ASUS Z170-A vs PRO GAMING

[WaitingForNehalem]

These motherboards are within $5 of each other but the PRO GAMING looks like the obvious winner. It has heat sinks secured with metal screws, more USB 3.0 ports, better onboard audio, and comes with more accessories. Am I missing something as it seems like there are no advantages to buying the Z170-A?

 

[HexiumVII]

The Z170-A Looks freakin gorgeous. But it is hampered by older Realtek Audio and there are just a lot of bad customer service issues with Asus. I might have to skip Asus this build. You can just look at the top of hard forums mobo section to see. The Pro Gamer has advantage on pretty much everything. The -A though has an old PCI legacy slot if you need though.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Yeah, I think the only advantage to the Z170A is its looks. I've had and seen bad experiences with Gigabyte but their Z170 mobos look solid with the Intel Alpine Ridge controllers. MSI is also a another contender.

 

[mrblotto]

Wondering about his bit of info:
from here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132567

4 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (gray)**
** These SATA ports are for data hard drivers only. ATAPI devices are not supported.

but right below that it says:
1 x SATA Express port (gray, compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports)

Aside from the spelling mistake lol, I'm guessing you can put a SATA DVD Drive on the 1 X SATA Express port?

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Yeah, SATA Express is fully backwards compatible with regular SATA.

 

[phillyman36]

Both of the 2 sata ports on the sata express are usable.

 

[mrblotto]

Thx for clearing that up

Kind of weird one can't install Win7 from a USB device, well according to the AT Skylake Mobo overview located here:

http://anandtech.com/show/9485/inte...sus-gigabyte-msi-ecs-evga-supermicro#comments


"....One big shock will be for Windows 7 users. By default, the Z170 chipset and BIOS will not support full USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller (EHCI) mode. This means that for a number of circumstances, USB devices will not work unless an XHCI environment in play......"

a bit further down:

In our testing, this means that in order to install Windows 7 you need to do the following:

• Navigate to BIOS
• Enable ‘Windows 7 Installation’ or ‘EHCI mode’, Save and Exit.
• Have your Windows 7 image on an optical disk. USB sticks will not work!
• Install the OS as normal via the optical media. Install OS drivers/USB 3.0 drivers.
• Disable the BIOS option.

I tend to use a bootable external USB drive w/Acronis on it to make backups from time to time.

What about booting to say, like a diagnostic boot USB thumbdrive? I reckon that would work since the review was pretty specific about installing Win7........meh, who knows. This "release" seems to be a bit more vague/cryptic than previous announcements. Maybe they had to rush it out the door in time for something?

I guess then the seldom-used SATA Express connectors will be useful after all lol. I'll be waiting for some reviews on Skylake for more info

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Apparently ASUS will have a mobo with Alpine Ridge in a month or so: http://www.overclock.net/t/1568154/...z170-motherboards-q-a-thread/90#post_24277357

Hopefully they aren't talking about the $400 WS edition.

 

[maddogchen]

I don't understand what ASUS is thinking with these two boards.

The only thing the Z170-A offers is the mem-ok test. Otherwise the Pro Gaming beats it out and i've found it going as cheap as $139 while the A version hovers around $150. They shoulda just sold the Pro Gaming as the A model.

 

[Bearmann]

You get 6 (versus 5) fan headers with the A over the PG. I think you can add an optional fan extension card to the A but not the PG.

 

[Kadano]

Both the Asus Z170-A and the Z170 Pro Gaming seem to be by far the best Z170 mainboards for my needs. They have all four display connectors (VGA, DVI, HDMI, DP), and with a compact arrangement (unlike the weird space-wasting ASRock does with Z170).
Also, they have digital audio, and 6 / 8 external USB connectors.
Differences:

Z170-A:
+ low DPC latency (according to this AnandTech review)
+ low power consumption
+ beautiful design
~ 2 PCI slots for legacy
− simpler integrated audio (possibly worse sound)
− 2 USB connectors less than Pro Gaming

Z170 Pro Gaming:
+ newer integrated audio with added amplifier (on the flipside, this might cause higher DPC latency?)
+ 8 instead of 6 external USB connectors
~ no legacy PCI, but
~− DPC latency not known (no proper reviews yet)
− also tends to have lower user rates on listing sites than Z170-A (A: 95% of 44 positive, Pro Gaming: 55% of 11 positive on geizhals.at)

Makes it seem that opting for Pro Gaming is a bit more risky. It’d be great if we got a review from AnandTech on it.

 

[happy medium]

Just received my Asus Z170-A (154$) and core i3 6100 (118$) in the mail. Just waiting for the memory, video card ,and hybrid drive. My new case and psu has been sitting in my closet since February. I was waiting for Skylake.

I'll be back with my thoughts on the Asus board later this week.
It certainly looks cool.

 

[Bearmann]

Here is a comparison chart for Asus Z-170 motherboards:

http://www.asus.com/us/site/motherboards/Z170/compare/

 

[DreadBelch]

Some posters over at HardForum.com are saying Asus has just released their 10th BIOS update in about 3 months for the Pro Gaming board. Sounds like that model is having some issues.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1871276&page=8
(post #158 on page 8)

 

[RussianSensation]

Some posters over at HardForum.com are saying Asus has just released their 10th BIOS update in about 3 months for the Pro Gaming board. Sounds like that model is having some issues.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1871276&page=8
(post #158 on page 8)

I am not surprised. Asus hasn't made great motherboards in years. They mostly sell based on brand name to noobs or to loyal customer base that have been buying their motherboards exclusively for 5-20 years.

The Pro has dropped in price from $169.99 to $119.99. It seems like their Z170 boards are plagued with issues.

I cannot even believe they priced Z170-A and Z170 Pro at $160-170 considering Gigabyte has at least 2-3 Z170 boards (Gaming 5, UD5, UD3P) that wipe the floor with those Asus boards in the OP in terms of features and build quality/components. The fancy Asus fan controls and UEFI mean squat if the boards are unstable.

In the past Asus charged a premium for their boards but if you paid $150-170 for a board, it was stacked with features and had high quality components. Today, to get any of that you have to go all the way up to their $200+ segment - the Maximum or Sabertooth range.

Hopefully Asus starts listening and starts making stable, solid boards in the sub $170 segment like the good old days. Having garbage on-board audio on the Z170-A, too few SATA/M.2 ports, is simply unacceptable in this price range.

 

[legolas_tk]

It depends on what you are going to do with your MB. You overclocking or gaming?
Z170-A has better overclocking for memory and also overclocking CPU.
If you want to have good sound and gaming experience, you should use the Z170 Pro Gaming. They always updating the BIOS for stability. So, I am sure you do not need to worry. I think a lot of people just need to learn to improve on how to OC and play.