ASUS MAXIMUS VI IMPACT LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: MOAR FEATURES.

Seriously. I went for this board because its an ROG board, and has tons of features.

I've wanted to do an ITX build for a while but always gave up because of the 1 expansion slot. I wanted a GPU and a sound card.
While the sound card isn't the best in the world, It is fantastic for what it is. Using Sennheiser HD598s i was truly suprised by what i heard. Especially because it was more gaming focused. Powers all my headphones well, and sounds very good.

For the most part the software is good. I'm using AU Suite, ROG CPU-Z, along with the drivers. Everything else is pretty gimmicky and doesn't help much.

The read code display is pretty useful for diagnosing issues, or seeing CPU temp.

The bios is also great, has tons of options. (make sure you update! 404 is on the asus site)

Cons: Wifi AC and BT 4.0 are nice to have, but I feel the Wifi is a tad bit slow, and always has been. My laptop consistently gets faster speeds.

Everytime i shut my computer off I get a loud pop sound from the speakers, this is obviously related to the sound card switching to the pass through mode, but very annoying if you happen to have your volume up. Definately not good for you speakers. Updated to latest bios and still does it.

Some software is really gimmicky, i ended up removing most of it. In particular sonic radar was a bit of a disappointment. Does not work in alot of games, breaks others.

The IO Shield was a major PITA to install because of the padding. It was so thick that when mounting the mobo the IO shield bulged out, causing all the ports to not line up, making it impossible to plug in anything. It took a fairly long time to get it in properly, and it still is not perfect.

While not a huge issue, the placement of the sata ports was pretty annoying for cable management. If you get a graphics card, your gonna need to run it over your ram. Its just not optimal.

The hooks to hold the wireless antenna inside the case was also pretty agitiating.

Overall Review: It's got a few flaws, but overall its great. This was my first build and it booted first try. There are many little details that really go a long way.

It's really a great board. If you want ITX, go with this.

Pros: Great mobo with lots of extras, easily the best on the market.
the combo wifi and mini sound card were a nice bonus.

When i have it working it screaming fast, boot time for win 7 ultimate is roughly 3 seconds.

Cons: I've read the manual, tested it, and installed it correctly. yet while downloading some of the drivers off the disk (i needed to get the networking going so i could download the rest) it crashed several times. it only crashed on the FX sound and wireless/bluetooth installation though so im not sure if this is a hardware issue or user error. all the other drivers installed fine, even the GTX780 drivers from online.

Overall Review: After the crashes i've disassembled the entire pc to make sure everything is pluged in correctly and i cant find anything wrong. im going to try and re-install windows on a HDD and see if the SSD is the issue