Overclock.net banner

Z370 motherboard recommendations

54K views 217 replies 55 participants last post by  cba1986 
#1 ·
Looking for advice on the best motherboard for an 8700K

Looking at moderate overclocks; using a Corsair H100i, hoping for 4.5 or better (contingent on temps of course).

My main system is my gaming rig but also used for work purposes so a faster CPU speed would be beneficial.

I've been looking over various boards and Asus has half a dozen models with very close price deltas that seem virtually identical.

My requirements:

Good network controller - definitely do not need onboard Wifi, do not need dual NIC either

I have a 500GB Sandisk Extreme 2.5" SSD that I recently bought, no need for an M2 slot

Do not need better quality onboard audio as I use a discrete sound card

Price isn't really an issue but If I can get a good board for under $300, that would be ideal.

ATX is fine, MATX would be a bit of an issue as my 1080Ti is triple slot and i have a PCI-e sound card.

I tend to buy Asus boards but open to Gigabyte or MSI assuming they are stellar.

Thanks!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
It sounds like the Asus Prime Z370-P will be good enough. It's obviously has the fewest features, but it doesn't sound like you need many. Going up from there, you're mainly adding ports and connectivity options.
 
#4 ·
Wouldn't go lower than ~$210CAD Asus Z370-A if you go with Asus.

The IO, VRM, and overall board quality drops sharply from the $170USD mark.

Z370-P from Asus is horrible for the money at $170 CAD , has only 4 USB 3.0, no Asus Pro clock (base clock adjustment), no thunderbolt header or Add-in-card support, no right angle SATA connectors (only 4 SATA 6Gbps), no SLI support, limited fan connectors, uses Realtek LAN, and lacks USB 3.1 gen 2. It's so cut down the board is literally cut: to 12.0 inch x 8.9 inch ( 30.5 cm x 22.6 cm )... IMO should've been a H370 board.

Subpar/average overclock is looking about 4.8GHz similar to Skylake, 4.5GHz should definitely be achievable over the 4.3GHz all core turbo even on cheaper boards but you have an AIO watercooler so I'm not sure how well that will work with cheap boards' VRM if you don't give the VRM some airflow.
 
#5 ·
I'm not really price limited just can't see the point of grabbing a $500 board. Anything in the $300 range works for me. Z370-A is quite reasonably priced.

Thanks for the advice.

The ROG Strix boards aren't much more expensive. but they have a big variety with not much difference in price?

a0C6LC9.jpg
 
#6 ·
The differences will lie in things like PCI-e port arrangement, rear I/O connectivity, SATA ports, etc. If I were buying an i7-8700K today, I would get the TUF Z370 Pro Gaming.
 
#7 ·
#8 ·
That's valuable information, but wouldn't affect my decision. It might affect someone else's though.
 
#10 ·
Robilar , I'd only get the Z370-E STRIX if you need wifi , an extra USB 3.1 front panel connector, or the extra 2 RGB headers.

You're not going to make use of the slightly upgraded audio, I presume. That combined with the plastic shroud over the main VRM heatsink would push me towards the Z370-A in your case.

However, if you don't need wifi, if the Aorus 7 is roughly the price of a Z370-F strix I'd get that...
 
#11 ·
The Aorus has the killer NIC? Hmmm Always wanted to try it despite it mostly being a gimmick.

I had great success in the past with the Gigabyte UD boards.

Thanks
 
#12 ·
It has Intel Gigabit LAN + Killer E2500 LAN.

Anyway the reason why Aorus Gaming 7 is a strong contender (if price is not limited to midrange) is it has VRM components that are outright better than the Maximus X Hero , 3x M.2 slots , along with the usual Dual BIOs.

My AM4 board has the same LAN setup but I actually turn off the Killer LAN due to compatibility with Linux.

It all comes down to price , however. The Gaming 7 is probably +$70 USD in VRM components though (the new ISL Powerstages are about $7 each , they're used on the X299 OC Formula from Asrock as well as Fatal1ty i9 / x299 Taichi) , whereas the Maximus X Hero is about +$20 in VRM components , which is why I think it is a far better value for the price.

The only other boards really worth considering at the midrange are the Asrock Fatal1ty K6 and Extreme4.
 
#13 ·
@AlphaC

I just wanted to jump in and personally thank you for the overwhelming information and advice you have been giving out in the z370 threads, it is really appreciated! You've made buying a decent z370 board pretty easy

Thanks
That is all, out
 
#14 ·
Alpha i gave u rep
smile.gif


The gaming 7 is 300€ here while the gaming 5 and the taichi are around 250 and extreme 4 /k6 both at 180.
These are early price subject to adjustments. Asus boards are generally overpriced here.
Idk yet what i will get, so im following all these threads
wink.gif
 
#15 ·
Right now I would have to say none.... I recommend avoiding 1st stepping boards and prefer to let the bleeding edge folks find all the bugs. On my last build, all Asus boards had an issue with external devices waking from sleep. C2 stepping solved the problem. Of course the P68 B3 stepping board is probably the best example of what can happen w/ early steppings. BIOS are more mature, bugs are cleaned out and you just wind up with a better product if you wait 2-3 months to pull the trigger. Not to mention we start to see higher % of CPus passing the 4.xx GHz mark as production line improvements settle in.

You won't see it in your price range but at $150 and below, be sure to check on board LAN and sound. With Z170, Asus started the trend of going bargain basement ALC887 on almost all boards below $150. With Z270, all the other guys jumped on this bandwagon. We wont start doing Z370 builds til just before the XMas holidays. That also gies ya the opportnity to check user experiences and see what boards are having issues.

Across manufactuer'rs its pretty tight w/ RAM rates ranging in statistically insignificant amounts (1.48% - 1.63%). Things get wider when you break down into chipset type... for Z170/Z270, it looked like this

1,41% MSI
1,63% ASUS
1,97% Gigabyte
2,94% ASRock

Z170 Boards that failed at a greater rate than the average were:

5,71% ASUS Z170I-PRO Gaming
2,23% MSI Z170A Gaming M3
2,19% ASUS Z170-A
2,08% GIGABYTE GA-Z170XP-SLI
1,90% ASUS Z170-K

And for X99 ...

5,59% ASUS X99 Strix Gaming
3,45% MSI X99A Gaming 7
3,17% ASUS X99-A II

Rember these are boards that failed within 6 and 12 months of usage so there's at least 1 year lag in the reporting
 
#16 ·
You are generally right, but z370 boards are basically z270 recycled with the new chipset and minor improvements ot costs cutting.
They should be mature enough already.
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Telstar View Post

Alpha i gave u rep
smile.gif


The gaming 7 is 300€ here while the gaming 5 and the taichi are around 250 and extreme 4 /k6 both at 180.
These are early price subject to adjustments. Asus boards are generally overpriced here.
Idk yet what i will get, so im following all these threads
wink.gif
Thanks! It's sort of my little mission to get the motherboard manufacturers to stop giving us lackluster VRMs that are worse than Z68.

I feel as though the K6 is a reasonable price in every Western hemisphere market I have looked at since it's generally cheaper than the Asus Z370-F STRIX , Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 5 , or MSI Z370 Gaming M5 (Eurozone , Brazil, Australia/New Zealand, and USA/Canada) although in the USA it is a top price/perf contender.

Most of the boards are lazy copy-paste jobs.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Telstar View Post

Alpha i gave u rep
smile.gif


The gaming 7 is 300€ here while the gaming 5 and the taichi are around 250 and extreme 4 /k6 both at 180.
These are early price subject to adjustments. Asus boards are generally overpriced here.
Idk yet what i will get, so im following all these threads
wink.gif
You also get 40€ in steam and the on board audio is out of this world, not even comparable to anything else I'v heard. I would say better than my Focusrite 2i2 external soundcard
thumb.gif


http://gaming.gigabyte.eu/Intelmotherboard/SteamZ370.aspx
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by kqpahv View Post

You also get 40€ in steam and the on board audio is out of this world, not even comparable to anything else I'v heard. I would say better than my Focusrite 2i2 external soundcard
thumb.gif


http://gaming.gigabyte.eu/Intelmotherboard/SteamZ370.aspx
Any chance of comparing the onboard audio to an actual gaming sound card? I'm using a creative card that is fantastic for FPS games; captures positional awareness very effectively and translates it to my 5.1 speakers.

That is the big issue I have always had with onboard sound. It's fine for movies and music but in games it just doesn't deal with positions well.

Rear speakers are a huge advantage in FPS games (as long as your sound card sends the right signals). Most people I play against use headphones or 2.1 setups.

e6I9eJy.jpg
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Telstar View Post

You are generally right, but z370 boards are basically z270 recycled with the new chipset and minor improvements ot costs cutting.
They should be mature enough already.
It was a chipset problem that led to the B3 P67 thing. Also .... some Z97 boards had far higher RMA rates than their Z87 counterparts.... same w/ Z170/Z270 ... but this time w/ 370 no backwards compatibility so changes are there.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robilar View Post

Any chance of comparing the onboard audio to an actual gaming sound card? I'm using a creative card that is fantastic for FPS games; captures positional awareness very effectively and translates it to my 5.1 speakers.
During a AMA w/ JJ from Asus some time back, he had indicated that the ALC 1150 (And Asus" version of it), were comparable to their $90 Zonar.
 
#21 ·
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by SOCOM_HERO View Post

Bumping this thread rather than start my own.

I'm looking between the MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon, MSI Z370 Gaming M5 and MSI Z370 Krait Gaming

Too many similarities and just a handful of differences spread these guys out from $169 to $204 as of now. Which is really best?
You can compare them on msi's site. There are differences. I'd recommend picking up the gaming 7 while it's still on sell a microcenter. The only board from msi that looks good is stupidly over priced.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by SOCOM_HERO View Post

Bumping this thread rather than start my own.

I'm looking between the MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon, MSI Z370 Gaming M5 and MSI Z370 Krait Gaming

Too many similarities and just a handful of differences spread these guys out from $169 to $204 as of now. Which is really best?
Unless you are a MSI diehard , Asrock has the entire midrange Z370 market on lockdown basically...
$250ish --- Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7 --- dual BIOs, 3 M.2 slots, debug LED + power/reset , recommended by 8pack on OCUK
$250ish ($280ish is for WIFI version)--- Asus Z370 Maxmus X Hero ---- debug LED + power/reset on Siliconlottery QVL , recommended by 8pack on OCUK
~$200 Asrock Z370 Taichi --- dual BIOS , wifi, 3 M.2 slots , debug LED on Siliconlottery QVL , recommended by 8pack on OCUK
$160-170 Arock Z370 Fatal1ty K6 --- dual BIOS, debug LED + power / reset on Siliconlottery QVL

I would go for the M5 if you go with MSI. It has a debug LED and a better VRM heatsink. The Pro Carbon uses the same power delivery more or less but it has more plastic on top of the VRM heatsink ; the Krait Gaming appears to use Ubiq mosfets of unknown quality (Buidzoid mentioned them on the Zotac GTX 1080 ti AMP but that's the only mention of those).
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlphaC View Post

Unless you are a MSI diehard , Asrock has the entire midrange Z370 market on lockdown basically...
$250ish --- Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7 --- dual BIOs, 3 M.2 slots, debug LED + power/reset , recommended by 8pack on OCUK
$250ish ($280ish is for WIFI version)--- Asus Z370 Maxmus X Hero ---- debug LED + power/reset on Siliconlottery QVL , recommended by 8pack on OCUK
~$200 Asrock Z370 Taichi --- dual BIOS , wifi, 3 M.2 slots , debug LED on Siliconlottery QVL , recommended by 8pack on OCUK
$160-170 Arock Z370 Fatal1ty K6 --- dual BIOS, debug LED + power / reset on Siliconlottery QVL

I would go for the M5 if you go with MSI. It has a debug LED and a better VRM heatsink. The Pro Carbon uses the same power delivery more or less but it has more plastic on top of the VRM heatsink ; the Krait Gaming appears to use Ubiq mosfets of unknown quality (Buidzoid mentioned them on the Zotac GTX 1080 ti AMP but that's the only mention of those).
What scares me is that VRM fan in Aorus Gaming 7 noise-wise. If not for that, such motherboard would be perfect for me.
frown.gif
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by lb_felipe View Post

What scares me is that VRM fan in Aorus Gaming 7 noise-wise. If not for that, the such motherboard would be perfect for me.
frown.gif
You can unplug it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top