Asus Prime X370-PRO AM4 Motherboard Review

Introduction We've been playing around with a few high-end AM4 motherboards recently, including the fantastic ASUS RoG Crosshair VI Hero X370, but not everyone wants to spend well over £200 for a motherboard, nor does everyone need to. The new ASUS PRIME X370-PRO looks set to tick all the right boxes for those who want high-end performance, without too many complications or the added cost that can often come with the flagship boards. Price around £150, the PRIME promises the best of both worlds, offering a competitive price, yet still supporting all the high-end hardware you would expect from an X370 class motherboard. That means you'll get support for DDR4 3200 (OC), M.2 storage, lots of SATA 6Gb/s ports, USB 3.1, Crossfire/SLI, high-end audio output, RGB lighting, and overclocking on all Ryzen AM4 processors. 5-Way Optimisation: One-click system-wide tuning that now also senses GPU temperatures to ensure cooler gaming ASUS Aura Sync – World’s first synced RGB lighting with easy controls to orchestrate Aura Sync-capable hardware Refined Audio: Realtek ALC1220 codec provides pristine and powerful audio quality ASUS SafeSlot: Patent-pending PCIe with enhanced retention and shearing resistance 5X Protection III: Multiple hardware safeguards to protect components from damage by power or electrical surges PRIME ASUS Prime is the next evolution of the ASUS motherboard, born of a pedigree that stretches back to 1989. Our team of world-class engineers are passionate about empowering everyone to enjoy the benefits of customisation and tuning, and the driving force behind the development of Prime is to make advanced enthusiast controls easily accessible — maximising performance, stability and compatibility for the very best DIY PC experiences. Simply stated: it's time for Prime. Packaging and Accessories On the front of the box, you'll see support for the new Ryzen CPUs, SLI and Crossfire, HDMI out (with iGPU equipped CPU), 5-way optimization, and USB 3.1; on and don't forget RGB! Around the back, a nice breakdown of all the major features, including the one-click overclocking and cooling profiles. There's not a whole lot in the box, but there's everything you need to get started. There is a user guide, backplate, four SATA cables, M.2 screws, front panel cable block, SLI bridge, and a driver disc. A Closer Look First impressions of the PRIME are very good, it's a simple yet stylish design that has a few treats packed in for good measure. The most impactful aspect is the black and white theme, with a few silver highlights to give it some pop, and that should make the RGB lighting stand out just that little bit more too. Obviously, it comes with the new AM4 socket, so it'll support Ryzen, as well as many upcoming AMD CPUs and APUs. The stock AMD bracket mounts are pre-installed but can be easily unscrewed for an aftermarket cooler too. There's a good configuration for power delivery, as well as two screwed on metal heat sinks to help keep the hardware cool, so we're expecting this board to deliver some good overclocking performance. There's a good amount of PCIe slots, and the two main ones come with some armour to help deal with the immense bulk of modern graphics cards. Four DDR4 DIMM slots (dual channel), offering support for up to 3200MHz (OC). You'll also find the motherboard 24-pin here, as well as a USB 3.1 front panel header. The main chipset comes with this lovely heat sink design, with a gloss white and silver finish. Connectivity is in no short supply here, with 8 x SATA 6GB/s ports, as well as an M.2 mount to take care of all your storage needs. There are plenty of connections here too, with extra fan headers, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, front panel audio and more. The board promises high-end audio, and you'll find a few high-quality Japanese gold capacitors backing up the Realtek S1220A chipset, all mounted on their own PCB layers for extra shielding from interference. Around the back, you'll find a good selection of USB ports, not a huge amount, but enough for most users. There are five audio jacks, with an additional optical out for good measure. There's also an HDMI and DP output, but keep in mind you'll need a CPU with an iGPU to use them, Ryzen does not support on-board video outputs. Finally, we have the back of the motherboard, where you can more easily see the trace that seperates the audio hardware from the main board (top right), as well as the removable AM4 socket backplate for your cooler. Testing & Methodology Test Systems used for review and comparisons and in previous benchmarks: AM4 CPU – Ryzen R7 1800X Motherboard – Changes per review RAM – Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) 2400MHz CPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti 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 – Combination used to determine widespread performance RAM – Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB (2x8GB) 2666MHz (16-17-17) CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti 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 Motherboard – ASUS ROG STRIX X99 GAMING RAM – 32GB Crucial Ballistix Sport (4x8GB) 2400MHz (16-16-16-39) CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti 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 Z170 Motherboard – ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ RAM – Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB (2x8GB) 2666MHz (16-17-17) CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti 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 Z87 Motherboard – ASUS Maximus VII Ranger RAM – 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport XT (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866MHz (10-10-10-30) CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti 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 Games Used Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Rise of the Tomb Raider Test Software Cinebench – available here WPrime – available here SiSoft Sandra Engineer – available here 3DMark – available here AIDA64 Engineer – available here Passmark – available here CPUID HWMonitor – available here CPU-Z – available here Storage Testing Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB SATA Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB SATA Toshiba OCZ RD400 512GB NVMe M.2 Patriot SuperSonic Magnum 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Test Procedure Memory For our memory tests, we use the built-in memory benchmarks in AIDA64 Engineer and SiSoft Sandra. For more details on each of the benchmarks please see here and here respectively. Storage To test the storage performance in our motherboard reviews we use AIDA’s Disk Benchmark utility built into their AIDA64 Engineer Edition software package and run linear read and write tests. We run each of the benchmark tests on a SATA III, USB 3.0 and M.2 device. For SATA III testing we use a SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB, for USB 3.0 testing we use the Supersonic Magnum 256 GB USB 3.0 flash drive and for M.2 testing we use Plextor’s 256GB M.2 M6e SSD; the drives are always formatted before use. Networking For our networking tests we connect the test system up to our Intel Gigabit-enabled X99 motherboard test system through the ASUS RT-AC68U router. We opted for this over a direct point-to-point connection because we wanted to simulate real-world performance. For our WiFi tests, we do the same except we connect the test system to the ASUS RT-AC68U router via WiFi at a distance of 5 metres from the router. The testing is conducted using PassMark’s Advanced Network Test detailed below. PassMark The PassMark Advanced Network Test (which is part of PerformanceTest) is designed to test the data transfer rate between two computers both of which must be running PerformanceTest. One of the computers must act as the server and will sit waiting for a connection. The other computer acts as a client. It connects to the server machine and sends data to it for the duration of the test. You can download a trial version of PerformanceTest from here. Power Usage To measure power consumption we, use a “killawatt” meter and measure the total system power draw at the wall. We run three different use-case scenarios for 5 minutes and take the average reading. RightMark Audio Analyser (RMAA) RMAA suite is designed for testing quality of analogue and digital paths of any audio device. The results are obtained by playing and recording test signals passed through the tested audio path by means of frequency analysis algorithms. A more common mark is also provided for those unfamiliar with measured technical parameters. Available here. We run the RMAA test using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable connecting the line-out to the line-in to test the quality of the motherboard audio codec, not any external audio devices. We run the complete playback and recording test at default settings and then get RMAA to interpret the results giving the below outputs. We sync the playback and recording audio devices to the same setting as the test for accurate results. wPrime wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton’s method for estimating functions. wPrime is a free utility that is available for download here. Cinebench R15 Cinebench is a widely respected benchmark for testing the performance of x86 CPUs. The program allows you to test single and multi-threaded performance as well as GPU performance by rendering with Open GL. Download here. 3D Mark The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. Download here. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided We run the games internal benchmark with the ultra preset applied, AA turned off, V-sync off, and at a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Rise of the Tomb Raider We run the games internal benchmark with the very high preset applied, FXAA turned on, V-sync off, TrueHair off, and at a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Thank you Noctua, Crucial, ASUS, Gigabyte, Lian-Li, be quiet!, OCZ, for providing the hardware that helps makes these tests possible! CPU & GPU Performance Cinebench Straight away we see the PRIME setting a very impressive score in Cinebench, although I suspect the last two boards may fair a little better, and the BIOS on this board is a little newer than when they were first tested either way, it's a great score at both stock and overclocked settings. WPrime Another fantastic result here, with the much cheaper PRIME actually beating out the more expensive RoG board. It's less than 2 seconds behind the more expensive MSI and ASUS boards when overclocked, but those boards were able to hit a higher stable overclock of 4.1GHz, while the PRIME maxed out at 4.05MHz. SiSoft Sandra Again, some great results here. Despite a slower clock speed on the CPU vs the other motherboards, showing again just how much improvement has been made with Ryzen thanks to a few BIOS updates. 3DMark 3D Mark is a tough one for Ryzen, it just doesn't work that well for some reason. Of course, despite any drawbacks on the software side, the PRIME still output a score on par with its big brothers. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided The more powerful boards take the top spot again thanks to their higher overclock, but the PRIME still put out a competitive score while overclocked. Keep in mind, apart from the Crosshair VI, there's very little deviation in these scores. Rise of the Tomb Raider When it comes to gaming, the PRIME is no slouch, keeping up with the competition with ease. Overclocking the motherboard brought some respectable gains too, making it our second fastest board in this test. Memory Performance Memory performance is a little behind on Ryzen in general, but the PRIME still put out a result on par with other X370 motherboards in all of our memory tests. We expect these scores to pick up more over time as the BIOS and software support increases. AIDA64 Engineer SiSoft Sandra Combined Latency Test Storage Performance Linear Read The storage results are about where we expected, giving good read speeds on all storage devices. Linear Write The same is true of write speeds, delivering scores that are right where we would expect them to be. Networking Performance Passmark Performance Test 8 - Ethernet Both of the ASUS X370 motherboards we have tested put out very similar results, which is good news for those investing in the PRIME. Passmark Performance Test 8 - CPU Work Load Audio Performance ASUS are keen to highlight that this motherboard has great audio performance, and we're very happy to confirm that. The lowest the motherboard scored in any test here is "good" with the bulk of them being either very good or excellent. 16 Bit, 44KHz (DVD Quality) 16 Bit, 96KHz (Studio Quality) 24 Bit, 96KHz (Studio Quality) DPC Audio Latency Analyser Final Thoughts Price The ASUS PRIME X370-PRO AM4 Motherboard is currently available for just over £140 at Amazon. That's pretty fantastic value for money given it delivered performance that was competitive with some of the much higher priced X370 motherboards, including ASUS's RoG board. Overview There's a lot to love about this motherboard, and for the price range, it packs in a pretty fantastic number of features that are sure to make it appealing to many. There are a few minor drawbacks, however, but for a board the costs over £100 less than the RoG X370 board, they can be easily overlooked for the majority of consumers. There's no BIOS reset button or power buttons directly on the board, nor is there a BIOS reset button on the back of the I/O, and this can make overclocking a bit of a hassle. Seriously though, all motherboards should have a button for resetting BIOS these days, especially for a board that has overclocking. The VRM coolers look really good, but they are a little smaller, and I think that's what is limiting us from hitting a stable 5.1 GHz as they tend to get quite warm. Of course, we still managed to post a very stable 5.05 GHz, which is very good indeed for the 1800X and very close to what we hit on the more expensive motherboards. In terms of features, the BIOS is pretty robust, allowing for multiple overclocking profiles, where you can set independent voltages for just about everything, customise your fan profiles, load line calibration and more. That being said, hitting a stable overclock on this motherboard needed no more than a CPU voltage boost and changing the multiplier, so it's very user-friendly overall. There's a lot of added value here too, thanks to features like the RGB lighting, with headers to use AURA SYNC to connect any compatible chassis lighting, fans, and more. There are lots of overclocking features, comprehensive audio hardware that's going to be great for all types of multimedia, good connectivity, and storage support is excellent too. There is only a single M.2 compared to some of the X370 boards with two, but that's clearly reflected in the price. If you're building a mid-to-high budget gaming or work rig, then the PRIME is clearly a strong contender. It has a few minor drawbacks, but with the overall performance it delivers and the range of features on offer, it's giving you most of the thrills of the high-end boards at almost half the price. Pros Stylish aesthetics RGB lighting Good overclocking Excellent on-board audio Great for work and gaming Very competitive price Cons No direct BIOS reset or power buttons Neutral Only 1 x M.2 Doesn't overclock as high as some other X370 boards, but it's nowhere near as expensive "If you're looking to get high-end features and performance like you find on the more expensive X370 boards, the PRIME trims most of the non-vital extras to deliver X370 at near B350 chipset prices, making it great value for money overall!"