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TUF H370-Pro Gaming
Wi-Fi ASUS £117
If you’re in the market
for a budget board that
still offers excellent
Wi-Fi, ASUS has you covered with
the TUF H370 Pro Gaming Wi-Fi.
It sports a bare-it-all retro look
that back-to-basics rig builders
will love, with a simple black and
silver aesthetic and just a touch of
RGB lighting. It looks sharp and
supports almost any colour
combination you toss at it. If
you’re looking for something that
won’t make your rig look like a
disco, this is a good option.
Under the hood, the TUF Pro
Gaming packs dual M.2 slots,
10Gbs Gen2 USB 3.1, Intel v219
Ethernet, and a robust 2x2 Intel
9560 802.11ac adaptor that
supports MU-MIMO and 160MHz
channels, shaming the
competition in a price segment
where Wi-Fi is rarely found. Audio
is less impressive, opting for the
older ALC887 codec, but you can
make up some of this deficit with
a decent gaming headset.
Overclocking and higher memory
speeds aren’t supported with the
H370 chipset, but that doesn’t
hold the TUF Pro Gaming back in
real testing. Put your money into
a faster GPU if you care about
gaming, and don’t worry as much
about the RAM speed.GreatWi-Fiimplementation
Excellentreal-worldperformance
Limitedmemory speeds
WeakaudioVERDICTSPECS CHIPSET: H370 / MEMORY: (4) DIMM, 64GB, DDR4-2666 / PCIE SLOTS: X16, X16 (X4), (4) X1 / VIDEO PORTS:
D-SUB, HDMI / USB PORTS: (7) REAR IO, (6) INTERNAL / STORAGE: (2) M.2, (6) SATA / NETWORK: ETHERNET, 1.73GBPS
6
X299 Gaming Pro Carbon
AC MSI £309
What if you want more
cores for serious work
or streaming, plus dual
graphics cards without CPU
bottlenecks, and overclocking
potential as a bonus? If that’s
what you’re after, look to Intel’s
HEDT (High-End Desktop) X299
platform and the Core i9
processors. The MSI X299
Gaming Pro Carbon AC is a utility
infielder that offers every feature
you’d expect along with
impressive performance and
style at a reasonable price, a
rarity for the HEDT platform.
Performance is strong, and a
solid overclocking experience
tops off at 4.6 GHz on a Core
i9-7900X (a few ticks shy of the
top boards). Memory support isgood, running quad-channel
configurations at speeds up to- Dual x4 M.2 slots and a
U.2 connector deliver high-speed
drive access, along with eight
SATA 6Gbps ports for more
traditional storage media.
Intel’s v219 Ethernet and
AC-8265 Wi-Fi handle networking
with typical aplomb (with the
latter in the third M.2 Key-E slot),
and the rear panel offers four
Gen1 USB 3.1 ports and a pair of
Gen2 ports, including one with a
Type-C connector.
ReasonableHEDTprice
Greatfeaturesandoverclocking
NotthefastestX299 board
NoexoticextrasVERDICTSPECS CHIPSET: X299 / MEMORY: (8) DIMM, 128GB, DDR4-4000 / PCIE SLOTS: (2) X16, X16 (X8), X16 (X4), (2) X1 / USB
PORTS: (9) REAR IO, (9) INTERNAL / STORAGE: (2) M.2, (1) U.2, (1) M.2 KEY-E, (8) SATA / NETWORK: ETHERNET, 867MBPSHARDWARE
Group Test
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