Biostar's Z270GT9 Is Lone 200-Series Launch SKU, Offers 10Gbps NIC And NVMe SSD Bundle

[IInuyasha74]

Instead of releasing a wave of new motherboards based on Intel’s new Z270 chipset, Biostar focused its efforts on its Racing Z270GT9 flagship. Out of the gate, it's bundled with an Intel NVMe SSD.

Biostar's Z270GT9 Is Lone 200-Series Launch SKU, Offers 10Gbps NIC And NVMe SSD Bundle : Read more

 

[CaedenV]

2017 is going to be the year we finally see 10Gbps Ethernet coming to the home... next year I think we will see the first 'consumer' 10gig SoHo routers, then we will really be talking.

 

[PancakePuppy]

2017 is going to be the year we finally see 10Gbps Ethernet coming to the home... next year I think we will see the first 'consumer' 10gig SoHo routers, then we will really be talking.

With 8-port 10GBase-T switches still going for $1k, I don't think so.

 

[kal326]

10Gb needs to make it more mainstream. SOHO unmanaged switches that just allow 10Gb links without all the fancy configuration options could come down in price if there were "prosumer" models. With a lot of system's running SSD, multi disk home NAS products becoming more common, and larger platter drives with sustained read/write over 140MB/s, 1Gb LAN connections are actually really a bottleneck. Sure the vast majority of home users would never be able to saturate a 10Gb link, but they could certainly hit about 30-40% with SSD to SSD machine transfers.

 

[Crashman]

Uh, MJ, you do know that we frequently review motherboards with open-ended PCIe x1 slots, and that Intel even had an open-ended PCIe x4 slot with a separate hook bracket for the end of the card on one of its boards (back when it had boards).

So, I think the presence of x16 slots was just to get you to notice. And that worked. But it created more problems than it avoided, as most competing boards can support at least two M.2 drives including at least one 110mm M.2.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Uh, MJ, you do know that we frequently review motherboards with open-ended PCIe x1 slots, and that Intel even had an open-ended PCIe x4 slot with a separate hook bracket for the end of the card on one of its boards (back when it had boards).

So, I think the presence of x16 slots was just to get you to notice. And that worked. But it created more problems than it avoided, as most competing boards can support at least two M.2 drives including at least one 110mm M.2.

Hey Tom,

Yea, I was aware that often companies use open-ended x1 ports to support longer devices, but I still like this setup. It would hold longer cards more securely, and I suspect it would be easier for novices that can assemble a PC but don't know x16 cards would work in an x1 slot.

I actually need to update this soon as I found the actual connection on each slot. Surprisingly none of them are x1, they are all x4 or greater.

The M.2 slot bit is a bit of an issue. The one M.2 it has is limited to 80mm drives because of heatsinks used to cool the M.2 SSD. But really this board could have used another M.2, and they probably should have left that 2nd PCI-E slot off to make room for a second M.2 slot that can support 110mm SSDs.

 

[Crashman]

Uh, MJ, you do know that we frequently review motherboards with open-ended PCIe x1 slots, and that Intel even had an open-ended PCIe x4 slot with a separate hook bracket for the end of the card on one of its boards (back when it had boards).

So, I think the presence of x16 slots was just to get you to notice. And that worked. But it created more problems than it avoided, as most competing boards can support at least two M.2 drives including at least one 110mm M.2.

Hey Tom,

Yea, I was aware that often companies use open-ended x1 ports to support longer devices, but I still like this setup. It would hold longer cards more securely, and I suspect it would be easier for novices that can assemble a PC but don't know x16 cards would work in an x1 slot.

I actually need to update this soon as I found the actual connection on each slot. Surprisingly none of them are x1, they are all x4 or greater.

The M.2 slot bit is a bit of an issue. The one M.2 it has is limited to 80mm drives because of heatsinks used to cool the M.2 SSD. But really this board could have used another M.2, and they probably should have left that 2nd PCI-E slot off to make room for a second M.2 slot that can support 110mm SSDs.

With the board being this expensive, I wouldn't be surprised if they used a repeater switch like the 48-lane PLX. And that would give them x16/x16. Or x8/x4/x4/x8/x4/x8 at most, with one of the x4's coming off the chipset. That would be a standard 3-way SLI board, but then you'd need an eight-slot case for the bottom card. Or it could even be x8/x4/x8/x4/x8/x4, which would get your three cards into a seven slot case but with no extra space to cool the top card.

 

[CRamseyer]

I've talked about 10/5/2.5 GbE coming to the home for six months now. I met with Marvell at CES and the switches are coming. QNAP has a number of 10GbE-enabled NAS and ASUS has a $250 8-port switch with two 10GbE ports. The tech is coming but the big push was moved back to Computex

 

[Crashman]

I've talked about 10/5/2.5 GbE coming to the home for six months now. I met with Marvell at CES and the switches are coming. QNAP has a number of 10GbE-enabled NAS and ASUS has a $250 8-port switch with two 10GbE ports. The tech is coming but the big push was moved back to Computex

Then off to Computex you go!

 

[bit_user]

I have a minor complaint, but one I feel is worth mentioning. NIC = Network Interface Card, as in a PCIe card. I think it would be more accurate to say it has a 10 GbE MAC (Media Access Controller).

 

[Crashman]

I have a minor complaint, but one I feel is worth mentioning. NIC = Network Interface Card, as in a PCIe card. I think it would be more accurate to say it has a 10 GbE MAC (Media Access Controller).

Hey, you know how people can be with acronyms, they'll just change it to something less like "network interface controller". I've been having the same conversation for years about the use of VRM slang.

 

[bit_user]

Hey, you know how people can be with acronyms, they'll just change it to something less like "network interface controller".

Yeah, I thought about that, but decided to mention it since I'm probably not the only one to notice. I mean, if Tom's doesn't hold the line on technical accuracy, who will?

I'll drop the issue, now, since my only objective was to point it out. Thanks for acknowledging it. I respect your discretion on how to write future articles.

 

[Crashman]

Hey, you know how people can be with acronyms, they'll just change it to something less like "network interface controller".

Yeah, I thought about that, but decided to mention it since I'm probably not the only one to notice. I mean, if Tom's doesn't hold the line on technical accuracy, who will?

I'll drop the issue, now, since my only objective was to point it out. Thanks for acknowledging it. I respect your discretion on how to write future articles.

I've been calling voltage regulators PWM voltage regulators for quite some time because of my resistance to changing the meaning of technical initialism