Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming WI-FI AC Review: Top Micro-ATX Z370 Performance
How We Test
We stacked the Z370-G Gaming against another Micro-ATX Z370 board, ASRock's Z370M Pro4. Realizing that the difference in features and price would make such a limited comparison pointless, we also included two ATX boards with similar feature sets, the MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC and Asus ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming.
| Sound | Integrated HD audio |
| Network | Integrated gigabit networking |
| Graphics Driver | GeForce 382.53 |
During the Intel X299 launch, we upgraded our test bed to handle the tremendous heat the Intel Core i9-7900X produces. The award-winning Fractal Design S24 liquid cooler system serves the same purpose for the newer, lower-heat Core i7-8700K. Cooler Master’s HAF-XB provides an optimal layout for blowing the S24’s fans sufficiently over each motherboard’s voltage regulator.
Comparison Products
All four competing boards have a broader range of overclocking settings than any production hardware can realistically use, which should lead us into a highly competitive overclocking race!
Benchmark Settings
| Synthetic Benchmarks & Settings | |
| PCMark 8 | Version 2.7.613 Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft) |
| 3DMark 13 | Version 4.47.597.0 Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets |
| SiSoftware Sandra | Version 2016.03.22.21 CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth |
| DiskSPD | 4K Random Read, 4K Random Write 128K Sequential Read, 128K Sequential Write |
| Cinebench R15 | Build RC83328DEMO OpenGL Benchmark |
| CompuBench | Version 1.5.8 Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing |
| Application Tests & Settings | |
| LAME MP3 | Version 3.98.3 Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.9.9 Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x265 mp4 |
| Blender | Version 2.68a BMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark |
| 7-Zip | Version 16.02 THG-Workload (7.6GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9" |
| Adobe After Effects CC | Release 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144 PCMark-driven routine |
| Adobe Photoshop CC | Release 2015.5.0, 20160603.r.88 x64 PCMark-driven routine (light and heavy) |
| Adobe InDesign CC | Release 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64 PCMark-driven routine |
| Adobe Illustrator | Release 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit) PCMark-driven routine |
| Game Tests & Settings | |
| Ashes of the Singularity | Version 1.31.21360 High Preset - 1920 x 1080, Mid Shadow Quality, 1x MSAA Crazy Preset - 1920 x 1080, High Shadow Quality, 2x MSAA |
| F1 2015 | 2015 Season, Abu Dhabi track, Rain Medium Preset, no AF Ultra High Preset, 16x AF |
| Metro: Last Light Redux | Version 3.00 x64 High Quality, 1920 x 1080, High Tesselation, 16x AF Very High Quality, 1920 x 1080, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF |
| The Talos Principle | Version 267252 Medium Preset, High Quality, High Tesselation, 4x AF Ultra Preset, Very High Quality, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF |
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https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-Z370-G-GAMING/
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-Z370-G-GAMING-WI-FI-AC/
The one you have and ultimately reviewed is the latter version which should be mentioned in the title.
Thanks! It doesn't help that the Amazon link leaves out the parenthesized portion but sells the Wi-Fi board, or that Asus goes both ways in its description
Well, if your drive cage overhangs the board it could be a problem. I can't think of any hazards though.
Thanks Shinto. I didn't find anything elsewhere
Oh, I can! If not careful, a pulled cable could wrap around and snap it or damage the socket. It's the stupidest and most irresponsible design!
If you must, you can in theory get an M.2 slot extension ribbon cable and relocate the NVMe drive. But they're over $60. No way, that money is better spent on another MB with two M.2 slots that lay flat like normal.
Sometimes a manufacturer has to make space somewhere. When the option is upright or none, upright is "more options".