ASUS RoG STRIX X370-I Gaming Ryzen Motherboard Review

ASUS RoG STRIX X370-I The Ryzen CPU range has been with us a while now, and it certainly left us here at eTeknix impressed. I myself invested in the 1700X and I have no regrets about its multi-tasking and gaming performance for my day-to-day usage. There are a lot of cool motherboards on the market too, but only a handful of Mini-ITX solutions. ASUS and their RoG branding are a big hit with gamers and system builders around the world, so when I heard they had a new Mini-ITX solution coming to market, I simply had to give it a test! Equipped with support for all of the latest and upcoming AM4 processors, the X370-I Gaming is hardly lacking features despite its compact size. It features a unique design that houses high-end audio hardware on an M.2 mount, meaning you won't be making compromises. This includes support for SupremeFX, Sonic Studio III, and Sonic Radar III. If that wasn't enough, you'll also find dual M.2 mounts, USB 3.1, Gigabit LAN, ultra-fast WiFi, easy overclocking, RGB lighting and much more. Not bad for a tiny motherboard, and it's sure to appeal to a gaming market. Features Supports AMD AM4-socket Ryzen™ processors, 7th Generation A-series APUs and Athlon™ ACPUs. Gaming innovation: Discrete M.2 Audio Combo Card delivers clean audio and alleviates board space for more features. SupremeFX audio: Renowned audio performance with intuitive Sonic Studio III and Sonic Radar III. Gaming connectivity: Dual M.2 and USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A connectors. Gaming networking: Intel Gigabit Ethernet, LANGuard, GameFirst and 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO support. 5-Way Optimization: One-click system-wide overclocking and cooling. Aura Sync RGB: Synchronize LED lighting with a vast portfolio of compatible PC gear, including addressable RGB strip. Gaming durability: ASUS SafeSlot and premium components for maximum durability. What ASUS Had to Say "ROG Strix X370-I Gaming draws on the proud legacy of our renowned Pro Gaming series by packing acclaimed ROG innovations into a mini-ITX motherboard that's as sleek, small and stylish as it is powerful — ready for you to create a gaming rig that rivals anything built around a bigger board! Experience the all-new ROG M.2 Audio Combo Card that both frees up space and delivers crystal-clear audio, push performance to the limits with 5-Way optimization, and up the aesthetic ante with Aura Sync illumination. Join the Republic with ROG Strix X370-I Gaming and dominate your game!" - ASUS Motherboard Overview Specifications For the full specifications, please visit the official product page here. What's in the Box In the box, you'll find all the usual documentation, as well as the driver CD. There's also a collection of SATA cables, lighting extensions, cable ties, the Wi-Fi antenna, and a black backplate. Overall, that's everything you need to get you started. So, let's jump in and take a closer look at what's on offer. A Closer Look Obviously, there's not a lot of room on a mini-ITX motherboard, but that hasn't stopped ASUS from absolutely cramming a load of hardware into here. If anything, it's as well equipped as most Micro-ATX and ATX motherboards. Hooking everything up may prove to be a job for someone with nimble fingers, but it'll be worth it. The PCI slot is armoured, which looks great and will also provide added strength to the motherboard. High-end graphics cards are pretty heavy, so a strong PCIe slot is pretty much essential these days. Why compromise on audio performance if you don't have to! By using a raised design, ASUS was able to cram in more audio hardware than usual for this motherboard, putting it on-par with their full-size solutions. What's really neat, is that it also forms their M.2 drive mount and heatsink design, giving the board a nice flowing look. There are four SATA ports on this motherboard, with two on each side of the two DIMM slots. There's also a USB 2.0 and 3.0 header, as well as the usual front panel pins. The power delivery hardware looks surprisingly robust, and since all Ryzen CPUs are overclockable, you shouldn't have any issue hitting some decent speeds; even for a mini-ITX motherboard. The stock AMD mount comes included, but it's easily unscrewed to install an aftermarket solution. Up top, you'll find three PWM fan headers, as well as an addressable 3-pin and RGB 4-pin header. Finally, the back of the motherboard offers up support for four USB 3.1 Gen1 devices, and two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports. There's a single Intel I211-AT LAN port, and 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi with 2x2 and MU-MIMO support. 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 X399 Motherboard – Changes Per Review RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB 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 Quad-Channel 32GB 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 new Mini-ITX motherboard looks to have a tough fight on its hand, as an army of Z370 has invaded our charts this month. However, a score of 19991 is pretty competitive and our fastest X370 chipset score to date, which is impressive for our smallest X370 motherboard to date! Overclocking took the score to 20513, a nice boost overall. Stock Overclocked Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme For the more GPU bound task of Unigine, the X370 chipset has no issues keeping up with the competition. The ASUS board set a superb score of 5538, putting it way up high on our charts. Stock Overclocked PCMark 10 Express Hitting 5399 at stock, and 5804 while overclocked, the motherboard certainly scored well. It's got some ground to make up on the new Intel CPU/Mobo combinations, but they're higher clock speeds are an advantage. However, for day-to-day work and multi-tasking, the X370 chipset is no slouch. Stock Overclocked WPrime 32M and 1024M While it may not have the clock speeds, the use of an 8-core CPU on this motherboard is a big advantage for Wprime, hitting 107.925 stock and a blazing fast 100.190 while overclocked. So far, the board is showing to be exceptionally stable while overclocked. Stock Overclocked Cinebench R15 The stock score was fairly low, hitting just 998 points. However, once overclocked, it was more competitive in the mid-range, hitting a very impressive 1601 points in CineBench. Stock Overclocked Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Handbrake conversion of a 4K video is hard work for any component, but the ASUS STRIX Mini hit a respectable 41 FPS stock an 61 FPS overclocked, which is about what we would expect for this chipset and CPU combination. Stock Overclocked AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth and Latency Ryzen memory performance is generally a bit lower Intel. However, the STRIX Mini-ITX hit it out of the park, clocking some of our highest speeds to date and placing second on our chart for read speeds. Of course, 51.6ns is also some of our lowest latency too, which is great news. Gaming Performance So now we come to the thing that really matters to most people buying this motherboard. It's marketed as a gaming motherboard, and this is where it needs to deliver the goods. It hit a great score in Deus Ex, clocking in at 128 FPS, which is certainly competitive in the mid-ranges. As is 176 FPS in Tomb Raider, giving us two good scores for DX12. Our other two games faired well also. The demanding Ghost Recon still delivered an average frame rate of 128, which Far Cry: Primal scored 102. These aren't the highest scores ever, but they're still competitive and pretty solid given that it's a mini-ITX motherboard. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Rise of the Tomb Raider Ghost Recon: Wildlands Far Cry Primal Power Consumption and Temperatures Power Consumption Mini-ITX means less motherboard that requires power, and it certainly shows, as the board pulled just 138W at full load. Even when overclocked, it was little over 155W, which is very respectable. Stock Overclocked Final Thoughts Pricing The ASUS RoG STRIX X370-I Gaming AM4 Motherboard is available now from most major retailers. Its price is generally around £170, which isn't cheap, but this is a pretty well-equipped mini-ITX motherboard and you get plenty of features for your investment. Overview I love a good mini-ITX gaming motherboard and the X370-I from ASUS certainly fits the bill. If you're focused on a new Ryzen gaming system, or any other AM4 CPU for that matter, it's a great choice that comes packed full of cool features. It is a little expensive, but most mini-ITX gaming focused motherboards are. Performance When it comes down to it, this isn't the fastest motherboard we've ever tested. Or should I say, it doesn't support the fastest CPUs on the market? However, the Ryzen CPUs have their strengths against Intel and it's down to the consumer to pick which is best for them. Of course, ASUS have both Intel and AMD solutions on the market for Mini-ITX, and they're both the best in their respective classes. Check out our review of the STRIX Z370-I Gaming. However, the performance is hardly lacking either, and when it comes to work or gaming, there's more than enough grunt here for a high-end gaming PC build. Build Quality This is a great looking motherboard, dare I say one of the best looking Mini-ITX motherboards! The way the M.2 heat sink is integrated into a soundcard is superb too, and a really nice design choice. The durable design of the board and the choice of high-quality components certainly adds peace of mind. Finally, the addition of armour on the PCIe slot means that the board will better cope with the weight of heavy duty graphics cards. Added Value This is where the £170 price tag becomes more justifiable, as the X370-I is packed with cool features. Let's get the obvious one done first, it's RGB lighting. With underlighting on the right side of the PCB, as well as matching lighting on the M.2 shroud it looks great. Of course, with addressable LED headers, you can easily expand on that to suit your needs. Dual M.2 storage mount means blazing fast performance. Intel Gigabit Ethernet, LANGuard, GameFirst and 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO support certainly takes care of your networking needs too. However, it's the new RoG M.2 Audio Combo Card that wins my heart, delivering big performance that's rare on mini-ITX motherboards. Of course, you also get SupremeFX audio, with Sonic Studio III and Sonic Radar III. Pros Dual M.2 mounts with 1 x heatsink Easy to overclocked PCIe Armour Powerful sound processing with M.2 soundcard Super fast ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO RGB lighting Competitive performance Great memory performance Stunning aesthetics Cons A little expensive, but most gaming Mini-ITX motherboards are