The MSI Z370-A Pro is a budget-friendly motherboard from MSI's 'Pro' line. The Pro series motherboards are designed for content producers and professionals that demand the dependability and performance of the high-end Coffee-Lake CPUs. In this review, the Z370-A Pro, which costs $117 (eBay), tries to fit in with its features while also supporting overclocking to get the most out of the installed CPU.

The Z370-A Pro is part of MSI's Z370 lineup, which includes 13 different motherboards. There are motherboards in that lineup from the Enthusiast Gaming, Performance Gaming, and Artillery Gaming categories, as well as the Pro series, all of which are aimed to offer users different feature sets and aesthetics. The Z370-A Pro is the most affordable model in the lineup, and it's not designed to be an RGB light show or to impress with flair and substance, but rather for business users who want or need high performance and want to use the latest Intel Coffee Lake processors, such as the i7-8700K, but don't want to pay more than they need to for features they won't use.

We guessed that the board's simple black/dark brown theme wouldn't win any beauty prizes, and we were right. Fancy heatsinks and RGB LEDs add to the board's cost, but these aren't likely to be high on the priority list for professional users. Typically, they are searching for a dependable solution that can get the work done fast and efficiently without breaking the budget.

The MSI Z370-A Pro performed excellently in our performance tests, with competitive results. The board has a fairly speedy startup time and has a low power consumption in both idle and load tests. The board's other findings were comparable to those of other boards, so nothing is preventing us from testing it.

The $117 motherboard was capable of overclocking to 5.1 GHz. We're limited by the cooling, not the motherboard when it comes to overclocking this CPU. The OC Genie 4's one-touch button increased both the all-core and single-core CPU speeds by 100 MHz, resulting in clock speeds of 4.4 GHz and 4.8 GHz, respectively. The voltage utilized was more than the clocks required, however, it did not exceed our cooling capabilities, which we have experienced on practically all boards in the past.

On the storage front, the MSI Z370-A Pro has a full complement of six SATA ports as well as one M.2 slot for high-speed storage. A single Realtek LAN controller manages the network; Wi-Fi is not accessible. There are six USB ports on the rear (four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0) as well as internal headers, making a total of 14 USB ports available (eight USB 3.0 and six USB 2.0). USB 3.1 support is missing, and if it's needed, it'll have to come through an add-in card.

There are six PCIe slots on the board, two full-length and four x1 size slots. The CPU is linked to the first full-length slot, while the second (and x1 slots) are supplied via the PCH. Only MSI's Pro series boards are able to enable Crossfire, according to MSI's literature. The Pro series boards are designed for cryptocurrency mining through physical layout and power design, as well as extra BIOS settings that are intended to assure a stable machine for lengthy mining sessions.

Three visual outputs (VGA, DVI-D, and a full-size DisplayPort) are available on the back, as well as a PS/2 mouse/keyboard combination port, four USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, the LAN port, and a 6-plug audio stack.

✔ Supports Intel® CoreTM, Pentium® Gold, and Celeron® CPUs from the 9th and 8th generations for the LGA 1151 socket.
✔ Supports DDR4 memory with a frequency of up to 4000+(OC) MHz.

✔ DDR4 Boost: MSI OC lab's advanced technology ensures optimum compatibility for overclocking performance.

✔ AUDIO BOOST: For the most immersive audio experience, reward your ears with studio-grade sound quality.

✔ MULTI-GPU: PCI-E slots with Steel Armor. Supports AMD's 2-Way CrossfireTM technology.

✔ Heatsinks with heavy plating: Innovative heatsink design for optimal cooling.

✔ The easiest way to troubleshoot is with the EZ Debug LED.

One thing to keep in mind: these processors utilize the LGA1151 socket, which is also used by 6th and 7th Generation CPUs with the Z170 and Z270 chipsets. The 8th Generation Coffee Lake will only function with Z370 boards due to a few (although slight) differences in the pin layout of these two sets of CPUs. Ian Cutress tested a handful of Coffee Lake CPUs (i7-8700K and i5-8400) back in October 2017.

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