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 Z390 Aorus Elite
The GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Elite is a little more 'basic' in terms of aesthetics than the Z390 Aorus Master and although the board has a similar rear panel cover and features integrated RGB LED lighting, the Z390 Aorus Elite belongs to the low to mid-range of Z390 options available. As per GIGABYTE's new naming scheme, one thing we do know is that the Z390 Aorus Elite replaces the Z370 Aorus Gaming 3 in the low-end Z390 entry segment. Official memory support out of the box consists of DDR4-4133 with up to 64 GB supported across four available RAM slots.
On the rear panel, GIGABYTE has included two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, four USB 3.0 Type-A and four USB 2.0 ports. Also featured are a single HDMI video output and a single LAN port controlled by an Intel I219V Gigabit networking chip. The onboard audio is directed by a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec and offers a total of five 3.5mm audio jacks and a single S/PDIF optical output.
Like the majority of the boards in GIGABYTEs Z390 product stack, the Z390 Aorus Elite is advertised as having a 13-phase power delivery in a 12+1 configuration. The board has two full-length PCIe slots with the top slot with support for two-way CrossFire configurations. In addition to the full-length slots is a total of three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. In terms of storage, the Z390 Aorus Elite has a total of two M.2 slots with the top slot getting treated to an M.2 heat shield. As with most Z390 motherboards, there is a total of six SATA ports which allows for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays to be utilized.
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The Z390 Aorus Elite is targeted more towards gamers on a budget with an MSRP of $180 and as previously mentioned, replaces the Z370 Aorus Gaming 3 in GIGABYTEs previous product stack making this the cheapest of their Z390 gaming themed ATX sized motherboards. There is no scope for SLI due to bandwidth restrictions on the second full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot (SLI requires x8 minimum), but users planning on running an AMD based graphics card can effectively double if they so wish.
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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.