z370 Aorus gaming 5 VRM issues? plus motherboard recommendations

[MattyB13]

Hey all.. so I ordered the z370 Aorus gaming 5 motherboard + 8700k a couple days ago pretty much because of brand loyalty since I have used and liked lots of Gigabyte products in the past. I'm have never overclocked my components but I am interested in getting into it this go around and through some research the last couple days I am seeing some negatives that have me a little concerned about this particular board that I never really considered in prior builds. Primarily bad VRMs, a confusing and poorly labeled BIOS, and buggy/incomplete software.

Info on the VRM issue seems kind of sparse and I mostly see cryptic messages on forums about bad heatsinks, bad components, etc.. nothing really solid. Can anyone shed some light on this or debunk it? As far as the BIOS and software issues I'm just wondering if anyone with some first hand experience can give me their opinions.

If this stuff ends up being true I am thinking of doing a return and going with the ASrock Extreme 4. Wouldnt mind hearing peoples opinions on this or other good Z370 boards for ~$200 or less. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[TJ Hooker]

That mobo looks fine to me. Tomshardware gave it a good review.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gigabyte-z370-aorus-gaming-5-atx-motherboard,5569.html

 

[MattyB13]

Yeah saw their review before I ordered it, part of why I was dumbfounded to read a lot of the negative comments I have seen about it on other forums.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Have any links?

Edit: after a quick google, I'm finding a number of complaints about the aorus ultra gaming, not the aorus gaming 5.

 

[MattyB13]

Nothing bookmarked, I will try and dig up some of the threads I was reading when I get a few minutes from work. Like I mentioned the VRM complaints were rather cryptic so I was mostly just looking for some confirmation that all is well in that regard. I saw more consistent complaints about the BIOs and software issues in general in regards to Gigabyte so just curious what peoples experiences are with it. Especially considering this will be my first time fooling around with OCing components. Thanks for looking though, I did see some of those complaints about the ultra gaming as well.

 

[TJ Hooker]

There aren't really that many settings you need to change for typical CPU overclocking. CPU multiplier, voltage, and maybe load line calibration. Those are all pretty basic, I can't imagine those not working even if the firmware is a little wonky.

 

[MattyB13]

Here is one of the threads, mentions buggy software, confusing BIOS, and actually audio issues.. The particular comment that concerned me was this..

"I can't really recommend the board. BIOS is pretty terrible, nothing is labeled properly - if you want to set LLC you have to somehow divine what values you're supposed to type in a plain textbox, no mention of them in the manual either.

Worse though is that my board suffers from some pretty severe interference on both back and front audio ports."

Maybe he is over-exaggerating, I just don't have the knowledge at this point to argue what that bit about the load line calibration means. Likely plenty of guides out there that will clear it up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/7r21h0/gigabyte_z370_gaming_5/

 

[TJ Hooker]

Looking at the options for LLC shown in the tomshardware review (page 2, 5th image down), I don't really see an issue, there is a drop down selector box allowing you to choose 1 of 4 options.

Maybe his complaint is that the names for the different levels ("Extreme", "Turbo", "Performance", "Power Saving") aren't particularly useful/descriptive? But they never really are: other BIOSs might simply list numerical levels (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4), which isn't any more descriptive. Either way, it's still obvious that there are 4 different settings for LLC that go from least aggressive to most aggressive in order, which is all you really need to know for overclocking.

 

[MattyB13]

Okay cool, I'm not to worried about it then. I know that's kind of a weird specific example. Just wanna make sure I'm getting a board worthy of all these other expensive components. Thanks for doing some of the leg work for me lol

 

[TJ Hooker]

No problem, good luck with your overclocking! There are lots of good guides out there (and most stuff relating to skylake/kaby overclocking will still apply).