Looking for an affordable route to Intel Skylake, DDR4 and LGA 1151? Z170-A is a mainstream motherboard featuring the Intel Z170 chipset and a whole host of innovation.
Product on Review: Z170-A Motherboard
Manufacturer & Sponsor: ASUS
Street Price: £115.99 GBP
Intel’s 6th Generation Core ‘Skylake’ product line is launched today, and complementing that release is a range of motherboards from top-line vendors eager to have their hardware inside your new PC. However, for the first time Intel’s release range is limited to only K-series desktop CPUs – namely the Core i7 6700K and i5 6600K, so naturally motherboard vendors are highlighting their overclocking range of Z170 designs at launch this time around. With the H- and B-class motherboards scheduled for later in the year today’s range of available models is perhaps the most streamlined it’s ever been.
Intel’s Z170 chipset, codenamed Sunrise Point, is the first in the mainstream to features DDR4 support and an LGA 1151 socket. As a result new systems will tend to have a higher upgrade cost than previous generations, which could at least inherit DDR3 DIMMs from older systems, or otherwise take advantage of a depressed memory market price. The higher than usual costs necessitate hard work from partners to make their own motherboard designs – based on the standard Intel chipset and their own secret sauce – even greater value to get over this upgrade hurdle. Given how strong Z97 was, they truly have their work cut out for them; thankfully new chipset features not available for Z97’s launch, such as USB 3.1 and NVMe RAID, will help.
ASUS are well-known throughout consumer electronics, with a major presence in the motherboard and VGA market. However they have also gradually diversified into peripherals, monitors, and more recently wearables. By any measure they’re a hardware giant, but for today we’re focussing on just one small product, the ASUS Z170-A.
ASUS split their motherboard lineup into a number of distinct sub-brands: Republic Of Gamers, which naturally caters to the hardcore gaming market; Pro Gaming, a recent addition for budget-focused gamers; a Signature series, occupying more mainstream markets; and the high-end TUF models which include the distinctive TUF armour. Signature series motherboards (often colloquially known as ‘Channel’ designs) tend to have more neutral aesthetics, are orientated towards productivity and QoL over gaming, and above all focus on bang for your buck within a price bracket. Even so, ASUS certainly aren’t above pushing the boat out if they need to, as evidenced by the feature-rich Deluxe models at the premium end of the market.
The Z170-A is sits firmly in the mid-range of the ASUS’s Signature series, as as a consequence it’s about as mainstream as you can get. It slots between the Z170-K, a budget model that doesn’t support SLI and has a more affordable range of on-board components, and the Z170 Pro models which builds on the core chipset with proprietary ASUS features and optional extras. Essentially, if you’re an enthusiast on a budget but really aren’t keen on ‘gamer’ branding, ASUS have precisely this board in mind for you.
Competition at this price point is fierce, especially during a new launch, and the Z170-A seeks to differentiate itself through the use of premium components and features such as Intel LAN and robust audio design. Much of the value will however come from what’s under the hood, items such as a comprehensive UEFI BIOS for overclocking, or perhaps simply proven build quality. Don’t be surprised to see the Z170-A on the go-to list for recommendations across multiple forums whenever build advice is solicited for Skylake systems.
ASUS on their design philosophy
”In search of Incredible”, ASUS motherboard believes technology design trends exists with a purpose, to convenience life and living. For the last 30 years, computer industry has grown rapidly along with time even though the purpose to satisfy mankind stays the same, but people’s perspectives aren’t, they grow and change with time and the affecting reasons that’s behind the perspective is the passion and to believe. ASUS loves their customers and believe in their needs, we promise to continually present the best product to accomplish our journey on perfection, and to keep persists on ASUS DNA, Lean Thinking, Innovation and Fundamental Focusing.
Through the rigorous design and quality confirmed by the Z170-A design team, we are pleased to present you four big exclusive key circumstances – Superb Performance, Seamless Entertainment, eSports Champions, EZ DIY. Each circumstance we have fulfilled with many ASUS designs to meet your needs.
Through the rigorous design and quality confirmed by the Z170-A design team, we are pleased to present you four big exclusive key circumstances – Superb Performance, Seamless Entertainment, eSports Champions, EZ DIY. Each circumstance we have fulfilled with many ASUS designs to meet your needs.
Packaging & First Look
Z170-A arrives in an attractive looking motherboard box which shows a preview of the product on the front along with a listing of some of the key features and technologies which are included. Over on the reverse there are more details and the technical specifications.
Inside, the motherboard is covered in an anti-static bag.
Accompanying the motherboard there are a selection of included items which consist of the accessories bundle. The following are included:
• User Guide
• Information sheet
• CPU installation tool
• Rear IO shield
• SLI Bridge
• Four SATA 3 (6GB/s) cables
• Driver CD
Although Z170-A is a channel offering with a small price-tag the styling is still oozes quality with some sleek heatsinks on both the MOSFETs and Intel Z170 chip. ASUS like other rivals are choosing to add some styling to the Rear IO ports which further compliments the motherboard.
Overall, we like the design – the PCB is glossy black and the assortment of ports and slots are either black or dark grey. The aesthetics should blend with other components very well.
Z170-A conforms to the ATX form factor.
Closer Look
Z170-A is designed to with Intel’s 6th Generation of processors – Skylake. So the socket is LGA 1151 but if you have a cooler that has been used on another socket such as LGA1150/55 then it will work fine here too. Immediately next to the memory, there are two fan headers for dual CPU fans.
Over on the other side ASUS has placed a trio of fan headers also, which include a w_pump option to work hand-in-hand with an all-in-one liquid cooling solution.
As we’ve seen in the past, ASUS are using a digital phase delivery for this motherboard by using DIGI+ VRM and a 10-phase design.
Next to the socket GAMING M7 has a total of four memory slots which require DDR4 memory. These slots are ready for dual-channel DDR4 and Intel XMP – supporting up to 3600MHz and 64GB.
Furthermore, ASUS include MemOK! to ensure a failsafe boot with incompatible memory. There is a USB 3.1 header next to the 24-pin ATX power for front panel connectivity.
Further along we have one SATA Express connection port and four SATA 3 (6GB/s) ports. The SATA Express are backwards compatible allowing two SATA 3 (6GB/s) to be used for drives such as SSDs.
Further into the corner there is an M.2 port allowing drives which are 2242/2260/2280/22110. This port is supplied by PCI Express 3.0 x4.
Behind the storage ports is a large heatsink which covers the Intel Z170 chip. The design works well with the rest of the motherboard and coordinates with the rest of the styling.
Below this heatsink there is a TPU switch and an XMP switch. TPU switch arranges a stable overclock to the system while the XMP switch enables a quick solution to configure memory to the XMP profile without needing to go into the BIOS.
Moving over to the PCI Express slots there are:
– Three PCI Express 3.0 x1 slots
– Three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots
– One Legacy PCI slot
The uppermost x16 operates at x16 while the middle slot runs at x8 and the lower port just x4. Adding in more than one graphics card will mean that overall bandwidth will drop to the lowest speed. So, if you’re planning to use just a single graphics card its best to use the top slot.
Some may argue that PCI legacy support is a good thing but we feel it would be better to include something else in its place since this type of port has now been phased out on a vast majority of motherboards.
Along the very bottom of the Z170-A there is an onboard power switch for use when the system is installed on a test bench or is out of the case.
Over on the left-hand side of the PCI Express we have Crystal Sound 3 and ASUS’ audio solution. Behind Crystal Audio 3 is ALC 892 and a whole host of audio components including: DTS surround, EMI shielding and premium Japanese solid CAPs to really bolster the audio quality.
The Rear IO section of Z170-A is packed with quite a selection of features which include:
2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x DisplayPort (Up to 4K resolution @ 24Hz)
1 x HDMI port (Up to 4K resolution @ 24Hz)
1 x DVI-I port
1 x VGA port
2 x USB 3.0 ports
1 x Gigabit LAN (Intel I219V)
1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port
1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C port
8 Channel audio with Optical SPD/IF
Intel Z170 Features
Intel’s initial release schedule for Skylake was planned well in advance, long before Microsoft officially announced the launch date of Windows 10. Most of August was set aside for conferences and seminars including the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco, all with the aim of taking the wraps off and going deep into the technology within this new CPU architecture. Unfortunately bringing forward the release date of ‘K-series’ SKUs has meant that they’re unable to furnish detailed technical info to reviewers and members of the press, and won’t be releasing this information until IDF. The following is information which has been released thus far.
Developed under the codename Sunrise Point, Intel’s 100-series chipset is designed to operate hand-in-hand with an Intel ‘Skylake’ 6th Generation core processor. It utilises an LGA 1151 socket, underscoring the fact that neither CPU nor motherboard are backwards compatible with any of the previous generation hardware. As a result Sunrise Point is free to add additional features not present in x90-series and earlier chipsets.
Memory and Overclocking
Most notably from a consumer perspective Sunrise Point is the first Intel mainstream computing platform to be compatible with DDR4, and most Z170 and H170 designs are indeed likely to feature this memory technology rather than continue with DDR3L (a memory spec which Skylake CPUs can also handle). Default support is at DDR4-2133, however speeds above this are possible if a Z170 motherboard and K-Series CPU are used in tandem. One year on from the release of Haswell-E DDR4 pricing is quickly becoming more bearable, and so whilst it’s an additional expense to swallow compared with Haswell/Z97 it may not be quite the price premium you expect.
With Skylake Intel are, for the first time in many generations of Core architectures, once again re-enabling fine grade overclocking of memory at the Base Clock (BCLK) level. The PCI subsystem clock is now independent of BCLK, allowing for robust overclocking support which dispenses with coarse ratios in favour of a MHz by MHz stepping to far higher levels. Pre-launch testing by board partners have ascertained that stable BCLK’s of up to 400MHz are possible (with a stepping down of CPU multiplier), a far cry from even last year’s Haswell Refresh.
It should be noted that overclocking support has also been improved through greater control over individual CPU voltage inputs. Haswell made use of a Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator on the CPU itself; in essence, the motherboard supplied one input voltage and the FIVR divided this into individual on-board component inputs. With Skylake/Z170 the motherboard chipset controls each of these voltages individually, allowing direct adjustment for greater stability where necessary. This could theoretically be a great boon to enthusiast overclockers eager to get every last smidgen of performance out of a system.
Chipset and PCH Features
As we noted in our review of the two launched Skylake CPUs, up to 16 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes exist as a direct low-latency connection between CPU and 3rd party hardware such as graphics cards. These can operate in a 1×16 lane, 2×8 lane or 1×8 lane and 2×4 lane setup for multi-GPU configurations depending on the hardware implementation chosen by the board partners, but aren’t sufficient alone to support additional hardware options such as PCI-Express storage. The Platform Controller Hub therefore provides additional PCI-Express lanes to peripheral controllers.
In contrast to Intel’s 9-series motherboards Sunrise Point can supply up to an additional 20 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes, potentially resulting in double the bandwidth compared with the 20 PCIe 2.0 lanes of the previous generation. These new lanes augment the chipset storage options, most notably in respect to PCIe storage with many designs now featuring multiple next-generation storage options rather than a singular M.2 or SATA-Express port. Whilst not the low-latency connection you require for effective graphics processing, they will be more than suitable for new high-speed storage options including RAID for PCI-Express thanks to an upgraded DMI connection between PCH and CPU.
Further augmenting the platform’s storage capabilities is the adoption of new Intel Rapid Storage Technology protocols allowing PCI-Express storage to be used as caching drives for slower media. Potentially still a niche technology, the stark benefits of next-generation SSDs over mechanical drives as well as future SSDs could be just the breakthrough Intel RST needs to capture mainstream adoption.
In an additional change from the 9-series motherboards support has been added for up to 10 native USB 3.0 ports and 14 USB 2.0 ports, with a maximum of 16 ports in some combination thereof. It should be noted that so far as we can tell USB 3.1 isn’t actually native to the Sunrise Point chipset. Implementation is up to motherboard vendors through 3rd party controllers, and it’s to their credit that many have adopted the new high-speed standard without any fuss. For some both USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C connectors are available, with Type-C the most common otherwise.
Those who make use of on-board CPU graphics can now enjoy support for up to three digital display outputs, or make use of the Intel 530 Graphics capabilities in tandem with discrete graphics. Microsoft Windows 10 (via DirectX 12) includes new options which allow disparate graphics hardware to be used in tandem, making best use of processing power where possible. Even without this, the transcoding capabilities of Intel QuickSync make it a tempting proposition for fast and efficient h.265 encoding and decoding, even if your discrete graphics hardware is formidable.
With unchanged support for six conventional SATA III storage ports, Intel 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet, Intel Audio options and comprehensive UEFI BIOS options, Sunrise Point (and by extension all Z170 motherboards) are choc-full of features. That’s not to say that there aren’t some omissions – lack of native USB 3.1 support being the most obvious, whilst native U.2 connectors are a premium feature supplied by board partners – but as a whole the platform is a significant step forward overall.
ASUS Z170-A BIOS Video Tour
Below is a video tour showing the interface of the ASUS Z170-A BIOS and the options which are available. ASUS have adopted a similar design/interface to previous motherboards. The GUI is fluid, responsive and very easy to use.Test Setup, Methodology & Overclocking
Test Setup
CPU Intel Core i7-6700K
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard ASUS Z170-A
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage OCZ Vector 180
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard ASUS Z170-A
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage OCZ Vector 180
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2014 – CPU & Memory benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
PCMark 8 – Home Suite
3DMark FireStrike – DX11 3D Benchmark
Games – Tomb Raider, THIEF
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2014 – CPU & Memory benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
PCMark 8 – Home Suite
3DMark FireStrike – DX11 3D Benchmark
Games – Tomb Raider, THIEF
Other Software
Temperature Analysis: Real Temp
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Overclocking
Overclocking with Skylake is now fully flexible since we can adjust many variables including BCLK and ratio/multiplier.
In order to establish the best overclock we experimented with different combinations of BCLK and ratio. The best result we could achieve required the BCLK to stay at 100MHz and the ratio to move up to 47 – resulting in 4.7GHz. This was accomplished by settling at a minimum voltage of 1.36v.
We had a few teething issues when we began overclocking as we have since discovered that Turbo mode must be enabled in order for the clock frequency to be adjusted – something which is perhaps more restricted compared to other motherboard out there.
Benchmarks: Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the Z170 chipset, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.
Benchmarks: X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 Product PageThis simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Benchmarks: Cinebench
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.
Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
Benchmarks: 3DMark
3DMark FireStrike Product PageFire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8
PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.
Benchmarks: Tomb Raider & THIEF
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two popular and recent gaming titles which feature a dedicated benchmark tool within them to display results.
Conclusion
For Intel Z97’s debut one of our first motherboard reviews featured the Z97-A – the corresponding board for today’s Z170-A launch. We were impressed by the efforts that ASUS had gone to from a styling standpoint back then and today this is no exception. Once again, it’s great to see a mainstream offering receive some class and finesse.
Putting the Z170-A through its paces in our benchmark suite revealed a solid motherboard which doesn’t back down in any of the scenarios we placed it. This mainstream board even handled our best overcock milestone set by a high-end rival offering – so this highlights the fact that it doesn’t always mean you have to spend a substantial amount of cash to channel in to good performance.
Z170-A is versatile in its feature-set and even has multiple storage options from SATA, SATA Express and M.2. While some of these standards may not necessarily be mainstream it’s great to have the option to use them at a later stage.
Overall we’re impressed by what Z170-A brings to the table. The onboard audio solution is backed by reputable components and the BIOS GUI bolsters the experience.
Priced at £115 GBP the Z170-A represents great value for money and will be a tough one to beat on affordability and will unlock a cost effective route to LGA 1151 – since the outright costs are going to be larger than previous years with motherboard, memory and a new CPU a prerequisite.
The Z170-A adds class to the mainstream Z170 segment. This motherboards packs in an assortment of features and connectivity that most users will find useful and does so while sitting at an extremely attractive price-tag.
Pros
+ Attractive styling
+ Excellent performance
+ Great onboard audio solution
+ Intuitive BIOS
+ Great value for money
Cons
– Overclocking requires Turbo mode to be enabled
+ Attractive styling
+ Excellent performance
+ Great onboard audio solution
+ Intuitive BIOS
+ Great value for money
Cons
– Overclocking requires Turbo mode to be enabled
