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
ASUS ROG Strix Z390-H Gaming
Although the ROG Strix Z390-H retains the same PCB layout as the Strix Z390-E model, the visuals are much more aggressive with a red and black theme throughout; the Edge branding on the rear panel cover matches this particular color scheme. The Z390-H has three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16, x8 and x4 respectively, with the top two also featuring a coating of metal slot reinforcement protection. Like the Z390-E, the Z390-H has three available PCIe 3.0 x1 slots.
Storage capability is rather standard as far as Strix branded 300 series boards go with two M.2 slots available, with one having just PCIe 3.0 x4 support and the other allowing for SATA based drives to be used too. The six available SATA ports are placed differently on the Strix Z390-H with all six ports being aligned vertically in single and an individual array. RAM support is standard for an ATX sized board with four available slots with support for DDR4-4266 and a total combined capacity across all slots of up to 64 GB.
A slightly less comprehensive set of rear panel connectors marks a shift in the ASUS crammed rear panels, but still is remarkably impressive overall as the Strix Z390-H Gaming has a total of four USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports. In addition to this is a pair of video outputs with an HDMI and DisplayPort both being featured, with a PS/2 combo port, single Intel I219V Gigabit powered LAN port and a set of onboard audio connectors controlled by a ROG SupremeFX S1220A audio codec.
The ASUS ROG Strix Z390-H Gaming has an unknown pricing as of yet and is one of the only red and black themed boards on the whole of the Z390 chipset. The ROG logo on the rear panel is RGB and offers compatibility with the ROG AURA Sync RGB software, with the most notable point is the board's inclusion of four USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports; sorry, no USB Type-C whatsoever on the Z390-H Gaming.
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Smell This - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
Much.Of.
The.
Same.
2 HSIO lanes per Gen 2 port and WiFi. Wow (rolling I-eyeballs) ...
MadAd - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
58 motherboards, only 13 of which are smaller than ATX. When on earth are we going to move off this outdated oversized format? Its just more of the same every time, so depressing.gavbon - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
13 is better than 0, or 12 :DMadAd - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
Considering very small form formats (ITX) are harder to build for and only 7 are uATX, a size which is the most useful to transition away from ATX then no, it feels like an afterthought from a lazy industry. I mean who uses more than 1 main video card and 2-4 sticks of ram in a gaming PC these days? Even water builds into uATX isnt that hard to accomplish.After literally decades ATX should be a choice for edge cases not a mainstream build.
shaolin95 - Monday, October 22, 2018 - link
who cares about midge boards!Edkiefer - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
All these MB with 2x 8 pin power inputs, is both mandatory and if so I guess new PSU will need 2x 8pin now.entity279 - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
so it's ok to just buy SM motherboards now with them being involved in a security scandal?gavbon - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
I currently have the Supermicro C9Z390-PGW awaiting to go on the test bench next week, so from a consumers standpoint, I could potentially shed light on that board. As far as the Chinese/Supermicro/Spy scandal goes, I don't want to speculate without the finer details.eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
Ian & Gavin, thanks for the overview.@ both - Question: I've read that Intel, to deal with its bad planning/capacity problems on 14 nm, has contracted the fabbing of some of its chipsets out to TSMC, specifically in TSMC's 22 nm tech. Is that correct, and did you have a chance to confirm that the new 390s used by these boards are indeed made by Intel on their 14 nm FinFET tech, or are they made by a contractor (TSMC)?
DanNeely - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
AFAIK the chipsets being reverted to 22nm are using Intel's 22nm process in old unupgraded fabs. Doing so would be far less work than porting to a process from a different company; the latter would require massive rework to follow a completely different set of design rules.