The ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming Review: A $200 Motherboard at 5.1 GHz

Conclusion

When prospective buyers are looking into a motherboard in this, ~$200 price bracket, expectations can be fairly lofty. Users here expect full functionality, including overclocking, as well as the latest features from the platform itself including USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) functionality, good audio, as well as having a good design aesthetic or at least flexible. Many boards are able to deliver including the ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming. 

Overall the ASUS Z370-F came out of our testing unscathed and fitting in nicely with the other motherboards we have tested on this platform. Boost clocks and overall performance was in line with all the boards we tested. Overclocking was met with little fanfare and happily took our i7-8700K CPU to 5.1 GHz which is limited by our cooling - the board will not get in the way of ambient overclocks. The large heatsinks kept the power delivery bits cool during the long testing at stock and 30 mins of OCCT overclocking. 

Features wise the board has USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C ports on the back along with four other USB ports (2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0). Of the two M.2 slots, one is cooled using a part of the chipset cooler that extends over the primary M.2 slot and should help keep the device cool. 

Overall performance on the ASUS Z370-F Gaming proved to fit in with the other results. Boot times proved to be fairly quick with the Z370-F achieving a time of 16.3 seconds to POST. This actually makes it the fastest Z370 based board we have tested running behind a lesser equipped ASRock B360 board. The DigiCortex testing was also a bright spot for this board matching the ASRock Z370 Taichi's results and the fastest of the 16 boards we have tested. The board will match up performance wise with any we have tested. 

To wrap up, the ASUS Z370-F Gaming is a solid motherboard sitting around the $200 mark. At this price point, users expect a full-featured board including the latest in connectivity, the ability to overclock, and looks good. The ASUS Z370-F Gaming has most users covered. It includes USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports, the latest SupremeFX S1200A 7.1 channel audio codec, multiple M.2 slots for fast storage, SLI and Crossfire capabilities as well as holding a 5.1 GHz overclock. The features, abilities, and overall aesthetic make the board a good foundation for a mainstream Coffee Lake based system in the $200 price bracket. 

AnandTech CPU Coverage

• The Intel Core i7-8086K Review: Testing Intel's Anniversary 5.0 GHz Turbo CPU
• The Anandtech Coffee Lake Review: Initial Numbers on the Core i7-8700K and Core i5-8400
• Analyzing Z370 for Intel's 8th Generation Coffee Lake: A Quick Look at 50+ Motherboards