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 Maximus XI Gene
The last time the market has seen a high-performance mATX motherboard on a mainstream desktop chipset from ASUS was back in 2015 with the Z170 chipset Maximus VIII Gene. Since then loyal ASUS users looking for a replacement of sorts has had to opt for a gaming-focused Strix branded mATX model, until now. The Gene is back and it's back with a slightly different approach as the new ROG Maximus XI Gene drops four RAM slots and opts for two which has support for DDR4-4600 which is the fastest rated out of the box from any Z390 at launch. ; this is news that will please enthusiasts and extreme overclockers who favor two slot memory configurations for better latency thanks to shorter memory tracks. Touching more on the memory, one of the biggest features is official support for the brand new double height, double capacity 32 GB SO-DIMMs that are expected to come to the market very soon; we reported on this a week or so ago. This means the board will have support for up to 64 GB of system memory over the two available RAM slots. Another enthusiast level feature is an LED debug, set of dip switches which will most certainly be related to LN2 and sub-zero cooling with what seemingly looks like a reset CMOS button, reset switch and a start button.
On the tightly packed PCB of the mATX Maximus XI Gene, ASUS has included the ROG DIMM.2 M.2 slot which supports PCIe 3.0 x4 directly from the CPU. There are two internal M.2 slots on the board with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 drives with bandwidth coming from the PCH; the official specification does not mention SATA M.2 SSD support, so unless these will change as the board is released, it remains unknown. We know the Z390 ROG Gene will have four SATA ports and support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 will feature. The board visually looks as if it might house a 10+2 phase power delivery and is supported by two 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs making this one of the most powerful non-ATX motherboards on the entire platform; especially enticing for extreme overclockers to sink their teeth into.
While we don't have any other images available as of yet other than the one VideoCardz leaked out, we can confirm the ROG Maximus XI Gene is on, we can confirm it's in the ASUS Z390 product stack and the specifications noted above are directly from ASUS; it is coming and it's nice to see the Gene make a return after three years out. Like a mini-ITX board would, the mATX Gene has only one full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot with a smaller PCIe 3.0 x4 slot located just above this which is believed to be for M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4.
On the rear panel will include plenty of USB connectivity including three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C, and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports. A single HDMI video output is present along with a single Intel I219V Gigabit powered LAN port and onboard audio selection consisting of five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/DPIF optical output controlled by a gaming-focused Supreme FX S1220 audio codec. The Maximus XI Gene also includes an Intel 9560 Wi-Fi adapter which supports Wave 2 1.73 Gbps wireless connectivity as well as Bluetooth 5 support. That's all we currently know about the rear panel.
There is currently no pricing or information on the availability as of yet for the mATX sized ROG Maximus XI Gene, but we expect ASUS will look to release this towards the end of October or early November.
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eastcoast_pete - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Yes, you are correct, at least for H310c chipsets, maybe more (all?). I looked at the digitimes report on Intel outsourcing to TSMC, and that, if correct, would be about chipsets fabbed in 14nm. I wonder if Anadtech could check the 390s from the newest MoBos and sleuth out if they are also a case of "back to the future - 22 is the new 14 at Intel".peterfares - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
Still waiting for someone to make a mini-ITX board with 4x SODIMM slots. The X299 one is interesting combined with a 9800X but I'd rather have the newer architecture with better IPC and clocks.gavbon - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
4 x SODIMMs has no performance benefit on Z370/Z390 other than a capacity increase because of the dual channel memory controller. The ASUS Z390 Maximus Gene and Strix Z390-I support the new 32GB double capacity SODIMMs to give more options for mini-ITX users needing more capacity.The X299 ASRock board put 4 x RAM slots on it so it could benefit from the quad channel memory controller
gamingkingx - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
Gavon understands it..On ITX its all about how you use the space.. It would be sille to have 4 slots for dual channel.
BUT! It would interesting to use only 2x SO-DIMM..
cyrilp - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Some of the asrock boards have 8 SATA3, 3 Ultra M.2 but it's a bit misleading as they share lanes. so you can't use 8 sata3 drivers and 3 m2 ones at the same timegavbon - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Yeah, it's a bit of a pain, but one of the drawbacks of a chipset designed for the desktop. Unfortunately, in that situation, it's one or the other. If I was going to use 8 x SATA drives and 3 x M.2, I would probably be using a HEDT chipset such as X299 or TR4 anywayballsystemlord - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Spelling and grammar corrections. I did not read this whole article. You 2 goofed this one up pretty badly."In the below table a question mark (?) denotes that we currently don't currently have this information available."
Too many currentlys.
"In the below table a question mark (?) denotes that we don't currently have this information available."
"My take on it is that it could be easier to mount a CPU pot for extreme overclockers for some reason, as I'm sure this board is all about the performance marbles and nothing else."
Sound bytes as a sentence (SBAAS). I've very little idea what you were trying to say. Maybe:
"My take on it is that it could be easier to mount a CPU pot for extreme overclockers. For some reason they insist on pots. Or maybe not, as I'm sure this board is all about the performance and nothing else."
"The new gaming themed naming structure consists of three different ranges which make a lot of sense when they deciphered; the MEG is the enthusiast gaming, MPG is performance gaming and the MAG is the arsenal gaming."
Missing "are".
"The new gaming themed naming structure consists of three different ranges which make a lot of sense when they're deciphered; the MEG is the enthusiast gaming, MPG is performance gaming and the MAG is the arsenal gaming."
"The MAG essentially renames the original arsenal range of boards with a name which seems fitting etc rifle mag, a happy coincidence perhaps."
Stray "etc".
"The MAG essentially renames the original arsenal range of boards with a name which seems fitting i.e. rifle mag, a happy coincidence perhaps."
gavbon - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
Appreciated, updated :)ballsystemlord - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
I love your table on "Power Delivery Comparison".But how do you tell how many phases each board has from your table?
E.g. "GIGABYTE Z390 Gaming SLI" has 5+2 ISL69138 but then has 5 ISL6617A doublers leading me to the conclusion that it is a 25 + 2 phase design.
Thanks!
gavbon - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
I've updated the table to make it more clear :) - The PPaks are dual channel MOSFETs so each of the GIGABYTE boards is running 10 phases, with 5 doublers = 2 phases per channel. This is the data we received directly from GIGABYTE.