The NZXT N7 Z370 Motherboard Review: A New Player in the Motherboard Market
by Joe Shields on January 9, 2018 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- NZXT
- Coffee Lake
- i7-8700K
Overclocking
Experience with the NZXT N7
Our overclocking adventures with the NZXT N7 in the end worked out well. I was able to achieve a clock speed of 5 GHz and was limited by temperature (due to the voltage - more on that in a bit). Though new, the NZXT N7 does have a performance option in the BIOS, however, it appears it didn't really do much. When flipping it over the core ratio raised from 43 to 46, but the individual cores for turbo did not change. I had expected to see it now boost all cores to 4.6 GHz when testing but it stayed the same at 4.3 GHz for POVRay and the Prime95 testing potentially suggesting an AVX offset is in play, but we do not have AVX offset settings to check.
The BIOS on the N7 offers the vast majority of overclocking options people need but is lacking a few others. The BIOS does not have the ability to set the Vcore with an offset or adaptive voltage and uses a static value. There are many of those who prefer an offset to save power while in idle or the CPU not ramping up all the way. Windows power plans can help, but inevitably some prefer that method which is not found in the BIOS. Also not found is Load Line Calibration to combat vdroop.
Our manual overclock was not without quirky behavior as well. Typically when one sets a manual voltage, we see very close to that voltage on load, give or take vdrop/vdroop. THe N7 though appears to have some kind of adaptive voltage going on behind the scenes as the voltage went up with the CPU multiplier. Setting the voltage at 1.2V with a multiplier of 43 had the voltage hit 1.25V. A 44x multiplier yielded 1.3V and 45x 1.35V and so on until it peaked at 1.4V - all the while manually set at 1.2V. What happens here it becomes more difficult to achieve an optimal overclock (using the least amount of voltage needed for a giving clock) which causes more power use and higher temperatures. Typically, these processors can reach 5 GHz around 1.3-1.35V and much less, nearly stock voltage around the 4.5 GHz mark. In this case, it would be using 0.25V more than needed at that clock speed and could potentially lop off a couple hundred MHz from the overclock without adjusting the voltage down. Another personality trait of this board a bit different than the rest is the reset button. When pressing it, the board fully powers down, then powers back up instead of a power 'blip' as we experience on most boards.
In the end, the BIOS has the necessary options to overclock, but not all of the options we come to expect in a midrange motherboard. Overclocking is more of a brute force type of function here without a lot of fine tuning ability from within the BIOS. Where other boards are more refined and have worked out a lot of those kinks, we have to remember this is their first shot at it. You can easily overclock as we have seen below, but until the issue is fixed, you will be forced to use the CAM software and voltage offsets in order to reach an optimized overclock. With input, time, and subsequent BIOS releases, we imagine these options to show up and other improvements made to the board and BIOS mature.
Overclocking Methodology
Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with POV-Ray and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.
For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from the previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (90ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.
Overclocking Results
The N7 took our i7-8700K to 5 GHz and was no worse for the wear after our brief stress testing (even at 1.4V). The CAM software nor the BIOS have sensors for the VRM, but they were warm to the touch after an extended stress test with OCCT. Our main issue with overclocking is the overvoltage situation. While there is a way around that, it shouldn't work in that way. Once it is resolved, the N7 is just as capable as any other board
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madalice - Friday, January 26, 2018 - link
There is plenty of scientific evidence that the best outcomes for transgender individuals come from affirmation and supportive medical interventions. See this blog post (https://genderanalysis.net/2018/01/evidence-of-hea... for a decent list of references on that topic. You may find that the expertise of participants in a forum focused on computer hardware and technology is of limited value in a discussion of gender identity.edzieba - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link
The whole paragraph could definitely have benefited from a preface of "we don't have any data for Z370 boards, so X299 is the closest comparison we have". Along with some explanation for where the numbers came from for the "different uncore" 8700ks: are they tested on another motherboard which varies the uncore frequency (that different motherboards do that AT ALL would be worthy of an article in and of itself)? Were they tested on the same board (different CPUs have different uncore frequencies even with the same designation, also worthy of an article), and if so why can't the N7's uncore not be changed for an apples-to-apples test? Are they numbers from the same CPU with the uncore overclocked on the N7 board (if so, why are the numbers everywhere /except/ the 'overclocking' page)?Tunrip - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link
Thank you for the response :) I think maybe you over-worried about what you could/couldn't tell people here quite early on. I appreciate your honest answers and will look forward to reading more of your articles :)viktorborge - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - link
If you tried to say that this is the first Z370 board you tested, and that you didn't have any other Z370 boards available, so you don't have anything to compare it to, why didn't you just write that? That paragraph sounds like what you write in a research paper when you want to hide some screwup behind jargon.You could have compared it to to the data from your initial review of the 8700K:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/11859/the-anandtech...
Yeah, yeah, different setup, but it still makes WAY more sense to do this than the i9.
Sailor23M - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link
Agree w/ Tunrip, threw me off as well.Slash3 - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link
I re-read it twice as I thought someone had accidentally pasted a paragraph from the conclusion page in the introduction page. I stopped asking myself questions when I got to the graphs containing undefined asterisks.Galcobar - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link
The whole article could have used a copy editor, unfortunately. It's replete with both fragmentary and run-on sentences, incomplete lines of thought, and flat-out missing explanations.Aside from the grammatical issues, the concerns commenters raised are typical of a piece written by someone who knows the subject matter. The author thus does not see the jumps from point to point which the reader for lack of background information cannot follow.
ApePriori - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link
Yeah, 'Coffe Lake' shows up twice, paragraph and header.:nudge> - Tuesday, January 9, 2018 - link
One of the most surprising and appealing things I've seen reviewed here in quite a while. I wasn't evening planning on buying a motherboard but am considering getting one. Considering it's their first MB, the price is to be expected. I don't mind the lack of usb3.1 and like the sacrifice of 2 Sata for better M2 support. I hope this clean (no gamer) look starts a trend.l8gravely - Tuesday, January 9, 2018 - link
The most annoying things about this board is the lack of colors on the audio block, making it more difficult to figure out what goes where. Especially whe it's in the case and around back. The second thing is the shrouds, I worry that the board will get hotter than expected, since air won't be able to flow around it as easily. Plus, when you do (you know you will!) drop a screw and it goes under a shroud, it's going to be a pain to get back out.I do like the lack of bling, but that's cause I'm a grumpy old man. Get off my lawn kids! I *never* look into my cases once they're setup, so not having that part is great.
Being a new vendor, with new BIOS and other features, I'd probably steer clear of this board unless the price was super good, just because the time I waste chasing down problems isn't worth it.
Can you do some long term stability tests? Maybe put it all into a case with crappy airflow and then let it crank doing some CPU stress tests for 48, 72 or more hours? With lots of IO and stressing of the PCIe busses?