Both the EVGA motherboard models I have owned -- two EVGA nForce 780i motherboards and one EVGA X58 motherboard -- were plagued by annoying issues and were not that spectacular to own. After those experiences, I haven't purchased an EVGA motherboard and don't see that changing any time soon. The thought of 'EVGA motherboard' makes me think "meh".

The EVGA nForce 780i was technically an NVIDIA reference board and therefore I don't know if I can blame EVGA. The first 780i failed (stopped booting and stopped detecting drives) within a week or two. The second had annoying issues -- such as poor power efficiency, an extremely hot running chipset, buzzing chipset fan -- but worked for a few years before it failed.

Like I said, I don't know if it is fair to fault EVGA in those instances since it was an NVIDIA reference motherboard with simply EVGA's logo on it. So, I still felt comfortable buying an EVGA X58 SLI motherboard. The X58 motherboard I purchased was just the standard price-competitive version. With it, once again I experienced inadequate cooling design concerns (had to zip tie fan to power MOSFET heatsink to keep MOSFET temps down below 100c), boot issues (I had to turn it off and on 2 or 3 times some times or even some times cycle the PSU power switch to get it to pass BIOS POST) and reliability issues (hangs, freezes, and randomly disappearing or reappearing system memory between one boot and the next boot). I tested the hardware in another brand motherboard. No issues with the other board. To top it off, the EVGA X58 board tended to perform worse clock-for-clock compared to other brands' board of the same type.

So.... I decided my experiences weren't just a fluke and decided that it is unlikely that i will buy another EVGA motherboard. It seems like the people who buy the overly-expensive EVGA wanker version ("CLASSIFIED", etc.) of the board are the people who like the EVGA board or have tricked themselves into believing that they like it. But if you buy the standard version which costs the same price as the competitor's, it is inferior. That's my experience at least. MSI and Asrock have done me pretty well since then. Even though I have had a MSI motherboard fail, prior to it failing, I didn't have constant annoying issues with it which made me dread owning it.

I think of EVGA motherboards as the tinkerer's friend. If you like spending a lot of your time playing with it, making it work, and trying to keep it working, EVGA motherboards are for you.

I have had many 1366 EVGA boards. Also have an Asus and an Asrock build in the house as well as my gaming computer which is EVGA. Each has their own quirks. What it comes down to is features, and your past experiences with the company if you need to RMA. I have dealt with all three for RMA and never an issue one with them. So for me, I would get the board that gives me the features I want regardless of the company.

i own three evga boards and all are rock solid, my x58 e760 that i bought from loveha in the marketplace here still works great to this day (just put a 6 core xeon in it and sata 3 pcie card to get faster hdd speed), And yes with asus and gigabyte they have a much larger variety from entry level budget to top end everything, but they also are huge compared to evga. the only boards i really ever had trouble with was a super cheap pc chips board and a abit kt333 board ( had the faulty cap issue) 

Maybe its because I haven't warranty replaced anything ever, that makes customer service extremely low on my priority list.  I don't know first hand, but I have heard that EVGA has the best customer support.  I don't doubt that it's true.  But, a properly designed product which consistently works is more important to me.  If a product is broken, I chuck it in the trash and buy an upgraded replaced.  If the product gave me nothing but problems while it was "functioning", I make sure that the next one I buy is from a different manufacturer.  Thus, no more EVGA motherboards for me.  ;)  I tried EVGA motherboards 3 times; all 3 times they were lacking.

Thanks guys for the reviews! Appreciate it. Seems like its true, different companies have different problems with their boards. Boards are hit or miss, either get one that's great or one that gives you a headache.

ty_ger07
Maybe its because I haven't warranty replaced anything ever, that makes customer service extremely low on my priority list.  I don't know first hand, but I have heard that EVGA has the best customer support.  I don't doubt that it's true.  But, a properly designed product which consistently works is more important to me.  If a product is broken, I chuck it in the trash and buy an upgraded replaced.  If the product gave me nothing but problems while it was "functioning", I make sure that the next one I buy is from a different manufacturer.  Thus, no more EVGA motherboards for me.  ;)  I tried EVGA motherboards 3 times; all 3 times they were lacking.

I agree with you there completely, money is not as big of an issue for me, but quality and reliability is top on the list for me. I go by the buy once cry once mentality. However I'm putting customer service as a somewhat important factor because I've just had absolutely horrendous luck with computers. Keep getting issues, malfunctions and stuff that comes with issues. I never buy anything cheap and I always do my research to make sure I get reliable products. I actually got a EVGA 1080 FTW that had a buzzing/ clicking fan, but the card itself performed fine. I've pretty much confirmed its not my user error, I'm not installing things wrong, not taking proper precautions or infecting my system with viruses. I wear gloves/ anti static bands when handling internal components, I use an anti-virus and I pretty much don't install anything sketchy, nor do I pirate. I don't force components into their slots and I don't mess with them randomly lol. 

MSim
It all depends on what features you care about. If you want a motherboard with all the latest features, you will have to look towards ASRock, ASUS ,GIGABYTE and MSI. In my opinion, evga not putting as much effort as they could into producing motherboards. They go all out on video cards but not motherboards.  
 
Few things i have noticed other mfg have that evga doesn't.
Better onboard sound and audio software on motherboards around $200-230 price point
Reinforced PCI-E and RAM slots
Onboard RGB and/or RGB headers
More version to choose from to meet a budget
Better value for your money
 
Does having more than 10 power phase make a difference on Z270 air/water cooled system, i doubt it. I think most of the Z270 mobo around$215-300 price tag overclock about the same for everyday use. How high you can overclock comes down to CPU silicon lottery. 
 
(more on CPU silicon lottery)
A site that sells binned CPU's says, As of 2/22/17, the top 7% of tested 7700Ks were able to hit 5.2GHz or greater.
 
You can receive faulty hardware from any of the mfg. 
 

Honestly, features wise, I don't care about most the stuff manufacturers list. Its like the top manufacturers are competing to have the longest spec sheets. 
I really just care about reliability/ quality and compatibility. I don't need much fancy stuff. Realistically the only features that matter to me are some extra USB's, enough fan headers (I run a lot of fans), reinforced slots and maybe some power phases. 
But pretty much all the major manufacturers have most of those. I don't really actually overclock yet, even if I did I'd do a light overclock. 
Price is really low on the priority list. Its difficult to choose a board for me right now since asking on forums, it'll always be split evenly between ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, there will always be people who never have any problems with one brand, or someone else who has had nothing but problems with one brand. 

I'll probably go with another ASUS board at this point, their quality is slipping a bit but i've still generally heard the most good things about them.

Cool GTX
 
Step 1 - decide how many GPUs you are planning on installing
Step 2 - decide what built-in features are a must
Step 3 - find a MB with a mature BIOS, but is still current
- A lot of the MB I've had seem to have lost favor to the next new chipset and the BIOS of older boards gets left behind
- My trusty X58 XPower from MSI is still going strong - BIOS has not been updated for years - first one in 2010 and last updated in 2012 - only 2 yr of support
Step4 - do your homework and read reviews
Step5 - go to the forums of the manufacturer and see how well issues and customers are treated
 
My signature builds have both worked well.
 
EVGA X99 Classified has been a solid MB with 3 GPUs Folding 24/7 
 
Asus Z97 WE works well.  My previous Asus though, less than a year old, I had to RMA and it was a nightmare
 
EVGA could improve documentation on their MB product.  They seem to write the manuals like all their customers are experts.  This may require more research on your part to set up the BIOS.
 
Asus and MSI have in the past made manuals for their MB that though not perfect are still a more paint by numbers with a lot of detail in the BIOS options - usually.  Some setting will still require research
 
 

Thanks :) Excellent suggestions.

I've done research and i've evaluated pretty much there's 3 main boards competing against each other in the higher end Z270 market.  (MSI Z270 Gaming 7, ASUS Max IX Hero, Gigabyte Z270 Gaming X7)
1) 1 GPU so that was pretty simple
2) Features wise, all the decent motherboards in the $200-300 range pretty much have what I need. Just looking for a few USB 2.0/3.0 slots and at least one 3.1 slot. Ram at least 3200mhz, few fan headers, I run like... 6, but I use splitters.
3) I'm not sure how would I be checking up on the BIOS? I'd still don't consider myself even close to knowing as much stuff as some of you, and one of the main things I rarely mess with (therefore I have limited knowledge of) is BIOS.
I know most the Z270 boards are about 3 months old now, how would I be making sure the BIOS is mature? I know a lot of the AM4 boards for Ryzen CPUs have undeveloped BIOS' but, that's just from hearing what people say.
4/5) With the ASUS board so far people have just been complaining about driver issues with audio, but that was fixed. ASUS customer support... well we all know its not the best. I emailed them with a question literally a month ago and just got a reply yesterday.
With the MSI board people have mainly just been complaining about not enough RGB colors (I don't care about RGB), however I have heard the quality control with MSI is mediocre.
Gigabyte I've mainly been hearing about some issues with audio, then just some people talking about DOA boards, bad dimms, etc. I considered Gigabyte but generally i've heard more complaints about gigabyte and mainly a lot of it has to do with components completely failing.

The main 3 Z270 boards that are competing against each other (MSI Z270 Gaming 7, ASUS Max IX Hero, Gigabyte Z270 Gaming X7) all have more than enough features than I need. MSI Titanium Z270 Xpower is just a bit overkill. 
Its mainly difficult to decide because they're still rather new products, they're 3 months old.

But tl;dr choosing a board has been difficult for me because all 3 of the top motherboard manufacturers (and EVGA) all have enough or more than enough features that I need, and each manufacturer seems to have their own problems, and generally reviews on them are all split. Out of 9 people, 3 people will go to each manufacturer (MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte) 

It is hard to decide on which motherboard to go with, i was looking at the same three mobo's you listed. The main reason ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero Z270 won, was price (low as $217) and features. It has more than enough features for me and has premium onboard sound with decent audio software features.
 
I haven't tried to overclock my system, i went from 2.66ghz (i7-920) to 4.2ghz (i7-7700k), happy with the current performance.