Intel – Page 152 – Motherboard Review

GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS ULTRA GAMING

October 13, 2020November 6, 2017 by Stephen

Today we are checking out the Z370 Ultra Gaming, which sits right in the middle of the lineup. This board will definitely be a great option for many people moving over to the Z370 platform as it has a low cost and of course in typical AORUS fashion plenty of RGB lighting. This ATX motherboard features dual M.2 slots, ALC1220 120dB SNR HD Audio with a Smart Headphone Amp, Intel LAN, Smart Fan 5 support, and USB 3.1 support. Let’s get this board on our test bench and see what it can do!

ASRock X299E-ITX/ac

October 13, 2020November 6, 2017 by Stephen

ASRock’s X99 Mini-ITX was one of a kind, and with the advent of Intel’s X299 chipset, ASRock once again breaks the monotony of full-sized ATX motherboards and shrinks the HEDT X299 platform for small form factor (SFFPC) builds. The X299E-ITX/ac has many advantages over its predecessor.

ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMING

October 19, 2020November 6, 2017 by Stephen

ASUS has decades of experience designing and building excellent motherboards, and that is evident in the ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming. It melds the key overclocking features ASUS is well-known for, with the bling factor that gamers and modders love so much. Hardware enthusiasts will like the enhanced CPU overclocking features that include a base clock frequency of up to 432 MHz, and the combination of a digital VRM design and the ASUS TurboV processing unit.

ASRock Z370 Taichi

September 18, 2020November 5, 2017 by Stephen

The new board replaces its predecessor’s PCH-based x16-length slot with an x1 slot that’s still able to hold longer cards but is less likely to be confused for a high-bandwidth slot, replaces its predecessor’s internally-mounted USB 3.1 port for a now-standard front-panel header, and trades in the black-and-white color scheme for black and grey.

GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS ULTRA GAMING

September 19, 2020November 3, 2017 by Stephen

Despite the lower price tag, you still get a header for USB Type-C front panel ports on the board – something MSI’s more expensive Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC lacks – although you should note that here it is limited to USB 3.0 speeds (AKA USB 3.1 Gen 1) rather than true USB 3.1 (Gen 2).

GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS ULTRA GAMING

September 25, 2020October 31, 2017 by Stephen

In fact the only things we can see which are missing are a heatpipe connecting the VRM heatsink to the main backplate heatsink, only two PCI Express slots with the steel armour, and no heat spreaders on the dual M.2 slots. Of course the big question is how does it perform?

MSI Z370 GAMING PRO CARBON AC

September 20, 2020October 27, 2017 by Stephen

As the image above might suggest, you get RGB lighting, but it’s fairly subtle with just a few strips here and there along with a row of LEDs on the rear of the PCB. It’s similar to Asus’ effort, but if your retinas demand more then you’ll probably be needing a Gigabyte board, although there are two RGB headers on the PCB to add your own LED strips.

MSI Z370 SLI PLUS

September 23, 2020October 26, 2017 by Stephen

While I did have my reservations about these motherboards, pretty much all was forgiven when we saw the incredible performance from the Z370 chipsets and the Coffee Lake processors such as the i7 8700k; the CPUs decimated everything else on the market regarding gaming performance.

GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Gaming 7

September 20, 2020October 25, 2017 by Stephen

The Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 motherboard from Gigabyte is a high end piece of hardware that supports the latest Intel 8th Gen. Coffee Lake CPUs with an Intel Z370 chipset. The final part of that sentence is self-evident as Z370 is currently the only 8th Gen. chipset.

Intel Core i5-8400

October 19, 2020October 25, 2017 by Stephen

The Core i5-8400 brings a powerful six-core design to the mid-range, offering class-leading gaming performance and competitive performance in heavier applications. More expensive models offer more performance in both categories, but the Core i5-8400 is easily the pound-for-pound gaming champion.