Question 1

I ordered this motherboard this morning, and I am currently considering buying Trident RAM.  Will Trident be compatible with this motherboard, and is Trident RAM a good buy for the money or should I consider using G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series RAM?

Thank you to all who provide answers and any feedback.

Accepted Answer

I suspect Trident memory will run fine.  I'm using 2 x 16 GB GSkill Trident ddr4-3000 memory (32GB total) in a very similar ASUS motherboard and it works fine.  Even though the 16GB sticks do not appear on the compatibility list for the motherboard I using, that is probably because the compatibility lists seldom get updated, and newer memory sticks are constantly being introduced. I chatted online with folks from GSkill and they verified that it would work with my motherboard before I purchased it.  You can always try the chat option if you still have reservations about the memory.

I'm running i7-6700K, ASUS Z-170A motherboard, 32 GB Trident DDR4, EVGA NVIDEA GForce 970 graphics card, Cooler Master CPU cooler, Samsung 250 GB SSD, 500 GB WD Velociraptor HD for Photoshop workspace, and twin HGST 4TB NAS drives for photo storage.  No issues whatsoever with compatibility.  Hope this helps...

Question 2

what size power supply do I need for this board?

Accepted Answer

The size requirement will depend mainly on what your GPU requirements are. Which in most cases will be your largest power draw besides the CPU.  Most power supply manufacturer's provide a web tool to calculate the power requirements based on your components ,number of HDD, number of GPU's etc. I just completed a build with this board and went bigger on the supply then currently needed to allow the ability to add a 2nd high end video card to support crossfire/SLI.

Question 3

I do not hear a beep during POST. Is that normal?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it's normal. You can read the debug 2-character LCD debug code on the motherboard if you suspect any issues. The beep is no longer necessary since the information provided via the 2 character code is more than a simple "beep". Consult the manual about what the codes mean.

Question 4

can you use a core i7-4790k on this motherboard?

Accepted Answer

No. You can NOT use an i7-4790k with this motherboard.

This motherboard is an LGA 1151 socket. You must have an LGA 1150 socket for the i7-4790k.

Question 5

Does it support crossfire? I plan on using 2 MSI GTX 980 cards

Accepted Answer

Yes it supports both nvidia SLI and AMD CrossFireX.  BTW you said GTX 980, these are nvidia cards so it would be SLI, not CrossFire.

Straight from specs:
Supports NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ Technology 
Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ Technology

Question 6

Does this board have USB 2.0 on it? Was thinking about using it with the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I which has USB 2.0 on the front.

Accepted Answer

2 x USB 3.1 ports (1 x Type-A [red] and 1 x Type-C [black])

2 x USB 3.0 ports [blue]

4 x USB 2.0

Question 7

I have a sabertooth x58 board now, will i be able to re-use my i7 processor? i know o will have to replace ddr3 with ddr4 but not ready to replace processor. looking for info due to faults with current board

Accepted Answer

Nope. This motherboard has a socket LGA1551 for a Skylake processor. Your Socket B processor won't work with it.

Question 8

Is the able to boot from a intel 750 PCIE slot SSD?

Accepted Answer

I can't fathom why you wouldnt be able to. Just set it as your boot drive in bios and you're off.

Question 9

I had a Maximus VI that had issues as did a number of others and ASUS never addressed them.  At that point I switched brands.  I'm reluctant to go.  Has ASUS improved its support yet?

Accepted Answer

I had some trouble with mine. BIOS wasn't right. It wouldn't pass a 4E(DXI something code). Had to take it into a local shop and spend a little money with them testing what was bad since it was all new hardware and I had nothing to test against. After figuring out it was the motherboard with no other options we did the special USB Bios update with the most stable version (off the top of my head i think it is the one before 0906) And that fixed everything it seems. Had a little trouble figuring out how to tweak bios to get my intel 750 running with 2.4gb reads. I had 16gb of 3200 Tridentz that i ran with the XMP profile no problems. I've really only had the computer up and running for about a week and a half now and haven't even messed around with OCing anything. As far as brands I usually run MSI since I just been lucky with them. Switched over to this one because I think it seemed to be a little cheaper than there white xpower one and had what I needed. Extra cable and hardware is a bit sparse, I don't think it even had standoffs of a new case. Especially compared to the my previous xpower. Im just happy this board had that USB dedicated bios updater thing so I didn't have to RMA it.

Question 10

Are you guys having any notable issues with this board? Trying to decide between this and z-170 deluxe.

Accepted Answer

I have had no issues with mine. It has been up and running 10 days with i7 6700K. Before, startup, I updated the Bios. Asus seems to be updating the Bios at least once a month since it is a new board. It recognized my 3200 ram and is working fine so far. I have not started any OC yet.

Brand	ASUS
Series	ROG
Model	MAXIMUS VIII HERO

CPU Socket Type	LGA 1151
CPU Type	Intel Socket 1151 for 6th Generation Core i7/Core i5/Core i3/Pentium/Celeron Processors * Not Compatible with Intel 8th Gen CPUs
Supported CPU Technologies	Supports Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 * The Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 support depends on the CPU types.

Number of Memory Slots	4x288pin (DDR4)
Memory Standard	DDR4 3800(O.C.)/ 3733(O.C.)/ 3600(O.C.)/ 3500(O.C.)/ 3466(O.C.)/ 3400(O.C.)/ 3333(O.C.)/ 3300(O.C.)/ 3200(O.C.)/ 3000(O.C.)/ 2800(O.C.)/ 2666(O.C.)/ 2400(O.C.)/ 2133 * Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs. * Refer to www.asus.com for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).
Maximum Memory Supported	64GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

PCI Express 3.0 x16	2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8, +gray) 1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x4 mode, +black)
PCI Express x1	3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots

Serial ATA (SATA)	Intel Z170 chipset: 6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray, 4 ports from 2 x SATA Express ASMedia ASM1061 controller: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), black * * These SATA ports are for data hard drives only. ATAPI devices are not supported.
SATA Express	2 x SATA Express ports
M.2	1 x M.2 x4 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (both SATA & PCIE mode)* * When the M.2 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 1 will be disabled.
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

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ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI USB 3.1 ATX Intel Gaming Motherboard

Used - Very Good

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Audio Chipset	ROG SupremeFX 2015 High Definition Audio CODEC
Audio Channels	8 Channels

PS/2	1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
HDMI	1 x HDMI
RJ45	1 x RJ45
DisplayPort	1 x DisplayPort
USB 3.1	1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (black) USB Type-C 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (red) Type-A 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (blue)
USB 1.1/2.0	4 x USB 2.0
S/PDIF Out	1 x Optical
Audio Ports	5 Ports

Onboard USB	2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) 2 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s)
Other Connectors	1 x AAFP connector 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (4-pin) 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s) (4-pin) 4 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (4-pin) 1 x Thunderbolt header(s) 1 x System panel(s) (Q-Connector) 1 x 5-pin EXT_FAN (Extension Fan) connector 1 x MemOK! button(s) 1 x Thermal sensor connector(s) 1 x Power-on button(s) 1 x Reset button(s) 1 x Clear CMOS button(s) 1 x Water Pump header (4-pin) 1 x LN2 Mode jumper(s) 1 x ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header(s) 1 x 14-1-pin TPM connector

Form Factor	ATX
Dimensions (W x L)	12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin	1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s) 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s)

Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset	Intel I219-V
Max LAN Speed	1Gbps

Item#: 9SIAGSCBCU1028