Asus ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMING evaluation： the most worthy model in STRIX.
[PConline evaluation]The status of the brand ROG Player Country in motherboard products is believed to be unshakable. In 2017, the shipment volume and market share of ASUS high-end motherboards have further improved, which can also reflect this well. In fact, this is partly due to the launch of ROG STRIX series, which has lowered the threshold of ROG’s failure. Today’s evaluation is the F suffix model of Z370 chipset — — ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMING, why does the title say it is the most worthy choice?
Of course, the comparison here is actually only for other STRIX motherboards with the same Z370 chipset.
●ROG STRIX five models:
In fact, since the generation of Z270, the ROG STRIX series has five models aimed at different positioning, namelyE, f, g, h, I suffixesLike today’s protagonist is suffix "F"Asus ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMINGLet’s simply remember that the I suffix is ITX-type mini-board and the G suffix is M-ATX-type mini-board.
E, F and H are all ATX boards, in which materials, positioning and pricing are E>F>H, and "E" and "F" are generally 200 yuan price difference, which are identical except for a wireless network card, while H is relatively cheap, but the materials for interface and power supply are slightly saved. In addition, unless there are some special reasons, the demand for wireless WiFi on desktops is not great, so it is the most worthwhile choice with the suffix F, which is indeed confirmed by the sales of the previous generation.
Unpacking: familiar STRIX raptor’s mark
The style of the box hasn’t changed much. After all, Z370 has not changed much compared with Z270, haha.
ROG armor on the heat sink of the South Bridge is a little simpler than that of the previous generation. An eye of a prodigal family is carved directly on a piece of wire drawing technology, and the trace of the raptor is still retained on the side. Incidentally, it is also connected to the M.2 SSD interface below, which provides heat dissipation assistance and makes the whole more integrated.
Expansion interface:
PCIe slot
The number of PCIe slots is very rich, including three long PCIe 3.0 slots and five short ones, of which the upper two long ones have alloy reinforcement design and support SLI and CF.
Dual M.2 SSD interface
The motherboard provides two M.2 SSD interfaces, and now the demand for M.2 SSD is increasing, which is still very practical. After all, the speed is faster than the traditional SATA interface.
Standard 6×SATA 3.0 interface
Back I/O interface
The back interface is equipped with three video output interfaces, including the three most popular types on the market at present. The USB interface is equipped with 2×USB 2.0, 2×USB 3.0 and a set of USB 3.1 Type-C and Type-A, and the others are conventional interfaces. The network interface is Intel I219V scheme.
In terms of interfaces, the number of PCIe slots is very rich, while the I/O interfaces of M.2 and the back of the motherboard are quite satisfactory, neither too many nor too few.
Internal materials:
CPU power supply module
The CPU power supply module adopts 6+4 phases of digital power supply, 6 phases are provided for CPU and 4 phases are provided for nuclear display. The more phases there are, the better the materials are, and the less and more stable the calorific value of the power supply module is.
4×DDR4 memory slot
Because it is a Z370 motherboard, the overclocking feature is of course supported. The measured startup memory XMP 2.0 to 3200MHz is very stable and can run at a higher frequency if the memory supports it.
SUPREME FX audio module
The audio module is also made of very luxurious materials, including electromagnetic shield, rich professional audio capacitors from nichicon, and also supports ASUS’s acoustic radar. When playing FPS games, especially chicken-eating games, you can better listen to the sound and get a more immersive game experience.
Familiar I219V
On-board network chip uses the most common I219V, and is equipped with a LANGuard network card protection chip, which can effectively prevent lightning strikes.
asmedia ASM3142
The USB 3.1 scheme uses ASMEDIA’s latest ASM3142 chip, which has higher actual bandwidth and faster actual speed than the previous generation.
I/O armored lamp effect
After some practical observation, the materials used in ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMING are still solid, at least it is not a problem to make the high-end processors with K stable. The audio module and the latest USB 3.1 chip can ensure a good use experience and game experience.
BIOS: It’s still classic and easy to use ver.ROG
If it is a relatively new CPU and motherboard, it is recommended that you keep the BIOS up-to-date and have better stability.
BIOS has always been one of the great advantages of ASUS motherboard, which is large, wide, complete and easy to set up.
Basic mode
There are three preset schemes in the upper right corner, including air-cooled overclocking and water-cooled overclocking, which can be used by players who want to easily improve their performance.
Favorites
advanced options
In fact, they are all familiar options. This thing doesn’t need to be updated, but it is easy to use.
Introduction of CPU-z & test platform;
Mingjue MS480GBX6
3DMark (physical calculation)
CPU-Z
CineBenchmark R15
The configuration of the test platform is as shown in the above figure, which uses dual-channel high-frequency memory and is tuned to the silent frequency of CPU, which is the top 8700K among the eight generations of Core. Of course, the graphics card should be a public version.
By comparing other Z370 motherboards, it can be found that the performance of the two motherboards is very consistent in the silent frequency state, which shows thatAsus ROG Z370-FCan stably play the performance of all hardware on the motherboard.
Full load temperature test of CPU power supply module:
This link uses a professional thermal imager to test and record the temperature data, mainly recording the temperature in idle state and full load state.
The CPU is i7-8700K, and the demand for power supply is still very high when the 6-core is fully loaded. The full-load temperature is 78.2℃, which is a reasonable level for the 6+4-phase power supply module, but it is still safe.
●PConline evaluation room summary:
The motherboard is priced at around 2,000 yuan, and its performance can be said to have reached the level expected of ROG STRIX. The blessing of the lost eye is the guarantee of many players’ confidence in it, and ASUS will certainly polish every product branded with the lost eye. After all, it represents the level of high-end products of ASUS.
Motherboard materials are solid, and the number of high-end expansion interfaces is sufficient. The I/O armor is equipped with RGB e-sports lights, excellent and easy-to-use BIOS, and various supporting ASUS family barrel software can be selected as needed.
Nowadays, manufacturers are staring at the big cake of e-sports. ROG STRIX series came from this piece at the beginning, so we also saw many e-sports elements in this series, as well as some software and optimizations designed for this purpose.
Back to the question worth choosing, if you want to experience the feeling of using the high-end brand ROG, and choose a piece that is good in all aspects and does not need wireless wifi function, then the Z370F is really suitable.