Pros: This motherboard is a great value. Asus emphasized ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection by adding ESD preventative components. The BIOS is great and full of options. The manual is very good and detailed, and ASUS has always had a good reputation for good documentation. The software that comes on the CD is actually useful, AI Suite 3 can be made to startup at boot, and has small-footprint interface that sits on your desktop. One can access pretty much every setting in the BIOS with the OS operating running, with this program, if you choose to install it. Clicking on the circular button causes 4 bubbles to pop open and one can change their fan settings to either Silent, Standard, Turbo, or Full Speed. What I like is that I can see my CPU temp and temps at the two primary system fans. The Realtek audio is quite good. The M.2 connector was my first on a motherboard, and my primary drive is a Samsung SSD, is located there. The layout on the motherboard is generally hassle-free in terms of the locations for the system fan jumper pins, as well as the front audio connector and front USB connectors, as well as the location of the SATA ports, considering that my case is the NZXT 630 which is huge (bigger than full-size).

Cons: The biggest issue I have with this motherboard was that I bought it when first released, unlike the current (D3) version. This means that the motherboard I got lacks 2 USB 3.0 ports on the I/O backplane, and also, I only have 4 SATA III connectors. (This is not an issue if you buy the current version from Newegg, shown in the photos). On my first version of the board, there are no ports where there should be SATA III ports--you can see SATA III ports in the photo, at the corner of the board, but on my version, there are no SATA III ports. I would have opted for more PCI-Express 1.0 slots instead of 2 (old) PCI slots. Finally, to Clear CMOS (default BIOS settings) one must short 2 pins on the board, the old-school way. This is no big deal, except the two pins are pretty darn close to other jumper pins on opposite sides of the two--like the front panel audio connector-pins-- so use caution (!) if you overclock and go too far with the settings, your PC won't POST, and you need to clear the CMOS to get the PC to start up. When you clear the CMOS, make sure there is plenty of light to see, short the pins carefully (if you ever need to) and the power supply is switched off and also has the power cable pulled out, just in case.

Other Thoughts: I would recommend this board. Excellent value for the price. I wish I had the current revision however, considering I lost out on 2 USB 3.0 connectors on the backplane and 2 SATA III ports by buying the first release (they fixed this on the D3 version). I purchased an Orico 5 port USB 3.0 addon card which took up one PCI Express 1.0 slot. I would buy this motherboard again, but the D3 version you see here. Still, I really like this motherboard, it has served me well, and I have no regrets.

Pros: got it back in 2015 with an I5 6600k and it works wonderfully and the cpu turbo fan is great and does good over clocking

Cons: not a fan of the gold color but its minor

Other Thoughts: perfect 5/7 would buy again

Pros: ASUS, Low price, DDR3 compatibility & Skylake. NVMe compatible M.2 slot.
Easy to install have very convenient slots\power connector layout. Works flawlessly with XMS memory profiles. A lot of monitoring sensors and overclocking knobs.

Cons: Cons: It came with old BIOS which doesn't recognize NVMe 500GB Samsung 950 Pro V-NAND SSD. Updating to BIOS to Ver 0509; 11/26/2015helps.

Other Thoughts: There is one negative review with using this board with Samsung 950 Pro V-NAND SSD on Windows7. My opinion is the old OSes weren't ready for this type of slot\storage. If BIOS recognizes it but OS is not then it feels like not MOBO problem. Using Windows10 pro. Had to disconnect other drives to install the OS first otherwise was getting system error from OS installation.

Pros: Over-clocks well!!
skylake + DDR3
M.2!
on board LED lighting is a nice touch.

Cons: - the gold black color scheme is not great in my opinion.
- could use a couple more sata ports

Other Thoughts: I was able to install the OS (Windows 7) on the samsung 950 M.2 NVMe drive. In order to do this you must load the samsung drivers when you begin installing windows. A good way to do this is to put the drivers on a USB stick along with windows and install that way. There are tutorials on the web that cover this. It is a little tricky, perhaps that is why the previous reviewer struggled with installing the OS onto the M.2 drive.

Pros: Price, DDR3 compatibility, & Skylake.

Cons: If you have thoughts of making use of that M.2 slot, think again. Nothing but a nightmare and despite a call to ASUS Tech Support and a flash of the BIOS to Ver 0509; 11/26/2015, my 500GB Samsung 950 Pro V-NAND SSD remains unrecognized BY THE OPERATING SYSTEM (Windows 7). The drive is recognized IN THE BIOS, but what good does that do if you can access it?

My original plan was to put the OS on the M.2 drive, but seemingly knowledgeable Tech Support says that is not possible, pointing fingers at Samsung. So, unhappy but planning to use for (fast) file storage, found that I couldn't do that either. Gimme a break!

Other Thoughts: The board is relatively small and things get really cramped installing - and after installing - a liquid cooler even in a full-size tower case.

Pros: PCI-E 3.0, runs DDR3 for an 1151 socket. BIOS layout is decent. Layout of board hardware is good.

Cons: Initially, Windows 7 could not detect speakers plugged into the audio jack, and it would not display one of the hard drives in Windows explorer. Also, it appeared the BIOS would not always save all changes I made....this lead to the solid state drive being left in a RAID mode instead of ACHI. The original BIOS was 0407, once I updated to 0509 everything worked exactly as it should with no issues.

It would have been nice to have optical audio out jack but oh well.....

Other Thoughts: Once this board was updated everything ran very well, the LED light track on the board; which can be configured in the BIOS for "OFF/ON/beat with music" is ok but a dull yellow color, not really great and only runs a short distance of the board. I leave it off.

Pros: Stable, overclocks well, low price.

Cons: The board technically supports 1.5v DDR3 RAM, but Intel has stated that you can and will permanently damage the internal memory controller on the Skylake chip if you use RAM at that voltage. If your intention was to buy this board and reuse the existing DDR3 RAM from your previous build, you should consider buying DDR3L RAM or just taking the plunge and going for DDR4.

Pros: Great Board, Booted up no problems.
Good overclocking and power saving features
Runs BETTER* (CAS LATENCY People!) DDR3 ram!

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Running I7 6700K overclocked to 4.7 ghz
R9 390 Nitro
G.SKILL TridentX Series 16GB DDR3 2400 OC to 2400+
Works Fantastic!

Pros: Solid construction, LOW price for an 1151, compatible with DDR3! Runs low temp even after OC and a middle end heatsink/fan,

Cons: Doesnt support

Other Thoughts: Easy to set up, easy to use the tools included. Runs great, OC'd my 6600K to 4.3 ghz, used a Coolmaster H4 and never see the CPU go over 30C, and seldom see 29C on the mobo.

This board is fantastic if you have a bunch of newer DDR3 ram, since its one of the few 1151's out there that will support such....and currently upgrading to DDR4 gives very little benefit other than bragging rights (no significant speed increase on current systems and programs)....the bulk of the benefits from DDR4 will be seen after other tech catches up a bit, and as the DDR4 platform improves.

All in all, this is a fantastic choice for building a Skylake system.

Pros: -Works with my 16gb (2x8gb) 2400 DDR3 kit of corsair vengeance. XMP profile enabled with no problems.
-Runs cool while overclocking despite the relatively smaller heatsink.
-Audio LED track looks kinda nifty.

Cons: UEFI is a little buggy while using the mouse but still works. Not bothersome enough to take off an egg.