Analyzing Z370 for Intel's 8th Generation Coffee Lake: A Quick Look at 50+ Motherboards
by Ian Cutress, Anton Shilov, Joe Shields & Gavin Bonshor on October 20, 2017 2:00 PM ESTASRock Z370 Gaming K6
The Gaming K6 is the second board in the Gaming lineup. The board is styled similarly but has fewer features when comparing it to the flagship, such as removing some of the premium features like 10-gigabit Ethernet.
The overall appearance of the board is nearly the same as its big brother. The differences worth mentioning is the power and reset buttons have moved from next to the debug LED at the bottom right to the top right-hand corner. The debug LED remains in the same location as well as the other RGB LEDs in the shrouds and chipset heatsink. Additional strips can be added using the RGB header located on the bottom of the board.
Memory capacity and supported speeds are the same as the high-end model, at 64GB and DDR4-4333 respectively. There are three reinforced full-length PCIe slots, capable of running at x16 single, x8/x8 dual, and x8/x4/x4 when all are populated. To accompany this are three open-ended PCIe x1 slots, supporting larger cards but only at x1 bandwidth. This lane configuration allows support for 2-way SLI and 3-Way Crossfire.
The Gaming K6 breaks the regular Z370 mold and gives users eight SATA ports, six from the chipset and two additional ports from an ASM1061 controller. Two M.2 slots are on the K6 with the top one supporting 80mm drives and the other one nearer the chipset supporting up to 110mm. The first M.2 slot shares lanes with SATA 0/1 ports while the second shared with SATA 4/5 ports when SATA drives are connected.
Audio is handled by the Realtek ALC1220 codec and offers the same features as the flagship Pro Gaming i7 using Nichicon Gold series audio caps and the same NE5532 headset amplifier. Sound shaping is handled by the Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 3 software. Networking responsibilities are handed off to two Intel NICs, an I219-V and I211-AT. Though wireless networking isn’t included, there is an M.2 E-Key slot in the back panel if needed.
USB connectivity is similar with the K6 offering a front panel USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) Type-C port as well as Type-C and Type-A ports on the back panel using an ASMedia chipset. Four USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) ports are on the rear panel, with two additional headers on board. Six USB 2.0 ports via three headers are also supported. The rear panel IO also has a combination PS/2 port, and uses D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI video outputs.
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EricZBA - Friday, October 20, 2017 - link
The Asus Strix Z370-G mATX may be up on Amazon's website, but it has been Out of Stock ever since the page went up with no shipping date in sight. NewEgg Canada has it out of stock and NewEgg's US website doesn't even have a page for it. To call it available is inaccurate.Rubinhood - Friday, October 20, 2017 - link
Coffee Lake & related hardware is the new Duke Nukem Forever :)xchaotic - Monday, October 23, 2017 - link
Well, I am typing this on Asus Strix Z370 I + i5 8400 PC so not entirely vaporware. People may be whining but it seems that Intel can't keep up with the demand...piiman - Thursday, October 26, 2017 - link
got an 8600k today at Newegg. They still have stock after 4 hours so it looks like they may be starting to get large shipments. I7 is still out of stock thoughimaheadcase - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
Amazon is different than newegg, if it says Out of Stock, if you order it it will ship when it comes in stock. Sometimes it will be same day even or next day. Amazon will only show "This item is not available" if completely out of stock for foreseeable future. They do this because it stops items from completely selling out right away so supply can be steady.Morawka - Saturday, October 21, 2017 - link
I have found that Asus treats USA customers like a red headed step child. They will send units to the UK, australia, and all of Europe before they will send 1 single board to the USA.Some advice: Start looking at Overclockers.UK and have it imported to the USA.. The $30 DHL International shipping is faster than USPS Priority Mail or UPS International Express Saver. No VAT tax either.
This is what i had to do to get a Rampage VI Extreme. Newegg hasn't gotten a R6E in stock for 2 months after the initial release batch.
SpartanJet - Sunday, October 22, 2017 - link
Does Asus USA cover warranty issues then since you bought it from UK?Xeres14 - Monday, October 23, 2017 - link
Yeah I've been waiting on the Asus z370-g. I can't find an i7-8700k right now either so it's all right. Hopefully I'll be able to get both before Christmas (along with the rest of the upgrade).stuffwhy - Friday, October 20, 2017 - link
This is so great. I find it increasingly difficult to find the right mainboard and this type of posting consolidates a lot of research time.SanX - Sunday, October 22, 2017 - link
There are no "right" mobo here. Right future proof and super fast mobo has to be a dual-processor at least. Dual-SLI for example offers benefits for speed but in many cases the dual-chip is doing the same in simulations.