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 Z390M Gaming
The Z390M Gaming as it stands is the only mATX motherboard from GIGABYTE at the launch of the Intel 9th generation processors and shares a similar design to the Z390 Gaming SLI and Z390 Gaming X with a grey and black color scheme which has a red accent on the power delivery heatsink. Like the other pair just mentioned, the Z390M Gaming has dual CPU 12 V ATX power inputs (8 and 4-pin) and looks to have a 12-phase set up like the ATX sized gaming boards. Memory support is much the same too as the Z390M Gaming has four available RAM slots with a support for up to and including 64 GB with a published list of supported memory speeds currently unknown.
In terms of PCIe slots, the Z390M Gaming has two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16 and 4x respectively, with the top slot featuring metal slot reinforcement. The board also includes two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots and the board itself supports up to two-way CrossFire multi-graphics card configurations; virtually the same as the bigger ATX sized Z390 Gaming X. Similar to the aforementioned bigger sibling, the Z390M Gaming has six SATA ports with two right-angled ports and four straight-angled connectors located just below the 24-pin 12V motherboard power input. The board offers two M.2 slots which have support for both PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA based drives.
On the rear panel, the mATX Z390M Gaming includes two USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type-A and Type-C) and four USB 3.0 Type-A ports. The board has two video outputs which consist of a DVI-D and HDMI port, and also includes a PS/2 combination keyboard and mouse port. A single LAN port is also present which is powered by an Intel I219V Gigabit controller and the six 3.5 mm audio jacks take their direction from a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec.
The Z390M Gaming looks set to retail for $145 which is a similar price as the Z390 Gaming X ($150), which seems to be its shorter twin sibling and looks to give users looking to build a mATX gaming system an option to consider. Those looking to run two-way SLI on the smaller mATX form factor though will have to look elsewhere due to bandwidth constraints (x4) on the second full-length PCIe 3.0 slot.
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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.