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The next stop on our Computex tour was with ASRock, as we took aprt in their global press conference. We were introduced to their new 100 Series Motherboards in preparation for Intel’s Skylake CPU’s, their new Beebox mini PC, as well as a new (and very sleek router).
ASRock is basing their new motherboard series off an easily identifiable insect, the prying mantis. Why you may ask? The praying mantis is swift, efficient and effective. What more do we need to say when we take this concept to probably the top motherboard manufacturer in the market to date? The first motherboard we were introduced to is the Z170 Gaming K6. It is an ATX board featuring support for Intel’s 6th generation core processor, Digi Power 12 Power Phase Design, multi-GPU configurations, 4 X DDR4 memory, 3 PCIe x16 expansion slots, 1 Ultra M.2 slot, 10 SATA3 Ports and 2 SATA Express ports. Also included is two USB 3.1 ports, for both Type A and C.
Also being introduced was the ASRock Z170 Extreme7 motherboard. While boasting many of the same features as the Gaming K6, it also features three Ultra M.2 ports. This allows for massive storage expansion and data speeds, something of which is rather unique to ASRock boards.
ASRock also introduced the world’s first USB 3.1 Front Panel Expansion for Type A and Type C ports. This expansion utilizes one of the SATA Express ports on your motherboard and lets you easily attach your USB 3.1 device to the front of your PC chassis.
Next up, we were introduced to the Beebox, the world’s first Intel NUC Mini PC to feature USB 3.1 Type C Port. In addition to this, the Beebox supports Intel’s N3000 Processor, two channel DDR3 memory, and a mSATA SSD. The Beebox is boasted to be the only Mini PC capable of 4K playback support. While other Mini PC’s may be able to handle 4K, they may not be able to handle the playback. The Beebox will be available in three colors (black, white and gold) and will be available in barebones, hardware without OS and with OS configurations. You can expect the Beebox to tout a price point ranging from $150 to $250. It will be available shortly after the release of Windows 10 (i.e., July 29th 2015), as the Beebox will be fully equipped with the aforementioned operating system.
Lastly, we were shown the latest router from ASRock, the G10 Gaming Router, and detachable travel router.
The G10 features a dual core 1.5GHz processor, 802.11ac Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi across 2.4 and 5 GHz, it is equipped with 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and 8 Internal High Powered Antennae. It also features MU-MIMO and Gaming Boost Bandwidth Prioritization by Application. Not to mention that this is probably the best looking router to date.
The travel router is used exactly as it sounds, for travelling. You simply unplug the travel router from the G10 and you can plug it into any HDTV for streaming from your mobile device. A very sleek and innovative feature that has been rarely, if ever, seen before.
Stay tuned for more coverage of Computex 2015 here at Technology X!