At first we would like to thank Supermicro for offering us a sample of the SUPERO C7Z370-CG-IW Z370 LGA1151 for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About Supermicro:

 

“We are a global leader in high performance, high efficiency server technology and innovation. We develop and provide end-to-end green computing solutions to the data center, cloud computing, enterprise IT, big data, high performance computing, or HPC, and embedded markets. Our solutions range from complete server, storage, blade and workstations to full racks, networking devices, server management software and technology support and services. We offer our customers a high degree of flexibility and customization by providing what we believe to be the industry's broadest array of server configurations from which they can choose the optimal solution which fits their computing needs. Our server systems, subsystems and accessories are architecturally designed to provide high levels of reliability, quality and scalability, thereby enabling our customers benefits in the areas of compute performance, density, thermal management and power efficiency to lower their overall total cost of ownership.

 

We perform the majority of our research and development efforts in-house, which increases the communication and collaboration between design teams, streamlines the development process and reduces time-to-market. We have developed a set of design principles which allow us to aggregate individual industry standard components and materials to develop proprietary products, such as serverboards, chassis, power supplies, networking and storage devices. This building block approach allows us to provide a broad range of SKUs, and enables us to build and deliver application-optimized solutions based upon customers' requirements. As of June 30, 2015, we offered over 4,550 SKUs, including SKUs for server and storage systems, serverboards, chassis, power supplies and other system accessories.

 

We conduct our operations principally from our headquarters in California and subsidiaries in Taiwan and the Netherlands. We sell our server systems and server subsystems and accessories through a combination of distributors, including value added resellers and system integrators, and to a lesser extent to OEMs as well as through our direct sales force. During fiscal year 2015, our products were purchased by over 900 customers in 100 countries. We commenced operations in 1993 and have been profitable every year since inception.”

 

 

Product Features:

 

Compact & Powerful

SUPERO has made its very first mini-ITX form factor motherboard loaded with features that all gamers and enthusiasts would enjoy in a small, portable package. This beast of a motherboard lets you build the most extreme gaming system anywhere with its vast connectivity options and has the power to take on any computing task with Intel’s latest 8th generation Core processors! Don’t forget the customizable RGB LED options you have for this board so you can light up your system to get that flare from the inside out.

 

INTEL® 8TH GENERATION-READY

The new 8th generation Intel® Core™ processors are here and ready to take on any and every task you can throw at it. Whether it is creating, editing, and sharing 4K, VR, and 360 degree content, playing your favorite video games, or streaming 4K movies and TV shows there is nothing this newest generation of CPUs can’t handle.INTEL® OPTANETM TECHNOLOGYIntel® Optane™ technology takes performance to the next level by combining DRAM memory to boost storage up to 1000x faster than current NAND storage, and up to 100,000x faster than standard HDDs. Pair it with your slower storage media and enjoy faster and better gaming performance than ever before.

 

24/7 Reliability

SUPERO motherboards are designed and tested similar to our world famous server motherboards. We continuously stress, tweak, restress, and retweak our products to be the most stable and power efficient giving you superior performance with the least heat generated. Using only the highest quality components such as our epoxy glass resin PCB, digital PWMs, Dr. MOS, and ferrite chokes you’ll know that your motherboard is top of the line.

 

Customizable RGB LEDs

With our latest 2nd generation SUPERO Booster you’ll be able to light up your world with the customizable RGB LEDs built into the motherboard. You’ll have different series of patterns such as alarm, breathing, meteor, and rainbow fully adjustable speeds as well. You’ll stand out from the crowd and outshine the competition with our latest C7Z370-CG-IW motherboard!

 

Dual M.2

Storage speeds have come a long way in the hardware industry. Mechanical drives are still being used and for those who wanted a boost upgraded to solid state drives. Now we have PCI-E M.2 the latest in storage technology with speeds not only surpassing double the speeds of a standard SATA 3.0 mechanical drive, but upwards of up to 3-5 times faster overall. When coupling in RAID 0 you’ll have exceptional performance. Latency is improved immensely up to 10x more efficiently and 8-10x faster data transfer speeds. What more can you ask for?

 

SUPERO Booster

Running the latest Intel’s CPU you’ll want to use the best monitor program for your SuperO motherboard. The SuperO Booster lets you sit in the driver seat to monitor, tweak, and fine tune every part of your overclocking adventure. You’ll be able to adjust CPU and memory speeds, voltages, and fan speeds on the fly and that isn’t all. We have now included Load Line Calibration, multiple overclocking profiles giving you the ability to toggle different configurations on the fly, and a Fast Boot Option which allows you to boot into Windows 10 at a much higher speed while using a SSD.

 

Connectivity

Using the latest 802.11ac wireless technology and Intel’s i219V gigabit Ethernet controller you’ll be able to run your system at home and at any LAN party. In addition to internet connectivity we have included a range of USB 3.1, 3.0, and 2.0 ports for all your devices. Additional displays for your system? No problem! We have included both HDMI and DisplayPort outputs for you to maximize efficiency for your setup!

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

After the full-size C7Z370-CG-L board, SuperMicro has also launched a more compact mini-ITX form factor board, with the C7Z370-CG-IW code name. This specific model does come with support for the latest 8th generation Intel Core processors on the LGA1151 socket, is built with server-grade components and more! Despite the fact that we are talking about a mini-ITX board, the cardboard enclosure it ships in is not smaller than the ones we have seen with full-size ATX boards:

 

 

 

The box is also provided with a plastic handle for easy manipulation and nearby we will be able to spot the packaging list:

 

 

 

The main product highlights can be seen on the bottom area of the box:

 

 

 

After lifting the top cover, we will get to see the bundle:

 

 

 

The new SUPERO motto for the products is “Play Harder -> Server Quality, Built for Gaming”:

 

 

 

Speaking of the bundle, we will receive one installation disk, the I/O shield, two SATA cables, but also Wi-Fi antennas:

 

 

 

We do also get a Quick Reference Guide in multiple languages, cable labels and a case sticker:

 

 

 

The supplied guide is quite detailed and will help us perform the installation procedure:

 

 

 

The C7Z370-CG-IW board packs quite a bit of interfaces judging by its small size and in order to accommodate all, some components have been positioned differently:

 

 

 

The 8-pin ATX power header is accompanied by the 4-pin RGB LED header:

 

 

 

The 4+2 VRM configuration is driven by the MPS MP2955V controller, which is also used on the full-size model:

 

 

 

Near the VRM heatsink, we will get to see the AW-CB295NF 2.4G/5G Wireless/Bluetooth adapter, which is actually installed in a vertical position:

 

 

 

The Intel I219V Gigabit LAN controller can be spotted next:

 

 

 

Near the PCH, we do have the ASMedia ASM3142 USB 3.1 controller:

 

 

 

The audio interface is provided by the Realtek ALC1220 CODEC:

 

 

 

The CMOS battery is located right in the back of the audio header assembly:

 

 

 

In the lower left corner of the PCB, we will find the Audio Front Panel header:

 

 

 

The single PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot is reinforced and features quite a bit of configuration jumpers underneath:

 

 

 

First, we have the BIOS Recovery Switch, JPME2 (Intel Manufacturing Mode), JL1 (Chassis Intrusion Header), JCMOS (Clear CMOS), JWD1 (Watch Dog Function Enable); this set of interfaces are completely covered when a video card is installed, so we may need to remove it each time we need to access these:

 

 

A 2-pin header for Overclocking Setting is next, along with the J9701/J9702 manufacturing mode headers:

 

 

The PCI-E M.2 connector does allow the user to connect extra storage, while the USB 3.0 header allows for two extra ports:

 

 

Between the PCI-E x16 slot and the memory slots, we do have one USB 2.0 header available, which is accompanied by a JSPDIF_OUT header:

 

 

A SATA DOM Power connector can be found in the bottom right corner:

 

 

Four SATA 3 ports are nearby; these feature a vertical orientation:

 

 

The 24-pin ATX power connector is next:

 

 

As we have seen with the PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot, the memory slots are also reinforced:

 

 

The PCH heatsink features an interesting design; the SUPERO logo should act as a heat shield between the heatsink and the M.2 SSD:

 

 

On the top motherboard section, we’ve got two 4-pin fan headers, but also a speaker/buzzer header:

 

 

On the I/O, we do have:

 

-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse combo port

-4x USB 3.0 ports

-one HDMI port

-one DisplayPort port

-WiFi + Bluetooth antenna ports

-LAN port

-one Type A USB 3.1 port

-one Type C USB 3.1 port

-audio jacks

-S/PDIF Out port

 

 

 

On the back side of the board, we can spot more interfaces; in the vicinity of the memory slots, the manufacturer has included a row of RGB SMD LEDs:

 

 

 

For more storage, here we’ve got a third PCI-E M.2 M-key:

 

 

 

The Nuvoton NCT67920 SuperIO chip does help with monitoring:

 

 

 

 

C7Z370-CG-iW board does come with an UEFI interface we have seen in the past with other boards from SuperMicro; the layout remains about the same, only now we do also have an EZ mode available, for quick configuration:

 

 

 

The top area of the GUI does present itself with live monitoring statistics, time/date, while the fan sensor monitoring stats are located on the bottom; the main menus are well placed on the left side for easy access, while the help area is on the right side of the screen. The CPU section does show information regarding the currently installed processor and from here we can also access several other menus such as CPU Overclocking, CPU Configuration but also Power and Performance:

 

 

 

The board does offer in-depth overclocking options such as BCLK adjustment, boot-up frequency, we can adjust the number of active CPU cores, choose one of the pre-defined overclocking settings, set a multiplier for each core and so on:

 

 

 

 

Further, we can adjust the power limits, Ring multiplier, voltages via offset/override/adaptive modes and more:

 

 

 

 

More options can be found in the CPU Configuration area:

 

 

 

Power & Performance does house two extra sub-menus:

 

 

 

CPU - Power Management Control

 

 

 

GT- Power Management Control

 

 

 

The Memory menu does allow easy configuration of the RAM setup; from here we can go with the default profiles, select one of the pre-programmed XMP or go custom:

 

 

 

 

There are tons of timings we can adjust from the dedicated menu:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Advanced area does feature more options we can work with:

 

 

 

NCT6792 SuperIO Configuration

 

 

 

Serial Power Console Redirection

 

 

 

System Agent Configuration

 

 

 

Graphics Configuration

 

 

 

 

PCH-IO Configuration

 

 

 

SATA and RST Configuration

 

 

 

PCH-FW Configuration

 

 

 

USB Configuration

 

 

 

PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration

 

 

 

Security

 

 

 

HDD Security Configuration

 

 

 

Secure Boot

 

 

 

Thermal & Fan menu does allow us to check out all temperatures and voltages:

 

 

 

 

Here we do also have Fan Control, from where we can customize the headers with our own preferences:

 

 

 

 

Save & Exit menu is mixed with the Boot priority menus we have seen with other motherboards:

 

 

 

 

The BIOS Update section will allow us to easily flash the UEFI version to the latest available:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 8600K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: currently tested mobo.

RAM: GEIL PC4 25600 3200MHz CL16 8GBx2 Samsung B-die @ 2133MHz

Video: KFA2 GeForce GTX 1060 6GB OC

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: OCZ Vector 150

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

After we have ran the benchmark tests at stock settings, we did proceed with the overclocking stage; the UEFI interface section which implies system tuning does allow the user to set VCore as Adaptive, Override but also Offset. We have tried to set a fixed VCore first via Override but no matter the value we were entering, the core speed went down to around 2500-2600MHz (with a set core speed of 4.9GHz) as soon as we have started Prime95 stress testing; at the same time we have made sure that the power limits have been raised considerably but this made absolutely no difference! Afterwards, we did try the Offset mode and a 160mV value and despite the fact that the initial clock speed was the same as we have set it (4.9GHz) on Windows boot-up, as soon as we have fired up Prime95, the clock speed went down to 3.9GHz (yes, we did check again the power limits and these were set to maximum).

The best results we have obtained with the Adaptive voltage, where the voltage was set automatically via a specific algorithm; while we did set the same overclock value of 4.9GHz speed in BIOS, the speed did throttle between 4.3GHz and 4.5GHz per core when running Prime95, Small FFTs:

 

 

 

Here is also the overclocking validation via CPU-Z:

 

 

 

We did try to run our GEIL PC4 25600 3200MHz CL16 8GBx2 Samsung B-die based kit at XMP and despite the fact that it booted in Windows without issues, we did receive errors after three minutes of MemTest stress testing; we went down one step to 3GHz and the test has completed just fine:

 

 

 

AIDA64

Memory

CPU Queen

CPU PhotoWorxx

CPU Zlib

CPU AES

CPU Hash

FPU VP8

FPU Julia

FPU Mandel

FPU SinJulia

FP32 Ray-Trace

FP64 Ray-Trace

CineBench R11.5

CineBench R15

Blender Ryzen Render

PCMark 7

PCMark 8

 

SuperPI XS 32M

X265 Benchmark (HWBOT)

1080P 64-bit Normal

3DMark Vantage

3DMark 11

3DMark 2013

Unigine Valley

Ultra AA Off DX11 1920X1080

Ashes of the Singularity DX12

CPU Focused

 

The C7Z370-CG-iW motherboard is compatible with the remote hardware monitoring for enterprise environments, which is named SuperDoctor 5:

 

 

 

A ton of items can be monitored via this application:

 

 

 

We can also set alerts to be sent via Email, choose if a certain item should be monitored or not, adjust different account settings, but also perform firmware updates:

 

 

 

The Reporting tools are available next:

 

 

 

This utility is also able to perform different Power Controls remotely:

 

 

 

The SUPERO Booster application does allow the user to perform fine-tune system settings right inside the Windows OS; its design is very similar to the UEFI interface:

 

Profile

 

 

 

CPU

Memory

Thermal

Voltage

LED Lighting

BIOS Update

 

The SuperMicro SUPERO C7Z370-CG-IW board comes with the Realtek ALC1220 and is able to provide impressive overall results in RMAA.

 

GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming K3 16/44

GIGABYTE Z270X-Ultra Gaming 16/44

MSI X370 Xpower Gaming Titanium 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING X370GT7 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING X370GTN 16/44

ECS Z270H4-I 16/44

ECS Z370-LIGHTSABER 16/44

Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming 16/44

SuperMicro SUPERO C7Z370-CG-IW 16/44

 

 

 

 

 

GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming K3 24/96

GIGABYTE Z270X-Ultra Gaming 24/96

MSI X370 Xpower Gaming Titanium 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING X370GT7 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING X370GTN 24/96

ECS Z270H4-I 24/96

ECS Z370-LIGHTSABER 24/96

Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming 24/96

SuperMicro SUPERO C7Z370-CG-IW 24/96

 

C7Z370-CG-IW is a feature-packed ITX motherboard which supports the latest range of Intel processors and for additional reliability, SuperMicro has used server-grade components. The UEFI interface has not changed much from the previous iterations and contains plenty of options, many of which a lot of users will never touch. In terms of overclocking, this board has some limitations in place in order to avoid overheating but even in this case, C7Z370-CG-IW was able to obtain some solid scores in our benchmarks.

 

The board does also feature a preinstalled Wi-Fi + Bluetooth adapter, the latest Realtek ALC1220 CODEC which performs really well, but we can also install extra storage via the two remaining M.2 PCI-E slots (extra to the four SATA 3.0 ports present on the board). The RGB phenomenon is also followed by SuperMicro, so we will see a row of SMD RGB LEDs on the right side of the PCB, but also a RGB header for connecting extra LED strips inside our chassis.

 

To ease the configuration stage, we do have available a Windows SUPERO Booster application, which comes with many useful settings found inside the UEFI interface, but we can also make use of the automatic overclocking/system tuning feature.

 

The board is not exactly cheap for an ITX form factor (it can be bought for about 200 Euros), but considering the server-grade components which make the board run quite cool during stress and the overall performance, it is surely a product you can put on the list if you are on the market to buy a compact but powerful build.

 

The only real minus we can add to the list is the fact that we could not run our RAM at XMP (3200MHz), but at 3000MHz it ran just fine.

SuperMicro SUPERO C7Z370-CG-IW Z370 LGA1151 Motherboard is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Supermicro for making this review possible!