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 Strix Z390-H Gaming
Although the ROG Strix Z390-H retains the same PCB layout as the Strix Z390-E model, the visuals are much more aggressive with a red and black theme throughout; the Edge branding on the rear panel cover matches this particular color scheme. The Z390-H has three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16, x8 and x4 respectively, with the top two also featuring a coating of metal slot reinforcement protection. Like the Z390-E, the Z390-H has three available PCIe 3.0 x1 slots.
Storage capability is rather standard as far as Strix branded 300 series boards go with two M.2 slots available, with one having just PCIe 3.0 x4 support and the other allowing for SATA based drives to be used too. The six available SATA ports are placed differently on the Strix Z390-H with all six ports being aligned vertically in single and an individual array. RAM support is standard for an ATX sized board with four available slots with support for DDR4-4266 and a total combined capacity across all slots of up to 64 GB.
A slightly less comprehensive set of rear panel connectors marks a shift in the ASUS crammed rear panels, but still is remarkably impressive overall as the Strix Z390-H Gaming has a total of four USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports. In addition to this is a pair of video outputs with an HDMI and DisplayPort both being featured, with a PS/2 combo port, single Intel I219V Gigabit powered LAN port and a set of onboard audio connectors controlled by a ROG SupremeFX S1220A audio codec.
The ASUS ROG Strix Z390-H Gaming has an unknown pricing as of yet and is one of the only red and black themed boards on the whole of the Z390 chipset. The ROG logo on the rear panel is RGB and offers compatibility with the ROG AURA Sync RGB software, with the most notable point is the board's inclusion of four USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports; sorry, no USB Type-C whatsoever on the Z390-H Gaming.
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DanTMWTMP - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Are they ALL made in China? What happened to the ones made in Taiwan from a few gens ago? :/gavbon - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
Unfortunately, I cannot confirm this. The ASRock Z390 Taichi I have in my hands says 'designed in Taipei', but that's about it.Nagorak - Sunday, October 14, 2018 - link
Gigabyte apparently has a factory in Taiwan. It seems all the rest moved production to China.WickedMONK3Y - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
The MEG Z390 Godlike looked like such an interesting board until I checked the MSI Specifications page and realised it actually does not have the PLX chip as suspected. The PCI Express slots on the board are configured as 16x / 4x / 8x / 4x instead of 16x / 16x / 8x / 4x or 16x / 8x / 16x / 4x. It seems after PLX sold to whomever owns them now, that the price hike stopped their usage on consumer boards completely.I really really hope somebody comes out with a board that has a PLX chip on board.
gavbon - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
The Supermicro C9Z390-PGW has a Broadcom 8747 PLX PCIe switch :)ZioTom - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
It would be a nice touch including in next MB review what pheriferals stop funcioning when too much PCI-E lanes are used. Some motherboards disable SATA ports when M.2 slot are used; others may require limiting bandwith to one PCI-E slot... etc. Before byuing a motherboard I would like to be warned that is not possibile to use all the features they are advertising.happyfirst - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
I wish we would get better thunderbolt support. Only one board has it built in? I'm thinking of a Taichi board and see a Thunberbolt AIC connector in the manual, but then I can't really find enough good quality posts of people having success putting it to use. I'd like to get a new external nvme ssd thunderbolt drive to run my vms off of so I can more easily take them on the road with me and use from my notebook.ddcc - Saturday, October 13, 2018 - link
Certain Gigabyte boards, e.g. Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi, seem to be using Intel's Z390 CNVi, but aren't listed in the article.gavbon - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
I'm going to be updating tomorrow with more information; been working on getting one of the board reviews ready for the end of the week :)gavbon - Sunday, October 21, 2018 - link
Will be adding these in tomorrow (not at a PC currently) - We didn't have the information available prior to writing