Intel Z370 Motherboard Roundup

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

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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MORE: All Motherboards Content

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

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

Shared pathways prevent several features from being used simultaneously Very costly

MORE: AMD X370 Motherboard Roundup

ATX Intel Z370 Motherboards

Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7

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

Moderately expensive for its feature set

Poor efficiency for non-overclockers

MORE: Intel X299 Motherboard Roundup

ASRock Z370 Taichi

Great feature set for the price

Good overall performance

Well-developed software suite

Great layout with minimum shared resources

Power hungry at full load

Hot at full AVX load

Mediocre overclocking

MORE: Intel Z270 Motherboard Roundup

31 Comments Comment from the forums

0451 01 December 2017 07:10

I can never seem to find the next page on these long articles. There are only 4 boards on the first page.
Reply
Crashman 01 December 2017 09:48

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 01 December 2017 12:00

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 01 December 2017 13:08

A came here for a roundup. All I see is 3 cards. What?!
Reply
Pixel13 01 December 2017 13:31

@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 01 December 2017 20:18

Best deal for your dollar would be the ASROCK Z370 Extreme 4.
Reply
Crashman 01 December 2017 21:26

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 04 December 2017 01:10

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 04 December 2017 01:12

ASROCK Z370 Extreme 4...This is what I just used for my 8400 build for my youngest son.
Reply
kcscouler 05 December 2017 18:24

The Gaming 7 review redirects to a Godlike Gaming review.
Reply