Introduction

Last year, Intel launched the Coffee Lake 8th Generation Core processors. At that time, there was only one chipset: the Z370. This is fairly unusual as most CPU launches offer at least two and sometimes as many as five supported chipsets. Now, Intel is launching their B360 chipset; a cheaper alternative for Coffee Lake processors to Z370.

The first B360 board I got my hands on is the Colorful C.B360M-HD Deluxe V20. Colorful Group is a China-based manufacturer of all manner of consumer electronics, from ATX power supplies to hi-fi players. The company is best known for their graphics cards and, of course, their motherboards. To put the Colorful C.B360M-HD Deluxe V20 in context, I first need to briefly run through some of the changes to the B360 chipset from Z370.

B360 has support for only one PCI express 3.0 x16 slot and an M.2 slot, while the Z370 chipset offers up to three PCI Express slots (1x16, 2x8, or x8x4x4) and up to three M.2 slots. Also changed from Z370 is that native support of USB 3.1 Gen2 is included with the B360 chipset, which is a welcome addition. One major change from Z370 is the removal of overclocking support even on unlocked "K" processors. RAM overclocking is also not supported. Core i3 processors will support up to 2400 MHz and Core i5 and i7 processors will support up to 2666 MHz.

Overclocking aside, B360 boards should offer similar performance to Z370 boards at a much lower price point. Today, I am looking at the Colorful C.B360M-HD Deluxe V20 to find out.

Specifications