The NZXT N7 Z370 Motherboard Review: A New Player in the Motherboard Market

Final Words

Given the MSRP of the NZXT N7, $299.99, the board seems targeted to the higher end of the mid-range tier. It doesn't have a naming convention to define it as a 'gaming motherboard' or otherwise, and it will do well with most any task from productivity and content creation to gaming. The VRM configuration is solid, totaling 15 phases and is based around known well-performing Infineion parts. If the plan is to use two M.2 drives, they will be able to get the full bandwidth without losing any SATA ports in the process. Because of this, however, it has four SATA ports instead of the chipset allotment of six. 

The N7 does have many of the bells and whistles we come to expect from a Z370 based machine from dual M.2 slots, a capable VRM with Infineon parts, plenty of fan headers, as well as the latest Realtek ALC1220 codec for audio. There are plenty of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, however, it is missing USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports of any kind. The board does not have integrated RGB LEDs on the board, which some may rejoice over. For those that enjoy that kind of the thing, the board has two headers and includes two small RGB LED strips to light it up. 

The overall build quality on the N7 was solid. If anything needs improvement, its the mounting of the metal cover. That said, not many will be taking it off in the first place as there really isn't a need to do so. Contact from the heatsink to the VRM and chipset IC was good. The thermal pads made contact with what they are intended to. 

Performance of the i7-8700K in the N7 looked to be right on par with the other results we had in the AnandTech bench database so we are set there. As time goes on and more Z370 reviews publish, we will be able to see better if any board can separate itself from the pack. Be it from more aggressive MCE or maybe a faster Uncore (in tests that are responsive to it).

Our overclocking endeavors were fruitful, but not met without some hurdles. Getting used to the board adding voltage when raising the CPU multiplier is not something I am used to seeing. We believe there may be some adaptive voltage going on behind the scenes, even though we do not have visible BIOS options for adaptive/offset voltage. As a long time overclocker, when the option says manual, I expect it to be close to where its set. The good news is so long as you have the cooling for it, the board in its current state adds more than enough voltage for the clock speed and, on this specific CPU, hit 5 GHz without changing anything except the CPU multiplier. The downside to this is it uses more voltage than necessary. Perhaps future BIOS implementations will include offset and adaptive voltages and let manual be manual, but for now, adjustments to lower voltage using higher multipliers will be through the CAM software in Windows. 

Overall, NZXT's first attempt at a board I would deem a success. I have to admit I like the appearance of the metal cover on the case, especially in black (there is an option for a white cover as well). I like the direction they took with using four of six SATA ports in order to maintain bandwidth for the M.2 slots. We are seeing more and more storage devices in this form factor hit the market and it slowly feels like it is becoming the norm in either SATA or the much faster PCIe NVMe drives.

The thing is, there are already a lot of good boards swarming over the market at this price point. For example, the ASRock Z370 Professional Gaming i7 and ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero (Wi-Fi AC) both cost the same or a bit less but include the latest connectivity for USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) and also includes Wi-Fi capabilities. That said, the appearance is unlike the other boards and can really provide a very clean look in black or white. To me, that is long overdue again in the market. The choices are tough out there, but the NZXT N7 will be a more than capable base for a Z370 based system. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: On 1/19/18, NZXT released a statement acknowledging what many reviews said that the price was too high. The MSRP has been lowered to $249.99 in response. With this came some changes to what is included with the board. In order to offer the lower price, they have removed the bundled RGB LED strips and extensions. Additionally, NZXT has doubled down on their confidence of the N7 and have increased the warranty period from 3 to 4 years.