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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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