Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming 2

Ahh, Coffee Lake, what a life you’ve had. Whether it was a response to Ryzen or not, there’s no denying that intel produced some of the best gaming motherboards out of that architecture. The quad-cored chip core i3-8100 & the hex-cored core i5-8400, to name just two, are incredible value propositions that we adored. For anyone looking lớn build a cost effective PC, these are prime parts, perfect for a super-nippy office machine or better-geared gaming rig.

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4,000MT/sM.2/U.2 Support: 2x M.2SATA Support: 6x SATA 6Gb/sMax PCIe Support: 3x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16, x8x8, or x8x4x4)Rear I/O: 5x USB 3.1 Type A, 1x USB 3.1 Type C, 2x USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, 5.1 audio, optical out, PS/2 combi port


Couple that with the well-equipped Z370 chipset, & the generation as a whole is far from being dead in the water. But as we’ve seen time và time again, the effect your mobo of choice has on performance is often less than 5 percent, if that. When it comes to lớn deciding exactly which mobo you want khổng lồ pair with your processor kingpin, the decision process inevitably comes down to lớn three factors: What size factor vày you want, what connectivity vày you need, và which manufacturer do you prefer?

Gigabyte’s Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming 2.0 is a revision of one of its more popular mid-to-high-end line-ups, the Ultra Gaming. Packing a clean look, plenty of connectivity, and solid dependable performance with an affordable price tag, it’s a sản phẩm that’s well placed khổng lồ hold on to substantial market share, & is a perfect choice for anyone looking khổng lồ build a mid-range chip core i3 or i5 machine.


Compared lớn the basic Ultra Gaming, the 2.0 features an M.2 PCIe SSD heatsink as standard, và a new 11-phase power nguồn design, which helps reduce coil whine when overclocked or under heavy load. One downside of this shift, however, is that you vì chưng lose out on the integrated DVI-I tư vấn in the rear I/O. Which is a bit odd, as it’s replaced by nothing at all. That said, it’s a decent, well-rounded upgrade lớn the platform, especially if you’re looking at utilizing an unlocked K-series part.


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Want a different form-factor, or just to check out the competition? Here"s our guide to the best gaming motherboards.

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Right then, let’s talk performance. What are we looking at here? The Gaming 2.0 is a bit of anomaly in our testing suite, especially when it comes khổng lồ power draw. We’ve commented in the past about how Asus’s mobos typically have optimizations in the BIOS that both boost the V-Core và improve performance in Cinebench R15 & GeekBench. It ultimately leads to higher scores in those benchmarks (around 9 percent). However, on the flip side, the trade-offs usually extend to a CPU temperature increase of about six or seven degrees Celsius and, of course, a far higher nguồn draw. The Ultra Gaming 2.0, on the other hand, scores lower in the benchmarks, thanks to its stock configuration, but you vì gain those lower running temps, lower power nguồn draw, và an overall quieter rig, even without the grunt of Asus’s fan hâm mộ profile tech behind it.


As far as overclocking is concerned, we still couldn’t push our core i7-8700K past 5.2GHz, but it did manage that fairly effortlessly, and the coil whine wasn’t overly noticeable. One thing we would love khổng lồ see, however, is a far better BIOS than Gigabyte currently offers. It does the job, but the overall layout và access to information is limited at best, and it tends to lớn look a little dated compared to lớn that of the competition.

All that said, the Gigabyte Ultra Gaming 2.0 is a finely balanced motherboard, with enough guts và fun to support anyone looking at investing in a well-rounded Coffee Lake system. If you’re happy lớn tinker around with a slight overclock khổng lồ your chip, you can easily match the performance of the hãng asus competition without much trouble. In the end, it looks good, performs well, và hits the price nail right on the head.

This article was originally published in Maximum PC"s July issue. For more quality articles about all things PC hardware, you can subscribe khổng lồ Maximum PC now.