Pros: Stable, good looking and sturdy enough for my needs, using it now.

Cons: flashy lights add nothing for me, BIOS is junk and overclocking EZ option doesn't exist in my version. I have a single SSD and it will NOT proceed to the EZ-tuning without first selecting RAID though I cannot boot or proceed from there because it isn't a RAID formatted drive, I only have single drive. How the heck do you access the EZ-tuning option and bypass the RAID nonsense?

Other Thoughts: I hate the BIOS. There is a serious bug where the BIOS does not match the documentation. Otherwise it seems to be a pretty healthy board with plenty of features. I bought it to pair with a 6700K i7 chip but the easy button won't work. Sure, I'm an old over clocker from the days of 10mhz 286 with NO cooling but I was hoping it would be easier with a premium board and unlocked chip.

If someone from ASUS can help me fix this, I'll give them back the one egg.

Pros: Easy setup

Cons: When I connect my Samsung cell phone, the front USBs are complaining on Win7 that, "Power Surge On Hub Port" "A USB device has exceeded the power limits of it's hub port. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message."

Other Thoughts: Probably not recommend it.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for providing us with your ASUS experience. Please accept any inconvience these issues have caused? Are you using the USB ports on your case? Or are you using the ports attached to your motherboard? Does this issue only happen when you use your Samsung mobile device? Please download and install your USB ASM1142 Driver V1.16.33.1. You can locate your USB system driver on our ASUS online Help Desk: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/H170-PRO-GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/. If you need assistance please make sure to contact me at cl-nestor@asus.com.

Thank you for choosing ASUS!

Best Regards,
-Nestor
ASUS Customer Loyalty - US Support

Pros: Board arrived on time, no damage to box, inspection of board yielded no evidence of damage. I cannot address the features or positives of this new board because it is not working, I will post again when the board (RMA) arrives back.

Cons: I did not like the I/O panel, it is not rugged enough , the metal is so thin and flimsy. When you manufacture the best boards (advertised) on the market, do not go cheap on things like the I/O panels, I would rather spend $5 +/- to have a high quality panel.
Having the board fail on 1st attempt to boot makes one wonder about the QC /Test dept. at ASUS, or any board manufacturer, and it tends to make the buyer look to other MB manufacturers.

Other Thoughts: This is the 7th computer that I have built, never had any of the previous boards fail. I have the first ASUS MB bought in 2010 still running fine. Regarding this board, the H170, it is using a 6th generation Intel i5 processor, model 6600. Upon powerup, all the fans work, all the LED's that are supposed to be are lit, including one LED that is NOT supposed to be lit, the DRAM LED, and the monitor is black, no video. A call to ASUS support was very helpful in determining that the board does have a failure. The support tech had me remove 3 of the 4 DDR4 GSkill memory cards except the one in the 2nd slot (gray slot) and try another powerup, it failed also, therefore the board is being returned for repair/replace. The memory is the correct memory for this board, (4 - 4K DDR4 boards with proper voltage and speed). The wait is discouraging because we are dealing with 5 to 7 days shipping time each way, plus test/repair time, and they are somewhat backlogged adding more time to wait. This means that I may not see another MB for the better part of a month !! I would think that ASUS would ship out a new board immediately in order to have superior customer support. I have used ASUS customer support in the past and the phone support has always been professional and technically competent. Maybe AJ can get the ball moving faster.
My rating at this time is 1, I will re-post and modify my rating after I see how the replacement/repaired MB behaves

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Richard,

Thank you for taking the time to share your review. I'm sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience in regards to your memory. Which BIOS version are you currently operating on? What is the part number to the DIMM kits you are using? Are you using 1 or 2 pairs of DIMM kits? For improved system compatibility please update you UEFI to verison 0703 located on our Online ASUS Help Desk:https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/H170-PRO-GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/. Download the BIOS 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. If you have any further questions feel free to contact me at cl-nestor@asus.com.

Thank you for choosing ASUS!

Best Regards,
-Nestor
ASUS Customer Loyalty – US Support

Pros: Absolutely no issues from the start - which is very rare in my experience.

Cons: None yet.

Other Thoughts: After building a new computer with the ASUS Z170-A, which involved a few unpleasant hiccups at first, but quickly resolved into a fine machine, I encountered a need to build another, this time more basic, desktop, and chose the H170 PRO GAMING, along with an Core I5-6600, Samsung 850 PRO 256GB, Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 2133MHz, and placed them in my absolute favorite case, a Fractal Design Define S. Once up and running, I added a WD Blue 1TB for storage.
So far, it has turned out to be the most excellent build to date for me. With no optical drive or Video card, it was very quick to assemble. Even the IO Shield, which was a royal pain in the ASUS Z170-A, was easy to install, and appears of much better quality. Once assembled, I made a point of doing nothing until I had updated the bios, in this case from 0403, which it came with, to 0703, from a thumb drive. Then I installed Windows 10 from a thumb drive. FYI my review of the ASUS Z170-A will clue you in to my reasons for this choice, should you be curious.
Absolutely zero issues so far, and it’s the fasted booting computer that I own – 17 seconds from turn on to windows desktop. It’s also super quiet, even with the stock CPU cooler that comes with the chip. Plus it runs so much cooler than my Core I7-6700K system that I can’t imagine a need for better cooling. I did throw in another case fan: a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm Case Fan - 500 RPM that I had lying around.
Of course, only time will tell the whole story. But so far, it’s very impressive.

Pros: No QC issues, BIOS is full of features and power tuning options. Lots of next gen connections (Usb 3.1, C, E-Sata) Cool color scheme.

Cons: Motherboard lights are a bit obnoxious in brightness and placement, but easy to turn off in BIOS/AI suite. RAM slot placement pretty close to CPU causing issues with larger coolers. No overclocking ability, but this chipset does not allow for it so that's part of the design and hardly a drawback unless you mistake and buy the wrong chipset/motherboard.

Other Thoughts: I only buy ASUS motherboards and have come to rely on AI Suite for Fan controls and other monitoring/tuning functions. This is my 4 or 5th in the last 5ish years starting with the Core2Duo P5B generation.

I was a bit worried about some of the QC statements others had here, but trusted in my long time friend in ASUS and I was not disappointed. Adding my review here to give others faith that hopefully the QC issues are just a vocal minority, and not the norm.

Would buy again and will continue to buy ASUS in the future.

Pros: Everything is working just peachy so far.The Skylake and this board get along like Siamese twins.Easy to flash BIOS and running stable at the present.Nice and heavy too.....great for those of us who have dexterity problems.

Cons: As stated by others the RAM slots are misrepresented in the manual.If you are using two sticks....put them in A1 and B1

Other Thoughts: A must buy for a mid to upper range i5 build

Pros: Looks great and really enjoy the BIOS and the overall board layout.

Cons: RAM slot placement is wrong in the instructions. I saw this from the reviews and tried it anyways. This resulted in only half of my RAM being reported. I swap both sticks to channel 2 RAM slots and both reported fine.

Other Thoughts: This board is not for over clockers so I went with an Intel Core i5-6500 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.2 GHz LGA 1151 65W BX80662I56500 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530 CPU and G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) RAM. I had no issues with these being incompatible. I also chose to use a CRYORIG M9i Mini Tower Cooler for INTEL CPU and it was the easiest CPU cooler install I've ever done and dissipates a good amount of heat for its price.

Pros: Great price, looks, & brand.

Cons: Ram slot placement is wrong in the instructions. I had to pay a repair shop almost $100 to find that out. Took them a few hours to figure out something so simple.

Other Thoughts: ASUS fix your instructions. That's pretty inexcusable.

Pros: The board was relatively easy to set up, and fits snugly into a mid-size tower.

Straightforward to install and worked with all my components.

DDR4 RAM support and USB 3.1 Type C connection for future-proofing.

Cons: No SLI support (building computer for future-proofing, not interested now in SLI but would have been a nice extra feature)

Misprint in manual regarding DDR4 RAM placement (other reviewers had the same issue, but thanks to them, I was prepared in advance!)

Other Thoughts: I've never built a computer before, so everything was challenging for me to set up. So far, so good. Haven't had any problems yet other than the misprint in the manual regarding RAM placement.

I don't know if this is an issue with the board or the case I ordered (Corsair SPEC-02), but USB 3.0 might not be properly shielded. I experienced hang-ups with my wireless keyboard and mouse, but I used a USB 2.0 extension cable for my receiver and don't experience problems now.

Fit right into my $1000 budget

I'd give it a 5 / 5 if the manual listed the correct RAM slots to use

Pros: ASUS boards have generally been fantastic for me. This one, however, was an exception.

Cons: The motherboard hung during a BIOS update. Afterward, it would not post. Multiple efforts to restore the previous BIOS failed.

Other Thoughts: Fortunately, Newegg allowed me to return the board for a refund. I replaced it with an MSI board, which has worked flawlessly. While I will not hesitate to purchase ASUS boards in the future, this one does not appear up to ASUS's standard of quality.