Intel Z390 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on October 8, 2018 10:53 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- EVGA
- Asus
- NZXT
- Supermicro
- Z390
MSI MAG Z390M Mortar
The MSI MAG Z390M Mortar is a mATX sized offering from the arsenal gamin range and on paper, is a slightly cut-down version of the Z390 Tomahawk. There are currently no visuals of the MAG Z390M Mortar as MSI doesn't intend to release the board until late October/early November, although there have released its official specifications and expected launch pricing.
As far as rear panels go, the MAG Z390M Mortar is the only of MSI's boards to have a trio of video outputs which includes a DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort. USB wise there is a USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and Type-C port, as well as four USB 2.0 ports. MSI has opted to disregard USB 3.0 ports from the rear panel, but users looking to expand on what's available can do so through internal headers with up to four USB 2.0 and just two USB 3.0 ports available. The Z390M Mortar offers users five 3.5 mm audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF output thanks to a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec and the single LAN port is powered by an Intel I219V Gigabit controller.
Storage capability on the MAG Z390M Mortar consists of four SATA ports and has two M.2 slots capable of supporting both PCIe and SATA drives. The Mortar also has two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots with the top receiving a coating of MSI's Steel Slot armor and operating at x16, whereas the bottom slot operates at x4 and is bare; MSI also includes a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The lack of an x8 full-length slot means SLI is out of the question, but the Tomahawk does support 2-way CrossFire. Both of MSI's Z390 mATX sized boards have four RAM slots and the Z390M Mortar supports (INSERT MEMORY SUPPORT) and has room for a total capacity of up to 64 GB.
The MAG Z390M Mortar has a recommended MSRP of $145 and puts it as the cheapest gaming themed board from MSI; that's $35 cheaper than the MSI's other mATX option, the MSI MPGM Gaming Edge AC. Of course, the latter has integrated Wi-Fi all the while the Z390M Tomahawk does not and users looking to build a more wallet-friendly mATX gaming system is more likely to opt for this option.
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eastcoast_pete - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Yes, you are correct, at least for H310c chipsets, maybe more (all?). I looked at the digitimes report on Intel outsourcing to TSMC, and that, if correct, would be about chipsets fabbed in 14nm. I wonder if Anadtech could check the 390s from the newest MoBos and sleuth out if they are also a case of "back to the future - 22 is the new 14 at Intel".peterfares - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
Still waiting for someone to make a mini-ITX board with 4x SODIMM slots. The X299 one is interesting combined with a 9800X but I'd rather have the newer architecture with better IPC and clocks.gavbon - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
4 x SODIMMs has no performance benefit on Z370/Z390 other than a capacity increase because of the dual channel memory controller. The ASUS Z390 Maximus Gene and Strix Z390-I support the new 32GB double capacity SODIMMs to give more options for mini-ITX users needing more capacity.The X299 ASRock board put 4 x RAM slots on it so it could benefit from the quad channel memory controller
gamingkingx - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
Gavon understands it..On ITX its all about how you use the space.. It would be sille to have 4 slots for dual channel.
BUT! It would interesting to use only 2x SO-DIMM..
cyrilp - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Some of the asrock boards have 8 SATA3, 3 Ultra M.2 but it's a bit misleading as they share lanes. so you can't use 8 sata3 drivers and 3 m2 ones at the same timegavbon - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Yeah, it's a bit of a pain, but one of the drawbacks of a chipset designed for the desktop. Unfortunately, in that situation, it's one or the other. If I was going to use 8 x SATA drives and 3 x M.2, I would probably be using a HEDT chipset such as X299 or TR4 anywayballsystemlord - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Spelling and grammar corrections. I did not read this whole article. You 2 goofed this one up pretty badly."In the below table a question mark (?) denotes that we currently don't currently have this information available."
Too many currentlys.
"In the below table a question mark (?) denotes that we don't currently have this information available."
"My take on it is that it could be easier to mount a CPU pot for extreme overclockers for some reason, as I'm sure this board is all about the performance marbles and nothing else."
Sound bytes as a sentence (SBAAS). I've very little idea what you were trying to say. Maybe:
"My take on it is that it could be easier to mount a CPU pot for extreme overclockers. For some reason they insist on pots. Or maybe not, as I'm sure this board is all about the performance and nothing else."
"The new gaming themed naming structure consists of three different ranges which make a lot of sense when they deciphered; the MEG is the enthusiast gaming, MPG is performance gaming and the MAG is the arsenal gaming."
Missing "are".
"The new gaming themed naming structure consists of three different ranges which make a lot of sense when they're deciphered; the MEG is the enthusiast gaming, MPG is performance gaming and the MAG is the arsenal gaming."
"The MAG essentially renames the original arsenal range of boards with a name which seems fitting etc rifle mag, a happy coincidence perhaps."
Stray "etc".
"The MAG essentially renames the original arsenal range of boards with a name which seems fitting i.e. rifle mag, a happy coincidence perhaps."
gavbon - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
Appreciated, updated :)ballsystemlord - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
I love your table on "Power Delivery Comparison".But how do you tell how many phases each board has from your table?
E.g. "GIGABYTE Z390 Gaming SLI" has 5+2 ISL69138 but then has 5 ISL6617A doublers leading me to the conclusion that it is a 25 + 2 phase design.
Thanks!
gavbon - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
I've updated the table to make it more clear :) - The PPaks are dual channel MOSFETs so each of the GIGABYTE boards is running 10 phases, with 5 doublers = 2 phases per channel. This is the data we received directly from GIGABYTE.