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 Pro
The GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Pro slots right in between the Z390 Aorus Ultra and Z390 Aorus Elite in terms of their SKU list. The Z390 Aorus Pro is available with and without Wi-Fi, with the Wi-Fi model including support for 2T2R Wave 2 802.11 wireless network connectivity with speeds of up to 1.73 Gbps. This is the only difference in terms of specifications between the two models. 
Both the Z390 Aorus Pro and Z390 Aorus Pro WIFI has four RAM slots which support DDR4-4133 and a combined capacity of up to 64 GB.
On the board is a total of three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots with the first and second slot getting a treatment of metal slot protection, while the third slot remains bare; each full-length slot from top to bottom operates at x16, x8 and x4 meaning two-way SLI and up to three-way CrossFire multi-graphics card configurations are supported. In addition to the full-length slots, there are three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots present. Storage wise there are two M.2 slots which both have support for PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives and both slots have M.2 heatsinks included; there are also a total of six SATA ports which allow for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays to be utilized.
The bulk of rear panel connections are made of USB ports with a total of nine consisting of two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C, three USB 3.0 Type-A and four USB 2.0 ports. A further two USB 3.0 and four additional ports can be made available through the board's internal headers. The Wi-Fi model benefits from a 2T2R Wave 2 802.11ac dual antennae Wi-Fi module, while both versions have an Intel I219V Gigabit networking controller powering the single LAN port. The Z390 Aorus Pro and Aorus Pro WIFI use a Realtek ALC1220-VB audio codec which powers the five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, as well as a single HDMI video output also being present across both models.
As it stands the GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Pro WIFI is set to retail for $200 and users not intending to use a wireless network can instead opt for the non-WiFi version for a slightly altered price of $190. It's up to the user to determine whether or not they need wireless capabilities as the difference between the two models sits at $10. The primary target market is gamers and as both Aorus Pro models sit between the more basic Z390 Aorus Elite and the relatively high-end Z390 Aorus Ultra, GIGABYTE is trying to occupy as much market segmentation as it possibly can.
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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.