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
MSI MEG Z390 ACE
The MSI MEG Z390 ACE doesn't quite have as many features available as the bigger MEG Z390 GODLIKE, but the ACE variant of MSI's Enthusiast range is still pretty comprehensive all things considered. The overall design is neutral like all of MSIs MPG, MEG and MAG Z390 offerings and has an all-black matte PCB with silvery heatsinks and the board itself conforms to the standard ATX form factor. Like the GODLIKE the ACE has a total of four available RGB headers with integrated RGB LEDs within the rear IO cover being the most prominent.
There is a total of three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which all feature MSI Steel Slot reinforcement and each slot from top to bottom operates at x16, x8 and x4. This means three-way CrossFire is supported as well as two-way SLI; the board also has three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Memory support comes through four RAM slots with maximum capacity allowed for 64 GB and the MEG Z390 ACE has compatibility out of the box for up to DDR4-4500.
Looking at storage support, MSI has included a total of three M.2 slots with one having support for just PCIe drives, with the other two having support for both PCIe and SATA drives. The board also makes use of six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays.
On the rear panel, MSI has included three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports as well as a single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C. In addition to this is a further four USB 2.0 ports with the board disregarding any USB 3.0 from the rear panel, but there is the capacity to extend the USB through the use of front panel headers (four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0. The 8-channel audio is handled by a single Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec and the single LAN port on the rear is controlled by a Killer E2500 Gigabit chip. MSI has included Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 capability on the Z390 ACE thanks to an integrated Intel 9560 2T2R 802.11ac wireless adapter.
The MSI MEG Z390 ACE is set to retail for $290 at launch which is reasonable given what MSI has included in terms of premium controllers such as the Realtek ALC1220, Killer E2500 Gigabit and Intel 9560 2T2R networking controllers. Like the Z390 GODLIKE, the ACE also includes an integrated rear panel IO cover.
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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.