questionable ASUS Z170-A quality

I can most definitely confirm that Asus customer support is sub par.

But on the other hand they are very quick to chat and get your issue resolved.

I`ve never gotten a dead board out of the box, but if you damage a board you will not get a new one unless you buy a new one, you will get a re certified board.

Other then that my Z77, Z87 and Z170 have all performed just fine.

The Z170-A is a fairly cheap board

Ya that`s what aggravated me, you put out money for a new item and get someone else`s used item back.

Maybe, but it only sells for $154, where as the Formula sells for $369

ASUS Z170-A LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

I`m still waiting for the Formula to come down in price

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII FORMULA LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard-Newegg.com

My advice, get what you want, but make sure it`s perfect. If not send it back to Newegg before the 15 or 30 day return time is up.

I`m not exactly sure about what you get back, but you`re probably right.

But when I RMA`d my Z77 the board I got back had dust under the armor so make of that what you will.

Certainly it was used, but it worked fine so that`s all that mattered.

I paid $269 for my Sabertooth, then watched it come down to $209, now it`s at $245.99

ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

The Formula has come down from $399 to $369, not much at all, but I look it as saving the tax and shipping cost of the original price :)

Hi,
Yep products well some get lucky and others get duds
Most reviews you have to take with a grain of salt but can be discouraging to say the least
I almost bought a asus x99 deluxe 2 the other day black friday and all but came back to my senses :)
Looked briefly at the z170 offerings but I still do not understand the entire mobil..... stuff other than most mobil stuff is disposable after a year or 2 not to mention it's hard to get excited about a quad core
Besides being fairly cheap price wise compared to previous offerings it's a lottery getting good stuff out of the first package

chaosrealm93 said:

i was shocked to find the amount of DOAs and reports of poor service form ASUS after having encountered a problem.

how prevalent / true is this? it seems like poor and declining QC is a common thread among all the reviews...

should i still go ahead with getting the Z170-A or should i consider another model / manufacturer entirely?

any recommendations?

You shouldn't be shocked. That's pretty much par for the course across all brands, not just Asus. As you say, declining QC is a common thread--and has been for a long time.

It stands to reason that those who are satisfied are less likely to post a review at all, but computer stuff just generally seems to have a higher dissatisfaction rate than your average piece of consumer electronics---refrigerators, stoves, etc.

I wouldn't expect motherboards to be as reliable as pocket knives, but you'd think quality would be higher than it is after decades of refining the process. I'd guess the manufacturers have made a conscious choice that a relatively high rate of failures is cost effective and adds to their bottom line profit. They look at it as just part of the cost of doing business and can get away with it as long as the customer has no alternative.

The fact that no manufacturer has strayed from this practice tells me it's an industry-wide decision. You just need a degree of luck. I had a DOA motherboard 6 months ago (not Asus), but I didn't tell myself that changing brands would have decreased the likelihood of that happening.

For that reason, I don't think there's much point in making recommendations. All brands are shaky and anyone's recommendations are going to be anecdotal and colored by their personal experience.

About all you can do is deal with vendors that will make the replacement process as painless as possible. Newegg paid for return shipping both ways for my RMA.

I just finished up a new PC build (Sunday). I started out with an ASRock Z170 board but it had problems and was returned. I got an ASUS Z170 and so far working perfectly. The ASUS is a "ROG" board, I don't game but it had more rear panel USB ports that I needed.