EVGA Z370 FTW Motherboard Review

EVGA FTW As one of the biggest and most respected names in the business, EVGA has a strong reputation to live up to. They have created many of the best graphics cards in the world, such as their stunning take on the GTX 1080 Ti. In more recent years, they've been playing around in the motherboard market too and had several big successes. Now, we've got the EVGA FTW in the eTeknix office, one of their most popular Z370 motherboards, and I can't wait to see what it's capable of! As you can see, the motherboard is pretty competitive regarding features. Equipped with onboard power controls, high-end power delivery hardware, dual BIOS, Optane support, and more, it should be a strong competitor when it comes to overclocking. Of course, how it stacks up in the real world vs how it stacks up on paper are two different things, so let's get it on the test bench asap. Features On-Board Power Button On-Board Reset Button 100% Solid State Capacitors Onboard CPU Temperature Monitor 3 Year Warranty Supports Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 Socket 1151 Coffee Lake-S Processors Reinforced PCIe and DIMM slots Switchable Dual BIOS EVGA GUI BIOS HDMI 1.4 and DP 1.2 Highly-Efficient 11 Phase Digital VRM Intel Optane™ Memory Ready Specifications Chipset: Intel Z370 Socket: LGA1151 Form Factor: ATX SLI: 2-Way SLI + PhysX Memory: 4 DIMM Dual-Channel DDR4 4133MHz+ (up to 64GB) Display Outputs: HDMI 1.4, DP1.2 USB: 10x USB 3.0 / 2x USB 2.0 USB 3.1 (Rear I/O): 1x USB3.1 Type-A, Type-C For in-depth specifications, please visit the official product page here. What EVGA Had to Say "The EVGA Z370 FTW has everything you need to upgrade and enjoy Intel’s latest 8th Gen Core i7/i5 processors. With the Z370 platform, high-performance gaming and powerful work machines are now more affordable than ever. Featuring 6 SATA ports, 10 USB 3.0 ports, USB 3.1 Type A and Type-C ports, multiple M.2 sockets, Intel® Optane™, 7.1 Channel Audio, and an Intel Gigibit NIC, this board is ready for storage, sound, and data whenever you want it. However, this board wouldn’t be FTW without a highly-efficient Digital VRM connected to an 11 Phase power design, 2-way SLI + PhysX support, Dual-BIOS support, and EVGA’s GUI BIOS. Whatever your passion, the EVGA Z370 FTW has the tools to get you there and the power to get the job done." - EVGA A Closer Look My first impression of this board is pretty positive, and it's easily one of the better-looking motherboards on the market. It's not too over the top, but aesthetically, it makes a strong statement thanks to that large heatsink cover on the top left. EVGA care about you getting things right. There are detailed instructions, telling you which slots to use, which voltages they recommend and more. The pros likely don't give a damn and will break the rules, but newcomers to the platform will be happy for the help. The VRM cooling is beastly, with towering heat sinks poking through that shroud. There's lots of ventilation, but the cover does hide a lot of the ugly stuff, keeping it looking smart. I love the little EVGA "E" on the power delivery hardware. Fortunately, it's as much go as it is show, and should allow us to hit our review target of 5 GHz without it breaking a sweat. The motherboard is powered via an 8-pin connector, nothing crazy, but well within the requirements for a mid-to-high-end motherboard like this. The rear I/O looks competent, with seven USB ports, plus an additional Type-C connector. All the usual audio and LAN ports are there, as well as two handy display outputs should you need them. Finally, a master reset button could get you out of a bind if you muck up your OC settings too. Connectivity With four DIMM slots offering support for fast DDR4 memory, you'll be well covered. I love that they're all armoured too, not only does it look great, but it helps improve the durability of the slots and the motherboard overall. The addition of onboard power controls, as well as a BIOS Debug LED, are also very welcome tools to have, especially while overclocking on a testbench. There are six SATA ports, as well as two USB 3.0 headers, taking care of a lot of your connectivity problems. Of course, there are a few USB 2.0 headers too. More Armour! There are three full-size PCIe slots, as well as three 1x slots. What's good to see is that two of the full-size ones are armoured, so they'll have no issues handling a pair of massive modern GPUs. Gives your storage a super-speed boost with not one, not two, but three M.2 slots. Of course, they have Optane support too. 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 The Z370 platform has continued to impress with extremely competitive performance. When it comes to anything GPU bound, the whole Z370 platform dominates the benchmarks by quite a large margin. The new EVGA Z370 FTW proved not to be the fastest we've tested so far, but it's also far from the slowest. If anything, it's priced at the upper end of the mid-range motherboards in regards to price, and that's about where it performs. When it comes to real-world performance, you'll have a hard time telling it apart from any of the other high-end boards, it's certainly a damn fast motherboard; this is especially true once overclocked. 3DMark Firestrike Stock Overclocked Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme Stock Overclocked PCMark 10 Express Stock Overclocked WPrime 32M and 1024M Stock Overclocked Cinebench R15 Stock Overclocked Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Stock Overclocked Gaming Performance Just like we saw in the synthetic benchmarks, the latest EVGA motherboard isn't breaking new records for performance, but it is competitive. It's competitive in the mid-range for the Z370 platform, and honestly, I think it should be doing a little better, but it's still not at all bad. When it comes to gaming, it's delivering blazing performance that's leagues ahead of any other chipset, and for PC gamers, that's music to everyone's ears. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Rise of the Tomb Raider Ghost Recon: Wildlands Far Cry Primal Power Consumption and Temperatures Power Consumption One thing that does impress is that the motherboard is pretty efficient. Sure, the power usage is also reflected by the performance delivered, but less power use is still less power use. While overclocked, it proved to be one of the less power-thirsty Z370 motherboards we've tested to date. Stock Overclocked Final Thoughts Pricing The EVGA Z370 FTW is available now from many major retailers with an average price of around £179.99. That's a little on the premium side for the level of performance, but not without good reason. It is a bit more expensive than similarly performing hardware, but I also think it has much better build quality than most. Having that peace of mind of longevity and round-the-clock performance is worth paying a premium for when it comes to a high-end gaming PC build. Overview EVGA do provide a range of more affordable products, albeit not many. When it comes down to it, they've always marketed themselves as a premium brand, and I think a small price premium comes with that. Some may say you're just paying for the name, but I don't think that's the case. The attention to detail regarding features, build quality, and component choices, quickly justify the premium here. Build Quality You only have to take a glance at this motherboard to see it ticks all the right boxes. Power connector cut-outs, as well as additional power inputs for the PCIe lanes, are very much welcome. Reinforced PCIe slots to deal with bulky graphics cards, as well as armoured DIMM slots for added reliability are nice too. There's dual BIOS, with an onboard switch for ease of use. The six layer PCB is durable, and the VRM hardware is some of the most robust we've seen on any Z370 motherboard to date. We only went to 5 GHz, but a good chip will undoubtedly go further on this motherboard. Performance No new records were set today, but we're not disappointed. The FTW put up a competitive fight that's sure to leave any PC gamer happy with what it had to offer. The added "performance" from this motherboard comes in other ways though. The inclusion of an ALC1220 audio chipset means flawless high-end audio performance, while the Intel i219V NIC will bring the goods for networking. Add to that three high-performance M.2 slots with Optane support, 4133 MHz DDR4 support, and more, and you're well on your way to an extremely fast system. Should I Buy One This is one of the best made Z370 motherboards on the market for under £200, which is fantastic. You can spend more for the EVGA Z370 Classified K, which is pretty much the same motherboard. However, you get 99% of the thrills and save £70 with the FTW model, making it exceptional value for EVGA fans. If you want reliable, round-the-clock overclocking and gaming performance, you'll undoubtedly find it here.