Gaming next, the real world tests and Battlefield 4 results first. The Asus Z170M Plus has another strong outing, and we would say even slightly ahead of the Stinger. Battlefield 4 is a mature game now, anything that struggles to support it, you should best avoid.
Crysis 3 next, all three motherboards show the same level of speedy fragging can be achieved.
Conclusion
It’s hard to see why Asus would call this a flagship micro-ATX motherboard, it just doesn’t have the prestige or the package. We would have also thought that a flagship motherboard would have both SLi and CrossFireX support. So we are not sure on the whole flagship front, but we do like this little gem a lot. It doesn’t throw any heavyweight punches, or come with amazing accessories, it’s just arrives ready to go and performs really well.
Asus Z170M Plus Motherboard
It is not too difficult to recommend this motherboard, it does what it does without a fuss and does it well. Just don’t try to build a monster mATX SLi system with this; CrossfireX only for now. Storage, AMD GPU and memory options all make this a strong motherboard for some fun. Other touches like LAN Guard and the 8 Channel audio with physical layer separation and USB Type-C make for a decent featured performer in any system, almost has a flagship feel to it!
Asus Z170M Plus mATX Motherboard Review
Package - 7.5
Performance - 8.5
Price - 8
Consumer Experience - 8
8
It's hard to see why Asus would call this a flagship micro-ATX motherboard, it just doesn't have the prestige or the package. We would have also thought that a flagship motherboard would have both SLi and CrossFireX support. So we are not sure on the whole flagship front, but we do like this little gem a lot. It doesn't throw any heavyweight punches, or come with amazing accessories, it's just arrives ready to go and performs really well.
