Gigabyte aorus z370 ultra gaming 2.0

Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 technical features
Unboxing and design
BIOS
Test bench and tests
Performance with Intel Optane
Final words and conclusion about Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0
Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0
COMPONENTS - 82%
REFRIGERATION - 83%
BIOS - 85%
EXTRAS - 77%
PRICE - 85%
82%

Gigabyte is one of the undisputed leaders of motherboards in the Spanish market. On this occasion, he has sent us his new Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 motherboard with integrated 32GB Intel Optane memory and a heatsink to lower its temperatures. Is it really worth your 20 euros more than the more version is worth?

You will discover all this and much more in our exhaustive analysis. Let's start!

First of all, we thank Gigabyte Spain for their trust in sending the product for analysis:

Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 technical features

Unboxing and design

The manufacturer has chosen to repeat its trend with the packaging of this Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 motherboard, which means that it maintains its traditional cardboard box of the best quality, with a first-rate print and all kinds of details to fall in love with. the most demanding users with their purchases. On its cover we can see the great variety of certifications that it incorporates together with a high resolution image.

On the back of the box all its most important features and specifications are detailed in English.

Finally we open the box and find everything perfectly packaged and accommodated to prevent it from moving during transport to the user's home or end. The plate comes in an anti-static bag in the upper compartment, and all accessories are under it. In total the bundle is made up of:

Gigabyte Aorus GA Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 motherboard with software and driversInstruction manualQuick installation guideFour SAT cablesBackplateAorus stickerAdapter for control panel cables

The Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 is an evolution of the original model released last year, so it maintains most of its features. This motherboard is manufactured with an ATX form factor, which translates into standard dimensions of 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm, and space to include a large number of elements on its mostly black PCB.

For the most curious we leave an image of the back of the motherboard.

The PCB is manufactured with the highest quality materials and with a high number of layers, guaranteeing great durability. This PCB has the Anti-Sulfur Resistor Design protections, which prevents the sulfurization of its components over time.

The biggest novelty of this motherboard is found in the VRM, this time consisting of 11 phases, which are also of the best quality thanks to the use of Ultra Durable category components. The manufacturer has placed large aluminum heatsinks on this VRM, thereby lowering operating temperatures and improving stability and durability.

Thanks to this excellent VRM we will be able to take full advantage of the Coffee Lake processors, and even the future Whiskey Lake of up to eight physical cores. These processors consume a lot of power, so Gigabyte has spared no VRM.

We continue to have the Z370 chipset, which guarantees full compatibility with the Coffee Lake and Whiskey Lake processors. As for the socket, it is the LGA 1151, we will have to be careful not to bend its pins, since on the Intel platform these are on the motherboard, as you all already know.

Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 is powered by using the classic 24-pin ATX connection and an auxiliary 8-pin EPS connection, ensuring stability even under the most demanding overclocking.

Next to the socket we find the traditional 4 slots for DDR4 RAM, which allows us to install a total of 64 GB at a native speed of up to 4000 MHz, in a dual-channel configuration, and compatible with the XMP 2.0 profile so that we can get everything out of it the potential with a few clicks from the BIOS.

As for the graphics subsystem, this Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 has three PCI Express x16 ports for SLI and CrossFire configurations of up to three graphics cards. Two of these slots are reinforced in Ultra Durable PCIe Armor steel to improve its resistance, which will allow it to support the weight of the largest and most powerful cards without any problem.

It also includes three PCI Express x1 connections, ideal to extend the functionality of our PC with expansion cards, for example, a very high-end sound card. Double Locking Bracket technology is included to perfectly secure graphics cards, ensuring a perfect fit.

Storage capacities are more important than ever and Gigabyte knows it, that's why this Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 mounts two M.2 slots compatible with high-speed NVMe 2242/2260/2280/22110 drives.

It also offers us no less than 6 SATA III 6 Gb / s ports, which allow us to connect SSDs in this format and the classic mechanical hard drives, and are compatible with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 technology. With this motherboard we can Enjoy all the goodies of SSDs and hard drives perfectly.

The audio is provided by the Realtek ALC1220 engine, which is manufactured using excellent components to offer great sound quality and the best durability. It provides us with crystal clear sound, and allows us to use professional helmets of up to 600Ω thanks to the included amplifier.

Gigabyte's RGB Fusion lighting system puts the finishing touch on aesthetics. This board includes RGB LEDs on the heatsinks, RAM slots, and graphics card slots. In addition, we have two connectors for LED strip, with which we can further improve the aesthetics of our PC.

Gigabyte has included two 128 MB AMI UEFI BIOS chips each, this guarantees total security when updating the BIOS, since if something else comes out we will always have the backup chip and the motherboard will not convert on a paperweight. The 128 MB ensures capacity for all future updates.

We detail the rear connections:

PS / 2 connection. DVI-D port HDMI port USB Type-C with USB 3.1 Gen2. USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 2 x USB 2.0 / 1.1 RJ-45 LAN 10/100/1000. Optical output Audio input and output.

BIOS

Aorus maintains both the design and all of the BIOS features on its high-end and mid-range motherboards.

In it we can without overclock, modify lighting effects, touch any parameter without restrictions and with the detail of having a version include it in Spanish.

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel Core i7-8700K
Base plate:	Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0
Memory:	Aorus RGB Memory DDR4 @ 3200 MHz
Heatsink	Corsair H100i V2
HDD	Crucial BX300 275 GB + Western Digital 1 TB + Optane
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti
Power supply	Corsair RM1000X

To check the stability of the Intel Core i7-8700K processor in stock values and the motherboard we have stressed it with Prime 95 Custom and air cooling. The graphics that we have brought to the test bench is a powerful Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti. Without further ado let's see the results obtained in our tests with a 1920 x 1080 monitor.

Performance with Intel Optane

Intel Optane units have been with us since last year, and we have already on our website several units that Intel has launched. As many of you know, it is a type of memory that allows us to “cache” certain information and improve the readings of our discs.

We have always found it interesting for companies that need to have much faster access to databases, but one of the most common uses for home users is to be able to combine it with a 1 or 2 TB hard drive and thus avoid using an SSD.. Although with the imminent drop in solid state drives, this option will not be considered in the near future. But for 20 euros more does it compensate? Yes. We leave you a table with the tests we have carried out.

GAME: DOOM 4	TIME TO LAUNCH MATCH: SECONDS
HDD WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR BLUE 1 TB	71 SECONDS
SAMSUNG 970 EVO SSD	17 SECONDS
HDD WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR BLUE 1 TB + OPTANE - FIRST PASS	24 SECONDS
HDD WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR BLUE 1 TB + OPTANE - SECOND PASS	18 SECONDS

The 1 TB hard drive is very slow, it has its time, but that does not imply that 71 seconds (1 minute and 11 seconds) waiting to launch a game despairs us. More, if we come from an SSD. Whereas an ultra-fast NVME SSD like my Samsung 970 EVO only takes a fantastic 17 seconds to load the game.

It gets interesting when we pair the mechanical hard drive with Intel Optane. The first pass offers us a 24-second game start, but things improve with the second game, which only takes 18 seconds. Every time we start the game it will go faster, but I doubt that the thing improves 1 or 2 seconds more with any luck.

Final words and conclusion about Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0

Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Ultra Gaming 2.0 is a new revision of one of the most popular motherboards for Intel's Coffee Lake processors. It is a product that comes with a boost in its VRM system that now has 11 feeding phases to achieve a remarkable overclocking capacity. Of course it maintains all the benefits of the original model, such as premium audio, Ultra Durable components and an advanced RGB LED lighting system.

We recommend reading the best motherboards on the market

As expected, gaming performance is as expected. With a good graphics card like the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti we move any game in Full HD triple A without any problem.

We believe that the most interesting thing about this motherboard is the incorporation of a 32 GB Intel Optane with a value of 61 euros + heatsink to cool for only 20 euros more. Currently we can find this model for 189.80 euros Is it worth it? If you need to cache a secondary hard disk, it seems to us the best kit that you can buy currently.