The ASUS Z170-A Motherboard Review: The $165 Focal Point
by Ian Cutress on October 20, 2015 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- ATX
- Skylake
- Z170
CPU Performance
For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We leave the BIOS settings at default and memory at JEDEC (DDR4-2133 C15) for these tests, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.
Video Conversion – Handbrake v0.9.9: link
Handbrake is a media conversion tool that was initially designed to help DVD ISOs and Video CDs into more common video formats. The principle today is still the same, primarily as an output for H.264 + AAC/MP3 audio within an MKV container. In our test we use the same videos as in the Xilisoft test, and results are given in frames per second.
Compression – WinRAR 5.0.1: link
Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second 720p videos.
Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link
3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.
The lack of MultiCore Turbo with our K processor on the Z170-A means that during the mulithreaded test it runs at a lower frequency with the system on default, giving a slight disadvantage in performance (but advantage in power as we saw in the previous page).
Image Manipulation – FastStone Image Viewer 4.9: link
Similarly to WinRAR, the FastStone test us updated for 2014 to the latest version. FastStone is the program I use to perform quick or bulk actions on images, such as resizing, adjusting for color and cropping. In our test we take a series of 170 images in various sizes and formats and convert them all into 640x480 .gif files, maintaining the aspect ratio. FastStone does not use multithreading for this test, and thus single threaded performance is often the winner.
Rendering – PovRay 3.7: link
The Persistence of Vision RayTracer, or PovRay, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high end platforms.
Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link
As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.
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Le Geek - Wednesday, October 21, 2015 - link
I believe you meant "front" USB 3.1 panel instead of "font" in the conclusion.AlexIsAlex - Thursday, October 22, 2015 - link
"Non UEFI POST Time": Could you clarify this a bit - do you mean if not booting using UEFI? If so, then why not? These days, I would have thought UEFI booting would be the more common case.The major delay I'm seeing booting with this board is between power-on and first text-on-screen. Not sure exactly what it's doing there, but it's a good few seconds of black before getting the info screen (or graphical logo, depending on configuration)
Arbie - Sunday, October 25, 2015 - link
It's amazing what a high-tech assembly of high-tech parts we can buy for $165.Anyway - please don't forget to credit Asus for their attention to fan control. I haven't checked the competition this time around but in the past Asus has been way, way ahead. This is one mobo function that reviewers *constantly* overlook and thereby undervalue, since they aren't building in a box. So Asus, who goes the extra mile and beyond, is rarely credited for doing so.
ymmv__ - Monday, October 26, 2015 - link
I wish Anand Tech would use an editor to streamline Ian Cuttress' convoluted, badly written texts. This stuff is nigh unreadable.gw74 - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 thoablevy - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
Just finished a build with this board. For storage I used a Samsung 850 EVO SSD.for the operating system and a WD 1T hard drive. I loaded Wind 7 back on and updated to Win 10 with no problem. Loaded most of my wifes software and then it crashed. It crashed so hard I couldn't get to the BIOS! I finally found that by unplugging the SSD I could get into the BIOS. I turned the machine off and booted Into the BIOS. I noticed that the SSD was listed on the sata ports but not in the boot list. However if I went to the boot menu, the samsung drive was listed and I could boot to it. I tried a number of fixes including resetting the CMOS, updating the BIOS, reinstalling WIn 10, moving the SSD to another SATA port. No joy. Finally I spent some time on Google and found that others have run into this on previous ASUS MBs. I finally found that one of the people found that if you powered off and disconnected the power for 10-15 minutes the computer boots to the SSD. I have rebooted 3-4 times now with no problem. It's worth noting that the Samsung still doesn't show up in the boot list. Note also that I had a chat with a tech from Asus and while he made some suggestions about what to try, he was not aware of this fix. Maybe this post will get Asus to look into this issue and fix their bios.ghanz - Saturday, October 31, 2015 - link
Try enabling Sata hot plug in the bios.And when you manage to boot into windows, disable Intel RST link power management.
Some SSDs have compatibility issues on certain platforms & configurations if power saving options are enabled.
ablevy - Monday, November 2, 2015 - link
After loading a new bios, the SSD showed up on the advanced page as one of the drives in the boot list and I could move it to the top. Since then no problems with booting from the SSD.Thanks
ablevy - Saturday, November 7, 2015 - link
I spent some time exploring overclocking and found that the latest UEFI is buggy. For example trying to return to default fails under all conditions I have tried, including shorting the CMOS as Asus recommends or removing the battery. Exiting from the UEFI sets Autotune on even when you exit from the "default" and you end up in the "optimized default". A second issue I had with this board is "black screens" when the system is idle which don't respond to the keyboard or mouse. I finally noticed that the keyboard was actually off and realized tha the power option to selectively turn off the USB ports was selected. Turning off this option solved part of the "Black Screen" problem. However I still suffered from occaisonal "black screens". I have now turned off all power options and for about the last 24 hours of constant operation haven't had any "black screens". My recommendation for anyone building this system is to install Win 7 and wait a few months before installing Win 10. In my opinion the UEFI is not ready for prime time.ablevy - Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - link
I have continued to work with the machine and the "black screen" issue has not reappeared. However a new stability problem has appeared. Under some circumstances the USB ports fail to recognize the Apple iPhone. I have not isolated why, but the resulting symptoms are very reproducible. First plugging the iphone into the computer does not result in a connection to the iphone. Second turning the computer off results in the screen and apparently Windows shutting down, but the power light doesn't shut off. There also seems to be intermittent disk action given that the disk light blinks. After a few minutes I shut the computer down by holding the power down. Restarting the computer leads to a long boot time before the Windows logo comes up, but Win 10 boots normally. However the iphone will not connect either through a USB 3.0 port or a 2.0 port. Windows will also not see a memory stick in either port. Turning the machine off results in the same behavior. Power light remains on, until held down for 8-10 seconds. If however you turn the power off at the power supply and leave it off for somewhere between 5 (less than 5 min won't work)) and 15 minutes then turn the power supply back on and reboot the computer will boot normally (relatively short boot time) and again recognizes the iphone. This behavior of requiring a power off is reminiscent of the original boot problem I had in which I had to turn off the power supply for the computer to see my SSD and boot from it. My best guess is that in addition to the problem Asus has with the USB ports that cause this issue there is a problem with the shutdown cycle and things are being saved that shouldn't be.Note that I'm currently using BIOS 1302 and that the previous BIOS version also exhibited the same issue.
This is a copy of the email I sent Asus today. I am still having difficulty recommending this mb based on the bios issues.