Yesterday ASRock unveiled the latest addition to their socket 1151 range, the Z170M-PIO2, a micro-ATX motherboard with a uniquely angled PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. The unusual slot placement allows for graphics card installation parallel to the plane of the motherboard. This means that in PIO form factor chassis there is no need to employ a riser card. The PIO form-factor is pretty new and is suited to creating all-in-one, small form factor PC designs based around the VESA wall-mount bolts of the display. Being able to mount the card parallel to the board means a beefier VGA card can be installed more easily inside the chassis of the display.

In terms of actual form factor the Z170M-PIO2 is compatible with both uDTX, micro-ATX and PIO form factors. Apart from the parallel PCIe slot headline feature, the board is pretty much a standard Z170 motherboard. The board supports a maximum of up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory a via pair of memory slots. As well as the PCIe x16 slot there is also an mPCIe slot for WLAN cards plus a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot. In terms of standard drive connectivity you are getting four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four USB 3.0 ports, and a standard Gigabit Ethernet port. It also features 6-channel HD audio. No word on pricing just yet.

Source: TechPowerUp