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 Ultra
As GIGABYTE has moved away from their numbering scheme and elected to use a more prominent gaming scheme, the previous Z370 Aorus Gaming 5 which sat in the mid-range of GIGABYTEs Intel range has been replaced by the Z390 Aorus Ultra. Aesthetically not much has changed as both models have integrated RGB LED lighting at various points across the board including the power delivery and chipset heatsinks and the Z390 does include a total of (insert) RGB headers to further expand the RGB capabilities of the board. Just like the Gaming 5, the Z390 Aorus Ultra has integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi on top of a single LAN port so users can get the best of both worlds when connecting to a network. GIGABYTE also advertises a 13-phase VRM (12+1) so there should be plenty of headroom available for users looking to overclock the new 9th generation Intel processors.
The Z390 Aorus Ultra shares similar characteristics as the Z370 Gaming 5 such as three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16, x8 and x4 from top to bottom respectively. GIGABYTE has upgraded the previous board as the Z390 Aorus Ultra now has metal slot protection on all of the full-length PCIe 3.0 slots. Also included on the board is three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots.
While both the Z370 Aorus Gaming 5 and the new Z390 Aorus Ultra has three PCIe 3.0 x4/2 M.2 slots, all three slots now include a dedicated M.2 heatsink to aid in heat dissipation on the newer Z390 option. The board also makes use of six SATA slots with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays. Focusing on memory, the Z390 Aorus Ultra has compatibility with DDR4-4133 RAM and up to a maximum supported capacity of 64 GB across four RAM slots.
On the rear panel, there are three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C and four USB 2.0 ports. Like the Z390 Aorus Master, there are also two USB 3.0 Type-A ports marked with GIGABYTE's DAC-UP audio boost technology. The Z390 Aorus Ultra has support for 2T2R Wave 2 802.11ac wireless networking and the single LAN port is controlled by an Intel I219V Gigabit networking controller. A single HDMI video output is featured for users looking to utilize the integrated graphics on supported 8th and 9th generation Intel processors and the onboard audio which consists of five 3.5 mm audio jacks and an S/PDIF optical output are controlled by a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec.
The GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Ultra is a mid-high end Z390 option which costs $250 aimed towards gamers and enthusiasts looking to make use of multi-graphics card configurations and multiple M.2 storage devices with each slot garnering support for NVMe based drives. A handy LED debugger is also featured meaning users looking to overclock their processors have a handy method of diagnosing failed overclocks as well as POST related issues.
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Chaitanya - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
That video advert on pages is stupid pain in rear side to say the least when reading through all those pages.Mr Perfect - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
The "How to pick a CPU" video? If you pay close attention to it, it's actually Anandtech content.That being said, they'll probably be fine with you ad-blocking it. Blocking content doesn't affect ad revenue, right? ;)
leexgx - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
I just opened the site in edge now so I could block them as very distracting and annoying (as well as the scam ads between the article and comments section that I have to scroll past )edwpang - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
I tried not to block ads, but I cannot bear the sight of some pictures and videos.imaheadcase - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
I don't understand how anandtech would allow the scam ads to appear on here, its prob the #1 reason i use a adblock in the first place. The only reason i know about it is from phone, when i first saw them i was like "wtf is this shit".I guess anandtech doesn't think its ads reflect its site.
Ryan Smith - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
If you guys are encountering issues with the ads, please reach out to me and let me know. Ads fall under a different department in Future, but if there are specific problems then I can at least pass those along to get them addressed.Ananke - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
The ads /the video/ are super annoying - its the same style as Tom's Hardware, apparently as business has been merged. The slotted video, or the minimized video screen upon changing the tab size for example makes me avoiding Anandtech and Tom's alltogether, after reading it for 20 years /yeah, since Anand was a teenager and started it as a blog/. I am multitasking, and I can't read when screen is smaller, and I use smaller screen at work, because you know, I work.hoohoo - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Hi Ryan,The Choose a CPU video is auto-play. On a phone or mobile device this is obnoxious for two reasons: (1) it uses a lot of bandwidth and mobile plans usually have a cap on data above which the reader must pay extra; (2) when the video plays it either pauses any already playing media (mp3 player on the phone) or just plays in addition to the existing media, both are irritating.
Please explain to your ad people that auto-play video is not nice.
Valantar - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
It's likely the camera/render angle playing tricks on me, but the VRM heatsink/rear I/O shroud on the ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming looks like it'll interfere with GPUs with backplates ...The Chill Blueberry - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
It's most likely just the camera angle. see how the top of the rear I/O is sticking out over the board. A big company like Asus couldn't forget about such an important detail.