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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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.