With the arrival of the next-gen Coffee Lake Intel processors, a new Z370 series of motherboards have been made available to the general public; in this article we will look upon the offering from ECS, which is the Z370-LIGHTSABER model. As main highlights, we could remind of the 14-phase power design, AMD CrossFire compatibility, Intel Optane support, but also the inclusion of the Killer Ethernet E2500 NIC for lower latencies when gaming. The product has arrived in a medium-sized cardboard enclosure, which does feature a gold theme:

Logos of the supported technologies are also present on the top cover:

On the bottom area of the packaging, we will get a bit of more insight on the included interfaces, along with a summary of technical specifications:

After removing the top box cover, we will uncover the motherboard, that sits on the top layer; for additional protection, it is also wrapped inside an anti-static bag:

The small bundle set is included in the bottom layer:

We will receive only two SATA cables, along with the I/O shield:

As we have seen with products from other manufacturers, the shield does also feature a cushion on the back for a secure fit with the motherboard ports:

We are also getting an User Guide, along with the DVD, that contains the necessary drivers and applications; the DVD proved very handy this time, because at the time of the review, the manufacturer did not have any downloadable resources available on the website for this board: