Asus Strix Z270i mobo, what is this?

anyone have an Asus Z270i?

just started building and see this:



looks to be some sort of tape that needs to be removed?? anyone have any ideas?

Looks like the plastic stuff manufacturers put on new things. You should take off your PCH heatsink and remove it like that plastic sticker is requesting.

That metal shroud is a heatsink for the m.2 drive that mounts below it. It has a thermal pad attached to it. The thin film you see is covering the sticky part of the pad. If you install a m.2 drive there you would remove that sticky cover and attach the thermal pad/metal shroud to the top of the m.2 drive.