ASUS Z87I-DELUXE LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: I bought this motherboard to build an HTPC that could stream from my NAS to by TV. I needed a small, powerful mobo and have always loved ASUS.

First of all, it's a beautiful mITX motherboard that is just about as fully functional as a larger board. If you are looking for the best board in this size, this is it.

The built in software makes everything easy, from overclocking to fan management.

Cons: My first board had some trouble connecting over wifi. After about a week, the wireless stopped altogether, so I RMA'd it.

The second motherboard arrived and after setting it up, I noticed speed fluctuations over wifi. It took a little time but I figured it out. Apparently, the external antenna handles both bluetooth and the wireless simultaneously. I had connected the Logitech 5500 mouse/keyboard combo directly to the bluetooth and it seemed that each time I was using the mouse or keyboard, the wifi speed would drop.

No problem, I just connected the keyboard dongle to a usb extension and set it to the side of the media center.

Next, I noticed occasional stuttering during media streaming; a problem that I never had with previous machines (I have an Asus n66u router, so no AC, yet). After a little digging I figured out that my 5ghz band on the router, which I had set in the upper channels, was the problem. After dropping the 5ghz to channel 40, it cleared right up.

Overall Review: This mobo is great. One thing to consider is that overclocking a Haswell will necessitate a CPU fan (pretty high temps). But, an mITX means you probably are dealing with space constraints.

The fan that I picked up is the Geminii M4 but it gets pretty darn tight with low profile memory (don't even think of anything else). The mobo seems fairly tolerant of placing the RAM in the outside slot, which you will likely want to do if you only get one stick. If you get two, it'll work, but it's a challenge.

My Build-

CPU Intel i5-4670K
Motherboard ASUS Z87I-DELUXE
RAM Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB- Low Profile Memory Model BLT8G3D1608ET3LX0
SSD SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 120GB SSD
HDD Reused old 1tb drive
Case Silverstone HTPC Case ML04B - Black
PSU Silverstone ST45SF
Disc Drive LG Black BH16NS40 Blu-ray writer
CPU Fan Cooler Master GeminII M4
Fans 2 x Vantec Stealth SF8025L 80x80x25mm
OS Windows 7 Professional

Pros: Excellent bios.
Very quick boot times (the fastest I've ever experienced personally).
ASUS.
Good Features.
Natively works with three monitors at once (>2 requires bios setting change) (see "other thoughts")

Cons: On Windows7, the onboard wifi never got over 12mb dl / 4mb ul, while my laptop and two year old TP-Link external wifi (hardly larger then the asus antenna), get 22/7mb or better. To top it off, within a week, the wifi card started reporting "no connections available", while the laptop and TP-Link showed 12+ connections. On ubuntu the wifi card worked, but disconnected randomly every 10-30 seconds for about 10 minutes, before quitting completely.

I also grew frustrated with the bios resetting my boot order every time a drive was removed/added, even if it wasn't the boot drive. I'm not sure how common this is, but it is a nuisance.

Overall Review: This motherboard was a replacement for a Rampage III Extreme, which randomly started boot cycling. So it was disappointing to receive a new Asus and have a part fail on it within a week.

I love Asus, and have been loyal for years, having dozens of products, monitors, burners, gpus, mobos, etc. Up until this year, the only product I've had fail, was likely due to a failing PSU which burned out the next day.

I may still buy asus products after this, but I wouldn't recommend this board after reading all the issues with the wifi. At minimum, plan on replacing the wifi card, maybe with one that has WiDi.

I had another issue, while using HDMI output. I tried two different Asus VK278Q monitors, both would go black every 5-30 minutes, while my other monitors continued working. They still appeared to be receiving signal and remained backlit. Rebooting the monitor, or unplugging/replugging the hdmi from the mobo, temporarily fixed the issue. I tried multiple HDMI cables/brands, to no avail. The only thing that seemed to fix the issue was switching to an HDMI to DVI cable. This could be just a monitor issue.