Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

ON

TEST

Reviews

Initially, I’dthoughtAsus
hadbeena bitfrugalwithUSB
3.0portsavailable,asthere
are justtwointheI/Oarea,
alongwithtwoUSB2.0ports.
Closerinspectionrevealed
botha USBTy pe-Cportand
thenewteal-colouredUSB3.1
10Gbpsport.
BeingbeyondwhatIntel’s
siliconoffers,Asusadded
a newASMediaUSB3.1
controllerjustforthosetwo
ports.TheZ170chipset
suppliestherest,andthere
are dualfront-panelheaders
forbothUSB3.0andUSB2.0
onboard.That’s a whopping
14 USBports,ifyouweren’t
keepingcount.

Butwhere thisdesign

reallyshinesisifyou’vegot

a ‘K’classprocessororsome

enhancedDDR4memory

modules.TheAsusUEFIBIOS

isknee-deepintweakstobe

made,andyoushouldhaveno

problemgettingyourprocessor

to4.7GHzorhigher, andthe

memorymodulesto3400MHz,

ifyourscangothatquick.

Asususeda new‘five-way’

optimisationmodelonthe

Z170-Athat’s designedtoget

themostoutofyourmemory

andCPU,evenifyoudon’t use

anunlockedCPU.

Thisisbyfarthequickest

Z170boardI’vetested,and

iteasilylockshornswith

designsthatcostdoubleor

more whatthisonedoes.The

differencebetweenthisanda

cheaperboardissmall,but

it’s discernible.

WhatI couldhavedone

toenhancethesenumbers

wouldhavebeentohave

usedanM.2driveinsteadof

a conventionalSSD,though

thatdidn’t seemanentirely

faircomparison.

Ifthere isa caveathere,it’s

thatthisboardisreallymade

totheconstructionalquality

ofa sub-£100design,and

there isn’t anythingspecial

aboutthebuildqualitylike

you’dexpectfromthehigh-

endmodels.

Therelevanceofthat

aspectisentirelydependent

onhowlongyoukeepyour

systemsbefore movingon

andifyou’re expectinglong-

termreliability.

Overall,ifyouwanta

Z170systemthathasmost

ofthethingsyou’re likelyto

needinthenextfewyears,

thenthere aren’t many

rationalargumentsagainst

theAsusZ170-A.

mmMarkPickavance

AnaffordableZ170

board withmanyofthe

trimmings

7

8

Quality

Value

77

Overall

Test AsusZ170-A AsusZ170-P AsusZ170-PD3 AsusH110M-A

Street Price £115 £94 £80 £50

PCMarkHome3.0 3644 3617 3463 3582

3DMarkSkyDiver^4166422341454102

3DMarkCloud

Gate

7747 7683 7591 7439

3DMarkIce

StormExt

49486 49406 50411 47965

AlltestsperformedwithIntelCore-i5 6500 32.GHz,8GBof CorsairVengeanceDDR3or 8GB

of CrucialBallistixDDR4anda CrucialMX





You should have no

problem getting your

processor to 4.7GHz