Pros: If you are trying to get performance without paying a lot and get by with a good performance rig, this is a good investment. If you are using or upgrading to a better, faster gaming rig from 2013 or earlier, you will get your money's worth from this board as well as a major improvement. If your gaming, you shouldn't spend less than $130.00 in my opinion. Everything you need including space for a large video card or CPU heat sink and fan. I am ranging around 84 MB/s data transfer rates through the USB3.0 connectors on-board with WD My Passport Ultras. Not bad. Raid-0, 1, 5 & 10 is capable with this board and handy if you want speedy data performance out of your SSDs. With the option to use an M.2 slot and USB3.1. Also with multi crossfire and SLI, you can't go wrong paying $150.00 for this product. I am happy. The Bios posted with no problem on first boot-up with a brand new rig. The mobo recognized everything flawlessly. Bios set-up is a breeze.

Cons: I can't come up with any cons considering the $150.00 price tag. Good buy.

Other Thoughts: I only recommend using this board if you are wanting to get buy with your budget and make your experience last for around 5 years with a few extra perks that make this upgradable. If you are looking for performance gaming and high end durability and power, I would go with something a bit more beefy.

Pros: time will tel

Cons: installed in the case stared to boot but kept losing the drives. one boot would see them next boot would not. Called tech support 35 minutes with them the first time they hung up on me. Second time 20 min with them telling me mb was bad and send it back for replacement.
I'll comment further when I get the new one in 7-10 days.

Other Thoughts: ?

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for sharing your review on the ASUS Z97-E/USB 3.1. I'm sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing in regards to your SATA drives function. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenient experience this process has caused. Which SATA Port are you using for your drives? Please make sure to use your SATA6G_1-4 connectors. If you haven't already, please make sure to download and install your updated SATA driver Intel Smart Connect Technology Version 5.0.10.2907 for Windows 64bit. You can locate all your SATA drivers on our ASUS Online Help Desk at: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97EUSB31/HelpDesk_Download/. If you haven't already please make sure to update your UEFI to build (0701). If you need additional information on any associated drivers, please make sure to contact me directly for personalized help at cl-nestor@asus.com using N160402058 as reference to your case.

Thank you for choosing ASUS!

Best Regards,
-Nestor
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Works Great!

Cons: none

Pros: This is my first build.
I am not a pro gamer, I am using this rig as a media server, for storage and to play around with on the sides.
Its working great for that.

Cons: I had a terrible time getting the board to fit into my mid tower case. Since this was my first build, I assumed that it was something I was doing wrong. I was afraid to force the board so I took it into my school tech lab for some assistance/ second opinion. My professor and some of the more advanced guys were able to get it in, but not without a good deal of cussing. The screw placement was terrible. Once we got it in I had no further problems.

Guys also thought there should be more stata ports. I have stuff plugged into all of them with non to spare.

Pros: decent board layout, sli and crossfire capable

Cons: extremely small list of compatible SSDs, many reports of flaky bios (mine too), constantly loses the boot drive and bios update does not take when forced manually. Some people seem to have good luck with this board but not me and based on other reviews I would say about 33% of all purchasers. Will replace it with an MSI board. Goodbye ASUS

Other Thoughts: Used to rely on this brand. Not anymore simply because the kind of problems this board has should have been dealt with before it was made available and there are just too many people having the same problems. BTW, been building systems for 20 years so its not like I haven't seen these kinds of issues and dealt with all the steps to troubleshoot them before.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for taking the time to share your ASUS experience. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. If you haven’t already please Download UEFI version 0602 and extract the file to a fat formatted usb stick. Then navigate in bios to the tools menu and use the EZflash utility to do the flash. Let your system update the firmware as needed. Do not power down even if your system sits with a blank screen for 10 minutes or so. When updating your UEFI please make sure to wait for the firmware to update after the board restarts following the flash. This can take a couple of minutes after the board restarts. The board should be left alone during this process. If there is no POST following this process, then it would be best for you to provide us with your full list of parts for further analysis on QVL parts. If you need further technical information, feel free to contact me at cl-nestor@asus.com using N160386090 as reference to this case.

Thank you for choosing ASUS!

Best Regards,
-Nestor
ASUS Customer Loyalty – US Support

Pros: Great Mother Board!

Cons: None!

Other Thoughts: Great Mother Board!

Pros: The colors?

Cons: Motherboard arrived in an OPEN plastic bag. Not the usual anti-static bag that MOBOs normally come in. Figured hey lets try it anyways. After 7+ hours of trouble shooting everything after building narrowed down the issue to the MOBO. ( Think someone else may have did an RMA, vendor plugged it in, saw it power up then sent it back to the shelf) The mobo will not boot files. Windows install freezes at black screen after "Loading files" tried different Rom drives, SSD / HDD. Even 3 different copies of different versions of Windows. All the components worked in my other build piece by piece.

Booted to BIOS, went online and looked up known issues and this was one of them. Tried all the "fixes" and nothing...
ASUS customer support wasn't helpful. The usual, "reset CMOS, try different RAM, etc, etc" He went as far as saying that this is the first time this has happened.... -.- (go online and look at all the other users with the same issue) Tried USB 3.0, 2.0, PS/2, not even hooking up periphs and still, crashes at black screen. Hook up components to other computer (different mobo) and BAM, loads right up. I will be contacting Newegg tomorrow morning to get this board out of here.

Now I have to find a MOBO that supports the same RAM and LGA which I sadly built around this.
TLDR: Wont boot any bootable files, BIOS frozen even after all "fixes"

Other Thoughts: Would not reccomend this product.
And would not purchase this again

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your feedback and informing us on your experience with the ASUS Z97-E/USB 3.1 Motherboard. What seems to be the problem with your windows installation? Are you getting a specific error code when attempting to install your OS? Please make sure to update your UEFI to BIOS 0602 for the most recent microcode for your CPU. Also, have you tried manually overriding the Boot sequence to your bootable flash media? You can do this by logging into UEFI --> Advanced Mode --> Boot --> Boot Override. Make sure to double click the bootable disk that contains the Operating System of your choice. If the problem persists, I can help you get started with a RMA to. If you have any further questions you can contact me at cl-nestor@asus.com using N160357185​ as reference to this case.

Thank you for choosing ASUS!

Best Regards,
-Nestor
ASUS Customer Loyalty - US Support

Pros: Always love working with asus motherboards and this one was no exception. detailed manual and solid construction

Cons: My only gripe is the software provided is a little sloppy. Just has an amateur feel to it. Still, it's great for motherboard software but could be much better.

Other Thoughts: Still no generic NIC driver with Windows 7. Must use the disc to install it

Pros: One of the few Z97 motherboards with USB 3.1 support.
Uses an Intel LAN controller, rather than a third party one like Realtek.
Stylish looking chipset heatsink.

Cons: The I/O shield is flimsy and difficult to install. You have to do some tricky maneuvering in order to get the motherboard to fit into it.

Most of the drivers on ASUS's download page for this board have not been updated since mid 2014, plus they use some weird third party installer that sometimes just didn't work. I just manually downloaded the latest Intel 9 Series Chipset driver, AHCI driver (the latest version comes with the latest version of Intel Rapid Storage Technology), Intel USB 3.0 driver (if you are using Windows 7), and LAN driver directly from Intel's website. The latest Realtek audio driver can be found just about everywhere.

Other Thoughts: The USB 3.1 controller is from ASMedia.
You can turn off the orange audio LEDs in the BIOS if you do not like them.

Pros: Awesome sale price, great entry level modern mobo. Runs smooth, very reliable, many excellent features for the bios. The mobo is equipped with a fair amount of input slots for cables & PCI hardware.

Cons: None