A few days ago we have seen a little preview regarding upcoming next generation Intel Z270 motherboards from MSI. The early leak was based on the Z270 SLI Plus and the Z270 SLI, two models that will be part of the vendors mid-range offerings. Today, MSI, on their official Facebook page, have shown a new preview regarding the Z270 Tomahawk.


We all know that the launch of Kaby Lake and Intel Z270 is just around the corner and lately we are seeing new leaks almost every day. According to the image, it looks like both models are based on an ATX form-factor with four DIMM slots. Although the Tomahawk should be part of the mid-range series - at least with the Z170 chipset that was the case - we can clearly see some interesting features.

Speaking about the layout we see the first PCIe slot has been equipped with PCI-E Steel Armor, an I/O cover as well as two M.2 slots. Furthermore there are a few LEDs on the PCH's heatsink and close to the audio chip. At the moment we can't say if those LEDs are just red or RGB.

The image shows a couple of key features of this motherboard like the MSI Lightning X-Boost and the bandwidth of the USB 3.1. MSI claims to have achieved 1000 MB/s bandwidth for USB 3.1 (gen2) using a custom software feature. In addition, due to the ASMedia AS2142 controller, MSI guarantees full 8GB/s bandwidth per port on USB 3.1.

At a first glance the new Tomahawk Z270 looks like a huge step forward in terms of design, when compared to the Z170A Tomahawk. At the moment we haven't any more details but we are sure that other manufacturers will show little previews as well.




Source: Techpowerup.