Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

S

inceI coveredthe

Skylakeprocessorand

itsassociatedplatform,

I’vebeenhuntingfora

motherboard thatdeliversan

optimalintersectionofprice

andperformance.

CheapH110-orH170

motherboardsare good,but

theylackoverclockingfeatures

andPCIelanes,amongother

things.TheansweristheZ170

chipset,butthepriceputs

manypeopleoff,witha few

designsbeingwellover£300.

ButtheAsusZ170-Acosts

lessthan£120,usesthesame

chipsetandhasmanyof

themore desirablehigh-end

features.SoistheAsusZ179-A

a bargainorare youmissing

outinsomesubtlewaywithit?

Firstoff,I wanttopointout

a fewthingsabouttheZ170-A

thatI don’t like,andthere are

a fewminorwrinklesI need

DETAILS

• Price:£114.98(Dabs)


• Manufacturer:Asus


• Website:
  http://www.asus.com/uk


• Requirements:
  LGA 1151 (Skylake)
  processor, DDR3or
  DDR4memory

AsusaugmentsitsZ170chipsetserieswithsomethingaffordable

tohighlight.Themostobvious

oftheseisthehugeplastic

shroudthatcoverstheI/Oarea,

there fora purposethiswriter

couldn’t rationalise.Luckily,

twoscrewseasilydetachit,ifit

clasheswithyourcaselayoutor

systemsensibilities.

There are alsothreePCIex16

slots,whenthere aren’t enough

PCIelanestodrivethemat

anymore than8x/8x/4x.And

thatassumesthatnoother

lanesare usedontheother

slotsorinstorage.Thosewho

wanta triple-GPUarrangement

stillneedtheX99overZ170,

thoughthisdesignisbothSLI

andCrosFireXcompliantifyou

fancydualGPUgaming.

Onceyougetpastthose

minorpoints,thisisa great

designwitha feature setthat

easilyjustifiestheadditional

costyou’dincurovera H170

board,forexample.

Oneofthesecriticalfeatures

isanM.2SSDslot,andthe

Z170-Ahasonethatcanbe

usedeitherinPCIemodeor

SATA. There are alsofourSATA

6Gbpsports,andthisisthe

firstdesignI’veseenwitha

SATAExpressport.

KeyFeatures

• 5-wayoptimization.


• A dedicatedon-boardwater-pumpheader.


• AsusPro Clocktechnology.


• CrystalSound3, IntelLAN and Turbo LAN.


• USB 3.1 on board.


• One Type-Aportplus a reversibleType-Cport.


• 5X ProtectionII: Advancedhardwaresafeguards.


• FourDDR4slotsup to 3400MHz(OC),64GBmaximum.


• M.2 and SATA Express.


• 3x PCIex16 (8x8x4)and legacyPCI slot.


• DVI, VGA,HDMIand DisplayPort(threeactiveat
  any time).

Asus Z170-A

Motherboard