Intel Z170

Intel Skylake-supporting Z170 motherboards coming in August

According to MSI and Biostar representatives on the Computex 2015 show floor, speaking to PC Gamer, motherboards that feature Intel's new Z170 chipset will become available this August

The Z170 is the flagship chipset in Intel's upcoming 100-series line, all of which have been designed to support Intel's new 'Skylake' processors. Like with many of Intel's past CPU launches, Skylake requires a new CPU socket as well as a new chipset, with Intel moving to LGA 1151 in this release

Skylake also brings support for DDR4 RAM, bringing the new memory technology to Intel's standard consumer platform after it first debuted in the company's enthusiast Haswell-E and server platforms last year. A Z170 chipset paired with a Skylake CPU will also support more PCIe lanes than the previous generation, thanks to increased bandwidth from the CPU to the chipset

Now that motherboard manufacturers have revealed that 100-series motherboards will hit the market in August, we're beginning to get a clear picture of when Intel will launch Skylake. Supporting motherboards typically hit the market shortly before a processor launch, making a late-August or early-September Skylake launch likely, especially as system builders will begin selling Skylake-powered PCs in September

The launch of Skylake will come just a few months after the delayed launch of performance Broadwell parts, which Intel says will hit the market in around a month following their announcement at Computex just a few days ago. With Skylake's launch just around the corner, it's not surprising to see Intel only launch two socketed Broadwell CPUs, neither of which are particularly exceptional