ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO ALPHA LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: -Nice packaging. -Features galore ( Go to Asus website for all features) -Quality components -Solid build -Intel NIC -On board Wifi and B.T. great connectivity and strong signal reception compared to my other PC's and Devices. -UEFI BIOS Extensive Bios options from EZ Setup, Advanced, Extreme Tweaking. Suite of Utilities incorporated in the Bios including Fan Expert. Most comprehensive Bios options and tools with good GUI. -On board diagnostic boot HDD, DRAM, VGA, and CPU LED's in addition to QCode-LED -CLR CMOS led lit button on rear I/O -Rear I/O Bios Flashback button -On board Start, Retry, Reset, Safe Boot, and MemOk buttons -Overclocking capabilities and stability -Supreme FX Audio wow; best on board audio for any mobo in this price range plus. Sonic Audio Suite (driver) provides multiple for a great listening experience especially with headphones. -On board and PCH customizable RBG LED's and RGB extension headers. -Dual fan connections for CPU cooler fans, water pump header, 4 case fan headers, fan extension header - 2 USB 3.0 headers/connections -Asus utility and diagnostic software

Cons: -I/O reflective shield is difficult almost impossible to read Not really cons but preferences: Additional rear I/O USB connections Relocate "Safe Boot" button to rear I/O Fan headers 4 and 2 are to close to 24 pin ATX PSU connector and USB 3.0 connector, respectively. Improvement to AI Suite 3 Windows software. (SEE OTHER COMMENTS)

Overall Review: The Asus Maximus VIII Hero Alpha is everything I expected from an Asus "ROG" mobo. I don't overclock often and when I do it's not extreme but I did run burn in stress test and benchmarking that overclocked the CPU I-7 6700K and RAM G. Skill Trident Z 2x16GB 3200mhz within the limits I set. The system overclocked easily and was stable until I pushed it the TDP and Temp limits I set. Simply enabling XMP profile with increases in BCLK, CPU multiplier, and slight voltage increases yielded stable 29% increase in CPU and 6.25% DRAM (OC > XMP) performance. Initial setup and start-up. I installed the mobo and all components in the case (generally I breadboard build adding components) and I couldn't get any video on the monitor. After restarting several times with same result I reviewed the Qcodes and thought I had a defective HDMI port. I changed the HDMI cable and the system POSTed, I used Asus Optimized bios settings and installed Windows. Other than some Windows 10 issues and AI Suite 3 apparent issues I am very pleased with the performance and stability. AI Suite 3. I had read some reviews where audio popping was a common complaint. I didn't experience any audio issues "Popping" until I installed AI Suite 3 and the audio driver included in the Asus Setup DVD. I uninstalled both AI Suite 3 and the audio driver. I downloaded the current audio driver and the "popping" sound was resolved. THE ROG MAXIMUS UEFI bios has all the utilities I need that are included in the AI Suite Windows software thus I reinstalled a couple of software utilities from the AI Suite and there are no audio popping sounds. I must say I was a little hesitant on this mobo based on the NEWEGG reviews but after reading many reviews from other re-seller's websites and tech reviews I was convinced that this was a well built high performance mobo. Other than the audio popping noise which I resolved I have not experienced any issues (that a different HDMI cable and updating the audio driver/software fixed) a described in all the negative reviews on Newegg. My build is only 45 days +/- and I had to return the original G.Skill Trident Z ( G. Skill labeled and packaged the wrong dimms in the kit) and upgraded ram from 16GB to 32GB. I stress tested the system again with the new G. Skill ram kit and the performance and stability remains commendable.

Pros: I have always purchased ASUS motherboards since I had an NFORCE4 from EVGA that was pretty much the worst board ever. The Hero Alpha is amazing! Bought an i7-6700k to go with it and Corsair DDR4 3000. Had to buy an M.2 SSD (512gb Samsung 950 Pro) to try that out as well, and was extremely happy with the performance. Get about 2.6gb/s transfer. This board is feature rich, easy to setup, and the BIOS is great. I hooked up two RGB LED strips to the headers on the board and they work fantastic. The music mode can be kind of a headache, unless you're just listening to music. More of a strobe affect when playing games with that setting on. The built-in Wi-Fi and bluetooth are extremely nice as well. Both work great. The performance overall is about 4x my 1st generation i7-960. I highly recommend this board to anyone looking to upgrade to a new skylake.

Cons: None

Overall Review: I have showed this board to many people and they were all impressed with the look and performance. Get this board! I would have to agree that some of the reviewers here did not set this board up correctly and give it 1 egg due to that fact. I had 0 issues with this build and everything works perfectly.

Pros: - This board just looks incredible, the finish is excellent and the RGB options are a addition. - With little effort I got my 6700k up to 4. 8Ghz @1. 313V and I know I can push it much higher. - Very easy to install and setup, the uefi has an incredible amount of options for overclocking and tweaking. - Audio enhancments and wifi are also agreat features.

Cons: - Price (But, you truly get what you pay for)

Overall Review: This was the first motherboard I've even purchased for over $120, its not cheap but the quality and components used are meant to increase stability and make the board last. I'd rec9mmend this board to anyone looking to upgrade to the Z170 chipset. Your wallet may hate you for it but in the long run you'll be glad you didn't go for a cheap motherboard. Big thumbs up here, very happy with my purchase.

Pros: Nice looking board. Includes WIFI and Intel NIC. No Killer junk here. Excellent BIOS Amazing automatic OC once I finally got Windows running. Had my i7-6700k OC'd stable @ 4.7Ghz and DRAM @ 3244. PC was screaming and sitting at 46 C with Noctua DH-14. Fastest OC I've gotten on this CPU and especially faster than the 4.2 GHz i got with my MSI Gaming M7. This board is extremely nice if you are lucky and get one that isn't DOA. My advice is to check the verified VQL info on Asus's site to verify your RAM

Cons: CPU Fan headers are hard to get to especially with a Noctua NH-D15 or D14. Upon installation of Windows 10, I attempted installing drivers from install CD while connected to internet and also disconnected from internet. When the Intel Chipset Driver was being installed, whole motherboard crash. Had to hard reset by turning off PSU as power/reset button had no effect. I then attempted again and allowed Windows 10 to install drivers on its own. No freeze this time but very slow boot time which eventually froze. Code 55 (RAM not seated) was displayed. Removed and resat the RAM (G.SKILL Trident Z 3200 2x8 GB). Windows then booted finally. All drivers under device manager were windows installed drivers including the chipset. Sound driver installed from online support site did not include the Sound radar (or it didn't show up at least upon install). I asked for a replacement for this board and the new one has zero issues whatsoever. Excellent!

Pros: This mobo has so much headroom to do above your average overclocking yet it has fail/safe features to prevent hardware from damage. The quality build on this mobo is above average! Best part is the fail/safe button on the back of the mobo in case oc fails and will not boot. Also the usb bios flash feature on the back panel is best although you can do it in bios or os.

Cons: Disc Drivers are out of date like most of everything. You will need to update the bios to keep up its bug fixes, very minor but recommended.

Overall Review: Didn't get to try this on a ROG game case where you can hook up all of the LED lighting lightshow which I don't need.

Pros: Super Easy to use and setup. Love the rgb connectors as well. I looked around quite a bit when i was picking out my stuff and im really glad that i went with this MB. It fits my build perfect.

Cons: As of right now, ive had this MB for a few weeks now "yes I know its not very long" but its still long enough for as much time as I spend on a PC to find things that might be wrong and the only thing I can say is I have zero cons so far. Could change later on, but as of right now I dont see any reason not to go with this MB if its in that price range you're going for.

Overall Review: Id recommend this MB all day everyday. I do wish it had maybe 1 or 2 more cha_fan headers. I know i could go with a fan controller or use the fan ext headers but its not as easy as using the cha_headers. Its nothing major or something that would make me not go with this MB though.

Pros: Great motherboard. Has both wireless and wired connectivity, GUI for BIOS.

Cons: NONE

Overall Review: I have bought a number of ASUS products and never had any issues like the ones being reported. I guess it is just a luck of the draw. The only current problem that I am facing is upon boot up instead of going to code AO, I will sometimes get code 40 but, a reboot brings me to the code AO.

Pros: More features than you could possibly know what to do with

Cons: none, worked right out of the box

Overall Review: This coupled with a EVGA 1080 Hybrid video card, i7 6700 unlocked and 32g G-skillz Trident scores 85% & 93% better than all others on 3D Mark bench tests.