Analyzing Z370 for Intel's 8th Generation Coffee Lake: A Quick Look at 50+ Motherboards
by Ian Cutress, Anton Shilov, Joe Shields & Gavin Bonshor on October 20, 2017 2:00 PM ESTMSI Z370 Gaming Plus
The Z370 Gaming Plus fits in the lower end of the MSI Z370 Gaming lineup by taking away a few key items on the other boards. Notably, the only LEDs are the board are located on the back of the board and the audio separation line; they are also only red rather than full RGB. The theme is pretty specific, being black and red, so the red LEDs do match the aesthetic. Other notable changes include full-length PCIe slot count reduced to 2, as well as the VRM section trimming a few phases. For the most part, that only excludes users who wish to run three PCIe coprocessors. Regardless of the changes, it is still a well-appointed board.
The Gaming Plus is a standout aesthetically due to its permanent black and red design. A wave of thin red lines penetrate their way through the bottom third of the board through the PCI slots and up through the VRM heatsinks, looking like a laser show, but in red only. Additionally, the memory slots alternate black and red with both full-length PCIe slots donned in red. The Gaming Plus does have one RGB LED connector in case users want to add more red, or a bit more color to their case.
The board uses four memory slots with double sided clips, supporting 64GB at maximum capacity with speeds up to DDR4-4000. The Gaming Plus has two full-length PCIe slots, with the primary slot reinforced and running a full PCIe 3.0 x16 from the processor. The second full-length slot, in red, supports x4 connectivity from the chipset, along with four black PCIe x1 slots also on the board.
The board has the normal complement of six SATA ports. Four of the ports are oriented horizontal, while the other two directly next to them are vertical to the board. Other storage options include one M.2 slot fitting up to a 110mm module, and it supports both PCIe and SSD based devices. The board is wired so that SATA1 port is disabled when an M.2 SATA SSD is installed.
Users will find six 4-pin fan headers located throughout the board. Like its family up the product stack, hybrid PWM and Voltage control functionality is retained on the Gaming Pro. Audio functionality is handled by the last generation ALC892 codec, likely in an effort to save a few dollars. Network capabilities are handled through a single Intel I219-V Gigabit LAN controller and bandwidth management software.
In another cost-saving effort, the Gaming Pro is without USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) support. Four USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports are found on the back panel, while four others are available through internal USB connectors. Additionally, there are six USB 2.0 ports with two Type-A located on the back panel and four more via internal connectors. Outside of the USB connectivity, the back panel IO consists of a combination PS/2 port, a trio of video outputs (DVI, D-Sub, and DisplayPort), the Intel network port, and the audio stack.
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sor - Friday, October 20, 2017 - link
Damn. At least key it differently and call it LGA1151v2 or something.The changes are so minimal it really does seem like planned obsolescence. Does it really need more power pins to support new chips with the same power envelopes? Really? They couldn’t handle that on the CPU PCB?
KaarlisK - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Actually it is ~1.5 times peak current with the same average power envelope, so yes, they need the change.If they had not brought the launch forward and just launched together with the cheap chipsets, there would be far less complaints.
sor - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Where did you find information indicating current has increased 50%? I just spent about ten minutes trying to find a reference backing that up, perhaps something indicating the 8 series operates at a much lower voltage within same TDP, which would translate to higher current but they seem to operate in the same 1.2-1.3v range.You’re not just assuming they draw more current because they have two more cores, are you?
KaarlisK - Sunday, October 22, 2017 - link
Notice the difference between average and peak.And the information is in publicly available documents. I did not bother to look it up, but others have, for example: https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/intel-coffee-la...
Crono - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Nice roundup. That's a lot of motherboards to spec and summarize. I especially appreciate the handy chart at the end, it's a good, quick-and-dirty comparison tool.Landcross - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
You guys forgot 2 new Z370 boards from Supermicro :)https://motherboarddb.com/motherboards/?chipset=19...
Xpl1c1t - Sunday, October 22, 2017 - link
The mITX board looks incredible.+ Low ESR Tantalum capacitors! (first time seeing them on VRM duty on a mainboard)
+ HDMI 2.0
+ 2x M.2 Slots
+ USB 3.1 Type C
+ Optical SPDIF
- RGB.......
MadAd - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Great write up but for me its just another depressing generation of oversized, overpriced ATX form factor offerings on which the vast majority of users wont even plug a second gpu into, with the smaller and more size appropriate FF represented as a minority afterthought.With all the progress of PCs since the 90s whod have thought that I could still use the same ATX case today while every single other component (from floppy drives to 2d Mattrox cards) have long gone to the recyclers. I find it so annoying how manufacturers have stuck on this prehistoric gargantuan case size with the other sizes being an afterthought. It feels like like stifled innovation while everything else is moving on.
rocky12345 - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Great article and a lot of work put in to get it out for us to read thank you.My only issue is and it is nit your fault is why these companies feel the need to totally blanket the market with basically the same boards just a different model number and basically a few tiny changes and spray paint it a different color and use the word gaming and put something x or x1 or k,k3 etc etc. For crap sakes just release three models not 7-10 models of the same crap it is pretty much just greed I guess.
The whole market is like this now with anything computer related of and if it has the words GAMING or RGB in it's got to be good for sure. My fav is that gaming mouse pad next it will have RGB lighting in it...lol
CitizenZer0 - Wednesday, October 25, 2017 - link
Agreed