# Z370 motherboard recommendations



## Killiard (Mar 19, 2018)

I'm in the middle of putting together my first PC build and need a bit of advice please! After almost 20 years of Macs I'm jumping ship to PC and I've decided to go for a i7 8700k. 

I've never put a PC together, so I'm not really familiar with motherboard brands or which one I really need! After some research I'm between the Asus Maximus X Hero and the Gigabyte Gaming 7. They're both about the same price and seem pretty similar. I'm open to suggestions for other boards - I only picked those two as I've seen a few builds online where folk have used them. The z370 builds on Scan.co.uk seem to all use the Asus Prime board, which is about £50 cheaper.

Any thoughts anyone?

Here's the full parts list (I'm going to use the GPU currently in my Mac Pro)

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/PDZm8Y

Thanks!


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## antonyb (Mar 19, 2018)

You should checkout Newegg and their system builder (yes, even in the UK!) 

Also don't you need more disk space? SSDs or are you using slaves?


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## Killiard (Mar 19, 2018)

I’ll check it out! Thanks. 

The board has six sata ports and I was intending on getting a pcie sata card to extend that side of things.


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## antonyb (Mar 19, 2018)

On tip I'll give you that caused me headaches (also had been a while bringing up PCs). Is that my motherboard was not booting with the RAM i had bought although it was compatible (per specs and online building tool)
It took a MB ROM reset, ie removing the battery to get it to start with the RAM. 
Look for the instructions from your MB manufacturer.


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## chimuelo (Mar 19, 2018)

Supermicro is something that lasts for years.
I love consumer boards but when they take a dive you get little warning.
On a Supermicro the BIOS alerts you of any fluctuations and includes diagnostics, online Doctor, etc.
PCs are great, not knocking them but from experience know it’s worth the extra dough to have Enterprise quality gear.

That’s exactly why 2009 MacPros are still out there making money.


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## Killiard (Mar 20, 2018)

Thanks. There isn't terribly much out there review-wise for Supermicro z370 boards but I'll keep digging. 

Strangely enough my current Mac is a 2009 Mac Pro!


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## chimuelo (Mar 20, 2018)

These guys seem to like Enterprise Solutions.
Dig back to H170 and C236 Chipsets.
I personally like the Xeon E3 1275 v6 with C236 chipset.
Cheaper because they’re not 6/8/12 core designs.
But lots of great audio benefits because gaming isn’t the goal.
Plus 2 year old technology is always cheaper and delivers similar results.

https://www.eteknix.com/reviews/motherboards/


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## Craig Duke (Mar 20, 2018)

I am running with the Asus Prime Z370-A motherboard and i7 8700K. No problems.


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## chimuelo (Mar 22, 2018)

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Core/Z370/C7Z370-CG-L.cfm


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## Killiard (Mar 22, 2018)

Thanks. To be honest I just ended up going with the Asus board. Partly because I may decide to make a Hackintosh drive and the Asus boards seem to work well for such things!


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## fraz (Mar 22, 2018)

Hi,

Just a few thoughts FWIW - I've seen some interest in Supermicro motherboards on some of the forums. I've even gone to see if I can find some sellers of these boards but when it came to the crunch they seemed to be quite expensive compared to the other mainstream boards from Asus/MSI/Gigabyte/AsRock

I may not have looked in the best places for the best prices so I may have missed them.

Recently I managed to get a Gigabyte Z270X Aorus Gaming 9 motherboard for half of the original price in NEW condition. The only downside is it is the last GEN Z270 chipset but has amazing features for the 4 core 7700K.

If anyone has any links to sellers of Supermicro motherboards at decent prices please inlcude one here, thanks


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## Living Fossil (Mar 27, 2018)

Killiard said:


> Thanks. To be honest I just ended up going with the Asus board.



Which one?


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## Killiard (Mar 28, 2018)

The Maximus Hero X. I put the system together a few nights ago and it’s running very nicely! 

Today I’ve been learning about overclocking the 8700k. I’ve been conservative and aimed for 4.8GHz.


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## chimuelo (Mar 28, 2018)

Wise choice.
Supermicro boards do not like Hackintosh tricks.
Best Hacks are usually Asus and ASRock, but give it a year unless the tips come from a well made video or expert on Hacks.


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## Craig Duke (Mar 28, 2018)

Killiard said:


> The Maximus Hero X. I put the system together a few nights ago and it’s running very nicely!
> 
> Today I’ve been learning about overclocking the 8700k. I’ve been conservative and aimed for 4.8GHz.



I'm running my 8700K at a fixed 4.7 GHz.


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## Killiard (Mar 28, 2018)

Craig Duke said:


> I'm running my 8700K at a fixed 4.7 GHz.



Well I’m running all cores at 4.8GHz at 1.25v. It’s not massively better than the stock I don’t think. 
Pre overclock my Geekbench score was
Single 5835, Multi 25687

After the overclock
Single 5899, Multi 25966

Though Cinebench score went from 1349 to 1539. 

My temps are never going about 64c during the Cinebench test, which doesn’t seem very hot to me. 

I dunno. I’m no expert on these things!


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## chimuelo (Mar 28, 2018)

The extra GHz comes in handy on synths which really only correlate to Cine Single Core benches better.
Im getting Cine Single mid 1400s on my i7 4790k @ Stock which is fine for me.
First CPU Maker to release 10nm @ 5GHz gets my money.
Until then I got a few i7 4790k’s to burn up.

Have fun..


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## kitekrazy (Mar 28, 2018)

I've always stayed under $150 on a board. I've used Asus, Gigabyte, and AsRock and never had issues. I like less features. Who needs slots for 3 gaming cards these days? I feel better if a $150 board went bad a year after warranty than a $300 board.


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## LinusW (Mar 29, 2018)

fraz said:


> Recently I managed to get a Gigabyte Z270X Aorus Gaming 9 motherboard for half of the original price in NEW condition. The only downside is it is the last GEN Z270 chipset but has amazing features for the 4 core 7700K.


...and Thunderbolt 3. How about that?


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