Loved the look when the built in WB / armor combo came along with the VI and did a new WC build as soon as I could get my hands on a 2nd stepping board. Shuda waited longer as much of the Asus Z87 series was plagued with BIOS clock freeze issues that remain to be resolved.
The board was however gorgeous, easily customizable and led to some great looking builds
The Z87 version was $300 and wasn't rated very well by board owners on newegg (17% 1 egg / 7% 2 eggs)
The Z97 version was $310-320ish and was rated significantly worse board owners on newegg (26% 1 egg / 17% 2 eggs).
I'd like to do another Formula build but I need to see the above trend to reverse before I delve into another RoG based build. The older Rampage builds were a pleasure to own but I've been disappointed with every RoG build thru Z87 / Z97. The Sabertooth and WS boards have been much better.
Performance wise, Asus Z170 boards seem to have returned to form; no more being 5 - 10% behind in performance than the much lower priced competition. I expect this VIII to be in the $349 - $369 range. But so far, Asus RoG boards still fairing poorly in the user satisfaction department.
Z170 Hero - 15% 1 egg / 15% 2 egg
Z170 Ranger - 16% 1 egg / 16% 2 egg
Z170 Gene - 17% 1 egg / 4% 2 egg
To be fair, other than several of the Gigabyte G! series, it's not as if many Z170 boards from other manufacturers are faring much better. Gonna sit back and watch to see if later board steppings improve on these numbers.
Aesthetics wise, I love the MSI XPower Titanium and would love to see an EK MonoBlock in nickel for the board. However given the extensive collaboration between EK and Asus this round, I don't think we are going to see many MoBo blocks this year for MSI / Gigabyte.