Jump to content

[WIP] I Don't Recommend The Asus Prime Z370-P

5b5f52618b1f3_LTTBANNER(1).png.6d66b4357d488f85a372c27309983b33.png

 

Hi there, I'm Seoz, and I don't recommend the Asus Prime Z370-P. After countless times where I've witnessed users on LTT ask for advice on builds, only to find that their chosen motherboard is the Asus Prime Z370-P, it's time I made a full-blown discussion.

 

What we have in terms of motherboard features:

• Two, count 'em, two, chassis fan headers

• Two M.2 slots

• Four SATA 6G ports

• Z370 chipset

 

Labelled below are all the flaws of the motherboard that I have experienced firsthand minus the M.2 shields because I don't use an M.2/NVMe. Having two chassis fans is a struggle when you need to fit four fans into your system, especially when one of those two chassis fan headers is slap-bang in the middle of the motherboard, come on...

Secondly, the lack of VRM heatsinks is a punch in the gut. If a company like Asus is going to make a motherboard for the Z370 chipset and not include VRM heatsinks, that's when eyebrows get raised. I'll go more into this later.

Lastly, there are only four SATA ports. I must clarify that this doesn't affect me in any way since I am only using a single SSD in my system, so really this point may not apply to many, and the typical user I've seen will only ever need two or three SATA slots and possibly an M.2 anyway. But for those looking for storage expandibility, you're kind of short here in the Z370-P.

8.jpg.241e0d62f936ecbbfdaeaf3b0ccaa117.jpg

 

LTTBANNER.png.e26060ee35282c7273bfd0157a013c61.png

 

Onto my personal usage with this motherboard, and to be brutally honest, despite my views on it, it's been okay.

 

I'm not a heavy overclocker and so I've only ever gone as far as 4.6GHz 1.2V before.

... But that was before my motherboard started misbehaving.

I remember back when I was new to the overclock scene and had my 8600K set to 4.7GHz on a 1.25V core voltage, it felt nice. I had it running just under a week until my PC had random shutdowns and mishaps in normal usage where my PC would cut out signal, crash, blue-screen, you name it, and it was all resolved when I rolled back to 4.4GHz on 1.2V.

 

My second experience was when I was installing my brand new Arctic Freezer 33 eSports One into my case, and I had no choice but to remove the entire motherboard out of the case for me to be able to install it. So, standard procedure, undo standoff screws, unplug cables, and grab by the edges. It was agony to take it out, I could hear it bending about and cracking.

When it came to installing my new cooler, I found out that the bracket that the 33 eSports uses actually clashes with the backplate on the Z370-P, and so I had to use a lot of force to get it actually on, needless to say, it did flex a lot and audible creeks galore. I did get the cooler on eventually after the backplate mishap, and also managed to fit my motherboard back into my case.

 

Next, I want to talk about the lights, or lack thereof. This is one of the only Asus boards to not support Asus Aura Sync lighting. it only features brutally cheap-looking orange lighting by the audio side and inside the PCIe bracket clips, it's kind of disgusting to have it on, especially when the only options are either static, breathing, or off. Needless to say, I chose the last option. The motherboard shows its value by not having the addition of Asus Aura Sync lighting and instead opting for orange LEDs... Good if you're going for an orange build I guess, but the other factors outweigh this pro anyway.

 

5b5f5be43604a_LTTBANNER(3).png.52bda34075f87b6131124e21687093e1.png

 

I understand my views and opinions on the board may have been controversial to some degree and I may even be under fire for what I have said, but it's my motherboard, and it's my experiences. Not everything is bad about the motherboard despite what I have said about it. It's cheap (interpret that how you will) so it may make a good budget option in the right configuration, and it's also a fairly nice entry-level motherboard.

I feel as if this motherboard was made for the people whom are just getting into PC building and are looking to enter the Coffee Lake chipset on a tight as budget as possible, and this is where the Z370-P comes in. In the big picture, it really isn't a bad motherboard, you get what you pay for.

 

This motherboard was made for those whom are:

a) not looking to overclock heavily - think 8350K & 8600K lightly overclocked, 8700K don't bother

b) thinking of small budgets

c) want a foundation to 8th-generation Intel CPUs

d) don't need that much storage expansion

 

To finish off, the Asus Prime Z370-P is a good board for those whom aren't major enthusiasts, but just want to test the waters on light overclocks and get into PC building.

mechanical keyboard switches aficionado & hi-fi audio enthusiast

switch reviews  how i lube mx-style keyboard switches

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Good to see. The Z370-A is a worthy investment. Have some rep.

CPU: Core i9 12900K || CPU COOLER : Corsair H100i Pro XT || MOBO : ASUS Prime Z690 PLUS D4 || GPU: PowerColor RX 6800XT Red Dragon || RAM: 4x8GB Corsair Vengeance (3200) || SSDs: Samsung 970 Evo 250GB (Boot), Crucial P2 1TB, Crucial MX500 1TB (x2), Samsung 850 EVO 1TB || PSU: Corsair RM850 || CASE: Fractal Design Meshify C Mini || MONITOR: Acer Predator X34A (1440p 100hz), HP 27yh (1080p 60hz) || KEYBOARD: GameSir GK300 || MOUSE: Logitech G502 Hero || AUDIO: Bose QC35 II || CASE FANS : 2x Corsair ML140, 1x BeQuiet SilentWings 3 120 ||

 

LAPTOP: Dell XPS 15 7590

TABLET: iPad Pro

PHONE: Galaxy S9

She/they 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The EVGA Z370 FTW is a much better option, I think its available for 120$, Has FINNED heatsinks for VRMs, 11 power phases which is 1 more than the ASUS Maximus X Apex (a 500$ board) and 6 sata and 6 PWM fan headers.

Even the Micro-ATX mobo has 11 power phases.

 

I’m not a big fan of ASUS products.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Firewrath9 said:

The EVGA Z370 FTW is a much better option, I think its available for 120$, Has FINNED heatsinks for VRMs, 11 power phases which is 1 more than the ASUS Maximus X Apex (a 500$ board) and 6 sata and 6 PWM fan headers.

Even the Micro-ATX mobo has 11 power phases.

 

I’m not a big fan of ASUS products.

EVGA has a very fun way of counting phases. And you can immediately tell, because 11 is an odd number larger than 8. If you seriously think any boards have an 11 phase VRM, you're wrong. 

The EVGA boards have 8 phase VRMs with 35A components. Good, but not like the 50-60A components you'll find in higher end boards. 

Talking about thr Vcore VRM, as the others don't matter on Coffee. 

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Got the Asus Prime X370 Pro because it was the best all-around board for the money I was ready to pay.

For example the option mentioned above "EVGA Z370 FTW" - that one is over 200 euro - while the Asus was 120 euro.

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Ah you have a z370, while mine is actually x370.

https://www.computeruniverse.net/en/asus-prime-x370-pro

They look quite alike though.

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

To back up CUDA on the M.2 drives...

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2781-msi-m2-heat-shield-increases-temperatures

 

Relevant video, timestamp marked

 

"Put as much effort into your question as you'd expect someone to give in an answer"- @Princess Luna

Make sure to Quote posts or tag the person with @[username] so they know you responded to them!

 RGB Build Post 2019 --- Rainbow 🦆 2020 --- Velka 5 V2.0 Build 2021

Purple Build Post ---  Blue Build Post --- Blue Build Post 2018 --- Project ITNOS

CPU i7-4790k    Motherboard Gigabyte Z97N-WIFI    RAM G.Skill Sniper DDR3 1866mhz    GPU EVGA GTX1080Ti FTW3    Case Corsair 380T   

Storage Samsung EVO 250GB, Samsung EVO 1TB, WD Black 3TB, WD Black 5TB    PSU Corsair CX750M    Cooling Cryorig H7 with NF-A12x25

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 10/14/2018 at 6:12 AM, CUDAcores89 said:

Wait a minute, what do you mean the board has no VRM heatsinks? What do you think is underneath the silver thing to the left of the chokes and capacitors? The MOSFETs should be under there.

 

The chokes and caps do not require active cooling.

 

Second, M.2 SSDs do not need heatsinks. In fact flash memory performs better when run hot.

 

Only having four SATA ports is a problem. But you can always buy a PCIe 4 port SATA HBA on amazon for $25 if you need more than 4 drives.

 

Only 2 chassis fan headers is arguably pretty terrible, but fan splitters exist.

My bad on the VRM heatsink part, I'll adjust that accordingly. :( I have however learnt something new, so thank you! The M.2 SSD heatsink problem was mainly enforcing its price and how bare-bones the motherboard is.

mechanical keyboard switches aficionado & hi-fi audio enthusiast

switch reviews  how i lube mx-style keyboard switches

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
On 7/30/2018 at 9:42 PM, sowon said:

This motherboard was made for those whom are:

a) not looking to overclock heavily - think 8350K & 8600K lightly overclocked, 8700K don't bother

 

I have this board with an 8700k and it feels like I've tried everything to OC and the most I can get is an extra 100mhz out of AI suite 3... I know my cooling/psu/etc. isn't the problem.

Why do you say "don't bother" for people with an 8700k? I'm pissed because I really want to overclock a bit more, nothing crazy but I would like to push my processor a bit harder for gaming.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×