ASUS Z170-A LGA 1151 Skylake Motherboard Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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ASUS Z170-A LGA 1151 Skylake Motherboard Review - Previously we looked at ASUS’ Z170-Deluxe which offered users a huge amount of features and a premium price to go with it. Not everyone wants to spend $300 or more on a motherboard which is why ASUS has just what you need. ASUS’ Z170-A offers all the performance without all the extra features and fluff and a low price point.
 
This is the board I went with, waiting on a 6700K (grr)... The low memory OC is somewhat disappointing but seeing as I went with a 2666 kit anyway I'm not too bothered by it. Looks like I might need to keep an eye on board flex with my Phanteks cooler hanging off it tho...
 
I don't understand , this board is rated in the specs for DDR4 up to 3466mhz with 1.35v , and it was already proven that this exact RAM kit can handle more in the Deluxe review, so what gives?

*edit*
Any chance you got some Gigabyte boards up next for review? (specifically the gaming 7...) :)
 
T_A said:
I don't understand , this board is rated in the specs for DDR4 up to 3466mhz with 1.35v , and it was already proven that this exact RAM kit can handle more in the Deluxe review, so what gives?

*edit*
Any chance you got some Gigabyte boards up next for review? (specifically the gaming 7...) :)
Click to expand...

We just report our experiences.

Gaming 7 and Gaming 1 are up soon.
 
I dont risk my money on Asus any more, they already cost me on my last upgrade.
Their loss now :p
 
Nice review -- for the money I'd still probably go with MSI -- at least then you get two onboard M2 slots for a shot a PCIe raid action :)
 
Page 4, under Benchmark Test Systems, ASUS Z170-A was tested with the i7-5690X?

If the PCB really is that flimsy I won't be putting my clumsy hands on one of these for any of my personal rigs. Cracked a cheap Duron board long ago by over tightening a screw.
 
Last edited:
collegeboy69us said:
Nice review -- for the money I'd still probably go with MSI -- at least then you get two onboard M2 slots for a shot a PCIe raid action :)
Click to expand...

Less USB headers, Killer NICs, less flexible fan control, and other questionable choices turned me off MSI even tho I'm relatively happy with their P67 board...

RAID M.2 seems kinda pointless to me too unless you're just doing it to have a huge 1-2TB volume, early tests seems to indicate there's quite a few issues and even a performance regression in some cases (latency and random read/write).

Not like many things can keep up with the sequential speed of 750s or SM951s in RAID, so you'd be hard pressed to feed them properly, and even the DMI link might end up as a bottleneck.

It's great to have choices tho, plenty of variety this go round beyond who crammed in the most SATA/USB ports.
 
Impulse said:
Less USB headers, Killer NICs, less flexible fan control, and other questionable choices turned me off MSI even tho I'm relatively happy with their P67 board...

RAID M.2 seems kinda pointless to me too unless you're just doing it to have a huge 1-2TB volume, early tests seems to indicate there's quite a few issues and even a performance regression in some cases (latency and random read/write).

Not like many things can keep up with the sequential speed of 750s or SM951s in RAID, so you'd be hard pressed to feed them properly, and even the DMI link might end up as a bottleneck.

It's great to have choices tho, plenty of variety this go round beyond who crammed in the most SATA/USB ports.
Click to expand...

DMI 3.0 is a bottleneck for M.2 RAID. DMI 3.0 is basically 4x PCIe lanes and dual M.2 drives would be 8x lanes of data going over it, plus all the 1x devices in your system that are connected to the PCH. Tests have been done on some sites and by motherboard vendors showing little gains in reads over a single drive. You do get improvements to write speeds which scale accordingly, but that's normal.
 
T_A said:
I don't understand , this board is rated in the specs for DDR4 up to 3466mhz with 1.35v , and it was already proven that this exact RAM kit can handle more in the Deluxe review, so what gives?

*edit*
Any chance you got some Gigabyte boards up next for review? (specifically the gaming 7...) :)
Click to expand...


I have a set of CMK16GX4M4B3200C15 with a Asus Z170-A, I have it running at 3200 stable. I just had to set System Agent voltage to 1.25 and VCCIO to 1.20 to achieve it.
 
StaticShoes said:
Page 4, under Benchmark Test Systems, ASUS Z170-A was tested with the i7-5690X?

If the PCB really is that flimsy I won't be putting my clumsy hands on one of these for any of my personal rigs. Cracked a cheap Duron board long ago by over tightening a screw.
Click to expand...

The CPU was a typo on my part. I used a Core i7 6700K.
 
T_A said:
I don't understand , this board is rated in the specs for DDR4 up to 3466mhz with 1.35v , and it was already proven that this exact RAM kit can handle more in the Deluxe review, so what gives?
Click to expand...

The board can run over DDR4-3000 speeds - some CPUs simply need more SA and IO voltage than the auto rules apply.
 
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