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-I Gaming
It seems that ASUS has retired or laid the Maximus Impact branded mini-ITX boards to stud as we haven't seen one in the wild since the Z170 chipset; the ASUS Z170 Maximus VIII Impact. While the ever-popular Impact doesn't look to feature in current or future plans for that matter, users looking for a mini-ITX option from ASUS will need to look towards the ROG Strix Z390-Gaming, which in reality doesn't seem all too dissimilar aside from the regular implemented power delivery; not the vertically mounted one feature on the Impact series.
Visual aspects to note include solid grey colored heatsinks with Edge holographic branding towards the bottom of the rear panel cover and RGB lovers will be glad to know there's a customizable LED strip located on the right-hand side; underneath the 24-pin ATX motherboard power input. As expected on a mini-ITX motherboard, there's a single full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot and the PCB space has been utilized well with a single M.2 slot with inclusive and combined chipset heatsink, as well as an additional M.2 slot on the rear. The Strix Z390-I Gaming also contains four SATA ports which feature straight angled connectors; arranged into two pairs on either side of the RAM slots.
Speaking of RAM, this board supports up to DDR4-4600 which is the fastest of any Z390 board which is one of the reasons extreme overclockers select two-slot ASUS boards as one of their main options in competitive benchmarking. Another highly notable difference in the memory compatibility is that the two RAM slots support up to 64 GB in capacity. This is in line with our expose from Zadak which is manufacturing a double height and double capacity DDR4 32 GB RAM modules with the specifications of the ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming stating that this new type of memory module is officially supported.
The mini-ITX sized ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming is one of only a small handful of Z390 motherboards to have an HDMI 2.0 video output and in addition to this, is a single DisplayPort. An Intel I219V Gigabit LAN port is present with antenna connectors for the included 2T2R Wave 2 802.11ac Intel 9560 Wi-Fi adapter. The USB looks a little lacklustre compared to the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac with two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, two USB 3.0 Type-A, two USB 2.0 and a single USB 3.0 Type-C port; no USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C capabilities at all. The finishing touches to the Strix Z390-I Gaming is a Realtek based SupremeFX S1220A HD audio codec which powers the five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output.
The ASUS ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming pricing is yet to be announced but it won't be on the cheap side, while this model looks to keep most of the high spec features from the ATX sized ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming board, but with a much smaller overall footprint. The inclusion of dual M.2 is nice, but it isn't a unique feature with other mini-ITX Z390 offerings including this.
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pawinda8 - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
Still no mention of any Z390 boards with native Thunderbolt 3 (not AIC)! Has Intel given up on Thunderbolt for the PC world?gavbon - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
If it's not integrated into the chipset, it's not really native as such. The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac has a Thunderbolt 3 port on the rear panel, but that's the only one I'm afraidHikariWS - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
Oculus Rift requires 3 USB3 ports and doesn't accept any of them being connected to a hub, they all need to be connected directly into a raw port. I had to buy a dedicated 3GIO USB 3 board that added 6 useful extra ports. In my (yes, old) Gigabyte z87 mobo I also had issues using keyboard and mouse on USB 3 ports inside UEFI and some recovery softwares, so I had to buy a USB 2 mirror to connect them.Because of that, having USB 2 ports on front panel and nice quantity of USB 3 is what most differs mobos for me, given that all other features are nearly the same.
ASUS Z390-A seems to be the best option. It has the important double USB2 ports, 5 USB3 ports and still has HDMI and DP for emergencies.
just4U - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
I wish MSI had released a "godlike" board for the Ryzen series.ThugEsquire - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link
You list the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac above as an ATX board, but it's actually mITX. FYIgavbon - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
I have gone through every page where the Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac is listed, but I can't see where it says it's an ATX board? Could you please be more specific? Are you viewing on mobile or desktop?Galcobar - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link
It would be really helpful to break out one more criteria into a table: Type-C header for case-front ports.Helping a friend put together an i5 system and, knowing he'll keep it for a long time, am trying to get even with peripheral connectors (already has a monitor, so no using that as a hub). It's relatively easy to identify cases with a Type-C port, but that's pointless without a motherboard header. Having to go into each board's page to check is time-consuming.
jjnam - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
6 months later and I'm here for EXACTLY this reason. I've gone through probably 50 manuals over the past few days squinting to find this information. What a pain.Synomenon - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
So on the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac, is the TB3 port on the rear using up lanes from CPU (making the only 16x slot, 8x only)?If it's not using lanes from the CPU, how will using that TB3 port (say with a USB3.1 Gen2 hub OR TB3 hub) affect all the other ports / IO on the board?
repoman27 - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
Going off of what TweakTown published, it's a single-port Intel JHL6240 "Alpine Ridge" controller with a PCI 3.0 x2 connection to the PCH. So it won't affect the PEG lanes from the CPU. I'm amazed it's not Titan Ridge at this point though.