Recommendation for beefy mini-itx board?

[ferengitarian]

Hi folks, like the title says, I'm looking for a solid mini-itx board. In my search, I've seen a few boards with good specs, but I want to know more about brands and build quality.

This board is my current front-runner, an ASRock Fatal1ty Gaming ITX/AC.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014B3AYUM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2J825GGMHIC4L&coliid=I3O6D2X6XM0YES
Z170 chipset, m.2 pci-e x4, usb 3.1, dual-band wireless.

Amazon reviewers are not kind to this board (how big an issue are DOAs?), but what can y'all tell me about ASRock and their boards? Is there a brand I should be looking for or avoiding? Can anyone recommend a better mini-itx board in the same price range? I can do without the wireless and usb 3.1 if there's something good without them.

edit: Also, does anyone know if this drive will play nice with (boot from without issue) an NVME ssd? Specifically a Samsung 950 pro? (yeah, it's way brawnier than I need right now, but the idea is to build a reasonably future-proof system for about a grand).

 

[Lutfij]

The ASRock board looks slimmer in terms of build quality and some folks have complained about the coil whine off of that board. You may want to look into Gigabyte's Z170N Gaming, EVGA Z170 Stinger. The Samsung drive in question has been known to get hot so cramped and confined places like the back of the motherboard aren't good places to be. I'd ask you to get regular SSD's in case you can't find the MVMe drives lack support on the boards listed above.

You can look at this list by Gigabyte for their Z170N Gaming 5 board.

Might I ask what your mitx build is shaping to be? Case and other components?