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
ASUS Z170-A Conclusion
At the start of this review I discussed the nostalgia elements of the industry. There is a fondness to reminisce about former glory days - personally this means setting up my Commodore 64 with a CRT and playing Mayhem in Monsterland, the Atari ST, getting to grips with DOS before moving up through gaming, building a system from an Athlon and seeing my X1900XT slowly degrade from too many overclocks before pushing my 2600K to 5.3 GHz for an overclocking league. The question is - what motherboards over time invoke these emotions, and what is going to be fondly remembered this generation?
From yesteryear there seems to be a fondness for DFI, a now defunct motherboard manufacturer, who made some hardcore products in garish color schemes. PC builders my age might remember those dual AGP/PCIe boards as the march to SATA occurred. Then who can forget Intel's dual CPU Skulltrail platform, or the EVGA X58 Classified that stormed the extreme overclocking charts? Will there be anything here today that is remembered in a similar light? What do all these boards have in common?
Perhaps a nod to nostalgia in this segment is not a consideration - no motherboard manufacturer goes out of their way to design a generational icon, just because it doesn't make financial sense in this industry. They have to attack high volume, high margin markets and provide better user experience in their market than the competition. Very few manufacturers try something off-the-wall because the industry requires a clinical approach. It makes for a very high base standard in a way that is different from how Apple designs smartphones - while aesthetics have become more important (especially in gaming builds) over the last two generations, the point of differentiation between manufactures hides in the build components and quality (which for most purposes has a passive effect) or the actual functionality (active effect), software and box contents.
When it comes to what we call the 'channel' line of motherboards, there is no impetus to go bold. The motherboard has to work, has to have the features, and not look like a brown or green potato. In the past, this felt like a high barrier that some failed to hit, but in 2015 it is now the base on which all motherboards must spring. From our tour at ASUS' headquarters and other motherboard HQs over the years, it is clear that motherboard manufacturers are recognizing that good build quality, value and function helps define the core of their brand.
This brings us back to the actual topic of this review, the ASUS Z170-A. As a functional tool, it aims to have at least one of everything for the modern chipset except Thunderbolt, so this means an M.2 slot running at PCIe 3.0 x4, USB 3.1-A at 10 Gbps, USB 3.1-C at 10 Gbps, Intel I219-V networking and SATAe. In the background is a Pro-Clock IC to extend the Base clock range, a TPU to improve automatic overclock control, an Auto-XMP switch to enable a memory extreme profile and a T-Topology memory design usually reserved for the high end platforms.
The Z170-A has a clean look which some will appreciate, as well as audio-side LEDs that can be enabled. Functionally, this board was used for this review and some of our other Skylake testing with few issues. Despite the fact that multicore turbo is not enabled by default, the latest BIOSes enable FCLK control and the automatic overclock engine gives 4.8 GHz without any issues. The Z170-A also scores well in our system benchmarks, particularly DPC Latency and USB speed when Turbo mode is enabled in AI Suite. The BIOS and software receive their respective updates for the new generation as well.
There are a number of motherboards floating in this $160-$170 price bracket, giving the ASUS Z170-A a good amount of competition. The main differences will be in exact implementation - another board might use an ALC1150/ALC898 audio codec over the ALC892, or dual M.2, or dual networking, or gaming branded technology, or come with a font USB 3.1 panel, often in exchange for a different feature elsewhere. From our testing, the ASUS Z170-A might never be a nostalgic icon, and there are a few things still to work on (namely update software) but it is well worth looking into for the price point given the feature-set, BIOS and software tools.
| ASUS Z170-A | |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
| Price | Amazon US Newegg |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | LGA1151 |
| Chipset | Intel Z170 |
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4, Supporting 64GB, Dual Channel, Up to 3466 MHz |
| Memory Slots (DDR3L) | None |
| Video Outputs | HDMI DisplayPort DVI-D D-Sub |
| Network Connectivity | Intel I219-V |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC892 |
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 3.0 (x16, x8/x8) |
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 1 x PCI |
| Onboard SATA | 6 x SATA 6 Gbps, RAID 0/1/5/10 |
| Onboard SATA Express | One |
| Onboard M.2 | One, 2242 to 22110, SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4 modes, AHCI and NVMe |
| Onboard U.2 | None |
| USB 3.1 | 1 x Type-A 1 x Type-C ASMedia ASM1142 Controller |
| USB 3.0 | 2 x Rear Panel 4 via headers |
| USB 2.0 | 2 x Rear Panel 4 via headers |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU |
| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x CPU_OPT (4-pin) 4 x CHA/SYS (4-pin) |
| IO Panel | 1 x Combination PS/2 2 x USB 2.0 2 x USB 3.0 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 1 x Network RJ-45 (Intel I219-V) HDMI DVI-D DisplayPort D-Sub Audio Jacks |
| Other Features | COM Header Thunderbolt Header EZ XMP Switch DirectKey Header MemOK! Button TPU Switch 5-pin FAN_EXT Header TPM Connector Power Button Front Audio Header Front Panel Header USB BIOS Flashback Header |
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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.