![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Skylake-Based Z170 Gaming Mini ITX Motherboard
- Thread starter 576190
- Start date
A question for anyone with the ASUS Z170i Pro Gaming:
Are you able to see/connect to 5GHz WiFi networks using the built-in WiFi? If you have this board and could check that, even if you typically use an ethernet connection, I would really appreciate it.
I'm unable to see 5GHz networks in Windows 10, and I'm trying to figure out if it's a software or hardware issue (ie should I RMA or hope for a new driver).
Are you able to see/connect to 5GHz WiFi networks using the built-in WiFi? If you have this board and could check that, even if you typically use an ethernet connection, I would really appreciate it.
I'm unable to see 5GHz networks in Windows 10, and I'm trying to figure out if it's a software or hardware issue (ie should I RMA or hope for a new driver).
Hi All
If your thinking of unplugging the battery from MB to reset Cmos as it seems easier than poping the battery out, I really cannot recommend this after trying it.
Unless your eyesight is very good or you have very good access, or are willing to take the MB out, do NOT try this, the pins are tiny. Squished the pins once... had to almost take the board out to get a proper look, still all's well now. Did it reset my no access to bios? lol no! Neither did reinstalling Bios with @Bios or using the boot to bios function with app centre.
I've had enough for now, as no access to bios is more or less my only issue.
If your thinking of unplugging the battery from MB to reset Cmos as it seems easier than poping the battery out, I really cannot recommend this after trying it.
Unless your eyesight is very good or you have very good access, or are willing to take the MB out, do NOT try this, the pins are tiny. Squished the pins once... had to almost take the board out to get a proper look, still all's well now. Did it reset my no access to bios? lol no! Neither did reinstalling Bios with @Bios or using the boot to bios function with app centre.
I've had enough for now, as no access to bios is more or less my only issue.
Have you tried changing the 5GHz channel on your router / access point?
I have a MacBook Pro that does the same thing, everything else can see the SSID of the network, if I try another channel everything works as it should.
Hi brams,
thanks for your looking into this.
I did check out the newest Impact VIII Bios myself and was happy to see so many TB options already prepared to see the light
And I just came home from the postal office where I picked up my Asus mainboard - unfortunately I'm still waiting for my 6700k cpu to arrive
But I took a closer look at the Impact VIII PCB and one chip caught my eye immediately: "DSL6540", a quick online searched revealed the 'bigger' alpine ridge chip (Intel ARK link); too bad Asus only put one of the ports on the backpanel.Can't wait to put that build together
Does anyone know of any downsides to using a M.2 SSD with regards to the PCIe lanes being used? Does it take any lanes away from the GPU or other peripheral devices? Depends on the motherboards? I'm mainly looking at using a M.2 SATA3 SSD, not NVMe.
Aircoookie
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2015
- Messages
- 375
Yes, it depends on the motherboard (specifically pch port usage). If there are limitations, you can see them in the motherboard specification, e.g. the Asus Z170i Pro Gaming doesn't have any, in the Asrock Z170 gaming board two SATA ports will be disabled if using M.2.
m.2's resource impact depends entirely on the design of the board and the chipsets used. In regard to sata m.2 support, the m.2 drive usually shares one of the sata lanes for one of the sata ports supported by the chipset (for a total of 6 max, usually). Depending on the board (especially mini-itx), it may not have all 6 sata ports physically, so the m.2 may have it's own sata lane. Again, this is board specific, so you'd have to dig into the manual/support documentation for whatever board you're interested in.
Thanks. I'm almost sure i'll go with the Asrock Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac and maybe a M.2 SATA3 SSD. I just hope the M.2 SATA3 takes up less lanes then a M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD since it can't even take advantage of it. Guess it's time to research to be 100% sure.
If the M.2 slot is occupied by an M.2 Sata III SSD, then port SATA3_0, SATA3_1 and the SATA function of SATA_EXP0 will be disabled. you'll have 4 Sata port remaining on the board.
If I remember well, Z170 chipset has some extra PCI lane so when using M.2 with an NVMe SSD, you'll not use any lane from the GPU PCIe X16 slot.
Yes, I have changed channels, protocols, encryption, and completely reset my router. But I know it does not have to do with my router because my PC (with the ASUS) can't see any 5GHz networks, and there are at least 6 visible to all my other devices.
Have you successfully seen/connected to a 5GHz network with the Z170i?
That is not accurate. I have a 950 Pro (PCIe 3.0 x4) in the M.2 slot of my Z170i Pro Gaming, and my GPU is still x16. See GPU-Z screenshot:
That video was incorrect. All Z170 ITX board released thus far, from every manufacturer, take the m.2 lanes from the chipset, not from the CPU directly.
An Asus Z170i review http://www.eteknix.com/asus-z170i-pro-gaming-lga-1151-motherboard-review/
Bios 0604 available
Bios 0604 available
Thanks for that. An interesting quote regarding my issue:
The driver ASUS provides for the WiFi module is still a Qualcomm driver. I wonder if my issue is that I'm trying to use a Qualcomm driver with a Broadcom module. Does anyone know how to check if I have the Broadcom module?
Hi brams,
thanks for your looking into this.
I did check out the newest Impact VIII Bios myself and was happy to see so many TB options already prepared to see the light
And I just came home from the postal office where I picked up my Asus mainboard - unfortunately I'm still waiting for my 6700k cpu to arrive
Can't wait to put that build together
You're welcome, you've got a Maximus VIII Impact, I was going to buy one but went for the GA-Z170N Gaming 5, the thing that put me off is that in the manual it says there is an AS Media 1142K USB 3.0 controller, as I will be dual booting OS X and Win 10, I can't stand or even want to use anything by AS Media ever again. Could you actually take a look and tell me the actual chip number on the ASM chip, if you need to know the location let me know. If it is a misprint and its an ASM chip for something else then I'll be getting the Max VIII Impact instead. This would be a big help
Hi brams,
there is a 1142 chip from ASmedia and it's an USB chip but there's none with K.
I know what you're talking about but don't worry about the chip on the Impact VIII.
After reading the manual I was shocked as well but that ASM1442K chip is for multimedia purpose not USB.
I took a picture of it:
hope you can read ist.
By the way, that wouldn't make much sense at all, having USB 3.0 through Z170 chipset, Intel Alpine Ridge AND ASmedia ?
.. not on an ITX board, maybe on a full size ATX mainboard where you have space to put all kinds of useless stuff on it
And after using osx on my VI I hope to migrate to the VIII and use it as my main OS again
update:
Asus lists the following details for "USB ports" on their specs-webpage:
Intel® Z170 chipset :
6 x USB 3.0 port(s) (4 at back panel, blue, 2 at mid-board)
Intel® USB 3.1 controller :
1 x USB 3.1 port(s) (1 at back panel, black, Type-C)
Intel® USB 3.1 controller :
1 x USB 3.1 port(s) (1 at back panel, red, Type-A)
just like I said, no need for a third chip for usb 3.0
Last edited:
Hi Notting,
Great thank you!, big help.
I see you've got an NCASE M1, just waiting for my V5 to arrive in January. I'm interested which CPU cooler you'll be using with the VIII Impact (that clears the audio card and the fan module), I'm assuming you've got a water block and radiator?. Mine will be taken with me through airports when I go on holiday etc so I had to go air cooled, using a Scythe Kabuto II, as you might be aware the Kabuto II is the most space efficient top down cooler for the NCASE, I'm just concerned that it will foul on some parts in the VIII Impact as that is a very busy motherboard. I usually use ASUS and the difference between Gigabyte offering and ASUS is significant to say the least, I would not buy another GB board, not that there is an awful lot wrong with it, just the ASUS is that much better.
What are you going to do about U.2 are you going to use it, I just think as it is, maybe it is a bit to clunky for an NCASE build?
Great thank you!, big help.
I see you've got an NCASE M1, just waiting for my V5 to arrive in January. I'm interested which CPU cooler you'll be using with the VIII Impact (that clears the audio card and the fan module), I'm assuming you've got a water block and radiator?. Mine will be taken with me through airports when I go on holiday etc so I had to go air cooled, using a Scythe Kabuto II, as you might be aware the Kabuto II is the most space efficient top down cooler for the NCASE, I'm just concerned that it will foul on some parts in the VIII Impact as that is a very busy motherboard. I usually use ASUS and the difference between Gigabyte offering and ASUS is significant to say the least, I would not buy another GB board, not that there is an awful lot wrong with it, just the ASUS is that much better.
What are you going to do about U.2 are you going to use it, I just think as it is, maybe it is a bit to clunky for an NCASE build?
I'd actually recommend an AIO for travel. The main mass of the cooler is attached to the case rather than the motherboard, so you're not putting excess force on the PCB during motion. An AIO is fine for air travel too; they're shipped already filled, and likely have survived one or more air freight hops, so can handle pressure cycles without bursting (and in-cabin the pressure change is much gentler than unpressurised freight).
Hi thanks EdZ,
I was deliberating like mad and found it hard to make my mind up, I've been using a Corair H70 on a 2600K for the last 5 years but that's in a Lian Li mini ATX case. I was going to get an Asetek cooler I forgot which one but it matched the EVGA GTX 980Ti Hybrid cooler, I decided against it as most of the feedback when I Googled it said that it wasn't worth the risk of getting knocked back at the airport. Though I'm a Brit I work in Middle East so you can imagine the reaction of trying to get on a flight UK bound from the Middle East with an electronic device filled with liquid ;-). Seeing as the coolers are not fully filled for expansion purposes then I figured the X-Ray scanner would pick up the air pockets and could raise some difficult to answer questions. Mainly due to using Mac OS X as my main OS and OS X not recognizing most overclock beyond 4.2 GHz anyway I'm not a mad over clocker (respect to those that do though) 6700K @ 4.6 GHz with everything else stock, at this it does about 65 Deg C) The Kabuto is actually quite light and more or less fits flush with the NCASE side bracket, I will pack it with some card when traveling which will help support it, I'll be putting it in an NCASE bag and will take it on has hand baggage anyway so it wont get thrown about.
I was deliberating like mad and found it hard to make my mind up, I've been using a Corair H70 on a 2600K for the last 5 years but that's in a Lian Li mini ATX case. I was going to get an Asetek cooler I forgot which one but it matched the EVGA GTX 980Ti Hybrid cooler, I decided against it as most of the feedback when I Googled it said that it wasn't worth the risk of getting knocked back at the airport. Though I'm a Brit I work in Middle East so you can imagine the reaction of trying to get on a flight UK bound from the Middle East with an electronic device filled with liquid ;-). Seeing as the coolers are not fully filled for expansion purposes then I figured the X-Ray scanner would pick up the air pockets and could raise some difficult to answer questions. Mainly due to using Mac OS X as my main OS and OS X not recognizing most overclock beyond 4.2 GHz anyway I'm not a mad over clocker (respect to those that do though) 6700K @ 4.6 GHz with everything else stock, at this it does about 65 Deg C) The Kabuto is actually quite light and more or less fits flush with the NCASE side bracket, I will pack it with some card when traveling which will help support it, I'll be putting it in an NCASE bag and will take it on has hand baggage anyway so it wont get thrown about.
It's surprisingly hard to get details about mainboards if it doesn't have to do with marketing crap. So you're welcome!
About a month ago, I decided for a double-barreled approach.. ordered the Impact VIII from Amazon DE (ETA by the time: late November) and a Z170N Gaming 5 from Amazon UK (ETA by the time: late December/early January || no Z170N here in Germany) as both of them should have requirements for TB3 support.
As I mentioned, the VIII already arrived early and yesterday, Amazon UK informed me about a new delivery date (November 21st) for the Gaming 5.
If none of them will ever have TB3 support.. well, let's hope it doesn't come to that
On my Impact VI I have installed a Noctua D9L cooler; I've been using Noctua coolers for a long time and never had a problem. But I also have a EK Water Block M6I Nickel waterblock from the past - unfortunately I didn't have the time to check compatibility on the Impact VIII; maybe the audio device or the case around it is too clunky.
Buying a new U.2 drive is not an option at the moment, simply way too expensive after upgrading to a new mainboard and new DDR4 memory.
My plan is to check the wifi/bt module as it's using a M.2 card - that's an M.2/E-Key PCIe 2.0 x2, M.2 2242. If I can put an old Transcend MTS400 256GB (TS256GMTS400) in that slot I would be happy
No need for wifi/bt and certainly no super-duper-mega-fast right away as long as I can use a lot of parts from my old builds. And if it doesn't fit, I can still use my M.2->SATA adapter.btw. new Bios update 1102 release, so far no obvious changes to TB
I wanted to mention a successful build with an ASRock Z170 Gaming ITX/ac and Samsung 950 Pro 256GB.
I got 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance 2666 and I was concerned about the factory BIOS recognizing them. However, the RAM was recognized fine, and I was able to update to the latest BIOS via USB stick after booting up.
I used the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to make a bootable Windows 10 USB installation (the ISO happened to include the new Windows 10 November Update which was a bonus). My PC booted straight from the USB, and the Windows 10 installation recognized the Samsung 950 Pro drive with no problems. No weird drivers needed or anything.
After getting into Windows and doing the usual motherboard driver updates, I then installed the official Samsung NVME driver for the 950, which I found on their website. I did a quick test of the SSD:
It's funny to see this drive blitz other benchmark results by miles, but in real-world use, it doesn't feel as fast as the numbers look. Though I haven't done a whole lot with it yet.
Only one issue at the moment -- when I boot up, my system has a flashing DOS cursor for 15 seconds before the Windows logo appears. In that time, the HDD light keeps flashing like it's doing something. Could be a BIOS setting I need to fiddle with?
Damn those m.2 drives are small. Now if only GPUs looked like that.
I got 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance 2666 and I was concerned about the factory BIOS recognizing them. However, the RAM was recognized fine, and I was able to update to the latest BIOS via USB stick after booting up.
I used the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to make a bootable Windows 10 USB installation (the ISO happened to include the new Windows 10 November Update which was a bonus). My PC booted straight from the USB, and the Windows 10 installation recognized the Samsung 950 Pro drive with no problems. No weird drivers needed or anything.
After getting into Windows and doing the usual motherboard driver updates, I then installed the official Samsung NVME driver for the 950, which I found on their website. I did a quick test of the SSD:
It's funny to see this drive blitz other benchmark results by miles, but in real-world use, it doesn't feel as fast as the numbers look. Though I haven't done a whole lot with it yet.
Only one issue at the moment -- when I boot up, my system has a flashing DOS cursor for 15 seconds before the Windows logo appears. In that time, the HDD light keeps flashing like it's doing something. Could be a BIOS setting I need to fiddle with?
Damn those m.2 drives are small. Now if only GPUs looked like that.
It's surprisingly hard to get details about mainboards if it doesn't have to do with marketing crap. So you're welcome!
About a month ago, I decided for a double-barreled approach.. ordered the Impact VIII from Amazon DE (ETA by the time: late November) and a Z170N Gaming 5 from Amazon UK (ETA by the time: late December/early January || no Z170N here in Germany) as both of them should have requirements for TB3 support.
As I mentioned, the VIII already arrived early and yesterday, Amazon UK informed me about a new delivery date (November 21st) for the Gaming 5.
If none of them will ever have TB3 support.. well, let's hope it doesn't come to that
On my Impact VI I have installed a Noctua D9L cooler; I've been using Noctua coolers for a long time and never had a problem. But I also have a EK Water Block M6I Nickel waterblock from the past - unfortunately I didn't have the time to check compatibility on the Impact VIII; maybe the audio device or the case around it is too clunky.
Buying a new U.2 drive is not an option at the moment, simply way too expensive after upgrading to a new mainboard and new DDR4 memory.
My plan is to check the wifi/bt module as it's using a M.2 card - that's an M.2/E-Key PCIe 2.0 x2, M.2 2242. If I can put an old Transcend MTS400 256GB (TS256GMTS400) in that slot I would be happy
btw. new Bios update 1102 release, so far no obvious changes to TB
If you used AMIBCP64 you should *just* be able to enable it, compare it to a BIOS in which you know TB is already enabled and enable the same options and save the image. Only problem is on the ASUS is looks like the BIOS is signed (saving the VIII Impact bios pops up a warning saying it needs signing, the GA-Z170N-G5 does not) so you won't be able to program it using the normal route, Intel tools might work or (seeing as the BIOS is socketed) you could pull it and use an SPI programmer (the CH341 works well). If you do go this route make sure you edit your own BIOS (dump, edit, write) as programming one off ASUS support site will probably brick the board as ASUS flash tools don't program the entire chip, and there is some info that needs to be unique, (if you've used FD44 Tools to flash and recover BIOS on ASUS P8xxx boards (FD44Editor, FTK) you'll know what I mean) . I can tell you now, it looks extremely unlikely the Gaming 5 ITX will get TB officially, I am trying to hack it to enable it but so far no success. I have managed to insert the modules so I know they fit, but there is something else missing as I still can't TB to show up in the peripherals section as per screen shots a couple of pages back.
Last edited:
Phuncz
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 2,630
If possible, disable CSM: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1041963343&highlight=csm#post1041963343
You should frequent that thread, as it is specifically about the 950 Pro.
I'm not surprised because SATA SSDs already solved a huge bottleneck with the insanely low (compared to HDD) latencies. While these NVMe PCIe drives have even lower latencies, these aren't dozens or hundreds of times better than the jump from HDD to SSD.
These drives are only now available commercially and while SSDs still are not the defacto storage for most PCs, optimization will still be favorable towards slow storage. Don't forget HDDs have been a PC's bottleneck for quite a while, ever since the first multi-core CPUs came this only became worse. So it will take a long time for the industry to adapt to nano second storage access, near-infinite I/Os per second and multi-gigabyte per second transfer rates.
Aibohphobia
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2013
- Messages
- 1,340
I believe several people have taken M1s with AIO coolers through airport security without issue. I highly suspect this is dependent on skin color though.
Phuncz
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 2,630
Then you must have hardware that isn't UEFI compliant, maybe your GPU ?
Thank you for the heads up.
Yeah although I'm coming from a 7200rpm, this is my first SSD. It's definitely faster, but I was expecting more..
Although as I mentioned, I haven't done a whole lot aside from install programs. So my experience is a bit limited for now.I had the same issue. There wasn't an option in the Bluetooth program to disable it, so I disabled the Bluetooth adapter in the network settings:
Start > Settings > Network and Internet > Change Adapter Options
The Bluetooth program still showed up in the systray even after disabling, so I then turned off the systray icon.
I haven't tried to disable wifi.
ok, after a total reinstall, I've solved the problem. I'll go into detail below because this may help others.
I did disable CSM (compatibility support module), but my system refused to boot like SHwoKing said. Luckily, my system went straight to BIOS instead of a black screen. I realised my SSD was no longer showing in BIOS. That's why it couldn't boot - for some reason the drive wasn't compatible with pure UEFI mode.
Turns out the friggin thing has to be formatted as GPT (GUID partition table) rather than MBR (master boot record). An MBR formatted drive is not compatible with UEFI-only mode, and it causes the system to boot in compatibility mode. When I installed Windows 10 the first time, it automatically formatted the drive as MBR, because CSM was enabled.
So I disabled CSM in BIOS (to ensure UEFI only mode) and rebooted with my thumb drive plugged in. I ducked into BIOS again to check the boot drive, and my thumb drive appeared twice: one was UEFI-enabled, one was not. The default was the UEFI-enabled one.
I restarted, and Windows 10 setup came up. I deleted my existing SSD partitions and created a new one. It automatically created 4 partitions (3 of which were system partitions). Reading on the net, it seems that Windows Setup creates two partitions for an MBR drive, and 4 partitions for a GPT drive. The stupid thing is that Setup doesn't actually say whether it's MBR or GPT. The easy way to tell is to simply count how many partitions it creates.
It all installed fine. There are a lot of websites that say your USB thumb drive with Windows on it also has to be formatted as GPT. This is bullshit, the crucial setting is making sure CSM is disabled in BIOS first.
One more thing: after Windows was installed, CSM had been re-enabled in my BIOS, so I had to disable it one more time. Now instead of a 25 second boot, it takes 8-9 seconds.
Last edited:
Phuncz
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 2,630
Excellent write-up and thanks for taking the time to educate us, I tip my hat to you sir !
What is your target DDR speed and how much do you want to pay. I paid just over 100 bucks for Mushkin Redline 997200F, its clocked via the XMP Profile to 2666
Kingston is good ram, seems very expensive though...
Agent_Duchess
n00b
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2015
- Messages
- 8
I have had issues trying to OC the RAM on my AsRock board. I got 2x8GB Corsair VLP 2666 memory, but anytime I try and OC the memory beyond the default 2133, Windows won't boot (says there must be a hardware change). I had no problem OC'ing the processor. Anyone having a similar issue? I'm on the latest BIOS (1.3?).
My hope / guess is I'm doing something really simple and stupid incorrectly...
Did not have any problem with a 2X8GB Kingston Hyper X Fury 2666Mhz. The Ram was at 2666Mhz clock right at the start. I have used bios 1.10/1.20 and 1.30 so far.