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
ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac
One of two mini-ITX offerings from ASRock for the launch of the Z390 includes the gaming-centric Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac. The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac follows an all-black design with speckly metallic heatsinks which includes RGB LED lighting at the bottom of the board. The main features include an Intel-based Gigabit LAN (I219V) and 2T2R Wave 2 802.11ac capable wi-fi adapter pairing and this board is one of the only Z390 motherboards to include a Thunderbolt 3Type-C port on the rear panel. The cooling capabilities are hindered slightly due to the form factor with a total of three 4-pin fan headers with two-thirds located along the top. There is an 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input and ASRock advertises an 8-phase power delivery; the SoC area of the power delivery is without a heatsink.
As the Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac is smaller it makes use of a single ASRock Steel Slot clad full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot with an M.2 slot located just above which offers support for PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA, while ASRock combines the chipset and M.2 heatsink as one to save space, but still offer the heat dissipation quality for hot running NVMe based drives. A second PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA slot is located on the rear of the boards PCB, while a total of four SATA ports with straight-angled connectors are located towards the bottom right of the board. Memory support consists of two slots with a maximum capacity of up to 32 GB and support for up to DDR4-4266.
The rear panel of the Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard offers a quality range of connections which puts a lot of boards to shame in this regard. Included is a Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports with a total of four USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports. A single LAN port powered by an Intel I219V Gigabit networking chip is present along with five 3.5 mm audio jacks and a single S/PDIF optical output which is controlled by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec. For users looking to use this board with integrated graphics, the Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac has two video outputs consisting of a DVI-D and an HDMI 2.0 outputFinishing off the rear panel is two connectors for the 2T2R Wave 2 802.11ac capable Wi-Fi antenna, a PS/2 combo port and a conveniently placed reset CMOS button.
In terms of pricing, the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac has an MSRP of $190 which is cheaper than I was expecting given the sheer amount of high-end features have been packed onto the PCB. The inclusion of a Thunderbolt 3 Type-C along with four USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports shows that where space has been used, it's been used to good effect; one of the benefits of the Z390 chipset is native USB 3.1 Gen2. A solid looking (visually) power delivery and with 2T2R Wave 2 802.11ac wireless capability marks another mini-ITX ASRock board aimed at the high-end enthusiast; I am personally very interested in seeing how this board performs as I'm a big fan of mini-ITX boards.
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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.