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 ESTEVGA has long been a player in the Intel motherboard space for generations now. Occasionally late to the party, they recently announced three motherboards for the Z370 chipset; the Z370 Classified K, Z370 FTW, and Z370 Micro. The Classified K and FTW are both full-size ATX boards while the Micro is mATX. All the boards offer reinforced memory slots, dual BIOS chips, SLI Support, and sometimes a unique power connector layout to avoid compatibility issues with cases and tight spaces. The Classified K leans more towards the overclocking side of things, while the FTW and Micro are going to be the generalist type motherboards.
EVGA Z370 Classified K and Z370 FTW
Both the Classified K and FTW have fairly similar feature sets and appearance so we will talk about both on this page. Both boards have a black PCB and do not use any stenciled designs on the board. The only thing on the PCBs we can see are outlines for the component placement, and some of the traces. Both the Classy K and FTW include a silver shroud over the back panel with vents cut in extending to the both VRM heatsinks. Hiding under the VRM heatsinks is a 13 phase power delivery system on the Classified K, and an 11 phase implementation used on the FTW K.
The Classified K offers an included audio cover for extending the shroud down the length of the board. Only the Classified K offers integrated RGB LEDs in the shroud, however, both have headers on the board for additional RGB strips. There are reinforced memory slots as well as the two primary PCIe slots in order to support heavier video cards. The additional 6-pin PCIe power lead at the bottom of the board is notched out for better cable management. Outside of a few minor things, the last noticeable difference between this is the FTW uses a slight smaller chipset heatsink than the Classified K.
Both boards have four reinforced memory slots and support up to 64GB, with a rated maximum speed up to DDR4-4133+. The PCIe slot arrangement is also the same on both, with two full-length reinforced slots from the processor, supporting x16 in single or x8/x8 in dual mode for GPUs, and a third full-length PCIe x4 from the chipset at the bottom. Both boards also have three PCIe x1 slots from the chipset. Storage options are also the same with each board, with six SATA ports (RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 support). There are two Key M M.2 slots for PCIe storage up to 80mm, and one Key E M.2 slot for a Wi-Fi module.
There are six 4-pin PWM fan headers around the board for fans, four within the immediate vicinity of the CPU socket and another two at the bottom of the board. On audio, the Z370 Classified K uses a Creative Sound Core 3D 5.1 channel audio codec while the FTW uses the Realtek ALC1220 codec. For networking, the Classified K uses two Rivet Networks E2500 Killer controllers, while the FTW uses a single Intel I219-V controller.
EVGA Z370 Classified K without IO shroud
On the rear panel the Classified K has a clear CMOS button, HDMI and Displayport video outputs, six USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) ports in blue, the two Killer E2500 network ports, two USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports from an ASMedia controller (one Type-C), and the audio jacks. One of the upsides on the Classified K is the use of an LSPCon to provide HDMI 2.0 from the HDMI port with HDCP 2.2 support.
For the rear panel of the Z370 FTW, there is also a Clear CMOS button followed by HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, but then the two USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports from the ASMedia controller appear in red. These are followed by the USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) ports in blue, the Intel network port, and the audio jacks.
| EVGA Z370 Classified K and FTW | ||
| Z370 Classified K | Z370 FTW | |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | |
| Product Page | Link | |
| Price | N/A | |
| Size | ATX | |
| CPU Interface | LGA1151 | |
| Chipset | Intel Z370 Express | |
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 64GB Dual Channel Support DDR4 4133+ |
|
| Network Connectivity | 2 x Killer E2500 1 x M.2 Key-E for Wi-Fi |
1 x Intel I219-V 1 x M.2 Key-E for Wi-Fi |
| Onboard Audio | Creative Core 3D | Realtek ALC1220 |
| PCIe from CPU | 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (x16 or x8/x8) | |
| PCIe from Chipset | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 @ x4 | |
| Onboard SATA | 6 x Supporting RAID 0/1/5/10 | |
| Onboard M.2 | 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4 | |
| Onboard U.2 | None | |
| USB 3.1 | 1 x Rear Panel Type-C 1 x Rear Panel Type-A 1 x Header |
1 x Rear Panel Type-C 1 x Rear Panel Type-A |
| USB 3.0 | 6 x Rear Panel 1 x Header |
|
| USB 2.0 | 1 x Header | |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin EATX 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V |
1 x 24-pin EATX 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V |
| Fan Headers | 6 x PWM | |
| IO Panel | Clear CMOS Button HDMI 2.0 DisplayPort 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 6 x USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) 2 x Killer E2500 RJ-45 Audio Jacks |
Clear CMOS Button HDMI 1.4 DisplayPort 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 6 x USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) 1 x Intel I219-V Audio Jacks |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
83 Comments
View All Comments
carldon - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Excellent summary and table in the last page. Good work!!!imaheadcase - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
I got a few questions:1. Why do they put USB 2.0 ports if USB 3.0 is backward compatible anyways? Why not just all USB 3.0 ports..it can't be price.
2. Why do they have such a vary in memory timings? For %99 of people memory timings are not really a big deal right? Maybe in old PC days it was.
3. Mini-ITX vs Micro-ITX..isn't it silly both exist in first place? Any reason for this..the diminsions are really close to the same. In fact, most Micro-ITX is simply removing lots of stuff from mobo that you really want to begin with.
lordsutch - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
I'd imagine they want to offer as many ports as they can without taking away too many PCIe lanes. The other option would be to embed a USB 3.x switch (or a PCIe switch) but of course now each port wouldn't simultaneously be able to operate at peak speed and 3.x switches are probably more expensive than USB 2 controllers.imaheadcase - Sunday, October 22, 2017 - link
Ahh didn't think about that aspect.DanNeely - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Some USB audio and 2.4ghz wifi/bluetooth devices have had interference problems in 3.0 sockets. Dunno if they're fixed on new hardware (supposedly onboard hubs were a lot worse than chipset ports in this regard so room for QC to make it better); but even if they are there's going to be problems with once burned customers not trusting them.As pointed out elsewhere USB3 competes with PCIe lanes/SATA ports on the southbridge. Especially on full ATX boards if you go to max out the number of PCIe lanes to expansion slots and m.2 ports in addition to the lanes used on board for networking and audio you can get down to only a half dozen or so 3.0 lanes left from the chipset; but still able to hit 14 USB ports total by going USB2 with the rest.
People using older OSes (Windows 7 says hi) can't use USB3 ports to install the OS without jumping through a lot of hoops (the OS sees them as not USB2 and can't talk to them).
If any board size is at risk of going away it's probably full ATX; although for enthusiast sales I suspect it'll hold on better than mini ATX due to bigger is better irrationality.
MiniITX still has a decent capability gap vs mini ATX; but it's much smaller than it was a half dozen years ago when it only made sense if you were making a tiny box and were willing to accept major performance compromises to do so. Now as Mini ITX's capability continues to goes up and the need for expansion cards other than a single GPU goes down it's eating into an increasing chunk of Mini ATX's marketshare.
On the high side mainstream chips don't really have enough PCIe lanes to make good use of the extra 3 cards of space possible on the bigger boards/ Meanwhile multi-GPU gaming - the main reason an enthusiast would need a full size mobo is steadily going away (fewer games supporting it each year, no support for 3/4way at all in the newest cards from either company); and unless you need 2 GPUs + something else or extra space around the CPU for crazy OCing Mini ATX does almost everything that could be needed.
MadAd - Sunday, October 22, 2017 - link
> If any board size is at risk of going away it's probably full ATX; although for enthusiast sales I suspect it'll hold on better than mini ATX due to bigger is better irrationality.Irrationality indeed. I would have thought by now instead of a measly 5 mATX choices out of 50+ that it would be instead maybe 5 fullsize ATX with the main battleground being the two slot mATX market.
Its just laziness on the manufacturers side, with nobody steering the market to innovate on size. Theres nobody driving form factors, the CPU companies are present on all form factors so they dont need to drive change, the board partners are all set in their ways just slapping new images on mildly reworked designs so they dont have any need to innovate, weve seen video card manufacturers can shrink designs to better fit smaller factors but we still get chunky easy to produce cards for mainstream use as retooling would be an added cost, its just rolling train of new but nothing new generation after generation.
PC design is falling into mediocrity and I just wish the main players (intel+amd/board partners/nvidia+amd) would all get together to drive SFX/ITX and force retire ATX to the strictly enthusiast market, and maybe appeal to a more contemporary home user community (rather than just gamers which is where the marketing all seems to be these days) again too.
Liltorp - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
It is really true that the MSI PC Pro has a legacy PCI connector? I could use this for my TV tuner. But I thought PCI was not supported by newer boatds/CPU`s?Morawka - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Has anyone noticed how cheap these new Z370 motherboards are? Most are under $180 and there are several sub $130.IGTrading - Sunday, October 22, 2017 - link
Tell this to the guys that already spent money on non-Z370 just a few months ago.Intel is already screwing them.
It would have been funny to sell a 250 USD motherboard to a 7700K buyer just last month, telling him his 250 USD are a good investment because of the good upgradeability.
Just 4 weeks later tell him: "Well ... Yeah ... About that upgrade ... It will cost you a minimum of 110 USD extra + the 360 USD for the new 8700 K.
775 was the last good & long lived platform from Intel.
edzieba - Sunday, October 22, 2017 - link
If people brought Z370 boards expecting them to support an additional CPU generation, they did it in spite of every Intel CPU release for the last decade: two CPU gens socket generation. There's no counter to ignoring the past.