With the ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming, ASUS has a well equipped mini-ITX motherboard in its portfolio, which comes with a bunch of interesting features. There are for example two M.2 Gen 3 x4 slots and an internal USB 3.1 connector. Apart from that the design is quite similar to the previous model.

Looking at the Z370 line-up from ASUS quite a few things have change compared to the previous generation and one of those things is the “ROG STRIX” series. There is now a complete lineup of STRIX Gaming motherboards and one of those is the ROG STRIX Z370-I Gaming, which is a mini-ITX board that features a new design and RGB lighting.

The ROG STRIX Z370-I Gaming is an ITX form-factor motherboard. As with all other STRIX Gaming series motherboards this mini-ITX model comes with the AURA feature as well, allowing you to change the illumination of the board from within Windows. In the case of expansion slots there is one full-sized and metal-strengthened PCIe slot and two M.2 slots. Since there is not much space available on mini-ITX motherboards to begin with ASUS created a PCH heatsink that doubles as a cooler for the first M.2 drive. The second drive can be mounted in the slot on the back-side of the PCB. Having a quick look at the SATA connectors we find four of them supporting the SATA-III standard.

Like other ROG STRIX motherboards the heatsinks feature a silver paintjob and RGB backlight. Looking for additional features we find USB 3.1 ports internally and externally, a high-quality power design and a good mix of connectors at the I/O panel. There is a Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac module that also supports Bluetooth v4.1. At the moment this is the only Z370 mini-ITX motherboard available from ASUS. So far there aren't any rumors on a possible Maximus IX Impact, which would have actually been the mini-ITX motherboard we would have expected.

At first glance this is certainly a good looking motherboard and we're more than curious how this little thing performs in our benchmarking parcours.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 11 - SiSoft Sandra 1
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 12 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 3 - Features	Page 13 - UC Bench
Page 4 - Layout	Page 14 - Super Pi 1M
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O	Page 15 - Right Mark Audio Analyzer
Page 6 - BIOS	Page 16 - Crystal Disk Mark 5
Page 7 - Test setup	Page 17 - Power Consumption
Page 8 - Preview / Gallery	Page 18 - Performance Rating
Page 9 - 3D Mark	Page 19 - Price Comparison
Page 10 - Cinebench R15	Page 20 - Conclusion