Cheaper Intel 300-series Chipset Motherboards Around the Corner

[btarunr]

Right now, it makes little sense to pick up Intel's Core i3 quad-core and cheaper Core i5 six-core chips, only to pair them with the company's premium Z370 Express chipset-based motherboards, which start around $139. The company had promised a second wave of Core i3 and Core i5 "Coffee Lake" processors, and newer Pentium Gold and Celeron parts based on the silicon; alongside three cheaper motherboard chipsets - H370 Express, B360 Express, and H310 Express; for launch some time in Q1-2018. We're getting word that March could be a busy month for PC hardware retailers.

The H370 has an almost identical feature-set to the Z370, except its lack of support for CPU overclocking and multi-GPU (PCIe segmentation). The B360 is slightly cheaper, and has fewer connectivity options. The H310 is entry-level, and has the least connectivity options. H370-based motherboards could be priced between $100 to $170; B360-based ones $80 to $130, and H310-based ones $50 to $70. Online retailers have already begun listing some of these motherboards. A list was compiled by Redditor dayman56. It includes links to over a dozen such listings of ASRock and GIGABYTE motherboards that, if not anything else, confirm model names.



ASRock H370 Performance
ASRock H370M-ITX/AC
ASRock H370-PRO4
GIGABYTE H370 AORUS GAMING 3
GIGABYTE H370M D3H
GIGABYTE H370N WIFI
ASRock B360-Pro4
ASRock B360 Gaming K4
ASRock B360M-Pro4
ASRock B360M-ITX/AC
GIGABYTE B360M-HDV
GIGABYTE B360 AORUS Gaming 3
GIGABYTE B360M HD3
GIGABYTE H310M-HDV
GIGABYTE H310-HDV
ASRock H310-HDV/M.2

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[Chaitanya]

Another rushed, half baked product launch from Intel in 2017. Such a shame still no fix date of launch for entry level chipsets.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Oh goody. Newegg only has 51 Z370 motherboards to choose from. Must have more 300 series 1151's.

 

[GoldenX]

'bout goddamn time. Now the 8100 and Pentiums can be used.

 

[sutyi]

Oh goody. Newegg only has 51 Z370 motherboards to choose from. Must have more 300 series 1151's.

There are people that build entry level PCs or just don't even bother overclocking, they need cheaper and cheap MBs if they are planing to build Coffee Lake systems in the near future for their G5500s and i3-8100s...

 

[evernessince]

About damn time. Right before Zen+ launches as well. I guess we'll see how well Coffee Lake's value holds up against the reduced power consumption and increased clocks of Zen+. It's going to be hard to beat the value of the 2400G and 2200G when they give you RX 550 like GPU power without the addition $80-$100 cost, especially for budget builds.

 

[lukart]

I wish the Hyper series would be back, overclocking the nonK CPUs... But I guess they dont allow them to use the BLCK to overclock anymore.