Interest-check: Group purchase Z270X LN2 board

[Massman]

Hey guys,

 

Some of you have been asking about making the Z170X-SOC Force LN2 board retail. I'm not sure if it will actually go retail, but a possible way out would be to do a group-order ourselves.

 

Who'd be interested in buying one of the LN2 board? If there is sufficient demand, it should be possible for HWBOT to do the order and then ship to everyone else.

[zeropluszero]

Wow really you can do this?

Its a really nice board guys. You'll love it.

[Massman]

Anything is possible with the right order quantity

[GtiJason]

Looks like a great board, I've got the Z97 version and everytime I use it I improve and am starting to get some great mem timings/clocks. The sweetspot for me would be < $300 usd but might think about it at $350. This goes for either a Z170 or Z270 ? chipset if that's the way they chose to go. This price must include Sofos 1990 and Dinos22's signature on the board

 

 

Edit: while we're at it, let's try and get ASRock to make us an IOCF please

Edited August 29, 2016 by GtiJason

[websmile]

Honestly, if it does not cost an arm or leg, I am interested and would buy - it depends on the price, my limit would be around 300 Euros shipped - this is much money for me but it would be worth it for me

[aerotracks]

In for one, thanks for getting this together

[Alan_Alberino]

Z270 is too near now, make a z270-soc force LN2 close to launch date (and not a year later) and make everyone happy

[speed.fastest]

To make them cheap, we dont even need sound card, plx, or other gimmick, pure oc board

[d0minat0r]

with 4 sata, and minimal LAN and audio. Strong PWM for CPU and RAM. Without accecories

[knopflerbruce]

What's the budget for designing a motherboard? Not completely from scratch, but like something similar to this LN2 one.

[Massman]

If my memory serves me right, designing a new motherboard costs around USD $100k-150k. This would include everything from VRM design, PCB and trace lay-out, bios, getting early samples to debug, etc. Of course also includes all the man-hours to work on this. An easy way to reduce the cost is to use one design for multiple SKUs and add/remove certain features.

 

It's quite a costly affair

[Xtreme Addict]

If my memory serves me right, designing a new motherboard costs around USD $100k-150k. This would include everything from VRM design, PCB and trace lay-out, bios, getting early samples to debug, etc. Of course also includes all the man-hours to work on this. An easy way to reduce the cost is to use one design for multiple SKUs and add/remove certain features.

 

It's quite a costly affair

 

As far I remember Nick told me similar cost back in days when I asked him, 70k-100k USD so indeed it's not cheap.

 

Regarding the topic -as far as I remember, GB told me they are able to order small quantity of boards (like batch of 10 pieces) so in fact this group order might work out.

[Strong Island]

I would love one but the previous comments just made me realize how much I have already spent on z170 and pretty much have a board for every scenario. So far I bought 2 m8e's, impact, oc formula, mocf. And still have 1 m8e, impact and mocf.

 

I like the idea of a z270 ln2 board. I would love to pay some money now and have one right when z270 boards drop, that sounds amazing. A nice kaby lake with a brand new z270 ln2.

 

But if kaby lake runs nice on z170 and z170 ln2 is a great board then it might not even matter and could still be a decent long term investment thru kaby lake life.

 

Before skylake the last 2 boards I used were z97 soc force and x99 champion and they were both incredible, still have both, would be nice to bench on a giga board again.

[Lucky_n00b]

 

I like the idea of a z270 ln2 board. I would love to pay some money now and have one right when z270 boards drop, that sounds amazing. A nice kaby lake with a brand new z270 ln2.

 

 

Agree with this, since Kaby Lake is near, a Z270 LN2 board seems nice to have if the price is right.

 

 

This price must include Sofos 1990 and Dinos22's signature on the board

 

 

THIS needs to happen ! I'll make do with sofos signature

[Massman]

Kaby is backwards compatible with Z170 and the Z270 PCH won't offer anything that would be of any benefit to overclockers, I think. I don't know if there will be a Z270 LN2 board either.

 

How do you guys feel about warranty services? Skip and reduce price?

[rtsurfer]

I think make another poll for warranty no warranty, unless people can all agree on the same thing. Which is doubtful.

 

Personally, if skipping warranty brings it to that first option (<$150), I would personally just buy 2 & call it a day. 😀

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[JunkDogg]

I'll be in for one.

 

Brilliant board and such an ease to use. The progress from the Z97 to the Z170 in this board is incredible.

 

I killed my PS ports on mine(due to my terrible job of insulation, no fault of the board), so I'm for sure in for another.

[Massman]

I think make another poll for warranty no warranty, unless people can all agree on the same thing. Which is doubtful.

 

Personally, if skipping warranty brings it to that first option (<$150), I would personally just buy 2 & call it a day. 😀

 

Good point on the "warranty poll".

 

On the topic of "I get it if it's cheap", I'd like to make an additional note: with order quantities as low as 100-1000 units with shipments worldwide, I don't think it's good to expect a "really low price" for limited edition boards like the LN2 board.

[Strong Island]

Kaby is backwards compatible with Z170 and the Z270 PCH won't offer anything that would be of any benefit to overclockers, I think. I don't know if there will be a Z270 LN2 board either.

 

How do you guys feel about warranty services? Skip and reduce price?

 

Ya that's why I said it might not even matter but just didnt know for sure myself if z270 might benefit us. If that is the case then I would grab a z170 ln2.

 

I would be down for no warranty

[bigblock990]

Count me in. Would have to know rough estimate of cost savings with/without warranty to make decision on that. I mean if it saves $5 I would think everyone would want warranty, but if it saves $50 then maybe not.

[zeropluszero]

I would have no need of warranty, first thing Id do is insulate the board anyway.

[speed.fastest]

If they cover warranty motherboard broken because extreme OC, dont remove the warranty, but if they do not cover warranty because extreme OC, remove it, dont need it. Only Replace Warranty DOA.

[rtsurfer]

On the topic of "I get it if it's cheap", I'd like to make an additional note: with order quantities as low as 100-1000 units with shipments worldwide, I don't think it's good to expect a "really low price" for limited edition boards like the LN2 board.

 

I figured it wouldn't be that cheap, but a man can dream.

 

Speaking of cheap though, as per my understanding, part of the reason regular SOC Force is so expensive is that because it has PLX chip & heatsink has inbuilt water cooling functionality.

 

We know water cooling won't be there for the ln2 version. Should we also get rid of the PLX chip (if its not gone already)? PLX chips are very expensive (so i've heard) & no bencher is running 4-way on Z170/Z270, so getting rid of it should help us bring the cost down even more. Max we need is 2-way for Legacies. No point in having more than 2 slots on the board.

 

Count me in. Would have to know rough estimate of cost savings with/without warranty to make decision on that. I mean if it saves $5 I would think everyone would want warranty, but if it saves $50 then maybe not.

 

Good Point.

Edited August 31, 2016 by rtsurfer

[zeropluszero]

no plx chip on ln2 board.

[Johnd0e]

im in for one if this happens. no warranty is fine by me. I agree with the DOA warranty though.