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 TUF Z390 Plus Gaming
ASUS TUF Z390 Plus Gaming Wi-Fi
The TUF Z390 Plus Gaming and the Wi-Fi inclusive TUF Z390 Plus Gaming Wi-Fi are a pair of ATX sized motherboards which sits just below the TUF Z390 Pro Gaming in the current Z390 product stack from ASUS. The main difference in specification between the Pro Gaming and the Plus gaming is that this model has no support for two-way SLI due to bandwidth restrictions on the second full-length PCIe slot. The PCIe 3.0 slot configuration on the Z390 Plus Gaming and Wi-Fi enabled model is slightly different with two full-length PCIe 3.0 lanes with the top operating at x16 and the second at just x4; this is in addition to four PCIe 3.0 x1 slots.
Visually the boards have an all-black look with black rear panel covers and black heatsinks; a lot of blacks but this is offset with yellow colored TUF gaming accenting across the heatsinks and around the PCB of the socket area. The TUF Z390 Plus Gaming and Plus Gaming Wi-Fi have two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots with the bottom slot having a heatshield integrated on the board; only one of the M.2 slots has support for SATA drives. A total of six SATA ports is also present with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays.
ASUS TUF Z390 Plus Gaming Wi-Fi rear panel (only difference is wireless support)
The rear panels on both models include two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and four USB 3.0 Type-A ports, with a pair of video outputs consisting of a DisplayPort and HDMI. Two separate PS/2 ports for a keyboard and mouse are included as well as an Intel I219V Gigabit powered LAN port and three 3.5 mm audio jacks taking their direction from a Realtek S1200A HD audio codec. The only difference between both models comes with a pair of antenna connectors provided by an Intel 9560 2x2 MU-MIMO Wave 2 Wi-Fi adapter.
The ASUS TUF Z390 Plus Gaming has an MSRP of (INSERT PRICE) and occupies the entry-level segment of the gaming based market. The more expensive TUF Z390 Plus Gaming Wi-Fi costs (INSERT PRICE) with the premium clearly attributed to the included Intel 9560 1.73 Gbps capable Wi-Fi adapter. Both look attractive at their respective price points and users have the option with or without Wi-Fi capability.
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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