No CPU launch is complete without a full range of motherboards and with the upcoming Intel 8th generation family, manufacturers have prepped up a large army of Z370 motherboards that come with a broad variety of features.

Entire Range of Z370 Motherboards For Intel Coffee Lake Processors Pictured and Detailed

Being part of the 300-series chipset family, the Z370 PCH will be the flagship for 2017. There are other SKUs that arrive early in 2018 and even a replacement 2018 chipset which will be known as the Z390 PCH. There are several manufacturers who will be offering their Z370 PCH boards on launch day including ASUS, ASRock, GIGABYTE, MSI, EVGA, ECS, Biostar, Supermicro and Maxxsun. So before we look at the motherboards, let's take a quick look at what the Z370 PCH has to offer.

Intel Coffee Lake Is Only Supported by The 300-Series Chipset - LGA 1151 On Z370 Offers No Backward Compatibility - Full Platform Details

The Z370 motherboards come with a socket known as LGA 1151 and that is the same socket we have seen on the consumer platform since Skylake. But with Coffee Lake, LGA 1151 on Z370 is no longer compatible with older CPUs. Even Coffee Lake processors are not backward compatible to 100 or 200 series motherboards.

The reason cited by Intel is the change in electrical lanes and power delivery that Z370 improves substantially. We did have a word with some motherboard manufacturers and while they reveal that Coffee Lake may work with older motherboards, it won't deliver the same level of stability or clocking as on the Z370 series motherboards.

So with one of the controversies explained, let's head over to the platform details. The 8th gen desktop platform has a range of new features that mainly include:

More CoresMore Intel Smart CacheBest In Class DesignEnhanced OverclockingImproved 14nm Process

And of course, powering the new platform is the Z370 PCH. The PCH offers the following:

Improved Power Delivery for 6 Core processorsEnhanced Package Power Delivery For overclockingMemory routing support for DDR4-2666Rec.2020 & HDR Support, HEVC 10-bit HW Decode/Encode, VP9 10-bit HW DecodeIntegrated USB 3.1 Gen2 (10 Gbps)Support for integrated Intel wireless AC (Wi-Fi 802.11ac R2 & Bluetooth 5)Intel Optane memory supportIntel Smart Sound Technology with quad core audio DSP24 Chipset PCIe 3.0 Lanes10 USB 3.1 Ports With Up To 6 USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) PortsUp To 6 SATA 3.0 PortsIntel Rapid Storage Technology 16PCIe 3.0 x4 Storage Support

Intel Desktop Platform Chipset Comparison