Asus have introduced a string of recent motherboards for the launch of Intel’s newest eighth Gen Coffee Lake CPU chipsets. Arriving in ROG Strix, Prime and Tuf Gaming model flavours, these new H370 and B360 boards intention to deliver extra connectivity at a worth that ought to (hopefully) preserve these tears of despair at bay in case you determine to use as the muse on your subsequent PC – which is much more than will be mentioned for current graphics card prices proper now.
Previously, potential Coffee Lake consumers have been restricted to high-end Z370 motherboards, as this was the one chipset out there when Intel first launched their eighth Gen CPUs. Now, nonetheless, the Z370 chipset is being joined by a number of new platforms, together with the H370, B360, H310 and Q370, providing a wider array of options throughout a broader vary of costs.
This ought to hopefully give PC builders a bit extra flexibility relating to upgrading their system, and Asus’ new boards are hoping to tell apart themselves by providing improved cooling when enjoying video games – offered you’ve bought the appropriate Asus graphics card, that’s.
Assuming you’ve bought the appropriate gear, although, Asus’ new H370 and B360 boards will regulate the pace of your system followers based mostly on the temperature of the GPU itself – not the temperature of the CPU or chassis like most different boards. This ought to hopefully enhance stability and assist stop any potential throttling, however I’ll be placing them by way of their paces with some correct testing very quickly.
Each new Asus board can even incorporate the second technology of the USB 3.1 normal, providing a little bit of future-proofing for forthcoming peripherals, in addition to non-compulsory 802.11ac Wi-Fi. All of them can even help Intel’s ultra-fast Optane Memory storage tech, however you’ll want an H370 board if you’d like turbocharged storage efficiency with bootable RAID arrays on your NVMe and SATA drives.
Other shared options embrace twin M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, help for DDR4 2666MHz RAM, Asus’ Aura Sync LED tech, Asus’ Fan Xpert 4, which gives much more management over your PC’s varied system followers, and Asus’ easy-to-use UEFI BIOS interface. The latter particularly has been up to date with plenty of new options, together with a search perform for simple system administration, configuration profiles that may be saved and shared (even after your firmware’s been up to date), in addition to an built-in firmware updater that may obtain and apply the newest replace with out booting into your OS.
So how a lot will all of those value? UK pricing is but to be confirmed, however the least expensive one within the US – the micro-ATX-sized Asus Prime H370M-Plus – begins at $100. The costliest fashions, in the meantime – the Asus ROG Strix H370-F Gaming (ATX), Asus ROG Strix H370-I Gaming (mini-ITX) and the Asus ROG Strix B360-F Gaming (ATX) – max out at $140.
This makes them significantly cheaper than Asus’ Z370 boards, which might at the moment be discovered wherever within the area of $160-$300, however keep tuned for our full evaluation to see in the event that they’re value the additional saving.
