Review on ASUS ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming Z490 WiFi 6 LGA 1200 Mini-ITX Gaming Motherboard, 8+2 Power Stages, DDR4 4800, Intel 2.5 Gb Ethernet, USB 3.2 Front Panel Type-C, HDMI 2.0a, Aura Sync by John Mejia

I want to start by saying that I really love Asus products, I have several of them. My last build was Asus about 8 years ago, it was time for a new build so I chose Asus again because I was so happy with their products. The board is beautiful, has some great features, but the build quality has jumped off a cliff since my last gaming PC build. This board is very fragile to the point where you don't want to touch it anymore, which is part of the experience of making your own. The design of the m.2 bays could be better, the heatsink has RGB pins that are long, thin and in a place that is hard to see when the top slot is occupied. This setup, because these pins were so hard to see, resulted in many takedowns that had to be fixed, the first time nothing turned on like the power supply was dead, a few times more the RGB didn't work. It's frustrating to pull the PSU out of the Mini-ITX case multiple times because the pin was pulled out. The USB 3.0 header detached from the board when I tried to separate the io case, the connector being held only by a regular latch, almost broke the plastic of the connector when I tried to separate it from the body connector, then I had to put the plastic head back onto the pins without bending it. The moment I added a second NVME SSD, I lost all wireless and bluetooth connections. I haven't been able to fix it yet, although it's either the BIOS or the hardware. So if this was my first build I would be so put off by my experience that I would return everything and buy the console. As much as I love Asus and this board I have endeavored to give 3 stars after troubleshooting this wifi will determine if I come back. Card failed, returned.