EVGA Z370 Micro ATX

[HEXUS]

Something different, something new.

Read more.

[Ttaskmaster]

I like the angled 24-pin.
Should please all the RGB haters, too!!

[scaryjim]

£180

2 RAM slots

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

£180

2 RAM slots

Agreed - this is one of the most pointless motherboards I have seen in years. Its not even a mini-ITX one,so what is the point of an oversized motherboard with only two RAM slots costing £180?? Who the heck at EVGA did the focus group testing for this product??

Edit!!

I had a look around at memory prices - 32GB of 3466MHZ DDR4 in a quad channel pack,is cheaper than 32GB of 3333MHZ in a dual channel pack!

Also as being a SFF PC fan,there is another problem here. With this motherboard you will find it costlier longterm to increase the amount of memory. If you start with 8GB or 16GB now,you can add another 8GB or 16GB later on if prices drop at some point. With this board,if you want 16GB or 32GB,you will need to ditch the existing kit and lose money on it.

Whereas with a mini-ITX system if you choose the case carefully,you can get a reasonably small system and at least put up with the lower amount of expansion options.

This board OTH is full mATX,ie,not the smaller mATX format one you get so there is no size advantage over another mATX board. If it was the reduced form factor mATX size,it might actually have made more sense.



Those are the reduced size mATX boards,ie,around 17CM long,but 24CM wide.

Second Edit!!



Is that the 8 pin EPS connector at the bottom?? In most smaller mATX cases,the motherboard will be quite close to the PSU bay,or at the very top.



That is the Coolermaster Q300L which was in a Hexus news article today.

If the PSU is at the very top,the EPS cable needs to be very long!!

[scaryjim]

... Is that the 8 pin EPS connector at the bottom?? ...

According to the review it's a 6pin PCIe connector - presumably to provide additional current to the PCIe slots? In case ... huh, I think I've got it.

It's an under-cover mining board. 150W extra power to the PCIe slots? Only reason I can see you needing that is if you decide to run multiple cards off each slot ... which is a classic approach for a mining rig.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

According to the review it's a 6pin PCIe connector - presumably to provide additional current to the PCIe slots? In case ... huh, I think I've got it.

It's an under-cover mining board. 150W extra power to the PCIe slots? Only reason I can see you needing that is if you decide to run multiple cards off each slot ... which is a classic approach for a mining rig.

I had another look and you are right,so the board looks slightly less weird than I thought it was. Serves me right for looking at it using my phone!!

Also I think you are right,regarding the board. If you had several boards lined up flat,it would be easier for people to plug in the the 24 ATX power connector from the front,and route the EPS power connector and additional PCI-E power along the sides of the board.

OTH,EVGA probably does not want to advertise this as a mining board,in case mining crashes,so decided it was safe not to!

However,it still makes utter meh for a normal build IMHO OFC.

[peterb]

Well if its purpose is to support a couple of high end GPUs for mining or other intensive processes that can be farmed out to a GPU it sort of makes sense, but why the need to cram in USB ports? And USB 2 ports as well? Personally I'd prefer to see fewer USB ports and more SATA ports at least 8.

[Korrorra]

I also like the angled 24 pin. I really hope more board makers do that.

[MrJim]

Well if its purpose is to support a couple of high end GPUs for mining or other intensive processes that can be farmed out to a GPU it sort of makes sense, but why the need to cram in USB ports? And USB 2 ports as well? Personally I'd prefer to see fewer USB ports and more SATA ports at least 8.

Funnily enough, I'm just the opposite - I have loads of USB devices, but don't really need more than a couple of SATA ports, especially now that M.2 is a thing. I know USB hubs can be used to expand USB connections, but in my experience a lot of USB devices don't play well with hubs, powered or otherwise.

[kompukare]

Well if its purpose is to support a couple of high end GPUs for mining or other intensive processes that can be farmed out to a GPU it sort of makes sense, but why the need to cram in USB ports?

I don't see how the extra PCIe power connector would useful for mining since two x16 and one x4 slots aren't exactly a lot.
Okay mATX doesn't leave much space, but if someone were to design an mATX mining board, surely they'd place another x1 or x4 slot there where they put the M.2 slot

[MrJim]

I don't see how the extra PCIe power connector would useful for mining since two x16 and one x4 slots aren't exactly a lot.
Okay mATX doesn't leave much space, but if someone were to design an mATX mining board, surely they'd place another x1 or x4 slot there where they put the M.2 slot

In my experience, extra PCIe power connectors in that location are usually to help wither overclocking stability. Years ago I had a DFI motherboard with a molex power connector for that same reason...

[scaryjim]

I don't see how the extra PCIe power connector would useful for mining since two x16 and one x4 slots aren't exactly a lot. ...

You can use port multipliers to run multiple devices off a single PCIe slot. Many multipliers are powered, but GPUs tend to pull quite heavily from the slot power anyway (often going briefly out of spec), so I suspect having a better slot power supply will help stability.

Of course, as MrJim says, it also helps out with overclocking, particularly with multiple cards, so it's not single purpose. There's a lot of other design decisions that simply don't scream "enthusiast multi-GPU overclocking board". Some of the design decision actually kind of shout "OEM custom board design" too. It's a bit of a muddle, imo.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You can use port multipliers to run multiple devices off a single PCIe slot. Many multipliers are powered, but GPUs tend to pull quite heavily from the slot power anyway (often going briefly out of spec), so I suspect having a better slot power supply will help stability.

Of course, as MrJim says, it also helps out with overclocking, particularly with multiple cards, so it's not single purpose. There's a lot of other design decisions that simply don't scream "enthusiast multi-GPU overclocking board". Some of the design decision actually kind of shout "OEM custom board design" too. It's a bit of a muddle, imo.

Sounds like cost cutting. So have one board which fits three sectors,but put gamerz branding on it for the DIY PC crowd.