NZXT N7 Z370 ATX Motherboard Review

Peter Donnell / 7 years ago

A Closer Look

Our first impressions of this motherboard are extremely possitive. It’s got a fantastic design with almost full PCB armour and all major components are covered with their stunning white shrouds. Of course, if you don’t like the white, there is a black model available, but you could easily respray these components any colour you like if you so desired.

There’s a chunk VRM cooling setup here, much more so that we’ve seen on a lot of Z370 motherboards. This cooling, plus the fairly sturdy looking power delivery hardware for the CPU should add up to decent overclocking.

DIMM Slots

There are four DIMM slots on the motherboard. Interestingly, they don’t come with armoured slots, but that’s hardly a deal break, it would just be nice to have them anyway, as many high-end motherboards do.

The chipset guard is removable seperate to the main PCB metal cover. However, it’s also ventilated, and that makes sense, as it’s common for this part of the motherboard to get a little warmer.

M.2

There are two full-size PCIe slots on the motherboard, which is great for those using a dual GPU configuration. There’s also some extra slots that are ideal for PCIe storage devices and more. There are some M.2 mounts too, hiding under those clip-on metal covers.

Another feature I’m happy to see are on-board power controls. If you tinker with overclocking, or work from a test bench like we do, these are very handy to have.

Cooling

One of the key features of this motherboard is cooling. It comes with a whopping 7 fan headers! Thought the use of the CAM software, you’ll be able to take command of you cooling like never before, and it’s great to see so many native fan headers on a motherboard.

Connectivity on the motherboard is pretty good. There are just four SATA ports, which is down from the usual six we see. However, there are two USB 3.0 headers, and a few 2.0 headers, and dual M.2 mounts, so you shouldn’t be left wanting for more.

The rest of the fan headers are tucked away at the top of the motherboard. There are five up here in total, and you’ll also find the 8-pin CPU connector hiding here too.

Rear I/O

The rear I/O is well equipped, with two display outputs; HDMI and DP. There are nine use connections too, so you’ll have no issues hooking up all of your peripherals. There are six audio jacks, as well as a Toslink optical connection. Finally, a BIOS reset button for when you screw up your settings, saving you from opening your chassis to reset.

Diving a little deeper, we can remove the two shrouds on the PCB. Behind them, you’ll find a BIOS debug LED, which seems a bit pointless as it’s hidden by default. Here you will also find the M.2 mounts, and the shrouds will keep them both cool and protected.

Removing the chipset cover, you can more easily reach the SATA ports.

Stripdown

Finally, remove the whole body of the armour, and you can see it’s a pretty neat and tidy motherboard in its own right. The all black hardware looks fantastic and contrasts very well with the white panels.