Intel B360 vs. Z370 Chipset: Finally an 8th-Gen Budget Platform

Chances are if you can afford a half decent CPU you can afford a half decent board.

And the fact of the matter is that a good motherboard will extend the life of other components in the system.
 
Did I miss it? Did we see tests with the locked cpu’s using multi-core enhancement?

Thats the best part about a locked chip on a Z board
 
So the Ryzen 5 1600 and B350 motherboard's are still budget king lol.
not really since the ryzen 1600 loses to the i3 quads in gaming with it's lack if high core IPC

the real issue is why send over $110 and $140 budget boards for testing other then marketing hype as most people would go for a z370 at that price point. We really need to see a $60-75 board tested.
 
I agree with the price of the motherboard's but the 1600 is still king imo for overall performance. Plus eventually when developers actually try and make use of 12 threads then we'll see the Ryzen 5 1600 pull away from the i5 8400 and possibly 8500 in gaming.
 
Missed it: "This means auto overclocking features such as Multicore Enhancement don’t exist either."

Right, I guess my question is: when Im reading the graphs Z board stats, is that off too?

IMO it would be cool to see both on and off on the Z board. But I understand thats a lot of bench runs too...
 
So the Ryzen 5 1600 and B350 motherboard's are still budget king lol.

An i5 8400 with a reasonable board would be my gaming preference over a Ryzen 1600. More often than not looking at Techspot it mopped up even against a Ryzen 1700 in their 1080p gaming tests.

On other sites it is within a couple percentage points of a 1600X aggregated on a wide range of productivity tests, and comfortably faster than every available Ryzen at 1080p gaming, 1800X included.

It was the best choice at that price level for gamers when it was confined to Z370, even better now you have a selection of cheaper boards to go with.
 
Great article, exactly the information I was looking for. Thank you for the time and effort you put into such extensive testing.

I have been contemplating buying a Z370 board or holding out for a B360/H370 to pair with a i5-8400. Here in Aus, a Gigabyte Z370M-D3H costs AUD 185, quite a steep price for a budget mid range PC. Even more so when considering the last budget PC I made, in the Haswell era had a 65 dollar board.

My only concern is the locked Ram spec, could be an issue if I decide to upgrade down the line, however if the B360 boards come at under AUD 100, I might take the plunge.

Looking forward to the H370 comparisons.

Take care!
 
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FYI, the charts for Corona 1.3, POVRay 3.7, and Blender measure "Time in seconds" but say "Higher is Better." The Power Consumption chart also says "Higher is Better"
 
Great article, exactly the information I was looking for. Thank you for the time and effort you put into such extensive testing.

I have been contemplating buying a Z370 board or holding out for a B360/H370 to pair with a i5-8400. Here in Aus, a Gigabyte Z370M-D3H costs AUD 185, quite a steep price for a budget mid range PC. Even more so when considering the last budget PC I made, in the Haswell era had a 65 dollar board.

My only concern is the locked Ram spec, could be an issue if I decide to upgrade down the line, however if the B360 boards come at under AUD 100, I might take the plunge.

Looking forward to the H370 comparisons.

Take care!
I prefer military class boards. They run at a wider range of operating temperatures and they don't break. On the down side they are expensive.
 
I prefer military class boards. They run at a wider range of operating temperatures and they don't break. On the down side they are expensive.

That's interesting, do they have 8th gen supported military class boards? Is there much of a price difference?
 
Gotta say now these B series boards are out there is little incentive to go with Ryzen. And considering Ryzen plus is arriving at higher prices than Coffee lake I cant see that becoming worth it without a price reduction.

On the other hand, how good is this? For the money you pay and the gaming/multi tasking support you get is epic. Far better than anything AMD can offer right now.
 
not really since the ryzen 1600 loses to the i3 quads in gaming with it's lack if high core IPC

the real issue is why send over $110 and $140 budget boards for testing other then marketing hype as most people would go for a z370 at that price point. We really need to see a $60-75 board tested.

Nail. On. Head.

The point of B360 is to reduce the price of entry for Intel chips. If you are going to spend over $100 on a motherboard, you may as well just get a Z370.
 
The max watt numbers you pulled with Intel ITX are particularly disconcerting. While most will say the Pro-VD is a "cheap" board unlikely to be paired with anything more than an 8400, the fact is you have proved that it is entirely possible for a given board to be, in practical terms, inadequate for a CPU it would otherwise be compatible with (MSI does in fact list the 8700K as being "compatible" with the Pro-VD!).

As you say, for something like an 8400 it may be a non issue but the way manufacturers are using B360 in some of their top tier lines (ROG, Gaming Pro Carbon etc) it is very likely a number of them will end up with 8600 or 8700 CPUs which, locked though they may be, are not going to achieve their best all core max turbo potential ... unless the board in question can keep up.

Why on earth are those numbers you pulled with the Intel XTU not part of every board's published specs, or at very least why arnt reviewers covering it?!?
 
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