Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Motherboard

Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX board is indeed tiny as I'm used to setting up full size boards, I was a little bit stunned at the size of this, but my wife wanted a small system having previously had Shuttles. I set about installing it into a Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Cube Case. My memory also newly bought was Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16 GB although High profile would have fitted with my cooler but I was happy to get low profile this time and an SSD ADATA SP550 M.2 2280 240GB plus two hard drives from her dead shuttle. The PSU I bought new was a EVGA 600 W 80+ non Modular, it cost £40 and is more than adequate, super quiet and the unused leads curled into small rings at the base. The GPU is an old AMD MSI OC 7870 which will be replaced as soon as the new Nvidia 1060/70 drops to a reasonable price, then she can have my 970 GTX lol. TBH I really enjoyed installing the board,its lovely quality, really well made and thought out. Everything worked spot on from turning it on, Win 10 installed, all drivers copied off the cd onto a usb drive (no cd in system) flawless and so fast just make sure you don't install the bloat ware and scroll down to the bottom in case you miss something. The Bios is really great for the novice and the enthusiast just needs taking slowly as you work things out. The on board sound is stunning, I have some HyperX 1 headphones and it sounds so much better than my Asrock Extreme 6 1155 mobo. The processor is a Intel Core I5-6600K Processor, The temps are running at 20c approx idle 40c under load no OC but I know there is plenty of scope to OC if I chose too. I'ts all cooled with a Cooler Master Seidon 120V ver.2 Liquid CPU Cooler "RL-S12V-24PK-R2. Ive used this cooler on a 1155 system and not to impressed with it but its on a par with a good air system but with this chip its great and ideal in a small case. Asus software is I think one of the best for OC, fan control etc and this is no exception. I could go on for ages but to sum it up for £129 this board is a bargain and really high quality, I'm trying to convince the wife she should have my system which runs brilliantly but she having non of it I'm afraid :-( All the other stuff I've bought has worked seamlessly with this board The case was £35, Psu £40, Ram DDR4 16gb 3000mhz £75. M.2 drive 240gb £63. I5-6600K £210, Cooler £37 total £589. Its crying out for a decent GPU nothing less than a 970 tbh but its a very good system at a very good price based on an excellent tiny motherboard. If you want a small system and like gaming then this board should be at the top of your list. Just to add my case has a removable base panel the same as the sides and top so if you have to get to the M.2 drive it should be pretty simple, I've read a few reviews where this is is concern with this motherboard but the Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Cube Case resolves that.

Good quality. Following is my configuration:CPU : Intel Core i7 6700 SkylakeCPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12SATX Case: Fractal Define R5Memory: Corsair DDR4 16GB (4x4)SSD: Sandisk Extreme Pro 240GB Sata III 2.5 inchPSU: Corsair RM450OS: Ubuntu 15.10. Upgraded to kernel 4.4 (mainline)Supports 3 HP 19" monitors1. Comes with UEFI BIOS that has a very user friendly interface (you can use mouse too), has rich features.2. CPU installation tool makes CPU installation easy and fool proof. (you are less likely to damage the CPU or motherboard)3. With UEFI BIOS and M.2 port, guess, you are future proof for using NGFF or NVMe based SSDs - have not tried them yet as these SSDs are dearer than SATA III based SSDs4. Supports 3 monitors without any need for a graphics card.5. Installing Linux (Ubuntu 15.10) operating system was a breeze and works just fine with Intel Skylake processor Core i7 6700. Very fast and quiet.6. USB 3.1 is really fast. Charges devices (iPad, iPhone etc.) faster too.

This is a really good m/board, easy to set up and install, running it with an i3 6100 and 3000mhz ram and it flies, perfect for i3 i5 i7 builds and looks good in the case too, however to get the best out of it you really need 3000+ ram, on startup it defaulted to 2400, and was noticably quicker once I upped it to 3000, great for budger build games m/c i3 like mine or i5 i7 with a lot more money spent of course, highly recommended. A++++update.Having played with my setup over the past few weeks I have learnt a few things that may help existing owners and buyers of the pro gaming, a programme called Ram cache comes with it, recommend you use it, I had 8gig of ram to start with and in Witcher3 there was a slight stutter from time to time, with ramcache engaged this dissapeared but only 400meg being used, purchased another 8gig on a hunch using 4gig of it as a ramcache and the whole computer has come to life, so fast now, more is better, well worth it, have also just fitted an ssd which has also given it a kick in the pants with loading times, Witcher visuals now maxed out and running smooth as silk on an i3 6100, very pleased! A++++

Rated 4star cuz of being issues with installing an OS. Example do not use cd drive to install windows. Usb I prefer to the point win 8 cd froze at 91% might of been the cd. Oky! No win 8 on usb get a lend of a win 7 on usb. Go to install freezes at system starting services. Found the error to complete the setup in bios had to turn ehci had to enable in bios. Once done that I had to then go with a ps2 keyboard as I use wireless usb in the usb 2.0 port upon completing win. 7 setup cud not use keybrd or mouse till I pluged in ps2 kybrd. Then had to install storage drivers for windows 7 to recognize the m.2 or any onboard devices. Using cd that came with mobo. Get windows 8 fired up on to usb. Once again needed to install all drivers that came with cd. Constant issues. But I am finally up and running after completing my build of an Asus pro gaming z170. Intel i5 6500, 8gb ddr4 ram, evga supernova g2 Psu. Runnin win 8. So my advice for anyone interested in this board it is a smashing board I rated ot 4star as of the annoying issues that I encountered just follow the post if it helps I do recommend this mobo and to shop here. As quality product and service