Product Showcase

The motherboard is a more mainstream to high-end segment solution in that Z370 series motherboard range. ASUS packs it with features like DDR4 XMP support up to 4500MHz, dual PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 over the DIMm.2 slot and dual LAN (Intel L219/AQC108 5G LAN). The board does not have AC WIFI, other than that there's everything you can expect from a performance motherboard really.

The motherboard includes all of the standardized Z370 enhancements like the ability for two x4 PCIe Gen3 lane configured M.2 SSD slots (RAID compatible) and will support multi-GPUs (two). You'll also spot a variety of USB3.1 Type-A & Type-C Gen2 ports.

The board comes with the following PCIe slots:

• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8 or x8/x4/x4) 
• 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (max at x4 mode) 
• 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1

 
The I/O panel of the mobo shows eight 3.1 ports with one type-c connector. Intel does not have native USB 3.1 Gen2 support from the processor hence the mobo makes use of external 3rd party controllers like the ASMedia 3142.

A Realtek ALC S1220A audio codec. The board reveals the two 10/100/1000 Ethernet jacks, Intel I219V in red and to the left of it, that AQC108 5G LAN jack ! :-) There are a PS/2 and Mouse port present. Other than that you will see an HDMI as well as a DisplayPort connector, they stripped out the DVI port.

 
The board can be by just one out of the two 8-pin ATX power headers for the processor. The primary grey colored PCIe x16 slots are metal reinforced, great if you use heavy graphics cards. 

Make note, the board has two DIMM slots. Coffee Lake is limited to dual-channel. This board supports up-to DDR4 4500 MHz memory (overclocked), but with two slots you may and can only install up-to 32 GB of it.

 
Once powered up, the aesthetics change quite a bit as ASUS implements that Aura SYNC RGB system. You can customize anything in any color and animation, use a static color and simply turn it all off if you dislike it.

You may have noticed it, but the faceplate on the LED unit left from the CPU has GURU3D embedded in it. These faceplates can be swapped out. ASUS included this one, too but they did not use the proper font/logo.
 

 
For the APEX there are many LED array/zones located at the bottom and top side of the mobo. You can turn them off, on, leave it at default to a rainbow effect or completely regulate them with AURA SYNC software to whatever your preference is. 

Above you can spot the DIMM.2 slot, here you insert that add-in card on which you can mount up to two M2 SSDs. These receive full bandwidth but does come at the cost of two DIMM slots. Any size M.2. SSD would fit, being type 2242/2260/2280/22110.