Overall and Final Verdict

My time with the Z97-A has been extremely interesting. As always I was extremely impressed with Asus’s attention to detail when packing the Z97-A full of features. Typically with a low to mid ranged motherboard like this manufactures seem to try their best to put only the bear minimum in effort into everything. Asus did a great job of giving the Z97-A the best software available as well as the best UEFI BIOS. I was also really impressed with the USB 3.0 performance when using Asus’s USB 3.0 Boost. In contrast to all of that I was a little disappointed in the network performance of the Intel NIC on the Z97-A. The same goes for the built in audio card, this is to be expected at a price point like the Z97-A’s though. 

In the end I can’t be too upset. Asus did put together a motherboard that is going to be extremely hard to beat at a price point of $149.99 as of today. It has its downsides, but you can’t really expect something to be perfect when it is priced on the low to mid-range. Asus did end up putting together a good package at a price point that isn’t the cheap but fitting for the product you are getting.