Question 1

What color are the SATA cables that come with this?

Accepted Answer

IDK,  threw them out,  using both M. 2

Question 2

Are there any complications concerning ram configuration or incompatibilities, like speed, voltage, or certain kits/brands ?

Accepted Answer

I bought this board 2 of them in fact and installed the 17-6700k processor and 32 gb's of ballistix DDR4 2400 speed memory. This memory was suggested by the crucial tek hat I talked with on the phone prior to buying the board. I never got either board to go past post (power on self test) the boards both got stuck at code 99 (IO initialization) also the HDD hard disc drive blue light stayed lit which according to the manual means there is a problem there. the 2nd 1 I tried to post with no HDD  installed to eliminate the fact that the problem could have been my hard drive ( a brand new PNY CS 1312 SSD ) I then called ASUS tek and they had me clear the CMOS update the BIOS uninstall the board from the case (to eliminate a bad ground) and try and post outside the case all to no avail. The ASUS teks then told me to try just 1 stick of memory installed in the A2  slot (2nd  slot from the processor) did it  id did  not work, they then blamed the processor or bent pins on the board . I checked the pins none were bent and tried the other 17-6700K processor that I bought for the 2nd board, it to did not work, they then blamed the memory. I am not an expert but have built abut 25 computers in my life without none of these problems. And none of the 1's I built had Q loggers BIOS flashback features Diagnosis lights and digital diagnosis codes with a display. When I ask ASUS why they are blaming the memory and or the processor when both parts passed the diagnosis test at POST I get no answer from them. They then told me to RMA the board. My suggestion is that unless you're an expert at building these things stay away from it as I must be doing something wrong but ASUS tek is no help.

Question 3

how much ram can it take?

Accepted Answer

64GB of memory is the maximum on this motherboard, with 4 x 16GB modules. I am successfully running two dual channel Kingston Fury DDR4-2666 32GB kits on my motherboard right now.

Question 4

Can I safely install a P10800B-10P, Video card on this board inside a large case?

Accepted Answer

Of course. The only issue that I had with this motherboard is the fact that one of the fan headers is under the edge of the video card slot, so getting a PWM fan cable extender and plugging it in first would be a good idea. That way you do not have to remove the video card if you want to use that header in the future.

Question 5

Is it fine to run quad channel memory on this motherboard even if the two kits have different timings?

Accepted Answer

Ram is Ram. It is the mainboard that decides if it is single , dual channel. Use a single stick is single channel and 2 to 4 is dual channel. Only Enthusiast boards for Haswell E and Broadwell E have 4 sticks with 2 in each sde is Quad channel to 4 on each side is still Quad channel. Memory companies use the dual quad channel for memory which is kind of misleading as ALL memory sticks are single channel individualy and it is the motherboard that is able to configure multiple sticks either into dual or quad. Skylake, Kaby lake processors are able to use single and Dual channel and Haswell E and Broadwell E like the 6900k can use single, dual and quad channel.

Question 6

Which PCIE x16 slots are used when configuring 2-way SLI?

Accepted Answer

Per owners manual, Slot 1 and 4 (Page 1-9, and 1-10). Slot 1 is closest to the cpu, and then counting every slot, slot 4 is the 4th one down. Basically the two lighter gray slots are 1 and 4.

Question 7

What are the 3 EATX power connectors for?
(EATX12V, EATX12V1 & EATX12V_1)

Which ones do i need to plug in?

Accepted Answer

So, there are 4 main power connectors on the board, two of which are basically auxiliary, these are the: 24 pin motherboard power, 2x 8 pin CPU connectors and 1x 6pin power connectors. The 24 pin is mandatory, as well as one of the 8pin CPU connectors. The second 8pin CPU connector is for cleaner and more consistent power delivery especially when overclocking, I would just plug both in (which is what I did) if your power supply supports it (multiple CPU connectors). The last one, the 6pin is auxiliary power that would go to devices connected to the PCI-E slots, so basically it would only be used if you had 2 or more graphics card, and it doesn't provide additional power to the graphics cards, just additional power consistency. So, short answer is just plug in the first three connectors.

Question 8

I plan on building a system with Asus Z170-WS mainboard, i7-6700K, dual nVidia 780 Ti (already have), and a large Intel SSD 750 1.2TB PCIe 3.0 x4 drive.

I have some concerns about this I would like to ask about.

The Z170-WS claims it can do dual PCIe x16 video cards in slots PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2.
It also claims it can do x4 PCIe in slot PCIEX4_1.

However, if the video cards in Slot 1 & 2 are double width, that prevents access to the x4 slot.

So, can I a) run the SSD drive in either slot PCIEX16_3 or 4 and still get x4, or b) move one of the video cards from PCIEX16_2 to 3 or 4 and still get x16?

And finally, can the PCIe x4 slot with the Intel SSD 750 still be the system drive and boot windows 10x64 from this drive??

Accepted Answer

This board has additional PLX PCI-E bridge, which allows for up to x8/x8/x8/x8.  There is an additional PCI-E 2.0 x4 slot between the 2nd and 3rd x16 slots.

If you are running 2 way SLI you should be using the 1st and 3rd PCI-E slots, which leaves the x4 slot below PCIEX16_2 accessible.  If you run with your video cards in X16_1 and X16_3 and your SSD in X4_1, you should get x16 on both video cards and x4 on your SSD.  If you put something in X16_2, you will share lanes with X16_1 (x8/x8) and same with X16_3 and X16_4.

Yes, you should be able to boot of any of the PCI-E slots.  I am booting from two M.2 Samsung 950's in RAID 0.  (Note, you may need to fiddle with BIOS settings on the Boot tab to ensure PCI-E storage devices are bootable from UEFI.

There's more diagrams and good info in the user guide.  I am very happy with this board!

I am currently running like this

PCIEX16_1 - NVidia 980 TI
PCIEX16_2 - LSI 9265-8i RAID
PCIEX_4 - empty (I should move my r
PC

Question 9

"4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (single at x16, dual at x16/x16 mode, triple at x16/x8/x8 mode or dual x8/x8/x8/x8 mode)"

This doesn't seem to make any sense, as 1151 CPUs can only support 16 lanes of PCIe, ie:

1x16, 2x8, x8,x4,x4
(furthermore, it certainly doesnt support quad or triple SLI over CPU PCIe interface)

Is the motherboard spec wrong, or is this config an assumption that the user has installed PCIe memory in two of the slots AND the motherboard auto routes those memory lanes to the PCH?

Accepted Answer

Hi Jeremy, this board has a PLX PCI-E bridge which is how it can run x8/x8/x8/x8.  I have tried out various combinations and can confirm what the specs say.  If you want 2-way SLI, use the 1st and 3rd PCI-E slots only and you will get x16/x16.  One set of channels is direct to CPU and the other are through the PLX to the PCH.  Checking the "PCI Current Link Width" in device manager in devices by connection view can confirm the topology and link width in different configurations.

Question 10

Does the optical connection on the top of the I/O panel output audio? As in, can I connect from this to a surround system to get a 5.1 surround experience?

Accepted Answer

Manual says that the spdif optical output which is a typically a 2 channel deal can be changed in the bios to HDMI which should support surround sound.  I am using this in a video capacity so have not tested this feature but for sure you can use the analog outputs worst case.  I think your good with the optical output based on what I have read in the manual.

CPU Socket Type	LGA 1151
CPU Type	Celeron / Core i3 / Core i5 / Core i7 / Intel Core 6th Gen (LGA 1151) / Intel Core 7th Gen (LGA 1151) / Pentium
Supported CPU Technologies	Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 * Not Compatible with Intel 8th Gen CPUs

Number of Memory Slots	4x288pin (DDR4)
Memory Standard	DDR4 3733(O.C.)/ 3600/ 3466/ 3400/ 3333/ 3300/ 3200/ 3000/ 2800/ 2666/ 2400/ 2133
Maximum Memory Supported	64GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

PCI Express 3.0 x16	4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (single at x16, dual at x16/x16 mode, triple at x16/x8/x8 mode or dual x8/x8/x8/x8 mode)
PCI Express x4	1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 (max at x4 mode) 3 3: Max. at x4 mode, compatible with PCIe x1, x2 and x4 devices

Serial ATA (SATA)	6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
M.2	2 x M.2 x4 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (both SATA & PCIE mode) 4 1 x U.2 connector 5 4: The M.2_1 socket shares SATA ports with SATA6G_56; the M.2_2 socket shares bandwidth with U.2 connector, and shares SATA ports with SATA6G_12 when using SATA mode 5: Support NVMe device *5: Support U.2 NVMe device
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

Audio Chipset	Realtek ALC1150
Audio Channels	8 Channels

ASUS Z170-WS LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

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LAN Chipset	Intel I219-LM
Second LAN Chipset	Intel I210-AT
Max LAN Speed	2 x 1Gbps

HDMI	1 x HDMI
RJ45	2 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
DisplayPort	1 x DisplayPort
USB 3.1	1 x USB 3.1 (teal blue) Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C
USB 3.0	4 x USB 3.0 (blue)
USB 1.1/2.0	4 x USB 2.0 1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s)
S/PDIF Out	1 x Optical
Audio Ports	1 x 8-channel Audio I/O

Onboard USB	2 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 3.0 port(s) (19-pin) 1 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 2 USB 2.0 port(s)
Other Connectors	1 x AAFP connector 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (1 x 4-pin, 4-pin) 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s) (1 x 4-pin, 4-pin) 4 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (1 x 4-pin, 4-pin) 1 x S/PDIF out header(s) 1 x Thunderbolt header(s) 1 x 24-pin EATX 12 V Power connector 1 x 6-pin EATX 12 V_1 Power connector(s) 2 x 8-pin ATX Power connector 1 x EZ XMP switch 1 x System panel(s) (Q-Connector) 1 x 5-pin EXT_FAN(Extension Fan) connector 1 x DRCT header(s) 1 x MemOK! button(s) 1 x TPU switch(es) 1 x EPU switch(es) 1 x Power-on button(s) 1 x Clear CMOS button(s) 1 x Water Pump header (4-pin) 1 x 14-1 pin TPM connector 1 x vertical type A USB 3.0 connector

Model
Brand	ASUS
Model	Z170-WS

Physical Spec
Form Factor	ATX
Dimensions (W x L)	12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin	24 Pin

Item#: N82E16813132686