ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-G Gaming

The 'Strix Z370-G Gaming' micro-ATX motherboard bridges the gap between the ATX and ITX segments and represents a balance of having key features of its bigger ATX brothers, but whilst having a slightly larger footprint and offering more room for expansion over its ITX siblings.

This board has virtually identical specifications to the smaller Strix Z370-I Gaming board: the Strix Z370-G uses the Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, renamed to the SupremeFX S1220A in accordance with their branding; they also share the same dual antenna 802.11ac MU-MIMO capable Wi-Fi adapter as well as an Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet controller.

The Strix Z370-G Gaming has two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (run in x16 or x8/x8) which both feature SafeSlot with support for both two-way SLI and two-way Crossfire configurations. The only limitation with this is slot spacing as due to PCB sizing limitations, only cards with coolers two slots or below will manage to fit in multi-GPU setups; a good way of beating this is with custom water cooling, but this comes at the requirement of extra space in the chassis as well as cost (we also think that NVIDIA has stopped giving SLI certification to micro-ATX boards with the main slots in the 1/4 configuration). Below each of the full-length PCIe slots are PCI x1 slots for installation of various types of expansion cards or adapters.

There are plenty of options for storage as the Z370-G Gaming features six SATA ports and two M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slots. Although not so much of a major concern, and more of a casualty of lack of PCB space, ASUS had to think outside the box to fit dual M.2 slots on this board. One of these M.2 slots can be found just below the second PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, but the implementation of the second one is a little unorthodox. It can be found to the right of the DIMM slots, just below the 24pin ATX motherboard power connector and actually sticks out vertically out into the case. This can be looked two ways: firstly it could potentially allow natural thermodynamics and airflow to keep the drive cool and secondly, a bit of a heretical design, especially for fans of cleaner looking systems.

ASUS seems to have focused a lot on memory compatibility with the launch of Coffee Lake, either that or their R&D team has had some very good yields throughout samples as all of their Z370 boards at launch are rated to have support for at least DDR4-3866. The Z370-G goes above this, following suit with the Strix Z370-E and Z370-F Gaming models, as all three boards feature four DIMM slots capable of supporting up to 64GB but also have compatibility for memory speeds of up to DDR4-4000, CPU memory controller permitting. Scattered around the board are four variable fan headers which allow use for PWM compatible fans in addition to a dedicated pump header for water cooling and a single thermal sensor header.

A common and clear trend with the majority of the Z370 line up from ASUS is the use of the Intel's I219-V Gigabit LAN controller combined with the rebranded SupremeFX S1220A (Realtek’s ALC1220) audio codec. For micro-ATX, the board has plenty of bells and whistles with 2x2 802.11ac MU-MIMO Wi-Fi, two USB 3.1 10Gbps Type-A ports, two USB 3.1 5 Gbps ports, and two USB 2.0 Type-A ports. Unfortunately, there are no Type-C ports whatsoever featured, although a combo PS/2 port is present in its place.  There are available headers for a front panel USB as well as headers for two more USB 3.1 5 Gbps ports and up to four USB 2.0 ports in total. The display output from the CPUs on-board graphics can be utilized via a single HDMI port with a DisplayPort nestled right above it. Finishing off the rear I/O is a selection of 3.5mm audio jacks and a digital S/PDIF output.

ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E & Z370-F Gaming ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-I Gaming
Comments Locked

83 Comments

View All Comments

  • weevilone - Wednesday, October 25, 2017 - link

    Notable that though the new boards are often very similar to their Z270 predecessors, Asus has dropped Thunderbolt 3 support from the Maximus X Hero board.
  • masouth - Thursday, October 26, 2017 - link

    ASUS ROG Z370 Maximus X Hero

    "....new metallic heat sinks that are an upgrade over the plastic heatsinks found on the Z270 version"

    Please excuse my ignorance because I didn't own a ROG Z270 mb but...plastic HEAT SINKS? Not shrouds or decoration over a heat sink but the actual heat sinks themselves? That's either wrong, they performed their job pretty poorly, or plastic resins have advanced a lot farther in thermal conductivity (and cost for such) than I realized.
  • flowrush - Sunday, November 19, 2017 - link

    "The other main distinguishable feature is the inclusion of integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi with an antenna (that can only be described as a shark fin) found on the F."

    The above is incorrect in the article. The integrated Wi-Fi module with antenna is found on the E not the F.
  • Coldgame - Saturday, November 25, 2017 - link

    I'm looking to build a rig with the Z370 Gaming ITX/ac, a GTX-1070 card and an Apple Thunderbolt Display.
    The review states:
    "The key difference in the support between the two boards is going to be the Thunderbolt 3 port on the Gaming-ITX. This port supports video outputs..."
    So, can anyone confirm or deny that video generated by the GTX-1070 can be output through the onboard Thunderbolt 3 port?
  • hanselltc - Sunday, December 3, 2017 - link

    Looking forward to low-middle end mITX choices from this platform. It'll probably be paired with a 8100/8300 and be my secondary machine.
  • Roen - Sunday, February 4, 2018 - link

    Where are the 10 Gbps ports on the back? They all look like 5 Gbps ports, even the Type C.
  • rbarak - Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - link

    Is anyone using the Z370-P on Linux with two screens?

    I built a new machine based on the Z370-P, and both the DVI and the HDMI connected screens show the same image, and the RHEL7 setup/displays show only one Unknown Display.

    I follwed the advice on stackexchange, and added this line:

    $ grep GRUB_CMDLINE_LINE_DEFAULT /etc/default/grub
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINE_DEFAULT="i915.alpha_support=1"

    Then I did:
    sudo grub2-mkconfig -o "$(readlink /etc/grub2.conf)"

    And rebooted, but still, the two displays are not shown.
  • dromoxen - Wednesday, May 9, 2018 - link

    Shocked to see that both the Asrock mitx boards are "szie=ATX" .. LOL
    The addition of Tunderbolt sure seems to add a hefty premium £120 vs £160 , luckily I can do without.
  • Kroebo - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link

    Sadly, I discovered that the ZUG Gaming PLUS doesn't support SLI.
  • trag - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link

    On the ASrock Z370M Pro4 the M.2 slot information is backwards. Both slots support NVME. One slot also supports SATA. As written, "The first M.2 slot is SATA only while the second supports PCIe." it seems to say that one slot is SATA only and the other slot is PCIe (NVME) only.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now