Just to try and head the peanut gallery off at the pass. Based on something that either Ian or Ryan said a few days ago on twitter this should be the last board from the Z270 backlog.
We've got two AMD motherboard reviews being edited this week for next week. Our new motherboard review team, all of whom are in different corners of the world, is slowly coming up to speed. In case you didn't notice, E.Fyll has been doing our Z270 reviews this year and only Z270 - the other reviewers are taking on other chipsets - Joe for X299, Gavin for AM4. E.Fyll is likely to take TR4 now, and when Patrick gets back from his vacation, he's likely to take the Z370 content.
Since Anandtech doesn't buy the gear they review, they can only review whatever the manufacturer sends them. If ASUS sends them 4 Intel boards and one AMD board, that's what they review.
"while AMD sells better in europe than intel for the past 3 month."
Is that based on the data for one webtailer or the whole of Europe? For all CPUs or just a range? I doubt that AMD currently have the capacity to supply that much of the retail market but if that's what they have done it's amazing.
As per my tweet a few days ago, just getting the last ones out. The platform is still going to exist for a couple of years, with retail sales of both motherboards and processors. Reviews are still relevant.
Just wanted to chime in since you're being forced to defend yourself, that I appreciate all your reviews, whenever they're posted. I'm not in the market for new parts now, but I have in the past and will be again in the future. Your site has always been an invaluable resource, so thank you.
I bought this board based only on the spec sheet when the 7700k came out as there were no reviews at the time. It's nice to know that I got a good board even if the review is late, in particular I had no idea the onboard audio was that good, I figured it was all just marketing.
This website is a prime example of what happens when you hire millennial's to your company, slow , shoddy, confounding, and quite frankly idiotic work ethic.
What's happening here is AT is on a super tight budget, trying to squeeze lemons from limes, and the squeezer's don't really "feel they deserve being worked so hard"
Higher-end motherboards have a selection of features that are not present on lower-end motherboards. Like in other markets, price variation exists because of feature differentiation.
Halo products are always the most expensive. You can find reasonably priced parts for both companies mainstream sockets.
New Z270 and X370 boards both start at slightly over $100 on Newegg; down to $50ish for the entry level chipset in each family.
Big socket boards are more expensive. Intels X299 starts at just $210, X399 at $340; a socket 2/4x as large as mainstream doesn't come free. All of the extra stuff they include requires a more complex mobo to implement; so while Threadripper boards might narrow the price gap a bit vs Intels LGA2066 boards as they're out longer they'll never get to be as cheap because there's so much more they need to do. (Unless you want a cheap TR board that only has 32 PCIe lanes enabled or something like that.)
Plenty of Z270 boards in the $100 - $150 price range. There are AM4 boards in the $250 - $350 price range available as well, if you want to spend the money.
Another question to ask, do you really want to overclock on that sub $100 board? Just because you can doesn't mean you should, depending on the quality of components available. And just for arguments sake, make sure you are looking at AM4 boards, not the near ancient AM3+ boards.
So with the current crop of Intel/AMD CPUs, spend $300+ on a mobo for like a 10% OC while turning my PC into a space heater = lol no thanks, I got way better things to spend money on.
And nobody really gave a crap about VRM quality 10 years ago when CPU OCing was actually worth it from a value perspective, unlike today where everyone is trying to be a youtube OC superstar trying to outdo each other in their ego.
Wow, the day has finally come where Asus is trailing Asrock. I’ve always been a big fan of asrock boards. And in my opinion they have better customer and technical support.
Asus support is the worst I’ve ever dealt with.
With that all said, I wonder how z370 will hold up against Z270. Other than core count on the CPUs not much has changed for this chipset. Am I correct in this?
Yeah right. An AM3+ motherboard I was using couldn't support an AM3 Athlon II 645 Zosma core(those nice CPUs that could unlock to 6 cores). Their reply. "The CPU is probably problematic". Well, that CPU was playing beautifully on an ASUS and a Gigabyte motherboard. It was also running with 6 cores at 4GHz.
Thanks for the review. I'm looking at the Z370G Strix, since it's the only reasonably high end mATX announced so far. I hope most of the content of this review will carry over.
AMD motherboards will support today's Ryzen and tomorrow's Ryzen Plus and Ryzen 2 (or whatever their names will be). And here we are looking at a full review of another DOA Intel motherboard.
Very few people today wanting a mainstream PC should be thinking of an (almost) 20 year design as in full ATX. Sure there are niche applications which can use it but since both the press and the manufacturers still consider it a contemporary design then its hard to get the mainstream to adopt these smaller form factors. (u/mATX still seem to be the red headed step child compared to the whole ATX range from every mobo manufacturer these days).
More space to spread things out can let you get away with fewer PCB layers and a cheaper overall board. Somewhat ironically while allowing smaller overall system volumes, m.2 SSDs are making this problem worse by needing large amounts of board space. Putting the drive on the back of the board is inconvenient and potentailly has thermal concerns to lack of airflow between the board and mobo tray. Mini riser cards are kludgy; and in the case of ones using a DRAM style connector to keep part costs down are probably going to have higher damage rates due to users trying to put ram in the riser slot or vice versa.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
26 Comments
Back to Article
DanNeely - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Just to try and head the peanut gallery off at the pass. Based on something that either Ian or Ryan said a few days ago on twitter this should be the last board from the Z270 backlog.Gothmoth - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
take a look at the mainboard reviews here an anandtech and tell me anandtech is not biased.count the intel reviews then count the AMD reviews.
full reviews for intel boards and "overviews" for AMD boards.
and no, the reason is not that there are less AMD boards then intel boards.
why not at least review the few AMD boards that exist?
they rather preview Z270 boards then spending time on threadripper or AM4 boards.
while AMD sells better in europe than intel for the past 3 month.
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
We've got two AMD motherboard reviews being edited this week for next week. Our new motherboard review team, all of whom are in different corners of the world, is slowly coming up to speed. In case you didn't notice, E.Fyll has been doing our Z270 reviews this year and only Z270 - the other reviewers are taking on other chipsets - Joe for X299, Gavin for AM4. E.Fyll is likely to take TR4 now, and when Patrick gets back from his vacation, he's likely to take the Z370 content.MajGenRelativity - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
I'm looking forward to seeing more motherboard reviews :) I appreciate the quality contentFlunk - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Since Anandtech doesn't buy the gear they review, they can only review whatever the manufacturer sends them. If ASUS sends them 4 Intel boards and one AMD board, that's what they review.smilingcrow - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
"while AMD sells better in europe than intel for the past 3 month."Is that based on the data for one webtailer or the whole of Europe?
For all CPUs or just a range?
I doubt that AMD currently have the capacity to supply that much of the retail market but if that's what they have done it's amazing.
Gothmoth - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
yeah i will buy Z270 now that Z370 is released in 2 days.....great job on doing timely reviews. tremendous job.
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
As per my tweet a few days ago, just getting the last ones out. The platform is still going to exist for a couple of years, with retail sales of both motherboards and processors. Reviews are still relevant.reckless76 - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Just wanted to chime in since you're being forced to defend yourself, that I appreciate all your reviews, whenever they're posted. I'm not in the market for new parts now, but I have in the past and will be again in the future. Your site has always been an invaluable resource, so thank you.notR1CH - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
I bought this board based only on the spec sheet when the 7700k came out as there were no reviews at the time. It's nice to know that I got a good board even if the review is late, in particular I had no idea the onboard audio was that good, I figured it was all just marketing.Sarah Terra - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
This website is a prime example of what happens when you hire millennial's to your company, slow , shoddy, confounding, and quite frankly idiotic work ethic.What's happening here is AT is on a super tight budget, trying to squeeze lemons from limes, and the squeezer's don't really "feel they deserve being worked so hard"
guidryp - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
$350 for a MB?This is what will likely drive me to AMD when I build my first PC in years. I can overclock AMD on any of a wide selection of sub $100 MBs.
MajGenRelativity - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Higher-end motherboards have a selection of features that are not present on lower-end motherboards. Like in other markets, price variation exists because of feature differentiation.Disclaimer: I own a $550 motherboard.
DanNeely - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Halo products are always the most expensive. You can find reasonably priced parts for both companies mainstream sockets.New Z270 and X370 boards both start at slightly over $100 on Newegg; down to $50ish for the entry level chipset in each family.
Big socket boards are more expensive. Intels X299 starts at just $210, X399 at $340; a socket 2/4x as large as mainstream doesn't come free. All of the extra stuff they include requires a more complex mobo to implement; so while Threadripper boards might narrow the price gap a bit vs Intels LGA2066 boards as they're out longer they'll never get to be as cheap because there's so much more they need to do. (Unless you want a cheap TR board that only has 32 PCIe lanes enabled or something like that.)
jardows2 - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Plenty of Z270 boards in the $100 - $150 price range. There are AM4 boards in the $250 - $350 price range available as well, if you want to spend the money.Another question to ask, do you really want to overclock on that sub $100 board? Just because you can doesn't mean you should, depending on the quality of components available. And just for arguments sake, make sure you are looking at AM4 boards, not the near ancient AM3+ boards.
StrangerGuy - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
So with the current crop of Intel/AMD CPUs, spend $300+ on a mobo for like a 10% OC while turning my PC into a space heater = lol no thanks, I got way better things to spend money on.And nobody really gave a crap about VRM quality 10 years ago when CPU OCing was actually worth it from a value perspective, unlike today where everyone is trying to be a youtube OC superstar trying to outdo each other in their ego.
TEAMSWITCHER - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
That price is an error. If you click the price to activate the link, you go to the WRONG motherboard.DanNeely - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Good catch there. This is the right one, and only $189.https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N...
smilingcrow - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
You have little sense of context.wolfemane - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Wow, the day has finally come where Asus is trailing Asrock. I’ve always been a big fan of asrock boards. And in my opinion they have better customer and technical support.Asus support is the worst I’ve ever dealt with.
With that all said, I wonder how z370 will hold up against Z270. Other than core count on the CPUs not much has changed for this chipset. Am I correct in this?
yannigr2 - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
Yeah right. An AM3+ motherboard I was using couldn't support an AM3 Athlon II 645 Zosma core(those nice CPUs that could unlock to 6 cores). Their reply. "The CPU is probably problematic". Well, that CPU was playing beautifully on an ASUS and a Gigabyte motherboard. It was also running with 6 cores at 4GHz.Great support, never again ASRock.
Drumsticks - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - link
Thanks for the review. I'm looking at the Z370G Strix, since it's the only reasonably high end mATX announced so far. I hope most of the content of this review will carry over.yannigr2 - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
Thanks to Intel, this is DOA.AMD motherboards will support today's Ryzen and tomorrow's Ryzen Plus and Ryzen 2 (or whatever their names will be). And here we are looking at a full review of another DOA Intel motherboard.
MadAd - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
I approve of more uATX/mATX reviews.Very few people today wanting a mainstream PC should be thinking of an (almost) 20 year design as in full ATX. Sure there are niche applications which can use it but since both the press and the manufacturers still consider it a contemporary design then its hard to get the mainstream to adopt these smaller form factors. (u/mATX still seem to be the red headed step child compared to the whole ATX range from every mobo manufacturer these days).
DanNeely - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
More space to spread things out can let you get away with fewer PCB layers and a cheaper overall board. Somewhat ironically while allowing smaller overall system volumes, m.2 SSDs are making this problem worse by needing large amounts of board space. Putting the drive on the back of the board is inconvenient and potentailly has thermal concerns to lack of airflow between the board and mobo tray. Mini riser cards are kludgy; and in the case of ones using a DRAM style connector to keep part costs down are probably going to have higher damage rates due to users trying to put ram in the riser slot or vice versa.meacupla - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
What a perfect feature set.Now if this only existed on an mATX AM4 board, then we are in business.