Software & Firmware
The biggest news for NZXT’s N7-Z37XT is that it supports the firm’s CAM cooling management and RGB software. Readings are adequate, but the CPU temperature appears to be an average rather than a maximum, and it’s a few degrees cooler than the “Package Temp” we use from Intel XTU.
Night mode is an optional color scheme to make the menu emit less light from your monitor. There’s also a toggle for the two main readings menus to switch from gauge style to line-graph logging mode.
The CPU overclocking menu functions as expected, but one thing you might not have expected was to see the CPU core at 1.294V when fully loaded using default settings. That’s certain to hurt its efficiency score.
The fan menu also works well. Users should click the “Edit” icon to reach the settings menu, where standard profiles are available and custom slopes can be configured.
RGB controls address both outputs either in tandem or separately, and the latter created some unusual light shows during our tests.
Shown in “night mode,” a miniature display can be used to monitor changes with less intrusion on desktop space.
Firmware
N7-Z37XT firmware opens to a simplified interface by default, but only when using certain types of graphics output. The firmware doesn’t include screenshot saving capability, and outputs that worked with our antique capture device did not support the simplified interface. Advanced mode is where the real action happens, anyway.
Once inside Advanced Mode, the CPU & Ram menu provides links to overclocking submenus and clock readings.
Our CPU reached its expected 4848 MHz final clock by simply increasing the CPU ratio to 48x and the BCLK to 101.00 MHz. This allowed Turbo Boost settings to be ignored.
Primary and secondary timings can be manually configured, and the settings of the chosen mode remain when switching to “Custom Profile.” In our case, selecting XMP Profile 1 first, then switching to Custom Profile, allowed us to pick a different multiplier while maintaining XMP timings. Still, our highest DRAM data rate came at the XMP Profile’s 38.66 setting.
The board reports that its 1.34V DIMM setting produced up to 1.364V, but our meter only showed 1.354V. Most companies cheat in the other direction, as some competitors have been known to bolster their overclocking credentials by tricking builders into using more voltage than they intend.
The N7-Z37XT can store up to eight complete firmware settings as user profiles and export those profiles to a USB flash drive.
The N7-Z37XT doesn’t have PWM to voltage-control fan mode switching, and its firmware-based fan utility is limited to four modes (the "Disabled" setting is full-speed mode).
One thing that users of NVMe drives must do to make their drives bootable is disable RST support for Port 21. Manually. Because the firmware isn’t intelligent enough to automatically configure the only installed drive to its only functional mode.
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