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
GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Ultra
As GIGABYTE has moved away from their numbering scheme and elected to use a more prominent gaming scheme, the previous Z370 Aorus Gaming 5 which sat in the mid-range of GIGABYTEs Intel range has been replaced by the Z390 Aorus Ultra. Aesthetically not much has changed as both models have integrated RGB LED lighting at various points across the board including the power delivery and chipset heatsinks and the Z390 does include a total of (insert) RGB headers to further expand the RGB capabilities of the board. Just like the Gaming 5, the Z390 Aorus Ultra has integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi on top of a single LAN port so users can get the best of both worlds when connecting to a network. GIGABYTE also advertises a 13-phase VRM (12+1) so there should be plenty of headroom available for users looking to overclock the new 9th generation Intel processors.
The Z390 Aorus Ultra shares similar characteristics as the Z370 Gaming 5 such as three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16, x8 and x4 from top to bottom respectively. GIGABYTE has upgraded the previous board as the Z390 Aorus Ultra now has metal slot protection on all of the full-length PCIe 3.0 slots. Also included on the board is three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots.
While both the Z370 Aorus Gaming 5 and the new Z390 Aorus Ultra has three PCIe 3.0 x4/2 M.2 slots, all three slots now include a dedicated M.2 heatsink to aid in heat dissipation on the newer Z390 option. The board also makes use of six SATA slots with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays. Focusing on memory, the Z390 Aorus Ultra has compatibility with DDR4-4133 RAM and up to a maximum supported capacity of 64 GB across four RAM slots.
On the rear panel, there are three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C and four USB 2.0 ports. Like the Z390 Aorus Master, there are also two USB 3.0 Type-A ports marked with GIGABYTE's DAC-UP audio boost technology. The Z390 Aorus Ultra has support for 2T2R Wave 2 802.11ac wireless networking and the single LAN port is controlled by an Intel I219V Gigabit networking controller. A single HDMI video output is featured for users looking to utilize the integrated graphics on supported 8th and 9th generation Intel processors and the onboard audio which consists of five 3.5 mm audio jacks and an S/PDIF optical output are controlled by a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec.
The GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Ultra is a mid-high end Z390 option which costs $250 aimed towards gamers and enthusiasts looking to make use of multi-graphics card configurations and multiple M.2 storage devices with each slot garnering support for NVMe based drives. A handy LED debugger is also featured meaning users looking to overclock their processors have a handy method of diagnosing failed overclocks as well as POST related issues.
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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.