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Intel's latest iteration of its mainstream platform, Z370 and socket LGA1151-V2, provides a solid foundation for high-performance and compact systems. All of the major motherboard vendors offer mini-ITX options, though choice is limited in comparison to ATX and micro-ATX equivalents. Gigabyte's sole mini-ITX option is the Z370N WiFi that we are looking at today.
Gigabyte's approach to mini-ITX for Intel Z370 is fairly inconspicuous and not specifically positioned as a gaming product. This contrasts with its rivals who have mostly targeted the gaming market – ASUS with the ROG STRIX Z370-I Gaming, ASRock with the Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac and MSI the Z370I Gaming Pro Carbon AC. ASRock does, however, offer the Z370M-ITX/ac that is somewhat aligned to Gigabyte's Z370N WiFi in terms of features, market positioning and price.
Despite Gigabyte's inconspicuous design the Z370N WiFi is well-equipped for most target audiences. Feature highlights include dual M.2 with a cooled M.2 slot, dual Intel Gigabit LAN, onboard Intel WiFi, USB Type-C and high-quality Realtek ALC1220-based audio.
Gigabyte's primary selling point with the Z370N WiFi is that it is more affordable than most of its competitors and this means a wider market appeal. A more affordable motherboard also means a larger budget for the level-headed buyer to allocate towards other system components that have a greater impact on system performance.
| Gigabyte Z370N WiFi | |
| Form Factor | mini-ITX, 17 x 17cm |
| CPU Socket | Intel LGA 1151 “v2” for 8th Generation Core CPUs |
| Chipset | Intel Z370 |
| Memory | DDR4, 2 DIMMs, up to 32GB, up to 4400MHz+ with OC |
| Onboard Graphics | Intel HD Graphics (with supported CPUs) |
| Discrete Graphics | Single Graphics Card Configurations Only |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x PCIe 3.0 X16 |
| Storage | 4 x SATA III 6Gbps 1 x M.2 PCIe 32Gbps or SATA III 6Gbps 1 x M.2 PCIe 32Gbps |
| USB | 2 x USB 2.0 (2 Front, via Intel Z370) 8 x USB 3.0 (6 Rear, 2 Front, via Intel Z370) 1 x USB 3.0 (1 Rear, Type-C, via Intel Z370) |
| Networking | 1 x Intel I211AT Gigabit Ethernet 1 x Intel i219V Gigabit Ethernet Intel Wireless-AC 8265NGW with Bluetooth 4.2 |
| Audio | Realtek ALC1220 7.1 Channel* HD Audio *7.1 channel requires multi-channel configuration of front panel audio module |
| Fan Headers | 3, all support 3/4 pin fans (1 CPU, 2 x SYS) |
| Rear I/O |
2 x HDMI ports (1.4 and 2.0) |
| UEFI | dual 128Mbit AMI UEFI BIOS |
