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The Z170 Pro Gaming AURA fills the already-narrow gap between the Z170 Pro Gaming and Maximus VIII Ranger in the ASUS Z170 motherboard range. Pricing reflects this market positioning: £155/$165 for the new Z170 Pro Gaming AURA compared to £135/$150 for the Z170 Pro Gaming and £165/$190 for the Maximus VIII Ranger.
A 3 year warranty is standard on this product in the UK and North America.
Broadly speaking the new AURA variant of the Z170 Pro Gaming is an improved board thanks to its RGB capability and unique 3D Printing support, among a few other tweaks. You pay a slight premium for these changes which is fair when setting the tried-and-trusted Z170 Pro Gaming as the baseline.
However, prospective buyers will not be considering this board in isolation, or only within the context of the ASUS Z170 range. MSI has a competitor product which directly targets this new ASUS motherboard, the Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon, and it's been on the market for some time.
MSI's rival is priced aggressively to compete with the standard Z170 Pro Gaming – £130 for UK buyers which is a considerable discount over the ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming AURA at £155. North American buyers can expect to pay around $160 which is not too dissimilar from the ASUS price tag of $165.
These two boards are largely similar in terms of storage, USB, expansion slots, audio, networking and I/O. The differences that do exist between the two , for all intents and purposes, are splitting hairs. For example the MSI board has a SATA Express port and PCIe shielding on two lanes but the ASUS board has more CPU VRM phases. MSI offers carbon fibre skins whereas ASUS delivers a different approach to customisation – through the 3D Printing option.
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Pros:
- Unique 3D printing customisation
- Flexible RGB lighting that is compatible with other ASUS AURA products
- Well-rounded connectivity options – USB 3.1 Type-A and C, M.2 with NVMe, DDR4 and SLI
- Neutral colour scheme
Cons:
- Competition is more aggressively priced in the UK
- Audio LED strip lighting isn't RGB or controllable with AURA software
- Blueprints for 3D printing accessories aren't available on download pages yet
KitGuru says: The Z170 Pro Gaming AURA motherboard offers a number of smart design tweaks and refinements over the base model. It continues to be one of the best all-round Z170 Gaming motherboards to go for on a reasonably tight budget.
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