Pros: I'm surprised at some of the unwarranted bad reviews of this board (especially since the price is outrageously cheap). The layout is great, you get a Z170 chipset, all the new USB ports, and options for both crossfire and SLI. I paired this board with a Core i5 6500, 2x8GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666, a GeForce GTX 750, and Mushkin ECO3 480GB SSD. After 72 hours of use I have had no stability issues at all while gaming, running Prime 95, or waking/sleeping.

***HUGE SIDE-NOTE*** If you're looking at this board and are thinking to yourself "Aww man my PCI-E 1X networking card will be blocked by the top PCI-E X16 slot!", you can just plug your 1x card into the bottom PCI-E X16 slot, it will work just fine! Nothing is "blocked" :)

Cons: Shipped with a very early version of the BIOS. I used the "Instant Flash" feature to upgrade to version 1.50 w/ Sky OC and it works like a charm.

Pros: - It is a reliable bedrock of my system (so far)
- little to no BIOS issues of any sort

Cons: I bought the motherboard when there was the promo for assassin's creed unity code going on upon purchasing the motherboard, just to receive a motherboard with no code inside the package nor any instructions as to how to get it post purchase. Completely dishonest way to promote motherboard.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear John,

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
For the Assassins Creed code, please install the mainboard.
Install the Windows, then install the Drivers and App Shop (comes with ASRock driver disc).
Or can be download at link: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170M%20Extreme4/?cat=Download

Check the promotion period link: http://www.asrock.com/news/index.asp?id=3158

Follow the steps link below.
Link: http://www.asrock.com/news/events/AssassinsCreed/

If you have any technical support inquiry, please contact us at http://www.ASRock.com/Support/tsd.asp
We will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock Support
Tech Support Email: http://www.ASRock.com/Support/tsd.asp

Pros: + Allows dual graphics on compact systems
+ One of the very few M-ATX motherboards that allow non-K overclocking (bios 1.34+).
+ Has M.2 slot for future storage support

Cons: - Lacks wireless and bluetooth.

Other Thoughts: Didn't purchase my board here due to lack of availability in Christmas, but the board works beautifully. I paired it with a Thermaltake Core V21 case, G-Skill Ripjaws V 2400, a Cryorig H7 cooler, a Cryorig QF120 Balance fan for case, a i5-6500, and 750W TK Thoughpower PSU, a SSHD hybrid for games/data and a Samsung 850 Pro SSD for OS, and Win10 Home.

Had some stability issues at first but after trial and error found the issue was the Video Card, a MSI Radeon HD7870 Twin Frozr, or may I said... the card bios.

That card since purchase game me some black screens from time to time, but in this system was constant nightmare: fail cold boots, black screens on login screen, or after minutes or hours of computer usage. Sometimes even Windows was unable to initialize it and end up with Intel graphics loaded too.

Actually I fix it by force loading a Gigabyte UEFI bios on the card. After VGA bios change, not a single freeze or black screen.

Pros: Had all of the features I needed in a Z170 board at a decent price, glad they didn't waste space with useless/dead-on-arrival SATA Express ports. UEFI/BIOS is easy to use as well. Single sided locks on ram, super handy since a long video card tends to prevent the bottom locks from opening. Uses Intel LAN which was a big plus for me.

Cons: Board is entirely unstable under load. Will boot just fine, but if I tried to do anything beyond basic web browsing the system would crash. (Either the program would crash, or would get a BSOD)

Fails intelburntest in under a minute (temperatures are fine), and memtest throws errors in a single pass.

After going through 4 sets of ram, (all listed as supported on Asrock's website) the board is still unstable under any type of load. Either I have the world's worse luck with ram, or the board is bad. XMP profiles don't load properly either, not like it matters since it's still unstable at stock DDR4 clocks. Have tried all versions of bios posted on their website as well.

Also the vrm heatsink is kinda loose, doesn't feel very securely installed or solid.

Other Thoughts: M.2 port should have changed places with the CMOS battery, since it becomes unreachable once a video card is installed. Since M.2 drives run hot, would be nice to have it out there for some better airflow, or just to give us space to use an adapter to change it to U.2 when that eventually takes off. Also be aware that if you use a SATA M.2 device, that you lose both SATA_0 and SATA_1 ports.

Would have liked to try out their non-k cpu overclocking at some point if the board cooperated with me.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued ASRock Customer,

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please update the latest BIOS (UEFI/BIOS, Tools, Internet Flash).
Load the BIOS setting default.
Test with single memory module, switching another memory if problem still persist.

If you have any technical support inquiry, please contact us at http://www.ASRock.com/Support/tsd.asp
We will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock Support
Tech Support Email: http://www.ASRock.com/Support/tsd.asp

Pros: I was looking for a board that would go with Corsair Air 240, a micro ATXcase, and i7 6700k skylake cpu, 6th gen. I did alot of comparison with other boards and this board standed out the most. It has ultra m.2 slot, if you want to put a next level storage into your consideration, 64g RAM capacity, some z170 boards have only 32g, no SATA express slot, something that seems absolutely unnecessary now, SLI or Crossfire available, not that I am planning on using 2 graphic cards but I'd like to have the option, and most of all, great BIOS and software support. If you plan on installing Windows 7 with a USB like me, the PS2 and legacy usb device support on this boards BIOS and the Win 7 patcher Asrock provides on their website will save ton of headache and time.

Cons: Doesn't have fancy LEDs and only 2 chassis fan header.
And the bottom lock of RAM slot isn't movable, something to watch out if you don't want to break it accidentally.

Also, the CPU cage thingy was a bit too tight. I heard skylake panel is thinner than previous gen and could get broken off if too much pressure is applied, and this one was pressing hard enough to take the metalic coat off of cpu on the side.

Pros: OK so far

Cons: i5 inserted correctly, stock cooling not aligning completely. Missing M2 screw.

Other Thoughts: rlocone