ASRock Z370 Killer SLI Motherboard Review

ASRock Z370 Killer SLI The new ASRock Z370 motherboards have already impressed us, as have many other Z370 motherboards. Do they offer anything new over Z270, not really, but they do allow the use of the new 6-core powerhouse that is the Intel Core i7-8700K. Z370 established its self as the fastest gaming platform around this week, and I'm eager to see that trend continue with the Killer SLI motherboard from ASRock. Equipped with the upgraded 1151 socket, the new motherboard delivers support for the latest Coffee Lake processors from Intel, as well as blazing fast DDR4 memory, and multiple graphics card. It should be a robust overclocker as well, supporting up to 4266+(OC) memory, and running a Digital PWM 10 Power Phase design for the CPU. Of course, you'll get a 45A Power Choke, Nichicon 12K Black Caps, and much more, allowing you to maintain high overclocks and stable voltages for extended periods. Features Supports 8th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors (Socket 1151) Digital PWM, 10 Power Phase Supports DDR4 4266+(OC) 2 PCIe 3.0 x16, 4 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 (Key E) NVIDIA® Quad SLI™, AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DVI-D 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec) Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps 6 SATA3, 2 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3) 9 USB 3.1 Gen1 (1 Front Type-C, 2 Front Type-A, 1 Rear Type-C, 5 Rear) Intel® Gigabit LAN ASRock RGB LED "The improved power phase design offers smooth power delivery to the more powerful 8th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, providing unmatched overclocking capabilities, lower temperature for advanced gamers, and reinforced system stability for taking on all sorts of arduous computing tasks." - ASRock Product Trailer https://youtu.be/yIfhhp31a7I What's in the Box In the box, you'll find a standard backplate, some M.2 fitting screws, a few SATA cables, the hard SLI bridge, driver CD, as well as all the usual documentation. A Closer Look The motherboard has a pretty sleek looking design and doesn't look as "gamer" as some of the other ones we've reviewed so far. I'm OK with this, it's smart enough to look good in any system. It's not too busy looking, and it's not too boring either. The VRM cooling on this motherboard is noticeably smaller than the other ASRock motherboards we've tested. However, this is a more mid-range motherboard and it is priced to reflect that too. Regardless, it still features high quality components for power delivery, and should still be a competent overclocker. Connectivity is pretty decent on this motherboard, with a USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 Typc-C front panel connector on the right side. All the usual headers on the bottom row too, including USB 2.0, front I/O, fans, and even an RGB header. SLI? With two fully armoured PCIe lanes, you'll easily fit two high-end graphics cards here. Of course, they're nicely spaced too, so even some of the thickest cards on the market won't pose any issues. Storage There are six SATA 6 Gbps ports on the right side, which is more than enough for most system builders. However, there are also two Ultra M.2 drive mounts directly on the board, allowing for blazing fast NVMe storage, and Optane drives from Intel to be installed. Audio Equipped with the Realtek ALC890 chipset, the Killer motherboard will deliver 7.1 HD audio. You'll get decent amplification too, especially handy if you're using headphones over 3.5mm jack. Of course, that comes courtesy of the Nichicon Fine Gold Series caps in the bottom left corner. You'll find 5 audio jacks at the back of the motherboard, as well as an Optical TOSLink connector. Displays can use the DVI or the HDMI port. There are a few USB ports here, including Type-C, but otherwise, the rear I/O is pretty empty. Finally, Intel I219V Gigabit LAN, not "Killer LAN" as the motherboard name may suggest. Testing and Methodology Test Procedure Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to motherboard reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Rember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there's always a margin for error when using the software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Each benchmark runs three times, and the average figure is taken to try to reduce the effect of hardware variation. Of course, any relevant details regarding the parameters will be listed below. Test Systems Z370 Motherboard – Changes Per Review RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Dual-channel 16GB Intel Core i7-8700K CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X399 Motherboard – Changes Per Review RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Dual-channel 16GB CPU Cooler – Noctua D15S Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X299 Motherboard – Changes Per Review RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Dual-channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AM4 Ryzen R3, R5 and R7 Motherboard – Changes Per Review RAM - GeIL DDR4 2977MHz Dual Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit Z270 Motherboard – Changes Per Review RAM - Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHz CPU Cooler – Noctua D15S Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X99 - Our GPU Review Test Bench Motherboard – Changes Per Review RAM – Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHz CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Open Air Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 64-bit Games Used All games are tested on a 60 Hz display with V-Sync off for all tests. Previously we would use "extreme" presets, but these have now been adjusted to "Medium" or equivalent to better test the capabilities of the CPU, not the GPU. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Pure Hair Off Deus Ex (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Ghost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay) Medium Preset Turf Effects Off Far Cry Primal (Uplay) Normal Preset Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download) FireStrike (1080p) Benchmark Unigine Superposition (download) 1080p Extreme Benchmark PCMark 10 Professional (download) Express Benchmark WPrime (download) 32M and 1024M Power usage recorded at 1024M 50% complete, thermals recorded at 75% CineBench R15 (download) CPU Multi CPU Single Handbrake (download) Custom MP4 to MKV 4K conversion (details below) AIDA64 Engineer (download) CPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) Handbrake To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge their performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage; this particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, it has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps and it uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820 x 2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we then transcode the 4K MP4 to an MKV file using the "normal" profile. Other Notes A rest period of 2-5 minutes is observed between each piece of software allowing the system to return to its idle power usage and temperatures. Background services like Windows Update are checked to not be running during the testing period by setting WiFi to Metered Connection. Thanks Thank you to Noctua, Crucial, ASUS, Gigabyte, Lian-Li, be quiet!, OCZ, for providing the hardware that helps makes these tests possible! Synthetic Benchmarks 3DMark Firestrike The Killer SLI gets off to a promising start, setting the 4th highest score ever in 3DMark Firestrike while overclocked, even managing to beat out two more expensive motherboards from ASRock themselves. Stock Overclocked Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme Where the motherboards rank on this test is moot, as the scorews are mostly the same, with a couple of exceptions. However, in a GPU bound task, we can see the Killer motherboard is not hindering the GTX 1080 Ti from doing its job, and sets a very competitive score and stock and OC clocks. Stock Overclocked PCMark 10 Express Another fantastic score, with Z370 continuing to dominate the charts. The Killer SLI didn't set the highest score, but it's not the most expensive board here either, and it's still very competitive. It easily places in the bottom half of the high-performance section of the charts. Stock Overclocked WPrime 32M and 1024M The Killer SLI is setting a trend here, as it's not the fastest, nor the slowest Z370 we've tested. Of course, being an average motherboard amongst the fastest consumer boards on the market is no bad thing, especially when it's priced to reflect that performance. Stock Overclocked Cinebench R15 Yet again the Killer motherboard is as predictable as the sun rising, setting a very nice score of 1432 at stock, and boosting up to 1641 while overclocked. Don't be fooled though, that's a fast time, but we've got some £1000-£2000 enthusiast CPUs and motherboards on this chart too. Stock Overclocked Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Stock Overclocked AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth and Latency The Killer motherboard performed perflect throughout all our tests, and that continues into the memory. As you can see, we've got some closely matching read and write performance, as well as some of the fastest copy performance for Z370. Add to that the nice low-latency we're getting on all Z370 boards, and it's easy to see why they're setting new records so consistantly. Gaming Performance Now, this is very interesting, as for a more affordable motherboard, its gaming abilities are far from hindered. In the DirectX 12 bound benchmarks, Deus Ex and Rise of the Tomb Raider, it ranked 5th in each overall. That's pretty damn good when you look what it's going against. Moving onto Ghost Recon: Wildlands, the Killer set a new high score of 141.9 FPS! Then set our second highest for FarCry: Primal, only missing out on the number 1 spot by 1 FPS. The cheaper motherboard of the range this may be, but it can still keep up where it matters. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Rise of the Tomb Raider Ghost Recon: Wildlands Far Cry Primal Power Consumption and Temperatures Power Consumption Fewer features mean a lower power drain, and that's pretty evident by this being one of the most efficient motherboards of the Z370 range, at least at stock clocks. Once overclocked it was more in line with its rivals, as the bulk of the power is going to the CPU at 275W. Overall though, that's still very good. Stock Overclocked Final Thoughts Pricing The ASRock Killer SLI is priced at just £124.99, making it one of the most affordable Z370 motherboards on the market, and the "cheapest" one we've reviewed so far. Given that it's far from being slow, and has plenty of features, it's easily one of the best value Z370 boards right now. Overview If you're not bothered about massive motherboards that are drowning in RGB lighting, and more overclocking features than you'll ever understand, then there's little point in spending twice as much money on the flagship motherboards. For those building a competent high-end gaming PC for home use, or even a robust system for their office, the Killer motherboard is certainly an appealing option. Give the more affordable price, the latest ASRock motherboard is still pretty competent when it comes to features. I'm mostly surprised by the 10 Power Phase design and the Nicicon 12K capacitors. Pretty robust power delivery for a mid-range motherboard and that easily helped our i7-8700K hit 5 GHz. Added Value It's nice to see armoured PCIe slots too, which will take the strain of your new graphics cards, as we all know that GPUs are getting pretty darn heavy these days. The Realktek ALC892 is the most powerful chipset in the world, but it'll still deliver competitive audio for gaming and movies without any issues. Plus, the connectivity is great too, with dual M.2, plenty of USB options, and display outputs. Everything Else It's a bit strange they called this motherboard Killer, for one, that to me implies Killer networking, but it is in fact Intel LAN. That's not a big deal, but it could confuse some consumers, at least until they read the fine print. I'd have like a few more USB ports on the rear I/O too, as there's a lot of wasted space there and gamers typically use more USB devices than most. Overall though, it's priced to reflect what's here, and there are still plenty of cool features. Pros Great gaming performance Two armoured PCIe slots 10 Phase digital power delivery Easy to use bios 8th Gen CPU support (only) Dual M.2 with Optane support Great memory performance Affordable price Cons None Neutral Killer name suggests Killer LAN, but it's Intel LAN Rear I/O could do with more USB ports, but it's hardly a deal breaker at this price "Despite being one of the most affordable ASRock Z370 motherboards, the Killer SLI is still packed with features that are sure to appeal to any system builder or gamer. Great price, great performance. Highly recommended!"