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 Z390M Pro Gaming & Z390M Pro Gaming Wi-Fi
The TUF Z390M Pro Gaming is the smaller mATX sibling of the above ASUS Z390 Pro Gaming and as a result, features much of the same black and grey design with yellow accents. The main differences between the ATX and mATX sized TUF Pro Gaming motherboards are the smaller model has two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which run at x16 or x8/x4 and ASUS has only included one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The maximum memory the Z390M Pro Gaming supports is DDR4-4266 and the board does offer four RAM slots with a maximum support capacity of up to 64 GB.
Storage capability on the TUF Z390M Pro Gaming M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA supported slots with one of the slots being supplemented with an M.2 heatsink. This mATX sized board keeps all six SATA ports which are split into two different sections; three straight-angled ports at the bottom right-hand edge of the board, with three right-angled ports on the right-hand side underneath the 24-pin ATX motherboard power input.
ASUS TUF Z390M Pro Gaming (WI-Fi) Rear Panel
With the only differences between the TUF Z390M Pro Gaming and Z390 Pro Gaming (Wi-Fi) being the latter has an Intel 9560 2T2R Wave 2 supported 802.11ac adapter; take this out of the equation and the rest of the rear panel and specifications are exactly the same. A total of six USB ports comprised of one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, one USB 3.0 Type-C and four USB 3.0 Type-A ports is featured, as well as HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs. A pair of PS/2 ports with one for a keyboard and the other for a mouse sitting at the left-hand side of the rear panel, an Intel I219V Gigabit controlled LAN port and basic three 3.5 mm port powered Realtek S1200A HD audio codec completes the capacity of the panel.
The ASUS TUF Z390M Pro Gaming pricing us yet to be revealed but it's expected that the TUF Z390M Pro Gaming Wi-Fi will command a higher premium with an Intel 9560 MU-MIMO Wave2 Wi-Fi adapter included. The pairing of mATX form factor boards aims at the lower end of the mid-range segment and without too much going on, users looking for a more comprehensive mATX board may look to the more expensive ROG Maximus XI Gene or another competitors offering.
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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.