ASRock has just revealed one of the first sub-$100 Z170 motherboard that has USB 3.1 ports. The narrow ATX board is the Z170A-X1/3.1 and it supports Intel’s 6th Generation Core “Skylake” processors and up to 64GB DDR4 memory at speeds of DDR4-3400 via overclocking.
The board gets its power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors and has a 5-phase VRM for the CPU. As far as expansion slots go you have one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 that is wired to the CPU, a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x4 electrical) wired to the PCH, and three other PCI-Express 3.0 x1 slots. For storage you have six SATA 6 GB/s ports, which are actually located at the bottom of the board.
Of course the main selling point of this board is its pair of 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 ports, which include a type-A connector and a type-C connector. You will also find six more USB ports on the rear I/O as well as two more by headers on the board. The rest of connectivity is made up of Gigabit Ethernet (Intel controller), PS/2 ports, DVI, and 6-channel HD audio with ground layer isolation. ASRock is looking at a sub-$100 price point for this board.
