Intel Z370 Motherboard Roundup

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This roundup of Intel Z370 Coffee Lake motherboards pulls from our in-depth reviews, and includes recommendations for gaming, value & overall performance.

Intel's Z370 was designed to support Coffee Lake processors, which have more cores than their Kaby Lake predecessors. Z370's featureset is essentially identical to Z270, and both chipsets are designed for the LGA1151 socket, but Z370 utilizes an updated power design to ensure stability for the more powerful CPUs. This change in power regulation, however, prevents Skylake and Kaby Lake processors from working on Z370 motherboards, despite sharing the same socket design.


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Intel Z370 Motherboards

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11/30/2017 Update: original publication; we'll be updating this article every time we review an Intel Z370 motherboard.
MSI Z370 Godlike Gaming
Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7
ASRock Z370 Taichi


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Because Coffee Lake processors have more cores and require more power, the need for a strong power delivery system has also proportionally increased. Our reviews of some Z370 motherboards have shown temps on voltage regulators are significantly higher than on Z270 motherboards. If a board lacks proper cooling, it could cause thermal throttling on high-end Coffee Lake processors.

Memory support will also be a key spec to watch on Z370 motherboards. Z370's memory support is essentially the same as its predecessor, but with six cores and 12 threads, the amount of bandwidth available to each core has been reduced. The additional cores more than make up for any negative impacts this may have, but selecting a motherboard that supports DDR4 at high frequencies will help to ensure your system works at peak efficiency.

EATX Intel Z370 Motherboards

MSI Z370 Godlike Gaming

Reasons to buy

+
Triple Gigabit Ethernet Plus Wi-Fi Support Killer xTend Technology
+
High-end audio pathway to ¼” I/O-panel headphone jack
+
Triple CPU-fed PCIe slots
+
Triple M.2, plus U.2
+
Includes PCIe to dual M.2 adapter
+
Includes Rainbow RGB strip
+
Includes internal, and-on USB front-panel hub
+
Includes three thermistor leads for temperature monitoring of offboard devices
+
Includes both standard and short SATA cables

Reasons to avoid

-
Shared pathways prevent several features from being used simultaneously Very costly

MSI Z370 Godlike Gaming


MORE: AMD X370 Motherboard Roundup

ATX Intel Z370 Motherboards

Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7

Reasons to buy

+
Great overclocking
+
Enhanced-quality audio components
+
Dual USB 3.1 Gen 2 controllers with front-panel header
+
Triple M.2 slots
+
Excellent fan header configuration
+
Enhanced on-board lighting plus two D-LED and two RGBW headers

Reasons to avoid

-
Moderately expensive for its feature set
-
Poor efficiency for non-overclockers

Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7


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ASRock Z370 Taichi

Reasons to buy

+
Great feature set for the price
+
Good overall performance
+
Well-developed software suite
+
Great layout with minimum shared resources

Reasons to avoid

-
Power hungry at full load
-
Hot at full AVX load
-
Mediocre overclocking

ASRock Z370 Taichi


MORE: Intel Z270 Motherboard Roundup

Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
31 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 0451
    I can never seem to find the next page on these long articles. There are only 4 boards on the first page.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    20434945 said:
    I can never seem to find the next page on these long articles. There are only 4 boards on the first page.
    Yes, that's because of all the Z370's tested, only four won awards :D

    Reply
  • Tanyac
    Why do manufacturers insist on using the E2500 Killer Hype NIC... The Intel NIC "Kill" the Killer LAN ports any day (Pun intended).

    MSI Boards may have 10 4-pin fan headers but when you read the manual at least half of them only have 3 pins connected.
    Reply
  • P1nky
    A came here for a roundup. All I see is 3 cards. What?!
    Reply
  • Pixel13
    @Crashman: I see 3, not 4, and only one of the three seems to have earned an award. As well, the title of the "Round Up" has nothing in it, nor is there anything in the text, about "award-winning". Either someone left something out or this ain't what it claims to be.
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    Best deal for your dollar would be the ASROCK Z370 Extreme 4.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    20435591 said:
    @Crashman: I see 3, not 4, and only one of the three seems to have earned an award. As well, the title of the "Round Up" has nothing in it, nor is there anything in the text, about "award-winning". Either someone left something out or this ain't what it claims to be.
    Dang, it looks like the rest are still in queue for publishing at a later date. Yes, I just checked. Seeing that, I probably would have skipped the Z370 version this month. Then again, I think they're added to the list live, so maybe they were trying to get ahead of those...

    Reply
  • tsnor
    At least they call it "roundup" now instead of "best MB...". Big step in the right direction. I'll be grabbing a z370 MB shortly, but am looking at the $100-$150 price point to match with a non-OC i5-8400. If you see any good (or bad) ones there a heads up would be nice.
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    ASROCK Z370 Extreme 4...This is what I just used for my 8400 build for my youngest son.
    Reply
  • kcscouler
    The Gaming 7 review redirects to a Godlike Gaming review.
    Reply