Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7
5th October, 2017Type
MotherboardPrice
$249.99 USTest Setup
For testing, we used the latest Intel Core i7-8700K which was sent by Intel and the Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7. The Intel Coffee Lake family comes with higher core count on the main stream platform but prices are close to the predecessors in the same segment. We also slightly updated our test platform as Intel had sent us with their 32 GB Optane Memory which they say boosts performance of SATA based storage devices significantly and Coffee Lake can prove to be worthy demonstration for this type of memory product.
Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 Test Platform:
| Processor | Intel Core i7-8700K |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming ASRock Z370 Professional Gaming i7 |
| Power Supply | Corsair RM 750X Gold Plus |
| Solid State Drive | Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB) |
| Hard Disk | Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 7200.12 |
| Memory | G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series 32 GB (4 x 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz |
| Case | Corsair Graphite Series 780T Full Tower |
| Video Cards | MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X |
| Cooling Solutions | Corsair H115i GTX Cryorig R1 Ultimate |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit |
Our test rig includes the Samsung 960 EVO 500 GB SSD that boots up our main OS while a 2 TB Seagate HDD is used for demonstration purposes for the Intel Optane memory. In addition to these, we are running a MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X graphics card, a Corsair RM 750X Gold Plus power supply and 32 GB of G.Skill provided Trident Z RGB series memory which runs with a clock speed of DDR4-3600 MHz. For cooling, we used the Cryorig R1 Ultimate and Corsair H115i GTX AIO coolers to see how the new Coffee Lake CPUs perform on both air and liquid cooling solutions.
We won't be focusing on Intel's Core i7-8700K architecture in this review since it is entirely the same chip as Skylake along with minor improvements. The Skylake / Kaby Lake architecture analysis can be seen in detail here. For overclocking, I made the following tweaks to the CPUs:
- Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5.2 GHz With 1.378V (100 x 52)
Contents
You can find additional information about our hardware review process and ethics policy here.
The Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 is a great contender for the best Intel 8th Gen motherboard in the $250 US bracket. It features an amazing build and design quality with almost all the features that a gamer would want when building his new Coffee Lake PC.
- One of the Best $250 US Z370 Motherboards
- Support For Intel 8th Generation Coffee Lake Family
- Up To 6 Core Processor Support
- Excellent Overclocking Support on Unlocked Intel CPUs
- Excellent Design Scheme With Solid Heatsink Solution
- Excellent Build Quality with High Quality VRM and PCB
- VRMs cooled by heatpipe and fan cooling
- Tons of Connectivity Options
- Dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN (Intel I219-V and Killer E2500)
- 4133 MHz+ DDR4 Memory Support
- 10 Phase Power Delivery System
- Sound BlasterX 720 (ALC1120/ESS Sabre 9018 DAC)
- Upgradable AMPs for Better Audio Support
- Triple M.2 Slots (Optane Support)
- M.2 Heatsink Comes With The Board
- Full RGB LED Lightning With Multiple Points (Including PCIe and DRAM)
- Lots of Software Support
Pros
- No Wireless Connectivity
Cons
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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