Motherboard [SFFn] ASRock's H370M-ITX/ac - Workstation Wonder

confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
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ASRock's H370M-ITX/ac is a highly specced, mid-range board based on Intel's H370 chipset. Offering near Z370 specs at a slight bump over the price of a B360 board, this new motherboard offers an interesting value proposition. Offering a strong complement of IO, as well as numerous display options from your Intel Coffee Lake integrated graphics, there are many use cases for such a product.

This particular ASRock motherboard offers a great feature set for the dollar, but what makes this motherboard worth your consideration? Let's find out.

Read more here.
 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,588
2,702
Nice review @confusis, I have the Asrock H370M paired with an i3-8100 in my media server. It is a solid, well priced motherboard. It was tough to decide between the H370 and B360 seeing they were almost identical. I went with the H370 for the 2 extra SATA ports in case I ever need them.

One thing I would like to point out for anyone planning to use this with the onboard graphics is while this does have dual HDMI ports they are HDMI 1.4. The Gigabyte H370N has HDMI 2.0.
 

Curiosity

Too busy figuring out if I can to think if I shoul
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One of the benefits of rgb is that you can turn it off. :p
 

Curiosity

Too busy figuring out if I can to think if I shoul
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Okay, that's a bit ridiculous.

One RGB header should be plenty.
 

n13L5

Trash Compacter
Aug 20, 2017
51
10
Connectivity seems to be my first pain in the ass with Zotac's selection:
- Not enough 2nd Gen Thunderbolt
- Only ONE of their boards even has SPDIF sound output - a must for me - I like CLEAN audio, because I have audiophile speakers on my system.
- and then, I'd like i7-9700k (Cocaine Lake) compatibility - which should be imminent in Intel's endless 14nm rehashes.




I was going to build a new system - for my shortly arriving S4 Mini...
But I find that its a bad time to buy new gear in August 2018:

- 390 or 399 based boards aren't out yet. (I do like to have more thunderbolt connectors)
- New CPUs are imminent - even if still 14nm, there will be a mainstream 8 core i7-9700K CPU.
(If 8 cores without multi-threading is better than 6 cores with multi-threading is anybody's guess, but I'd like to keep the option open)
- New GPU is imminent - now pretty much confirmed in so many words by Nvidia -
( https://wccftech.com/nvidia-siggraph-2018-special-event-announced/ )


So if I bought a set of components now, the only things that wouldn't be a waste would presumably be the DDR4 RAM and the BLU-RAY backup drive (yes, I purposely stick with optical data storage - its location and access is in my control, it can't be encrypted by ransom-ware and its impervious to sunspots or other EMF sources) Next best thing after going back to typewriters and paper (like the Russian Government) :D




So while I was going to, I'm now neither buying any ASRock mainboard, nor the MSI alternative.

I will install the components from my previous to last computer and work on improvements to the NH-L9i cooler, by way of a bigger fan that would improve main-board cooling.


I believe in 2 months time (September-October 2018), I'll be able to get all the stuff I want:
- GTX 1180
- i7-9700k
- Z390 mainboard with SPDIF and 6x Thunderbolt



Anyone wanna take bets? XD
 

timfish

Minimal Tinkerer
Aug 20, 2018
3
5
I just replaced my development machine with a system based on this board and:

i7-8700
32GB RAM
500GB NVMe SSD
160W pico-PSU
BeQuiet Shadow Rock LP cooler

My only complaint is the audio connectors being above the wifi antennas.

My previous machines internals were Thin-ITX + 65w i5 all under 38mm high but it was far from silent under load due to the small fan.

I had to modify my case so it could cope with the extra height so now it's probably twice the volume it was before. I also went for a big cooler which will require a huge hole cutting in the side of the case. The cooler + fan will hang out of the side of the case once I've got the metal cut down XD.

Under normal use, the fan spins at 300rpm and is silent to my ears. Prime95 for 3 hours and the CPU sits at 60°C with the fan at 1000rpm which is still inaudible to me. So I'm glad I sacrificed some size for a more efficient CPU cooler!



 
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rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,588
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I just replaced my development machine with a system based on this board and:

i7-8700
32GB RAM
500GB NVMe SSD
160W pico-PSU
BeQuiet Shadow Rock LP cooler

My only complaint is the audio connectors being above the wifi antennas.

My previous machines internals were Thin-ITX + 65w i5 all under 38mm high but it was far from silent under load due to the small fan.

I had to modify my case so it could cope with the extra height so now it's probably twice the volume it was before. I also went for a big cooler which will require a huge hole cutting in the side of the case. The cooler + fan will hang out of the side of the case once I've got the metal cut down XD.

Under normal use, the fan spins at 300rpm and is silent to my ears. Prime95 for 3 hours and the CPU sits at 55°C with the fan at 1000rpm which is still inaudible to me. So I'm glad I sacrificed some size for a more efficient CPU cooler.




Your motherboard must be inverted, my audio connectors are below the wifi antenna, btw your images are not showing.
 

timfish

Minimal Tinkerer
Aug 20, 2018
3
5
Images fixed?

I have no idea which way up is conventional for vertical motherboard!

But having the antennas at the bottom seems equally bad, especially since every cable apart from audio would hang over them!
 

n13L5

Trash Compacter
Aug 20, 2017
51
10
Yeah, your images are fixed...

nice custom test bench / case (however you use it)



By the time the new Intel chips are out, I think I'll compare them to 1950 and 2950 Threadrippers...
I noticed from several people's testing, that the 1950 can actually be better for some uses than the 2950... gotta find a review from some audio/DAW-focused folks
 
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timfish

Minimal Tinkerer
Aug 20, 2018
3
5
When I'm living back near a workshop, I plan to build a more respectable case. For now, I have to make do with this hacked one.

One thing worth noting is that because the fan is silent, I can hear a very faint capacitor whine at idle. I'm not sure if it's from the motherboard or the PicoPSU.