(s) 1 x AIO_PUMP connector 1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s) 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s) 1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP) 1 x System panel(s) 1 x Clear CMOS jumper(s) 1 x 14-1 pin TPM connector 1 x Thermal sensor connector

Form Factor	Mini ITX
Dimensions (W x L)	6.7" x 6.7"
Power Pin	24 Pin

Item#: 9SIC3X5KNJ1327