Looking at the Z270 and H270 line-up from ASUS quite a few things have changed compared to the previous generation and one of those things is the “ROG STRIX” series. There is now a complete lineup of STRIX Gaming motherboards with the ROG STRIX H270I Gaming being the company’s mini-ITX offer, featuring RGB lighting. This motherboard is quite similar to the ROG STRIX Z270I we’ve already reviewed a few months ago.


The ROG STRIX H270I Gaming is an ITX form-factor motherboard. As with all other STRIX Gaming series motherboards this mini-ITX model comes with the AURA feature as well, allowing you to change the illumination of the board from within Windows. In the case of expansion slots there is one full-sized and metal-strengthened PCIe slot as well as two M.2 slots. Since there is not much space available on mini-ITX motherboards to begin with, ASUS created a PCH heatsink that doubles as a cooler for the first M.2 drive. The second drive can be mounted in the slot that’s on the back-side of the PCB. Having a quick look at the SATA connectors we find four of them supporting the SATA-III standard.

Like other ROG STRIX motherboards the heat sinks feature a dark silver paintjob and RGB backlight. Looking for additional features we find USB 3.0 ports internally and externally and a good mix of connectors at the I/O panel. There is a Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac module that also supports Bluetooth v4.1. Unlike the Z270-brother the STRIX H270I Gaming packs two Ethernet ports, one with an Intel chip and another powered by a Realtek RTL8111H controller.

At first glance this is certainly a good looking motherboard. So far ASUS has not revealed details on pricing and availability, but it should be a bit cheaper than it’s Z270I sibling.




Source: ASUS