Skylake-Based Z170 Gaming Mini ITX Motherboard

The first Asrock I received had the connectors bent back. As there was a corresponding hole in the box I thought the board had come loose in transit or even dropped (to be honest packing these days is too minimal for expensive items - just some cardboard inners) so I returned it.

The second also arrived with the panel bent back so I just bent it forward. As this one only lasted a few hours I've ended up with a third and that arrived in the same condition- the connectors being bent back seems almost normal and isn't a fault I suppose
 
2016 will be the year where we will buy two motherboards at the same time in the hope of getting one that's not DOA or had a >80% blind person do Quality Control.
 
Phuncz said:
2016 will be the year where we will buy two motherboards at the same time in the hope of getting one that's not DOA or had a >80% blind person do Quality Control.
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Hehehe. Funny because it's true. (Or just plain sad)
 
Still very happy with the gigabyte board :D. Fan control is really the only thing that I would ding it on at this point. Depending on the fans you have and the amount of messing around you can put up with, the software fan control that is included can get you quieter than the limited bios options but it still has some shortcomings.
 
jwsg said:
The first Asrock I received had the connectors bent back. As there was a corresponding hole in the box I thought the board had come loose in transit or even dropped (to be honest packing these days is too minimal for expensive items - just some cardboard inners) so I returned it.

The second also arrived with the panel bent back so I just bent it forward. As this one only lasted a few hours I've ended up with a third and that arrived in the same condition- the connectors being bent back seems almost normal and isn't a fault I suppose
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My Asrock had exactly the same damage, and I could tell someone had taken the board out of the anti static bag based on some holes in the bag mysteriously being on the opposite side from the bent components.

That would prove to be the least of my concerns with this board. :)

I really feel bad for Asrock. They have a great product, excellent features and released it quite fast after the skylake release. However, some of us have been very unlucky, and is now creating negative publicity. I know a lot of people are very happy with their purchase and i hope they can convince others to buy the same board, but I'm not taking taking the risk again - not with the 6700k shortage in play.

I'll go for the cheap ASUS z170i pro gaming for now, until Skylake-E and some refreshed motherboards are out. I just want a working computer and my ncase is so sad in its original packaging.
 
Now you guys are making me nervous about my Asrock Z170 ITX board. This is my 2nd board since I thought something was wrong with the RAM voltage, but it seems to be the norm. IIRC, both my Asrock mobos didn't have bent wifi connectors but i'll check the one I currently have tonight.

I know for a fact that wifi worked on both of them, even though I disabled it in BIOS.

All in all, i'm happy with it. It's very similiar to my Asrock Z97 ITX board and that's a good thing
 
I just looked on the Asrock site and saw this. Is this what you're calling bent? If so, you guys are picky as hell :p

Fatal1ty%20Z170%20Gaming-ITXac%28L2%29.jpg
 
Hanakuso said:
I just looked on the Asrock site and saw this. Is this what you're calling bent? If so, you guys are picky as hell
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This is bent
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And this is a damaged anti static bag:
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But I am very picky when it comes to 250 euro hardware :)

(I think my account is too new for posting images, or it's just me being plain stupid)
 
That's probably the only flaw with that motherboard. They just need to make triangle shaped walls for support but they just leave it attached only at one end for no good reason.
 
I think it;s just a packaging problem. A cardboard 'vertical L' support in that corner of the box to stop it being 'squished' in transit would solve the problem.
 
Wow that is bad. Mine were definitely not that bad. I checked last night and mine were much better.
 
Mine was bent too. It took like 3 seconds to fix. Poor design of the bracket, but it's really not too important or a big deal.. at least to me. The board works great :)
 
I've had three and all were bent back like that. The first I assumed had been damaged so I sent it back - it is one of the most expensive m/bs after all. The 2nd was the same so I went ahead and bent the bracket back myself - but this one lasted only a few hours before I had to RMA it and the CPU (as something killed it) before ending up with a now working system with the 3rd Asrock. To be fair its running well but I've never had so many RMAs before this generation and with what should be premium products
 
Hanakuso said:
I just saw this report and I also have a NH-C14. This is why I always torque mine down. I do 36 in/lbs. Might have to do less to be on the cautious side.
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Clever to torque it! Didn't think of that since the manual states that you should tighten the screws until full stop. However, noctua claims that their products are unaffected by the weaker skylake construction.
 
It's unfortunate to hear a number people having problems with the AsRock Z170 Gaming-ITX wifi connector. What the hell are ASRock workers doing when they pack the board??

I ordered this board from NewEgg and had it shipped to Australia, and mine was ok. I haven't had any issues with my board.

I remember being a little concerned about the wifi connector before I got the board, because I saw some YouTube review or some promo images where the wifi looked a little bent. Although the issue wasn't specifically mentioned.

Here's a picture I took of my board before I put the PC together:

Y3UEjt1.jpg
 
Notting said:
it does not actually matter how they call it in the manual..
the only standalone chip for USB 3.1 from Intel is a Thunderbolt chip, it's a Intel® DSL6540 Thunderbolt™ 3 Controller on the Z170N Gaming 5 mainboard, the same chip as used on the Impact VIII.

btw. "Intel USB 3.1. chip" has been used on all mainboards with Alpine Ridge chip "USB 3.1 with 16Gbps speed" until the manufacturer got their certification for Thunderbolt 3 - just like the additional three Gigabyte full ATX mainboards which got their "Thunderbolt 3" label just recently.
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OK so Thunderbolt 3 module now present in the F4c bios which came out yesterday. It is disabled but a least it is now present. I suppose this is a positive sign.

EDIT:

So I enabled TB3 and it all seems functional and working though I have not tested it with any Thunderbolt device yet (waiting for a TB1 to TB3 adapter) so I can test with my Drobo

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brams said:
OK so Thunderbolt 3 module now present in the F4c bios which came out yesterday. It is disabled but a least it is now present. I suppose this is a positive sign.

EDIT:

So I enabled TB3 and it all seems functional and working though I have not tested it with any Thunderbolt device yet (waiting for a TB1 to TB3 adapter) so I can test with my Drobo
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thanks mate!

Yesterday, I did see the update on the Gigabyte page but couldn't download because of some server error, right now it worked :)
Did you enabled TB3 in the bios or did you modify the file?

It's unfortunate that there are no adapter on the market yet, I'm also waiting for one of them to use my Akitio case and my LG display. Anyway, I will buy one of the Thunderbold 3 dock's, most probably the one that is manufatured by Quantum Storage - looks to me like the same OEM for the Elgato TB2 device.

update:
btw. Asus did release an update for the Impact VIII as well, bios 1302
Maximus VIII Impact BIOS 1302
Improve system stability.
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didn't had a chance to test it myself, maybe later.

Does anyone know where to get beta bios' for Impact VIII ? Couldn't find anything on the TT forum.
 
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Hi Notting,

I used AMIBCP64 and turned two functions on (basically made the settings the same as one of the boards that recently got the TB3 upgrade) Flashed it and enabled TB 3 I also used the TB 3 driver for the same board.

I can make a small guide if you want but it's quite obvious what needs to be done if you look at on the upgraded boards and just set the ITX G5 to the same.
 
Bahn Yuki said:
brams have you tested it out yet?
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Unfortunately no I have not as I cannot find any TB3 to TB 2/1 dock or adapter, the only device I have is a Drobo Mini and that's TB1 so the connector is the DP type not C-Type.

But I figure it has to work, BIOS before F4c (F3 etc) didn't have any Thunderbolt code / firmware / modules in them. F4c now has them added but disabled (so that Thunderbolt is not visible on any BIOS screens), I can only assume that Gigabyte want to offer TB3 and are going through the certification process with Intel. It would make no sense for them to put the code in and not use it.
 
According to Anandtech, Asus says they have no intention of enabling Thunderbolt on the Impact....
 
Zangmonkey said:
According to Anandtech, Asus says they have no intention of enabling Thunderbolt on the Impact....
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The BIOS for the Impact VIII contains Thunderbolt, it's just not enabled. It would be easy to enable it however as I have said before you would not be able to flash it with ASUS tools as it would loose signing, so an SPI programmer would work (BIOS is socketed) or maybe FTK would work
 
Still waiting for a certified TB3 mini-itx motherboard. Was hoping for CES to a huge TB3/eGPU celebration, but so far we have seen one TB3 dock.
 
brams said:
So I enabled TB3 and it all seems functional and working though I have not tested it with any Thunderbolt device yet (waiting for a TB1 to TB3 adapter) so I can test with my Drobo
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Can't wait for you to try this out. I'm waiting impatiently for a TB3 mitx board to be released/certified.
 
@Brams ,

Nice work!... Yes... Definitely a positive sign! Perhaps even more than that... a positive certainty... unless, for some reason they cannot get the certification. It certainly shows that they are working towards it...

I agree that GB may not even be allowed to use the term Thunderbolt until it's been certified and imagine all the problems for them if people purchased the board for TB3 and for whatever reason the board did not pass certification.

I think that once the Z170N Gaming 5 has TB3, it will be the perfect motherboard (well... almost perfect. 2 ports would be nice... but that's probably asking too much)! I already have an HDPlex H1.S case, an I7 6700 and Samsung 950 waiting for this build!

I would love to hear how your own testing is going.
 
Such a shame all the tablets coming out with TB3 all have the Intel Core M processor. :(
 
q-silver said:
@Brams ,

Nice work!... Yes... Definitely a positive sign! Perhaps even more than that... a positive certainty... unless, for some reason they cannot get the certification. It certainly shows that they are working towards it...

I agree that GB may not even be allowed to use the term Thunderbolt until it's been certified and imagine all the problems for them if people purchased the board for TB3 and for whatever reason the board did not pass certification.

I think that once the Z170N Gaming 5 has TB3, it will be the perfect motherboard (well... almost perfect. 2 ports would be nice... but that's probably asking too much)! I already have an HDPlex H1.S case, an I7 6700 and Samsung 950 waiting for this build!

I would love to hear how your own testing is going.
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Thanks, sorry for the late reply, heads been spinning recently..... Not tested it yet, still got no TB3 device to test with and I am waiting for some kind of hub/cable/adapter to use my Drobo mini which us TB1/2 type (mini DP)
 
q-silver said:
@Brams ,

Nice work!... Yes... Definitely a positive sign! Perhaps even more than that... a positive certainty... unless, for some reason they cannot get the certification. It certainly shows that they are working towards it...

I agree that GB may not even be allowed to use the term Thunderbolt until it's been certified and imagine all the problems for them if people purchased the board for TB3 and for whatever reason the board did not pass certification.

I think that once the Z170N Gaming 5 has TB3, it will be the perfect motherboard (well... almost perfect. 2 ports would be nice... but that's probably asking too much)! I already have an HDPlex H1.S case, an I7 6700 and Samsung 950 waiting for this build!

I would love to hear how your own testing is going.
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Do I have this straight? Going from the GA-Z170N-WIFI to the GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 is basically trading 2xHDMI and 2xIntel NIC for a Thunderbolt controller and the silly Killer NIC?

It is getting Thunderbolt eventually right?
 
777 said:
Do I have this straight? Going from the GA-Z170N-WIFI to the GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 is basically trading 2xHDMI and 2xIntel NIC for a Thunderbolt controller and the silly Killer NIC?

It is getting Thunderbolt eventually right?
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I don't see the need for HDMI ports that don't support high display refresh rate at high resolutions. And you only need two NICs for specific requirements. It all comes down to what you are plan on doing with your build - there's a mainboard for everyone's need ..
my need is TB for my equipment, TB3 in particular for the future :D
 
I agree with both.. I do not need to drive 2 monitors from the little machine... especially not from the built in i7 based GPU but it would be nice to have 2 x Intel NICs rather than the 'silly Killer NIC'.

However, I would not trade TB3 for this... With TB3 I can add another NIC or two (or a 10gbe NIC) and still have enough bandwidth left over to run an offboard GPU... but in my case I need TB so that I can plug my Apple TB monitor into the PC.

Bottom line... if you need to talk to anything outside the box, there is NO substitute for TB!
 
q-silver said:
I agree with both.. I do not need to drive 2 monitors from the little machine... especially not from the built in i7 based GPU but it would be nice to have 2 x Intel NICs rather than the 'silly Killer NIC'.

However, I would not trade TB3 for this... With TB3 I can add another NIC or two (or a 10gbe NIC) and still have enough bandwidth left over to run an offboard GPU... but in my case I need TB so that I can plug my Apple TB monitor into the PC.

Bottom line... if you need to talk to anything outside the box, there is NO substitute for TB!
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I am leaning that way but I'm not aware of any statement from Gigabyte anywhere about official TB3 support on the Z170N-G5. As long as the software and drivers for the Killer E2200 is stable I can live with it. The throttling issues I've read about over the past few days (on the lower board) are scaring me.
 
There is certainly no guarantee re TB on the Z170N-G5. Personally I think that they are working on the certification now and that the config screens that have recently appeared in the BIOS to allow them to get an approval from Thunderbolt HQ..

The board does seem to work with the BIOS for one of the other machines, so this somewhat confirms this view.

That said... anything could happen... The may fail certification and therefore not release a production BIOS that turns on the functionality. I suspect that they are not really in a rush to do this because as has been noted earlier in this thread, even if it works, there are not many peripherals around and no TB3 -> TB2 adapters on the market so there is little that you could do with it right now, even if it were working.

As for me... I've pretty much decided on this board and have all the parts that I need to build ... I'll probably buy whether certified or not in early Feb.
 
Has anyone here with the Asus M8I tried to change the wifi card yet? I have a spare 8260 AC from my old board thinking about getyting it replacing the qualcomm. It seems there are 2 screws that secure the wifi antennas at the rear?
 
The Gigabyte Z170N-G5 would be a nice buy for me, but the lack of DisplayPort means i can only run my 4K screen thru HDMI at 24hz only. So annoying they put a crippled HDMI port and not a DP on this board. :(
 
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