ASRock FATAL1TY H270M Performance MicroATX Motherboard

I end up building about one computer per year for my business or friends and family, so I'm not a cracker jack builder, nor am I an old phoof that's way behind the times. If you're looking for a respectably quick, reasonably priced, not on the leading edge motherboard, this is a good pick. I specifically wanted a microATX format board with dual M.2 slots so I could setup two NVMe SSDs in a Raid 0 configuration. If that last part made no sense to you, you'll probably love this board. If, like me, you're looking for the speed of two solid state drives, running in a striped configuration on the fastest interface, you may want to look further. I've setup this very configuration on ASUS motherboards with very little fuss. I had considerable trouble getting this board up and running; however, I did succeed. The final system is very fast and ultimately cost a fraction of what would have been paid to buy a comparable store bought system. The problems I had were attributable to ASRock, Intel, and of course, Microsoft.The basic problem is Windows 10 doesn't recognize the RAID configuration. If the drive(s) are used in standard AHCI mode (non-RAID), I'd think things would be fine. To use the SSDs in a RAID configuration (as your system drive), you must load drivers prior to loading Windows or Windows won't see the drives/RAID. The Windows installation does give you the opportunity to manually load drivers, and the ASRock UEFI has a nice feature that will copy the required drivers off the system CD ROM to a flash drive for the process. Unfortunately, when I did this, windows started to load the drivers and then said they were too old and stopped (obviously failing the install).The driver files are part of the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) system. If you go to the Intel support site, you'll easily find files for RST. They will be part of an .EXE file that contains an easy to use installer. Of course this only works if you have an operating system under which you can run the .EXE file. The .sys, .cat, and .inf files Windows wants during the install can be found in the appropriately named f6flpy-x64.zip file. Ignore the files with names like SetupRST.zip or SetupOptaneMemory.zip. I have to digress here...what IDIOT thought f6flpy-x64.zip would be a good name for a zip file containing the RST drivers. How about a name like RSTdrivers-x64.zip? Okay, I feel better now. Anyway, download the latest version of the f6flpy-x64.zip (or -x86 depending on 64 or 32 bit system), unzip the file and save the contents to a flash drive.If the BIOS version is less than 2.0 go to ASRock and get the latest version and install it BEFORE installing windows. It can be done after but surprises will be held to a minimum if done before (BIOS settings will be reset).If your MB came with an older BIOS, go on the web and google the setup procedure for the SSDs in a RAID configuration (the manual will be out of date if you update the BIOS). If you use the manual that comes with the MB, read the section on setting up a RAID CAREFULLY and be sure you're reading the section on setting up a RAID using the M.2 slots not the SATA interface. You essentially need to enable the M.2 slots, tell the BIOS you want to run in RAID mode, adjust the BIOS boot mode to using the UEFI only, and then create the RAID. Older BIOSs incorporate the RAID creation into the UEFI directly, newer versions have you start the RAID software at boot-up with a Ctrl-I (after enabling in the BIOS).Once the RAID is created, start the Windows installation. To minimize confusion, remove any SATA hard drives while doing the installation. When windows gets to the part where it wants to know where it should install to, you'll see a blank list box (if you removed all other hard drives). Below the list box are several items. One of them is "load drivers". Click that and you're asked to put in the CD or browse. Browse to the flash drive with the files from the f6flpy-x64.zip file and say okay. Follow the rest of the prompts and enjoy your new system with extremely fast system drive.

The ASRock FATAL1TY H270M Performance MicroATX Motherboard is exactly what I needed for a smaller build for our living room. BUT, this board does not work well out of the box and requires a lot of extra steps to get it up and running.The biggest issue is that the board will not recognize a GTX 1070 (and likely anything newer) without a BIOS update. Thought this would be easy, but the flash function in the BIOS is buggy. It appears that the BIOS specifically requires a 1gb+ USB stick in FAT32 format to recognize the file (or the BIOS freezes), and even then it can stick and freeze a few times. The onboard Intel graphics did work out of the box (Thank God).The instruction/spec sheet manual is written in such small lettering in a very pale gray lettering, which did require my to use a flashlight and magnifier with my aging eyes. Not the end of the world, but I wish it was language specific with a decent font/typeface.Everything else is great. Once working… it’s flawless. Here’s hoping it gives me years of use.

stupid thing failed in a year old I bought it march 7th 2017 and It failed already do not and I repeat dont buy this borad it will give you heck and its stupid

Used with an Intel core i5-7500T, ddr4, and a 1060 6gb. Works well so far!

Was just what the gamer needed

Just what I needed

Noticed nothing wrong with it, works perfectly and has a great looking BIOS screen - I would recommend going for an 8th gen or 9th gen motherboard though, as it's more modern.

Does exactly what I need it to do

Bonjour, mon expérience sur le produit sera très bref car j'ai acheté cette carte mère en secours au cas ou ma carte mère actuelle tomberais en panne. J'ai testé le produit, il fonctionne parfaitement bien, donc j'en suis ravis. Livraison dans les délais, et emballage adapté au produit. Merci.

Excelente tarjeta madre facil de intalar y compatible con muchos de los dispositivos en el mercado