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
ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/ac
The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/ac is available with or without Wi-Fi which gives users the choice if they want to spend the extra for wireless capability or save money if wireless doesn't feature into the plan; the price variance is expected to be just $10 during launch. The Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI is a slightly different take on ASRock's own Z390 Phantom Gaming 6 and Phantom Gaming 4 boards and sits right in between them in terms of features and pricing in the current ASRock product stack. The board has a total of five 4-pin fan headers, has an advertised 10-phase power delivery and offers users a single 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input.
With this being an SLI supported model as the name suggests, the Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI has two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which run at x16 and x8, with an additional four PCIe 3.0 x 1 slots. Both full-length slots are treated to ASRock's Steel Slot armor protection and the board supports up to two-way SLI and two-way CrossFire multi-graphics card setups. The board has two PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA supported M.2 slots with the bottom slot being complemented by an M.2 heatsink, while users looking to use SATA based devices will be happy to know the board has the Z390's maximum supported allocation of six ports. The board has four RAM slots which support up to DDR4-4266 and with a total combined capacity of up to 64 GB.
On the networking front the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI and Phantom Gaming SLI/ac models both feature a single Realtek RTL8125AG 2.5 G LAN with the latter model also including an 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter; this is the only difference between both of the aforementioned models. Both boards have a total of six USB ports on the rear which is comprised of a single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, a single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C and four USB 3.0 ports. The Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI also features a pair of HDMI and DVI-D display outputs, a PS/2 combo port and a single S/PDIF, with five 3.5 mm audio jacks powered by a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec.
The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI has an MSRP of $160 and the Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/ac has an MSRP of $170; a price premium of $10 for the integration of 802.11ac wireless networking is fair as a decent quality USB based network adapter can cost this, and more depending on the brand. ASRock has aimed both these models primarily at gamers and with the inclusion of 2.5 G Realtek LAN and a Realtek ALC892 audio codec, I think it would have been a smarter choice to use a Gigabit LAN and use the savings to upgrade the codec to the better quality Realtek ALC1220 offering, but the inclusion of the new Realtek 2.5 G RT8125AG gaming LAN is something not to be sniffed at!
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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.