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
MSI MEG Z390 ACE
The MSI MEG Z390 ACE doesn't quite have as many features available as the bigger MEG Z390 GODLIKE, but the ACE variant of MSI's Enthusiast range is still pretty comprehensive all things considered. The overall design is neutral like all of MSIs MPG, MEG and MAG Z390 offerings and has an all-black matte PCB with silvery heatsinks and the board itself conforms to the standard ATX form factor. Like the GODLIKE the ACE has a total of four available RGB headers with integrated RGB LEDs within the rear IO cover being the most prominent.
There is a total of three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which all feature MSI Steel Slot reinforcement and each slot from top to bottom operates at x16, x8 and x4. This means three-way CrossFire is supported as well as two-way SLI; the board also has three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Memory support comes through four RAM slots with maximum capacity allowed for 64 GB and the MEG Z390 ACE has compatibility out of the box for up to DDR4-4500.
Looking at storage support, MSI has included a total of three M.2 slots with one having support for just PCIe drives, with the other two having support for both PCIe and SATA drives. The board also makes use of six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays.
On the rear panel, MSI has included three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports as well as a single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C. In addition to this is a further four USB 2.0 ports with the board disregarding any USB 3.0 from the rear panel, but there is the capacity to extend the USB through the use of front panel headers (four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0. The 8-channel audio is handled by a single Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec and the single LAN port on the rear is controlled by a Killer E2500 Gigabit chip. MSI has included Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 capability on the Z390 ACE thanks to an integrated Intel 9560 2T2R 802.11ac wireless adapter.
The MSI MEG Z390 ACE is set to retail for $290 at launch which is reasonable given what MSI has included in terms of premium controllers such as the Realtek ALC1220, Killer E2500 Gigabit and Intel 9560 2T2R networking controllers. Like the Z390 GODLIKE, the ACE also includes an integrated rear panel IO cover.
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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.