Analyzing Z370 for Intel's 8th Generation Coffee Lake: A Quick Look at 50+ Motherboards

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.