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 MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC
The MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC isn't just the smallest form factored board of the MPG range, but it also represents the only mini-ITX sized motherboard in their Z390 product range. Like the other Gaming Edge AC boards on this page, this board features integrated Wi-Fi with an Intel 9462 802.11ac adapter which also includes support for the latest Bluetooth 5 standard.
As with other mini-ITX motherboards, the MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC has a single full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot which is surrounded in MSI's Steel Slot armor protection. The board has two M.2 slots with one slot only supporting PCIe and the other having support for both PCIe and SATA drives; one slot is located on the front which has a small inclusive heatsink, whereas the other slot is located on the rear of the PCB. The board also has of a total of four straight angled SATA ports with the ports split into pairs on either side of the two memory slots. The two memory slots have support for DDR4-4600 and with a maximum capacity of up to 32 GB.
With certain sacrifices usually being a necessity on mini-ITX motherboards, MSI has cut down the networking and audio support down to a pair of slightly lower quality (compared to the Z390/Z390M Gaming Edge AC boards) with a Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit controller and Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec pairing respectively. The mini-ITX offering has a total of two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports with MSI disregarding Type-C connectivity; MSI has also included two USB 3.0 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports. The front panel headers also allow for a further two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports to be utilized if required. Like the other Z390 Gaming Edge AC boards, this board also makes use of a DisplayPort and HDMI video outputs.
The MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC mini-ITX motherboard is expected to retail for $165 at launch and is an all-around decent offering which has been subjected to penalization due to the form factor. This is prevalent on the HD audio and networking aspect and unlike the mATX sized Gaming Edge AC doesn't feature 2T2R Wave2 Wi-Fi support to make up for the lesser quality pairing of Realtek controllers (audio and networking) included.
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pawinda8 - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
Still no mention of any Z390 boards with native Thunderbolt 3 (not AIC)! Has Intel given up on Thunderbolt for the PC world?gavbon - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
If it's not integrated into the chipset, it's not really native as such. The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac has a Thunderbolt 3 port on the rear panel, but that's the only one I'm afraidHikariWS - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
Oculus Rift requires 3 USB3 ports and doesn't accept any of them being connected to a hub, they all need to be connected directly into a raw port. I had to buy a dedicated 3GIO USB 3 board that added 6 useful extra ports. In my (yes, old) Gigabyte z87 mobo I also had issues using keyboard and mouse on USB 3 ports inside UEFI and some recovery softwares, so I had to buy a USB 2 mirror to connect them.Because of that, having USB 2 ports on front panel and nice quantity of USB 3 is what most differs mobos for me, given that all other features are nearly the same.
ASUS Z390-A seems to be the best option. It has the important double USB2 ports, 5 USB3 ports and still has HDMI and DP for emergencies.
just4U - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
I wish MSI had released a "godlike" board for the Ryzen series.ThugEsquire - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link
You list the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac above as an ATX board, but it's actually mITX. FYIgavbon - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
I have gone through every page where the Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac is listed, but I can't see where it says it's an ATX board? Could you please be more specific? Are you viewing on mobile or desktop?Galcobar - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link
It would be really helpful to break out one more criteria into a table: Type-C header for case-front ports.Helping a friend put together an i5 system and, knowing he'll keep it for a long time, am trying to get even with peripheral connectors (already has a monitor, so no using that as a hub). It's relatively easy to identify cases with a Type-C port, but that's pointless without a motherboard header. Having to go into each board's page to check is time-consuming.
jjnam - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
6 months later and I'm here for EXACTLY this reason. I've gone through probably 50 manuals over the past few days squinting to find this information. What a pain.Synomenon - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
So on the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac, is the TB3 port on the rear using up lanes from CPU (making the only 16x slot, 8x only)?If it's not using lanes from the CPU, how will using that TB3 port (say with a USB3.1 Gen2 hub OR TB3 hub) affect all the other ports / IO on the board?
repoman27 - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
Going off of what TweakTown published, it's a single-port Intel JHL6240 "Alpine Ridge" controller with a PCI 3.0 x2 connection to the PCH. So it won't affect the PEG lanes from the CPU. I'm amazed it's not Titan Ridge at this point though.