If the 9.6x9.6-inch standard of MicroATX motherboards isn't quite small enough for your compact-PC aims, the 6.7x6.7-inch Mini-ITX is the way to go.
Case makers have upped their game in the niche world of Mini-ITX chassis of late, giving DIY builders (and particularly gamers) some exciting options for compact PCs.
The ECS Durathon 2 Z270H4-I ($129.99) is one such Mini-ITX board, sporting an LGA 1151 socket and the Z270 chipset so you can scratch that tiny Intel 7th Generation "Kaby Lake" PC itch.
Of course, the board also supports 6th Generation "Skylake" Intel Core processors, along with Pentium and Celeron CPUs from those two CPU generations.
The Z270 chipset supports overclocking on Intel K series processors, and while heavy overclocking may be better suited to full-size PCs that have room for high-end cooling and more airflow, there's no reason you can't squeeze some extra performance from your tiny, Mini-ITX LAN-party rig if you are diligent about it.
ECS is targeting the Z270H4-I at gamers and overclockers (often one and the same) who want a compact PC that can hold its own with modern video games.
The board has several gaming-friendly features, including ECS's own "Leet Superior Audio," its Dual LanFast II Ethernet controller package, and support for Intel's drive-caching Optane Memory tech.
The Z270H4-I doesn't have built-in Wi-Fi, which might throw users who are planning their compact PC with portability in mind, but a dedicated short M.2 connector and included antennas make adding wireless connectivity as easy as dropping in a tiny $25 card like this Wireless-AC model from Intel.
Although we wouldn't call the the board's $129 price trifling, it's on the low side for a board with the Z270 chipset, especially a compact Mini-ITX model.
Unfortunately, shopping around isn't likely to net you a better deal; we saw the Z270H4-I available only from Newegg.com when we wrote this in June 2017.
Design and Features
A cramped layout is to be expected on the 6.7x6.7-inch square that is the Mini-ITX motherboard standard.
For one thing, the lone PCI Express x16 slot necessarily sits at the bottom of the board, forcing motherboard makers to find new locations for the headers that would traditionally line the lower edge of a MicroATX or ATX model.
Despite the space restriction, ECS managed to keep the area surrounding the Z270H4-I's CPU socket remarkably clear.
Mini-ITX cases are often slim, requiring low-profile heatsinks that are a little wider at the base than most tower-style coolers, but the Z270H4-I provides enough space for most coolers here.
ECS put a single capacitor between the LGA 1151 CPU socket and the memory slots, leaving plenty of room for users to reach the socket's lever.
The two memory slots don't have nearly as much elbow room as the CPU socket enjoys, particularly near the SATA headers, which stand about 3cm away.
Still, that was just enough room to leave a sliver of clearance between the heatsinks on our Kingston Predator HyperX modules and the Z270H4-I's SATA connectors.
And the slots aren't nearly so crowded at the upper and lower ends, meaning memory installation shouldn't be difficult.
The two dual-channel memory slots support DDR4 at overclocked speeds up to 3,200MHz, though the standard maximum speed is 2,133MHz (PC4 17000).
As for capacity, the slots support up to 32GB (as two 16GB DIMMs), which is typical for Mini-ITX boards sporting Intel's Z270 chipset.
The Z270H4-I lacks LEDs, which will be a strike against it for some users, but a non-issue for others.
Onboard LEDs are standard fare on gaming-friendly ATX and MicroATX motherboards these days, and LED lighting-strip headers are nearly as common.
But motherboard makers have generally relegated LEDs and lights to higher-end Mini-ITX boards.
With Mini-ITX cases trending toward having windows, we wouldn't be surprised to see future Mini-ITX motherboards get LED bling more often.
Mini-ITX boards support just one PCI Express x16 slot, which is a key difference between the Mini-ITX and the slightly larger MicroATX form factors.
The Z270H4-I's PCI Express x16 slot doesn't have the steel reinforcement you'll see on sportier motherboards.
The slot stood up to our large test video card without showing any signs of stress, but some light jostling like we did can't match the beating a motherboard will endure when you carry a PC to multiple LAN events—or worse, ship it across the country.
That's why we like to see some extra support for PCI Express x16 slots on gaming motherboards.
The Z270H4-I's I/O panel takes up most of the 6.7-inch edge of the board, leaving just enough room for the lone x16 slot.
ECS makes use of the space between the left edge of the board and the PCI Express x16 slot by stashing its Nichicon audio-grade, solid capacitors there, not far from the Realtek ALC1150 audio chip.
ECS also saved some precious motherboard space by attaching the system battery, mounted vertically, to the bottom of the 7.1-channel audio ports and then snaking the battery's cable through the capacitors to a header near the other side of the board.
As we mentioned earlier, the Z270H4-I doesn't have built-in wireless connectivity, but it's well prepared for users who want to add a wireless card.
The smaller of the board's two M.2 connectors, which sits directly next to the Z270 chipset, supports Type-2232 (32mm) wireless cards.
If you pick up one of these cards (802.11ac cards go for about $25 to $40), you can simply plug it in and attach the Z270H4-I's included antennas, which have a dedicated space in the I/O panel.
Some buyers will like having the flexibility to choose their own wireless card.
But the extra hassle (and expense) will annoy others.
Flip the Z270H4-I over, and you'll see the other M.2 connector.
With free range here and unencumbered by the components that sit on the top of the board, ECS was free to design a connector here that supports Type-2242 (42mm) and Type-2280 (80mm) PCI Express storage devices.
Thanks to its Z270 chipset, the board supports up to 32GB of Intel Optane Memory, which you can install here instead of an SSD to give your system's hard drive (or, to a lesser degree, another SSD) a performance boost.
(It's worth noting that you'll need to install a Kaby Lake processor, not a 6th Generation/"Skylake" one, to take advantage of Optane Memory.)
Placing an M.2 connector on the back side of the motherboard results in one glaring drawback: Once you install the motherboard, you'll need to completely remove it from the case to access that M.2 connector again.
Adding storage once the initial build is complete (or upgrading it a year or two from now) could be a headache.
But we'd rather have the M.2 here than not at all.
And given the size of the board, it's not uncommon to see a connector like M.2 moved to the board's back.
Ports and Headers
The Durathon 2 Z270H4-I's I/O panel sports a total of eight USB ports.
Five of those are USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) Type-A ports, while two more are USB 2.0 Type-A ports.
The remaining USB connector is a USB 3 Type-C port, which is handy for connecting the latest phones and other gadgets.
We'd like to see a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port (or two) here to accommodate the fastest devices.
But then, we've yet to see any storage device or peripheral that takes full advantage of USB 3.1 Gen 2's 10Gbps bandwidth.
ECS refers to its two USB 2.0 ports, which have yellow tabs, as "Gaming Ports." They're designed to provide faster communication for mice and keyboards.
A PS/2 port sits above the USB 2.0 ports in another nod to longtime gamers: Some legacy keyboards use the PS/2 connector to provide N-key rollover.
Two Gigabit Ethernet ports sit atop the USB ports, near the Z270H4-I's array of audio jacks.
Dubbed "Dual LanFast II," the pair is geared toward providing low latency for gaming tasks by taking advantage of parallel wired connections.
ECS powers the ports with an Intel 1219-V controller and a Realtek Dragon 8118AS controller.
Both of the ports have status LEDs, which is a nice touch.
The Z270H4-I's space for Wi-Fi antennas is between the USB 2.0 ports and the Z270H4-I's DisplayPort and HDMI port.
This space is empty by default, with the connector tucked in among the accessories.
If you plan to add a M.2 wireless card, you can screw the antenna bracket into place in a couple of minutes.
The board's four SATA3 ports sit in two locations, one of which we like much more than the other.
The first and second connectors sit on the right edge of the Z270H4-I, while SATA 3 and SATA 4 sit on the other side of the memory DIMM slots.
These are the connectors that we mentioned earlier, when discussing the close quarters for your memory modules.
The proximity between the two parts won't cause trouble when you're installing the memory (or the SATA connectors for that matter), but it does mean that you'll probably have to route the SATA cable directly over the memory modules, unless you have some ninja-grade cable-management skills.
The Z270H4-I has a USB 3.0 header on the right side of the board, near the front-panel power-switch header.
That's a common-sense spot for the USB 3.0 header, and we wish ECS had been able to find a similar spot for the USB 2.0 header, which ended up, along with the front-panel-audio header, near the left side of the board.
Running cables to those headers without draping them across the board takes some work.
PCs based on Mini-ITX motherboards generally don't need as many fan headers as PCs carrying larger boards, but we think a third fan header on the Z270H4-I would have been worthwhile.
The CPU fan and system fan headers sit together at the top of the board, as you can see here...
With the board's layout and features out of the way, let's take a look at the Z270H4-I's accessories.
Accessories
The ECS Durathon 2 Z270H4-I is a no-nonsense motherboard, and its accessories package reflects that theme.
The box includes two SATA cables with straight connectors, the antenna bracket and antennas for your M.2 Wi-Fi card, and the I/O shield.
We like that ECS left tabs over the antenna cutouts in the shield, avoiding unnecessary gaps for those who don't plan on using wireless connectivity.
ECS ships the Z270H4-I with two user guides and a utility/driver DVD.
One guide features setup instructions, while the other details the board's features and walks you through the BIOS menus.
The illustrations are on the small side, but both guides provide adequate information about the motherboard.
Test Build
We put the Durathon 2 Z270H4-I into a RioToro CR480 chassis and plugged an Intel Core i3-6100 processor into the CPU socket.
We followed that up with a Corsair Hydro Series H60 liquid cooler and Kingston HyperX Predator memory.
We put a bulky XFX Radeon R7 370 Double Dissipation Black Edition video card into the PCI Express x16 slot.
We didn't run into any trouble while installing the motherboard.
As we mentioned earlier, the board's layout means that those who want a meticulous build will have to spend a little extra time on cable management, but that's hardly a major problem.
The board has clear, bright labels that are easy to spot in most cases.
Those opting for liquid cooling will be better off positioning the water block so that the elbows don't extend to the right, as they can crowd the memory DIMMs (as we found out with our setup above).
After the initial test installation, we installed a wide, fan-based CPU cooler to see whether it would interfere with memory installation; it left plenty of room for installing both modules.
The BIOS: A Brief Look
The Durathon 2 Z270H4-I BIOS opens to the EZ Mode by default (which looks an awful lot like a cross between the user interfaces from Star Trek: The Next Generation and KITT from the original Knight Rider).
The menu offers an overview of important system stats, including CPU and memory voltages, system temperatures, and fan speeds.
You can access some settings from here, but most of the options you'll need are relegated to the Advanced section of the BIOS.
One option you can adjust from this page is the boot order, which appears as a row of tiles at the bottom of the page.
(You can see it above.) Simply drag a tile to the left, and you've adjusted the boot order.
Interestingly, you can toggle to a different version of this interface by pressing the F9 key on your keyboard.
Both versions let you enable a Performance mode, but the second version of the menu also features Normal and Quiet options.
As with EZ Mode, the menus in Advanced mode support mouse or keyboard navigation.
The Advanced section doesn't have the slick graphics of EZ Mode, but it's where you'll want to go if you plan to manually overclock.
That's also true of most other changes you're likely to make in the BIOS.
Although the motherboard has just two fan headers on it, the BIOS has a comprehensive Smart Fan menu that lets you track and adjust fan-speed profiles.
The Motherboard Intelligent BIOS X ("M.I.B.
X") menu handles overclocking duties for the Z270H4-I.
It breaks into submenus by CPU, graphics (onboard), memory, and voltage.
Critical component-status info (like CPU speed and memory speeds) appear on the top M.I.B.
X menu for quick reference.
We've seen BIOS menus with better graphical interfaces, but it's hard to argue with the no-frills, drill-down menu approach.
The Z270H4-I's BIOS is easy to navigate and has the features you'd expect from a midrange board.
Conclusion
Building any small PC is a process of deciding which features you can do without—and that's before factoring in the limitations of your budget.
If you want a small system, but can't live without dual graphics cards, you're looking at a MicroATX board.
But if going small is critical to you, and you can live with a single graphics card, the tiny Mini-ITX form factor is the way to go.
If that's where you end up in your planning, you certainly could do worse than the ECS Durathon 2 Z270H4-I as a starting point.
The Z270H4-I is no showboat.
Lights and fancy enthusiast options are absent, and the barcode stickers on the tops of the I/O port blocks give the motherboard a utilitarian look, though you could remove those, of course.
But "no frills" doesn't mean "no features," and the Z270H4-I has just enough of those to appeal to gamers.
And at $129, the Z270H4-I's price tag will put a smaller dent in your build budget than the bulk of Z270 boards in this form factor.
ECS went out of its way to provide a solid audio experience...
