ASRock Mini ITX DDR4 Motherboards Z170M-ITX/AC

Solid Mini-ITX motherboardI bought this for a small form factor gaming build for my wife's birthday and found it to be exactly what I'd hoped for - a good mid-range gaming mobo in a mini-ITX package.The Good:- No installation issues. No bent pins. The board arrived in perfect condition.- Board layout is good. In particular, I appreciated the positioning of the SATA headers which left plenty of clearance vs the Cryorig H7 CPU cooler I used.- Well organized and functional BIOS.The Not So Good:- The wireless card mounts vertically into a plug that's dangerously close to getting in the way of the CPU cooler. The H7 cleared it pretty easily, but I can imagine other coolers getting into a conflict here. Be careful which cooler you use.- The RF cables for the wireless card are delicate. Be careful when installing these. Because I have a fair amount of experience handling hardware like this from my days in the defense biz, I knew how to handle them but if you've never dealt with micro RF connectors like these, I urge you to take your time and make absolutely sure you have the connector lined up before you try to press it into place.- The mounting instructions for the RF cables tell you to install them to the wireless card first. DON'T DO THIS. When you attach the antenna connectors to the rear panel the cables will naturally spin a bit while you're tightening them down. If they're already attached to the card you run the risk of twisting and breaking them. Attach the cables to the rear panel first and then connect them to the card.- The various headers on the board are all labeled, but in a couple of cases the screening is placed a little weirdly so you really need to pay attention.- The IO block rear panel is functional enough but it's kind of cheap and flimsy. Be careful when you install it, paying special attention to the contact fingers around the USB ports. A couple of these were bent inward slightly and kept catching on the connectors.- The clips on the fan headers are very fragile. I had to unplug the case fan cable and the clip snapped with only moderate pressure. This isn't a huge deal but it's annoying.- There's ONLY ONE case fan header. This build uses a Thermaltake V1 with an intake fan in the front and two 80mm exhaust fans in the back. At the moment the 80mm fans aren't connected because I'm waiting for a y-cable. In retrospect I probably didn't even need those fans but a heads-up is still in order.I've run a battery of burn-in and performance tests with no hitches at all. The board is stable and performs exactly as I'd hoped. Despite a few minor flaws, this is a excellent choice for a mini-ITX gaming rig.

Pros: Intel Gigabit LAN port is great. Comes with WiFi. Everything seems to work well in Linux (Ubuntu 15.10). Worked with an Intel Core i7-6700k out of the box (came with BIOS version 1.10 but I upgraded it to 2.0 right away which turned out fine).Cons: The audio chipset (Realtek ALC892) kinda sucks. It's fine for *output* but totally inadequate (noisy/hissing) for recording (no, it's not my power supply or other hardware causing the problem--it's a common problem with this chipset). The included WiFi (with provided antennas) has poor range but that can be remedied by replacing the antenna with some superior aftermarket ones (make sure they're far apart which is the real problem with the antenna layout provided by the back connectors: They're too close together).

It fit well with my fractal design nano s case, the only drawback was the I/O panel. The cut out holes for the wifi antenna's was really stuck on the panel. I had to literally pound the holes out. Other than that, this tiny motherboard was great for the price.

Good for modest overclocks, VRMs of struggle with heavier clocks. Needed to modify with some VRM heatsinks. If you don't want to overclock for some reason on a z170 board this works well, but there are cheaper options if you don't overclock.

Husband loves it

Great Motherboard, works great , ran into zero problems with my system, just make sure you do your homework and make sure you purchase compatible components and I'm sure you will have a good experience!

Great board, overclocks my 6700k well. Runs my 2133 ddr4 just fine. I updated it to the latest bios through the asrock website.

Nice little motherboard but wrong backplate included so I had to route wireless antennas out throw another opening.

In short this motherboard is great, so far have had no issues with it. BIOS seems good and don't see this part breaking at time soon.setup is as follows// I5 6600k// GTX 1070Pros- has plenty of fan connectors- enough SATA connectors for most users- has two Ethernet ports ( so could be great for any fancy network setups or external drives/computers)- Wifi on it seems good as well as the Bluetooth which both worked without the need to download any drivers- lots of USB 3 ports as wellCons-Haven't found any so far

Small and extremely versatile. I have i7 CPU with 32Gig of ram and GTX590

great z170 itx budget motherboard

Mobo per build Mini-ITX. L'ho montata su un Raven RVZ02B della Silverstone e non ho avuto nessun problema particolare per installarla. Per il momento mi sento di consigliarla, il tempo si esprimerà sulla sua durata.Se siete degli entusiasti del formato di forma Mini-ITX questa mi sembra una buona scelta.Qualche nota per chi prevede di montarla/usarla:- Ha il BIOS UEFI: fantastico, ero rimasto un pò indietro, essendo abituato alle schermatone blu e poterne usare uno mi ha dato soddisfazioni- Montare i cavi del front panel è abbastanza complicato per via dell'esiguo spazio a disposizione, ma trattandosi di una Mini-ITX c'è da aspettarselo; basta armarsi di pazienza- Purtroppo alla prima installazione software ho avuto bisogno ci fare un CMOS clear e spostare i jumperini non è stato facilissimo, per lo stesso discorso di prima- Ha solamente due slot per RAM (DDR4), ma non è un problema se pianificate la vostra build per non estenderla a stretto giro; anche qui, trattandosi di una Mini-ITX è normale- Il chip per le antennine wireless prevede di essere montato sulla mobo con una staffa in dotazione, nelle istruzioni il lato il cui viene indicato di montare la staffa è quello sbagliato; comunque se si fa un check prima di mettere le viti ce ne si accorge subito;- Sempre sulle antennine, non dannno esattamente un senso di solidità, ma è più una impressione non dettata da riscontri veri e propri

Una de las mejores Z170 en formato mITX. Los 6+2 USB3.0 y la doble tarjeta de red están muy bien, eso no es fácil de encontrar en placas "gaming" mITX de ésta u otras marcas. Y el conector mini PCI-E, que viene con una wifi ac, es un plus enorme. La salida de audio es de 3 conecttores pero los otros 3 conectores se pueden poner en la carcasa ( el 3 o 3+3 se configura en la BIOS) y para la óptica hay un jumper interno, que si eres un poco mañnoso puedes utiilizar. Ojalá tuviera algún interfaz USB 3.1 y que las salidas para las antenas estuvieran más separadas (nada que no puedas arreglar tu mismo).Lo que menos me ha gustado es que venía con el firmware 1.10 cuando ya están por el 2.70, eso significa que ha estado un año en los almacenes de Amazon. Actualizar el firmware lo primero es obligatio.En resumen, estoy bastante contento.