Z370 thoughts

[aisle9]

A shiny new Coffee Lake 6-core unlocked CPU appeared in my mailbox at some point over the last couple of weeks, and I'm getting ready to pop it into a build. The last question for me is motherboard. My wife is getting my Ryzen 7 1700/X370 Taichi combo, and she sort of claimed the S340 Elite case along with it. That's left me in an unusual situation: I have a Riotoro CR480 case here that's not in use...as well as my old Thermaltake Core V21.

 

So that leads into the biggest question here: motherboard. The Riotoro accepts everything up to ATM, and the Thermaltake accepts up to mATX. I loved the V21, and only parted ways with it when my 4790K died on me and there weren't really any great mATX options for X370. I'm considering bringing the V21 back into use, but that would require a Micro ATX Z370 board, and it doesn't look like there are many of those out there.

 

Are there any really solid mATX Z370 boards for an 8086K out there? Ones that don't look like that EVGA abomination? Also, are there any manufacturers to avoid (like MSI with early Ryzen, when RAM compatibility sucked for them)? If I'm more interested in great VRMs than I am RGB, any ideas where to look? Right now, the ASUS Z370-G, MSI Z370M Gaming Pro and the aforementioned EVGA abomination all have my attention. I'm not opposed to staying with the ATX form factor if there's just a much better board out there for the price than what I can get with a micro ATX case. My budget maxes out at $175, but I'd greatly prefer to stay below $150. Amazon is my merchant of choice if at all possible--I have $75 of store credit to use there.

[.Apex.]

3 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

A shiny new Coffee Lake 6-core unlocked CPU appeared in my mailbox at some point over the last couple of weeks, and I'm getting ready to pop it into a build. The last question for me is motherboard. My wife is getting my Ryzen 7 1700/X370 Taichi combo, and she sort of claimed the S340 Elite case along with it. That's left me in an unusual situation: I have a Riotoro CR480 case here that's not in use...as well as my old Thermaltake Core V21.

 

So that leads into the biggest question here: motherboard. The Riotoro accepts everything up to ATM, and the Thermaltake accepts up to mATX. I loved the V21, and only parted ways with it when my 4790K died on me and there weren't really any great mATX options for X370. I'm considering bringing the V21 back into use, but that would require a Micro ATX Z370 board, and it doesn't look like there are many of those out there.

 

Are there any really solid mATX Z370 boards for an 8086K out there? Ones that don't look like that EVGA abomination? Also, are there any manufacturers to avoid (like MSI with early Ryzen, when RAM compatibility sucked for them)? If I'm more interested in great VRMs than I am RGB, any ideas where to look? Right now, the ASUS Z370-G, MSI Z370M Gaming Pro and the aforementioned EVGA abomination all have my attention. I'm not opposed to staying with the ATX form factor if there's just a much better board out there for the price than what I can get with a micro ATX case. My budget maxes out at $175, but I'd greatly prefer to stay below $150. Amazon is my merchant of choice if at all possible--I have $75 of store credit to use there.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813119042

the ASUS Z370-G is a great motherboard.

[Firewrath9]

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#m=14&f=2,7&c=128&sort=price&page=1

 

take your pick

all 3 are very good motherboards.

 

[aisle9]

5 hours ago, Firewrath9 said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#m=14&f=2,7&c=128&sort=price&page=1

 

take your pick

all 3 are very good motherboards.

 

Have you used the EVGA mATX board? It's cheap, no doubt, but it makes a pretty big compromise with only two DIMMs, and the sheer number of power connectors on the board itself makes it look like a specialized board for people looking for a huge overclock, not necessarily an everyman's board.

[Firewrath9]

6 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Have you used the EVGA mATX board? It's cheap, no doubt, but it makes a pretty big compromise with only two DIMMs, and the sheer number of power connectors on the board itself makes it look like a specialized board for people looking for a huge overclock, not necessarily an everyman's board.

I have heard good reviews on it, its very good for overclocking, 2 dimms is all you need, 1x16 or 2x8 is plenty you only need to use one 8 pin for CPU, the 4 pin is for heavy OC.

[aezakmi]

I'd use the Riotoro case tbh, has better airflow

 

The EVGA board is for overclocking, the MSI Z370M Mortar is more mainstream