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 9, Gaming 6, & Gaming 4
To complement the release of the new Z390 for Intel's Coffee-Lake refresh, the majority of the motherboard manufacturers has made key changes to their ranges which doesn't just stretch to new naming schemes, but entire ranges too. ASRock as a gaming brand in the past have relied on the 'Fatal1ty' branding which has been synonymous in more recent times with ASRock motherboards more than it has with anything else. In a complete switch around, ASRock for the Z390 chipset has dropped this and has rebranded their gaming range of motherboards with the new Phantom Gaming range which seemingly drops the primarily red and black theme, and implements a more neutral color scheme. The Phantom Gaming series seems reserved for the top end models, with ASRock also releasing a new Z390 Gaming K6 which is a direct replacement to the Z370 Gaming K6, their usual Pro4 ATX and mATX models and more recently, the newer Taichi models on the new Z390 chipset.
ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9
Starting with ASRock's new gaming-centric flagship motherboard, the Z390 Phantom Gaming 9, the overall design marks a slight movement away from the static red and black theme but instead replaces it with a more subtle black and grey design. There are some red accents around the chipset heatsink and on the PCB near the CPU socket, but on the whole, it looks rather stylish. The board is full sized ATX and does have plenty of RGB integrated including LEDs within the power delivery and chipset heatsinks, as well as implemented into the audio PCB cover. The board has an LED debug and onboard power and reset switches and offers a total of eight 4-pin fan headers.
The bottom half of the board has three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16, x8 and x4 which means three-way CrossFire and two-way SLI multi-graphics card setups are made possible, with a further two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots also present. All three of the full-length PCIe slots feature metal slot protection. The board has a total of three M.2 slots with the bottom slot getting a heatsink, with all slots supporting both PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA flavors of drives. In addition to the trio of M.2 slots is a total of eight SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays. The board has four RAM slots which support DDR4-4500 and offers a total capacity of up to 64 GB.
On the rear panel, ASRock has implemented a total of three LAN ports which consist of two Intel Gigabit based LAN (I219V and I211AT) and a Realtek RTL8125AG 2.5G LAN controller. The Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 also includes a 2T2R 802.11ac Wave 2 capable Wi-Fi adapter making this one of the most comprehensive boards as far as networking connections go outside of the inclusion of a 5G or 10G port. A Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec powers the five 3.5 mm audio jacks on the rear panel as well as the single S/PDIF optical output. USB wise the Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 has four USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports consisting of three Type-A and one Type-C port, with an additional four USB 3.0 Type-A ports. The board also includes a pair of video outputs which include a DisplayPort and HDMI 1,4 port and a handy reset CMOS switch; not to forget a PS/2 combo keyboard and mouse port.
With a total of three LAN ports including a 2.5G port with a supplement of two Intel-based Gigabit LAN three M.2 and three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots (x16/x8/x8), the board screams high-end and as it stands, it currently sits atop of ASRock's current Z390 product stack. The MSRP ASRock are asking for the flagship Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 is set $270, and this is to be expected given the slew of high-end features and the fact it's one of the only boards to feature three LAN ports at launch on a consumer desktop board.
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gavbon - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
Thank you Hickory, will update now; this information wasn't available to us at the timebill44 - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
All this boards, but only 1 with Thunderbolt 3. Looks like Thunderbolt 3 is dead (free or not).Type C ports and HDMI 2.0 is in short supply too.
Hopefully next year, we can have two or more USB C (maybe even 3.2), HDMI 2.1, PCIe 4/5 and Thunderbolt 3/4 (Titan Ridge?). Or maybe not, just the same old things hoping for 2020/21.
DanNeely - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
There's no licensing fee for TB, the controller chip itself still costs money (IIRC $20 or $30) and still eats 4 PCIe lanes. Worse, IIRC to make the video out feature work they need to be CPU lanes; meaning that adding it means your main GPU slot is an x8, and the secondary one only x4.gavbon - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
Yeah it's a case of certain vendors opting to dismiss including TB3 ports, which only seems sensible on mini-ITX boards where PCIe lanes aren't too much of an issue. Consumer choice is important though and I'm still glad ASRock has included it; it could be a key buying decision for some!gamingkingx - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
Just too bad it is only wired as a x2.. And it is wired into the chipset as far as I am aware, so you are gonna max out your I/Os pretty fast.bill44 - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
Sure, anything you add will cost something. The are plenty of non-gamers who prefer TB3 vs x16.This also highlights how old current PC architecture is. Either we need more PCIe lanes, or faster lanes. Otherwise, all advances will be hindered.
Up to 6 USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports? You’ be lucky to get 4. Why can’t we have 6 Gen2 ports and the rest Gen1 an no antiquated USB 2.0? PCIe resources.
All new peripherals use Type C, but this boards generally give you only 1 (saving money on redrivers). USB 3.2 (20 Gbps)? When it comes around, ithis too will need more PCIe lanes. M.2. PCIe 3.0 x4? All lanes are maxed out; the only way forward is faster lanes.
In the past, Gigabyte was a TB3 champion including the functionality on many of their boards. Now, not a single one.
Cost saving by motherboard makers? Prioritising gamers? Or simply no demand for TB3.
The outcome is the same.
repoman27 - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
Intel merely said that they planned "to make the Thunderbolt protocol specification available to the industry under a nonexclusive, royalty-free license" sometime this year. This hasn't happened yet, and is referring to the protocol spec, not the silicon that Intel produces. If and when they decide to do this, ASMedia or whoever could then begin development of their own Thunderbolt controllers. This means that third-party controllers probably won't appear in shipping products until sometime in 2023.As for the currently available Thunderbolt 3 controllers, tray prices range from $6.45 to $9.10. But you also need a USB Type-C and PD controller, power switch, and high-speed mux which runs around $4.59, plus the connector and a few other bits. I don't believe Intel charges a royalty on finished Thunderbolt products, but they do require licensing and certification which are paid for by the OEM and may add significant cost to relatively low-volume products.
AFAIK, Windows PCs are still required to connect Thunderbolt controllers via the PCH. Apple is the only one using PEG lanes for Thunderbolt, and they don't do that on the 27-inch iMacs where it might adversely impact the GPU.
Dug - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
I hope it's not dead. Far more useful than USB C. I would be fine with USB C except there doesn't seem to be a good USB C to USB C hub, which really restricts how many devices you can use. I'm really glad to see it on ASRock itx board so I can attach a portable SSD array.imaheadcase - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
Tons of monitors of USB-C, anker sells USB-C hubs, I don't think i've seen thunderbolt in a desktop PC to date though. That best part of USB-C is being able to just plug phone into it and copy paste to desktop files (no Microsoft didn't invent that, it was always that way by default in windows)Valantar - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
TB3 is far from dead, it just has little use in desktop PCs. Have you looked at laptop lineups recently? TB3 is _everywhere_. My workplace (a major university here in Norway) has moved entirely to TB3 docking solutions as they're the only full-featured and universal(-ish) solution.eGPUs are useless on desktops. Desktops don't need docks. USB 3.1 is plenty fast for external storage, and if you need faster storage, desktops can fit that internally. The only real use cases for TB3 on a desktop are TB3 networking (for fast direct transfers between PCs) and adding things like extra NVMe or >GbE networking on ITX boards that don't have room for that and a GPU.