R E V I E W // G I G A B Y T E A O R U S Z 3 7 0 G A M I N G 7
TESTING CONFIGURATION
INTEL Core i7 8700K
CORSAIR VENGENACE LPX 4333
EVGA Geforce GTX 1080 Ti
INTEL 545 240GB SSD
CORSAIR AX1500i
Windows 10 x64
(BIOS F5m)
VALUE AWARD
GIGABYTE AORUS Z370 GAMING 7
ERP $249.99 | WEBSITE w w w.gigaby te.com
T
here’s no denying that within the
PC DIY space, motherboards
are simply having a hard time
distinguishing themselves within the
SKUs, let alone between vendors.
As the chipsets become more
competent, there’s simply less for
the board vendors to do that adds
unique value to each product.
The positive here as you can
imagine is that it makes buying a
motherboard a trivial affair, but at
the same time funnels our purchases
into a fixed number of options.
Let’s start with what you won’t
find on the GAMING 7 for instance,
which is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
connectivity. We take these for
granted these days, but they are
oddly absent on this board. A missed
opportunity for sure, but consider
as well that this is the only omission
24 The OverClocker Issue 43 | 2018
functionality wise that is missing
on the Gaming 7. If you expect a
longer list of “missing features “,
there just isn’t one. As a result, on
paper this board ticks all the right
boxes except for the aforementioned
lack of wireless connectivity. It
basically speaks to the statement
made earlier about the difficulty
board vendors find themselves in
when trying to distinguish boards.
Buying a motherboard these days is
really easy and for as long as you’re
in the right price bracket, you’re
unlikely to miss anything feature and
functionality wise.
That said, let me tell you what is
here instead and how it all comes
together or doesn’t sometimes.
The specifications are easy enough
to read for yourself and as far as
gaming is concerned, there’s not a
single board anywhere that could
claim to be a better offering if one
is being honest. That may not speak
to the merits of the GAMING 7
specifically, but more of a reflection
of where we find ourselves in the PC
DIY landscape. For your so called
“gaming” needs, it is just about as
good as any board you can buy for
any medium to high end SKU. There’s
no board you will buy instead of
this one which will magically give
you better game performance or
improve your individual in-game
performance.
Even when one considers
measured performance, the
differences between motherboards
realistically is near zero. Sure,
synthetic tests can reveal slight
tuning differences between
motherboards, but these are