Finally some none AMD motherboard news in the shape of two new mini-ITX boards from Zotac with Intels Z68 chipset. The boards havent even been officially unveiled by the company as yet, which we would expect to happen next week at Computex, but both boards are already listed for sale in Japan.
The first of the two boards is the Z68ITX-WiFi and as with most of Zotacs mini-ITX boards, theres really very little missing. In fact, wed say that this is one of the most feature packed mini-ITX boards so far from Zotac. Although the board only has a single x16 PCI Express slot due to its form factor, Zotac has squeezed in four SATA ports, two SATA 6Gbps and two SATA 3Gbps as well as a horizontal mini PCI Express slot fitted with a Wi-Fi card and apprently an mSATA slot as well. There are also two full-size DIMM slots and what looks like a pair of USB 2.0 pin headers.
The rear I/O doesnt disappoint either with a PS/2 port, four US 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports, 7.1-channel audio with optical S/PDIF out and, wait for it, two HDMI ports and a mini DisplayPort connector. However, the next board is even more feature packed.
You mightve remembered seeing pictures of an early revision of the Z68ITX-B-E from CES or CeBIT earlier this year, well, this is the final board and it sports an integrated GeForce GT430. The GPU has been paired up with 1GB of memory, although were not sure which type. Due to the space taken up by fitting a full-size GPU on the board were looking at a pair of SO-DIMM memory slots, but the board should still have two SATA 6Gbps and two SATA 3Gbps ports and theres even an open ended PCI Express x4 slot on the board. Lets not forget the vertical mini PCI Express slot with a Wi-Fi card.
Around the back we have two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, 7.1-channel audio with optical S/PDIF out and a pair of DVI ports, an HDMI port and a full-size DisplayPort connector.
The Z68ITX-WiFi is priced at 19,800 Yen (S$301) while the Z68ITX-B-E comes in at a whopping 23,980 Yen (S$364), but wed expect these boards to retail for a lot less outside of Japan, as for whatever reason, electronics arent cheap in Japan. We should be getting a better look at these boards next week, so check back with us for some better pictures and more information from Computex.
Source: Impress Akiba PC Watch, Impress PC Watch
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