Conclusion
A person looking for a Mini-ITX has a few things in mind, of which a small footprint is clearly one of them. Creativity on the part of the board maker will ultimately determine how many features can be achieved on the low amount of real estate. To the credit of ASUS, features on the Z370-I Gaming, such as finding room for two M.2 slots by placing a second on the back of the board, works in its favor, even if it makes the board more complicated to manufacture.
Along with the M.2 slots, the ASUS Z370-I Gaming includes the ASUS ROG Supreme FX S1220 modified Realtek codec for audio, Intel networking (wired and wireless), an onboard USB 3.1 header, and four SATA ports. When compared to a full-size board, about the only thing missing are the additional PCIe and DRAM slots. The Z370-I Gaming set out to be a small form factor, gaming-centric motherboard. In the end, ASUS brought a well rounded Mini-ITX board to market which should accomplish that goal and be an exciting choice for buyers.
There isn't much board partners are able to do for aesthetics on such a small board, but ASUS does a good job with what it has. The aluminum heatsinks are bright against the black PCB. The socket area has lines going through though, otherwise, space is taken up by working parts. ASUS has 13 RGB LEDs on the back of the board as well as an RGB header in case that isn't enough.
If I had to ask for something more on this board, I would like to have seen USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports on the back panel. In order to get that type of functionality from this board, users will need a case with a front panel USB 3.1 port, which is still not a standard on most PC cases.
The performance testing shows the Z370-I hanging out with the big boards. Idle power consumption was slightly better than the rest, but the board really shined in our boot times where it was the fastest we have tested so far. We were able to overclock the i7-8700K to the limits of our cooling and ended up at 5.1 GHz - a good result on any size board. Also on the positive side of things is the ASUS BIOS. In my opinion it is one of the more refined and organized systems out which should make navigation easy.
The ASUS ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming is a very capable motherboard. Its feature set is comparable to other Mini-ITX boards in its price class and is one of three boards of its size which have two M.2 slots (GIGABYTE Z370N WiFi and SuperO C7Z370-CG-IW are the others). Choosing the proper Mini-ITX board is going to come down to what the user needs and wants on the board as to which to choose. Pricing for most Z370 mainstream Mini-ITX boards is roughly the same, although one of the four main companies does offer a model that is ~$30 cheaper that has some trade-offs on controllers and bundle.
For a good high-performance motherboard, the ASUS Z370-I Gaming should be on the short list under $200, even if the user is looking at a full-sized build. The Z370-I Gaming has proven to be quite capable and has most of the features buyers are looking for.
AnandTech Intel Z370 Motherboard and CPU Coverage
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