The most over the top Z370 motherboard ever?! Join Wendell as he checks out the Z370 Godlike Gaming from MSI!
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://level1techs.com/video/msi-z370-godlike-gaming-review-linux-test
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://level1techs.com/video/msi-z370-godlike-gaming-review-linux-test
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Nice review. Looks like the high-end MSI boards really allow you to geek out.
Do my ears deceive me or did you cover the Game Boost knob without any Spinal Tap references?
Why not? When one gets an opportunity like that, one must use it. After all it does go to 11.
Some motherboards (especially MSI ones) don’t actually do PWM on the 4-pin fan headers, only voltage control. I don’t know about the Godlike boards, but my own MSI X99A Gaming 7 and my (even older) MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming only do PWM on the CPU header, the rest of the fan headers only get voltage control and I can’t seem to find any setting in the BIOS/UEFI to change that. So my PWM case fans really didn’t slow down as much as I wanted.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to test this as well in future motherboard reviews. That probably would have given you a slightly better thing to complain about than only the shape of the WiFi antennas.
Oh, one correction I think :
Around the 0:40 mark you say the motherboard has 10 USB3 ports on the back. I’m only counting 8.
But I’m nitpicking here.
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Far and away, audio production benefits more from cores and memory speed than aggregate latency.
Now, if you’re talking about live performance, then that’s different. Queuing audio and/or realtime processing is better with less latency.
For recording, however, cores are best, then CPU speed, then memory speed. I have some numbers to back it up. I have posted them before, but perhaps a video is in order to explain to anyone curious.
Either way, AM4/X99 is still going to get you further for recording, editing, processing, and mixing than Z370. It is all about the threads, these days. All DAWs have both input and output buffers, so latency isn’t really a problem- not that it ever really was, for playback.
If you’re looping music for live use, then yes, Z370 would be great for that, as a powerful CPU would be capable of running higher sample rates, which halves or even quarters latency, making if even faster. The practicality of bringing a tower to a gig, in lieu of a laptop? Well… Let’s hope this new stuff makes it to a mobile chipset. Most performers I know of use MacBook pros, though.
All that being said, for the hobbyist musician, part-time gamer, full-time student, z370 is still perfect.
this reminds me of the fx990 AM3+ chip set and the 8350 over a phenom II x6 1100T or an Intel i7 2700k and its platform. I cant remember the chip set number 
there has been so many compared to AMD that it is on an insane level. If i bought Intel back then i would have had to change platforms 2x just for a CPU upgrade and forget that. My money is hard to earn and it better last me untill i decide that performance is needed so lets just grab a new CPU for my socket and upgrade the bios. Boom more power with just the cost of a CPU and nothing else. AM4 is going to be my new platform when i upgrade my rig in 3 years if its worth it.
i will admit that this a very nice board but Intel crippling the PCIE lanes on the CPU hurts this board. if it had 16 more lanes then this would be a have your cake and eat it to board. i will say that i am looking forward to what MSI does with the next gen of AM4 boards. because there is nothing that comes close to this board in the current AM4 lineup.
A littlebit late to the party, but for those who are interested in vrm details on this particular board.
Main Vcore vrm (VCC) and igpu vrm VCCGT.
- Pwm: IR35201 running in 6+2 phase mode, 6 phases being doubled to 12,
using IR3599 doublers for main Vcore.
And the +2 phase rails are being doubled to 4 phases for the the IGPU vrm VCCGT,
using the same IR3599 doublers. - Powerstages: IR3555 60A powerstages are used for both the main Vcore vrm and the igpu vrm.
- Inductors: 60A / 65A.
- Caps: 10K
Memory vrm:
- pwm: Primarion PV3205 2 phases…
- mosfets: On semiconductor 4C024 and 4C029 fets.
VCCSA (System Agent) and VCCio (Qpi/Vtt) are single phase vrm’s controlled by the same PV3205 pwm´s as used on the memory vrm.
And it also uses the same ON Semi mosfets.
This is a pretty highend vrm as far as the cpu and igpu are concerned.
Nice job Msi 