Midrange Priced z170 Motherboard Suggestions

1. In your price range, to my eyes, the Gigabyte Gaming 7 has no peer. Its few bucks more but well worth it... gorgeous too
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3n7CmG/msi-motherboard-z170agamingm7

2. Consider that DDR4-3200 CAS 16 and DDR4-3000 CAS 15 is just $5 more
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/qGqbt6/gskill-memory-f43200c16d16gvgb
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Yb8H99/gskill-memory-f43000c15d16grk

3. Run away as fast as you can from the EVGA FTW. It has a deficient design and the ones w/o thermal pads are still being reported in the sales channel. the Gigabyte is clocked faster at 1.72 Mhz and is $62 cheaper with VRM temps reaching 114C cause they cheaped on on thermal pads
https://www.techpowerup.com/227133/evga-gtx-1070-1080-overheating-issues-company-says-thermal-pads-a-solution
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3fvZxr/gigabyte-video-card-gvn1080g1gaming8gd

4. I'd consider a 750 watter PSU, just in case someday you do to SLI and 4k
EVGA B2 https://pcpartpicker.com/product/JYyFf7/evga-power-supply-110b20750vr

If ya haven't picked case yet .... look at this:

Best case of the Year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQfRDSGlNqI

And even better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKUkj23GgFE

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/G78H99/phanteks-case-phes515etggs

The Luxe TG is another alternative
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Vw8H99/phanteks-enthoo-luxe-tempered-glass-atx-full-tower-case-ph-es614ltg_ag

A 250 GB SSD of your choosing and a SSHD for storage will complete the build if don't have these already
Samsung Evo 250 GB - https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Ck98TW/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz750250bw
Seagate 2 TB SSHD ($95 old version - $105 new version)
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/tR2kcf/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st2000dx001
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/NpBrxr/seagate-firecuda-2tb-35-7200rpm-hybrid-internal-hard-drive-st2000dx002

Lastly for the cooler ... the Hyper 212 just doesn't "fit" in a build in this price range. it is a great "budget cooler" ... but that is a very long way from saying it is a great cooler.

For best performance / noise ratio - the Noctua NH-D15 . If ya find the Noc a bit fugly, then look at the pretty Phanteks PH=TC14PE which comes in numerous colors to match your case. The white one will go well with the MoBo
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/qX6BD3/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc14pe




It's just a matter of what you get for what ya pay... for example almost every board from the competition above about $110 comes with the standard audio subsytem for gaming (ALC 1150)... almost every board in this price range from Asus uses substandard ALC 887 ir 892. The Pro Gaming uses a ALC 1150 equivalent so it's good there. But what it comes down to is what I have started calling the RoG tax.

Asus gained a well deserved reputation over the years for giving customers a quality product with quality support. But both dropped precipitously with Z87 and Z97. Asus made a great comeback w/ Z170 performance wise but when ya look at componentry and user satisfaction, they still haven't come back to where they were. They still have some great boards... Sabertooth comes to mind but some boards need to be avoided. These are boards with > industry average RMA rates:

6,64% MSI Z170A Gaming Pro
5,17% MSI Z170A Gaming M5
5,00% ASUS Maximus VIII Hero
4,76% MSI Z170A Gaming M3
4,29% ASUS Z170-Deluxe
2,88% ASUS Z170-A
2,84% Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI
2,31% ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING

On newegg we have 154 users rating the board they own which gives us a pretty good, statistically valid sampling. Only 44% of Asus Z170 Pro Gaming board owners gave it 5 eggs... and almost a third (29%) gave it the worst possible 1 egg rating. And if ya take the position that those bad ratings come from inexperienced and unknowledgeable users... then why are all the smarter people buying other boards with less than helf that many 1 eggers.

The $160 Gaming 7 has only 15% 1 eggers and 55% 5 eggers. It also is approaching 400 users rating the board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128835