Check out this review on the ASUS Prime Z370-A

[Frag_Maniac]

This is the MB I've kinda narrowed down my search to as far as the one I want to use with the 8700k when I get it. The reason I've focused on this model is I trust ASUS MBs and have had good experience with them over the years, and this is their lowest end Z370 variant that has the new ALC1220 audio.

That said, I had to laugh when the reviewer raved about it's 5GHz OC profile yielding satisfactory results, without even mentioning if he tested it at all for stability. It has some of the commenters assuming they can do a quick wham bam 5GHz OC with no issues.

https://www.thinkcomputers.org/asus-prime-z370-a-motherboard-review/

 

[StrayKAT]

This is the MB I've kinda narrowed down my search to as far as the one I want to use with the 8700k when I get it. The reason I've focused on this model is I trust ASUS MBs and have had good experience with them over the years, and this is their lowest end Z370 variant that has the new ALC1220 audio.

That said, I had to laugh when the reviewer raved about it's 5GHz OC profile yielding satisfactory results, without even mentioning if he tested it at all for stability. It has some of the commenters assuming they can do a quick wham bam 5GHz OC with no issues.

https://www.thinkcomputers.org/asus-prime-z370-a-motherboard-review/

Am I reading something wrong? I had the same audio on a z270H... it came out last year.

 

[P4-630]

If you live in the US, Asus's service center doesn't seem to be all that good there.....In case you would need RMA.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/and-the-cpu-socket-is-toasted.236959/

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

This is the MB I've kinda narrowed down my search to as far as the one I want to use with the 8700k when I get it. The reason I've focused on this model is I trust ASUS MBs and have had good experience with them over the years, and this is their lowest end Z370 variant that has the new ALC1220 audio.

That said, I had to laugh when the reviewer raved about it's 5GHz OC profile yielding satisfactory results, without even mentioning if he tested it at all for stability. It has some of the commenters assuming they can do a quick wham bam 5GHz OC with no issues.

https://www.thinkcomputers.org/asus-prime-z370-a-motherboard-review/

A fine point , no one mentions the extreme cooling you Will need to keep the chip at@ 5ghz either though, I've seen reviews with all cores at 5ghz and 90° test (throttle potential temp)run temps on a 240 aio, ie this chip needs a massive aio or custom water-cooling to be useable at 5ghz.
This isn't a dig at intel before that starts either, as im v well experienced at keeping a chip at 5ghz , it's simply the laws of physics , but no one's mentioning it in reviews , in fact it's doable on air( not a hyper 212evo though so big bucks air at least), i expect a few help threads on 8700k ocs anyway.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Am I reading something wrong? I had the same audio on a z270H... it came out last year.

Well, I meant newish, or basically Realtek's latest model. Plus ASUS lists it as a S1220A, vs ALC1220 like most do. I've seen them also call it a "Supreme" version. I take it that may just mean they got good binning selection on their 1220s, if that's even a thing with audio chips. I do know however that results can vary from brand and model of MBs using the same exact audio chip model. In fact there's a video a guy posted on YouTube saying his Gigabyte MB had a horrible spike in one of the higher frequencies causing painful tinnitus for him. This may also not even be the audio chip itself but instead noise introduced into the audio circuit by the MB itself.

@ P4-630,
I also know ASUS' support is hit and miss anymore, as is getting the case with MOST large component manufacture's. I had issues with MSI regarding one of their 660 Ti's not recognizing my TV as HDCP compliant and causing black screen when switching inputs on the TV. It IS in fact HDCP compliant, as every other GPU I've used has verified, and they were absolutely terrible at handling the matter. I basically only had Newegg as a recourse, whom refunded it.

What I'm saying is you'll often hear completely different stories regarding customer service depending on whom you listen to or what article you read. It often has to do with what day and time of day you call, and whom you speak to.

@ theoneandonlymrk,

Actually I found the author seems to have mislead on what he meant by implementing a 5GHz OC. On the page he talks about it he clearly says he manually set voltage to 1.3 (1.353 actually), and the CPU Core ratio to 50. He also warned this chip gets very hot, so he likely had a decent cooler, even though I've yet to see a bench test setup page showing what is used. It's usually listed somewhere between the board layout description and the actual testing, but it's nowhere to be found on those pages.

And I can't stress enough he also said "So 5.0 GHz was a stable overclock, but barely." Making me wonder why he raved about the onboard auto 5GHz OC profile, when he couldn't even get a manual one to be stable. What are reviewers smokin these days I wonder?

 

[StrayKAT]

Well, I meant newish, or basically Realtek's latest model. Plus ASUS lists it as a S1220A, vs ALC1220 like most do. I've seen them also call it a "Supreme" version. I take it that may just mean they got good binning selection on their 1220s, if that's even a thing with audio chips. I do know however that results can vary from brand and model of MBs using the same exact audio chip model. In fact there's a video a guy posted on YouTube saying his Gigabyte MB had a horrible spike in one of the higher frequencies causing painful tinnitus for him. This may also not even be the audio chip itself but instead noise introduced into the audio circuit by the MB itself.

Ah OK. The one I have is also ASUS btw.. but ROG. I got another 270 board eventually, but I miss the audio features of the ASUS board. It'd be nice if it was more common.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

...I miss the audio features of the ASUS board. It'd be nice if it was more common.

I've seen Z370 MBs with ALC1220 for as low as $140, but ASUS' cheapest one with that chip, this one, is $173 best price. I might find a holiday sale on it for around $150 I'm hoping. Also considered their "TUF" version of Z370 due to the added durability and warranty, but it has just a ALC887. Plus most MBs of even moderate quality anymore have features like reinforced Pci-Ex slots anyway. I really haven't had durability issues with any of my ASUS boards.

Forgot to say above that every comment I've seen from users that have owned MBs with ALC1220 say it's noticeably better sounding than ALC1150, and those whom owned ALC1150 MBs said the same of how the 1150 compared to earlier versions of Realtek's chips. So 1220 is quite a step up from 887. ASUS' "S1220A" may even be more of a step up.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I had to laugh when the reviewer raved about it's 5GHz OC profile yielding satisfactory results, without even mentioning if he tested it at all for stability.

Ummm, he states on page 5,

So 5.0 GHz was a stable overclock, but barely.

He also states in the conclusion on page 12 if not for the temps, they could have gone higher than 5GHz which suggests good stability already. That indicates limitations imposed by their selected cooling solution, not the board or processor.