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 MAG Z390M Mortar
The MSI MAG Z390M Mortar is a mATX sized offering from the arsenal gamin range and on paper, is a slightly cut-down version of the Z390 Tomahawk. There are currently no visuals of the MAG Z390M Mortar as MSI doesn't intend to release the board until late October/early November, although there have released its official specifications and expected launch pricing.
As far as rear panels go, the MAG Z390M Mortar is the only of MSI's boards to have a trio of video outputs which includes a DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort. USB wise there is a USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and Type-C port, as well as four USB 2.0 ports. MSI has opted to disregard USB 3.0 ports from the rear panel, but users looking to expand on what's available can do so through internal headers with up to four USB 2.0 and just two USB 3.0 ports available. The Z390M Mortar offers users five 3.5 mm audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF output thanks to a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec and the single LAN port is powered by an Intel I219V Gigabit controller.
Storage capability on the MAG Z390M Mortar consists of four SATA ports and has two M.2 slots capable of supporting both PCIe and SATA drives. The Mortar also has two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots with the top receiving a coating of MSI's Steel Slot armor and operating at x16, whereas the bottom slot operates at x4 and is bare; MSI also includes a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The lack of an x8 full-length slot means SLI is out of the question, but the Tomahawk does support 2-way CrossFire. Both of MSI's Z390 mATX sized boards have four RAM slots and the Z390M Mortar supports (INSERT MEMORY SUPPORT) and has room for a total capacity of up to 64 GB.
The MAG Z390M Mortar has a recommended MSRP of $145 and puts it as the cheapest gaming themed board from MSI; that's $35 cheaper than the MSI's other mATX option, the MSI MPGM Gaming Edge AC. Of course, the latter has integrated Wi-Fi all the while the Z390M Tomahawk does not and users looking to build a more wallet-friendly mATX gaming system is more likely to opt for this option.
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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.