Verdict and Conclusion

I had high hopes coming into this review, and Zotac has matched them with their Z68-ITX-WiFi motherboard.

It has all the features of larger motherboards (more than some!), built in wifi, excellent overclocking abilities, and an absolutely tiny form factor.

Throughout the review I was impressed, there were very few issues.  The one problem that I had was that the early BIOS my board had wouldn't allow me to overclock!  The folks at Zotac were nice enough to send me a beta version of the next bios, which fixed things right up (that bios is now in full release, upgrading the bios is very easy if you have an older board.  I imagine the new boards are shipping with the new bios).

The only annoying thing I ran into other than that was that in certain conditions there is an inductor whine related to HDD usage.  I never did figure out what was causing it or where exactly it was coming from, partly because it stopped doing it after a while.  I could only hear it with an open test stand and my head near the motherboard though, I doubt you'd be able to hear it more than a couple feet away, or at all with the motherboard in a case.

So, the Pros:

• Tiny ITX form factor.
• Supports all the modern features, including CPUs to make a tiny HTPC fly.
• WiFi built in.
• Excellent tech support from Zotac.

Nothing being perfect, the Cons:

• Part time inductor noise with HDD activity.
• Backplate type CPU coolers hard to mount.
• Initial release bios OCing bugs.  (Fixed in later boards)

All told, if you're planning on building a tiny high power computer, definitely check out the Zotac Z68-ITX-WiFi!  I give it a nine out of a possible ten, and a Recommended logo!

SCORE
9/10

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