ROG STRIX Z370-I GAMING Motherboard on the Test Bench

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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No, seriously, if you look really closely, you can see the motherboard in the picture. It is the ROG STRIX Z370-I GAMING in all its diminutive glory. That all said these tiny motherboards have come a long ways in the last few years. These used to not be up to what their full size ATX brothers could pull off, but those days are gone. This board was right at home with our Core i5-8600K on it at 5GHz and 3600MHz RAM with literally four tweaks to the UEFI. Once we get the benchmarks done we will see if this metal TIM relidded 8600K can pull off 5.3GHz again.

Check out the pic.

With aesthetics inspired by the sharpest blades and premium colorways to match any mood, the all-new ROG Strix Z370 motherboards are ready to do battle — and infused with all the essential ROG engineering needed to push performance as far as you dare. Ready for the latest 8th Generation Intel Core processors, ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming is loaded with overclocking and cooling innovations to keep your gaming rig's thermals in check as you turn up the clock. Factor in custom Aura RGB illumination and superior SupremeFX audio and you'll know that ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming looks great and sounds amazing — and outperforms every expectation to dominate your game!
 
I chose the ATX variant of this line for my 8700k build, beautiful board, despite initial issues with the LLC/Bios revisions my machine is right at home at 5.0 daily (posts up to 5.3 and runs (albeit hot) at 5.15 w/o issue as well), this is without delidding and an H115i as well, so either I've got some golden chip or I've been lucky enough not to trip a failure condition on it yet. I'm really hoping to delid this, probably ship it to Silicon Lottery to get done.
 
I chose the ATX variant of this line for my 8700k build, beautiful board, despite initial issues with the LLC/Bios revisions my machine is right at home at 5.0 daily (posts up to 5.3 and runs (albeit hot) at 5.15 w/o issue as well), this is without delidding and an H115i as well, so either I've got some golden chip or I've been lucky enough not to trip a failure condition on it yet. I'm really hoping to delid this, probably ship it to Silicon Lottery to get done.

You're not alone. I simply hit the auto OC button in the BIOS and I'm running 5.150 GHz on six cores (8700k) at 1.35V. Can't wait to OC it myself. Twelve thread stress test pushes my CPU to 90°C maximum temps with fans at 1500rpm. Argus Monitor reports 150W at the CPU. Considering that's the very hottest I can get it and that nothing I do pushes the CPU that hard for hours on end... I'm perfectly fine with it.
 
You're not alone. I simply hit the auto OC button in the BIOS and I'm running 5.150 GHz on six cores (8700k) at 1.35V. Can't wait to OC it myself. Twelve thread stress test pushes my CPU to 90°C maximum temps with fans at 1500rpm. Argus Monitor reports 150W at the CPU. Considering that's the very hottest I can get it and that nothing I do pushes the CPU that hard for hours on end... I'm perfectly fine with it.

Yeah? I wish I noted my batch. I ordered from NewEgg on the 10/19 with some ridiculous luck with their 'rolling' availability throughout that day.
 
I have already basically decided this is my next board, I've been on the M-ITX train for a few years, and this will be replacing my P8Z77-I Deluxe, looking forward to the review.

A thing I've wondered with more recent boards though is: Does a heatsink really help an M.2 SSD? if so, why does only one of the two M.2 slots have one?

I'm leaning towards "It looks and sounds fancy in the marketing, but doesn't actually do anything"
 
Yeah, this board looks amazing and seems to have the hardware and performance to back up its looks.
The only thing I didn't like on my P8Z77-I deluxe was the lack of m.2 slot, but m.2 wasn't mainstream back then.

I just wish intel would solder the CPU down, then there wouldn't be these 90c temps.
 
Dangit, and I just did a Z270i/7700k build not that long ago. Love the form factor. So much freaking power in these little ROG boards.

Unfortunately I'm kinda done with the annual x700k sidegrades, and my next $ will be on something 8 core now that games are starting to scale with more cores (AC Origins).

It sickens me to say it but I may actually degrade myself to a Ryzen build if Intel won't give me an 8 core for $429 or less.
 
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