Asus Z170i Pro Gaming Review

Performance Analysis

In general, performance from this dinky motherboard was excellent. It matched or nearly matched the top stock speed scores in all but one of our 2D tests, where it was a tad sluggish in Cinebench R15. Again, while Unigine Valley seemed noticeably faster on the Asus Z170i Pro Gaming than it was on, say, the MSI Z170A Gaming M5 at stock speed, the former wasn't quick so quick in our real world game test nor in the 3DMark tests.


Despite being the first mini-ITX motherboard we've tested from the Z170 camp, it didn't quite manage to find the lowest power consumption figures either, although the dent in your annual electricity bill will likely be offset by avoiding your next couple of cans of Coke. Thankfully, audio performance was back on high, with some excellent numbers according to RightMark Audio Analyzer, matching figures we've seen for Asus's more expensive ROG boards.

Perhaps even more importantly, given the limited expansion offered by not just this but every mini-ITX motherboard, it was more than a match for your typical £30 sound card too, offering better audio quality than Asus's own popular Xonar DXG 5.1 - just, while being a vast improvement compared to the Realtek ALC898-based P8Z77i-Deluxe, which offered noise and dynamic range levels of -93 and 92.7 dBA respectively. The only way you'd get significantly better audio is if you ditch your GPU and use a high end sound card or external USB soundcard.

Storage was on the money too, except for a slightly lacklustre result off the M.2 port, which was 20MB/sec or so slower than what we'd expect. Once overclocked the Z170i Pro Gaming was just as potent, with well above average results practically across the board and here its dinky size finally saw it put in the lowest power consumption numbers too.

Conclusion

There are some very minor issues with the Z170i Pro Gaming, such as two odd-placed SATA 6Gbps ports, and the fact the M.2 port is rather inaccessible. In addition, we don't think it looks quite as nice as some of its predecessors, but other than these this is the sub-£150 mini-ITX Z170 board to beat. It's fast and actually very overclockable despite its limited power circuitry plus you get Asus's raft of software features too. If the Impact, which isn't likely to leave you with much change from £200 when it arrives, is a bit too steep, the Z170i Pro Gaming is definitely the board to go for.