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 Prime Z390M Plus
The ASUS Prime Z390M Plus is the cheapest of three mATX ASUS Z390 motherboards and visually looks similar to the Prime Z390-P in terms of aesthetics with the white patterning on a black PCB. The Prime Z390M Plus features the same set of white and black slim heatsinks on the power delivery and has a full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 with a second full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot offering up to two-way CrossFire multi-graphics card support. This board like the Prime Z390-A has two M.2 slots with both supporting PCIe 3.0 x4, but only one offering SATA compatibility. Also included are four SATA ports offering support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays.
On the Prime Z390M Plus, memory compatibility stretches to DDR4-4266 which is impressive for an entry-level offering and ASUS has really upped their game in the memory speed stakes. This is provided over four available RAM slots with a maximum supported capacity of up to 64 GB.
The rear panel has two USB 3.1 Type-A ports and four USB 3.0 Type-A ports and features a pair of video outputs which consists of a DVI-D and HDMI connector. A separate PS/2 keyboard and mouse port are located on the left side, with an Intel I219V Gigabit networking controller powering the single LAN port and older Realtek ALC887 HD audio codec controlling the available 3.5 mm audio jacks.
The ASUS Prime Z390M Plus pricing and availability is currently unknown but this model is likely to be the cheapest of the ASUS mATX sized options with a complete focus on offering value over premium chipset features such as the TUF gaming series offers, and this particular model looks to offer users a more value-focused mATX sized entry point onto the Z390 chipset.
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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 When on earth are we going to move off this outdated oversized format?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.