ASUS RoG STRIX Z370-F Gaming Motherboard Review

ASUS RoG STRIX Z370-F Gaming Are you planning to build a new Z370 gaming system, featuring the newly released 8th-gen Intel CPUs? Then it's likely the ASUS RoG STRIX Z370-F Gaming motherboard is next on your shopping list. It's equipped with just the right features and price to be one of the most popular Z370 motherboards of this launch. Of course, coming from the RoG branding of ASUS, it's already got some pedigree that's sure to appeal to gamers and system builders around the world, but is it any good? Features The new board comes equipped with support for the new 8th-Gen CPUs, such as the 6-core Intel Core i5-8400 and the Core i7-8700K we recently reviewed. To give you more value for your money, you'll also find Aura Sync RGB lighting, M.2 Heatsink cooling, easy overclocking and optimizations, powerful onboard audio, networking and more. LGA1151 socket for 8th -gen Intel® Core™ desktop processors. Aura Sync RGB: Synchronize LED lighting with a vast portfolio of compatible PC gear, including addressable RGB strips. Onboard M.2 heatsink: Cools your M.2 drive, delivering consistent storage performance and enhanced reliability. 5-Way Optimization: Automated system-wide tuning, providing overclocking and cooling profiles that are tailor-made for your rig. SupremeFX S1220A teams with Sonic Studio III to create an aural landscape that draws you deeper into the action. Dual M.2 and USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C connectors. Intel Gigabit Ethernet, LANGuard and GameFirst. ASUS SafeSlot and premium components for maximum endurance. What ASUS Had to Say "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-F 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-F Gaming looks great and sounds amazing — and outperforms every expectation to dominate your game!" - ASUS What's in the Box? The Z370-F comes really well equipped already, but there's plenty of extra bits in the box too. There's the usual documentation, driver CD, some stickers, etc. However, you also get a bunch of flat SATA cables, RGBW lighting extension cables, cable ties, a hard SLI bridge, and the M.2 mounting screws. Not a huge amount of stuff, but still a nice bundle. A Closer Look First impressions of the Z370-F are fantastic, and you can tell straight away that this motherboard means serious business. The black and grey finish looks fantastic, and it's going to make it much easier for this motherboard to blend in with any system build. The motherboard does have RGB lighting too, so the neutral colours on the board make a good backdrop for any lighting effects. The star of the show is the new Intel 8th gen 115X socket. It's very similar to Kaby Lake, albeit with a revised pin layout to offer support for the new CPUs and their increased core count. Huge VRM Cooling Something that does fill me with confidence is those huge heat sinks, surrounding the motherboard hardware. The VRM should keep nice and cool even when overclocked. Of course, there are some high-quality chokes and caps there too, so overclocking should be fairly decent on the Z370-F. There are four DDR4 DIMMs, and like every other major part of this motherboard, it's dotted with high-performance capacitors and chokes to help maintain stable voltages and performance. Connectivity is pretty decent on this motherboard, nothing too crazy, but certainly enough for a high-end system build. There are 6 SATA ports, and a USB 3.0 header mounted on the right edge of the board. Along the bottom, you've got all your usual headers for the front panel, as well as more USB headers. Including some RGB headers too. It's a shame there are no onboard controls for power, bios and reset though, given this motherboard looks prime for enthusiast overclocking. On-Board Audio The audio hardware is mounted with a trace on the motherboard, separating it from the main board, and helping reduce unwanted electronic interference. There are two armoured PCIe lanes, which are nicely spaced. This means the motherboard will more easily support the weight of multiple graphics card; good news for those building a high-end gaming rig! There are two M.2 drive mounts on the motherboard, one between the top PCIe lanes, and one below the lower heat sink. Of course, the motherboard also supports Optane, so you could easily use one for storage, one for Optane, giving you a big performance boost. Around the back, the rear I/O looks pretty sparse for features. There are three display outputs, but who is using those on a gaming motherboard? I would have liked to see more USB ports, especially for a gaming system where lots of peripherals can quickly eat up those available connections. 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 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 ASUS complete the triple fronted force of win here, with the STRIX F clocking into 3rd place in 3DMark. Overclocking closed the gap on pretty much everything, but the F certainly remained competitive. Stock Overclocked Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme Again, with Unigine the F Gaming is scoring very well at 5516. Don't ask me how the Mini-ITX model got 6386, as we think it's powered by magic. Stock Overclocked PCMark 10 Express Now we're talking, as the F Gaming blasted straight to the top of the PCMark 10 scoreboard, and held onto that lead even while overclocked. This means it's going to be great for day-to-day tasks at home or in the office! Stock Overclocked WPrime 32M and 1024M Again, the F Gaming is setting some great scores, setting the fastest Z370 WPrime time at stock. It didn't win with the overclocked time, but it's still very close to the other Z370 motherboards. Stock Overclocked Cinebench R15 For Cinibench, the Intel Core i7-8700K puts up a good fight. With the F Gaming helping the new CPU set the second fastest time for Z370 at stock, and a competitive score while overclocked. Stock Overclocked Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Once again, it leads at stock, albeit by a tiny 0.1 seconds, but that's still faster no matter what. Overclocking saw a tiny improvement in performance, and it's yet again competitive, but I did expect a little more here. Stock Overclocked AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth and Latency Memory performance on the F is pretty solid, with some great read and write performance. Copy performance could have been a little better, but it's still well within what we expected from our chosen memory kit. As with the other Z370 motherboards, we did get some nice low latency times from the memory too, which no doubt helped us get those great benchmark scores. Gaming Performance Since this motherboard has "gaming" literally in its name, this is where we would expect it to really stand out. Guess what, it does! Straight away it set the new highest score for Deus Ex with an incredible 152.6 FPS, and our highest minimum frame rate of 116.5. Following that, our second fastest score for Rise of the Tomb Raider at 206.9, making it one of only two boards to break the 200 FPS threshold. If that wasn't enough, it went on to set our second and third fastest frame rate scores in Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Far Cry Primal respectively. The gaming charts are now dominated by Z370, and the F Gaming is right up there as one of the best yet. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Rise of the Tomb Raider Ghost Recon: Wildlands Far Cry Primal Power Consumption and Temperatures Power Consumption Finally, we come onto power consumption. This motherboard kicked out some great performance, but it does need a little more power to do so. In fact, at stock, it's the most power hungry of the Z370 range. While overclocked, both the TUF and the F Gaming used the same power at load, but both delivered incredible benchmark scores too. Stock Overclocked Final Thoughts Pricing The ASUS RoG STRIX Z370-F Gaming Motherboard launches today. It should be in most major stores now with an SRP of £189.99, which is pretty good when you consider something like the Maximus X Hero Wi-Fi AC is £264.99. It's also not too shabby for one of the fastest gaming motherboards on the market today. Overview This isn't the only Z370 motherboard we've reviewed today, and while I had a lot of reservations about the Z370 platform, I don't anymore. Many are bothered, and rightfully so, that Intel 8th Gen CPUs such as the i7-8700K require a new motherboard to operate. The motherboards offer no innovation compared to Z270, leaving many with no desire to upgrade. However, the slightly tweaked socket allows for the new six-core CPUs, and holy cow, are they a lot better than we expected! If you're investing in Z370 for a gaming system build, the Z370-F Gaming is no slouch. It set some of our highest ever scores! Of course, all the Z370 boards scored very well too, especially the ASUS Z370-I Gaming mini-ITX motherboard, which really surprised us. Features, and Plenty of Them As I said before, the Z370 platform doesn't offer much in the way of innovation. However, that doesn't mean this motherboard is lacking in cool hardware. With dual M.2 drive mounts, you can get super-fast storage for your new system, and use Intel Optane for a big performance boost. I would have liked to see both M.2 drives under a heat sink, but one is still a nice bonus. Onboard audio is great too, with SupremeFX S1220A and Sonic Studio III. Of course, there's also USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C connectors. Intel Gigabit Ethernet, LANGuard, GameFirst and ASUS SafeSlot. Like I said, nothing we didn't see on Z270, but all very welcome additions. RGB and More Like everything else, the motherboard has RGB lighting and plenty of it. If that's not enough, you'll be happy to see a few headers for external lighting. With AURA Sync, you'll be able to control your whole lighting setup directly from your desktop software too, which is awesome. Don't like the lights? You can turn them all out too, don't worry. Pros Exceptional gaming performance Reasonably priced Fantastic aesthetics Supports new 8th Gen CPUs Great overclocking options Robust connectivity Dual M.2 slots with Optane support Cons None "Upgrading to Z370 may not be on the agenda for Z270 users, but for those who want the best gaming performance from their desktop, the new Z370-F Gaming from ASUS is a perfect ballance of price and high-end performance."