A Closer Look
Pretty much all Z390 motherboards we’ve seen look fantastic. After all, they are the high-end boards of the Z3xx range and need to put their best foot forward to power the flagship i9-9900K CPU we’re using today. The monochrome finish looks superb, with only a few hints of yellow gold or brass adding any colour to the design.
There’s a very comprehensive power delivery setup around the CPU. It draws power from an 8-pin and 4-pin header, through two banks of MOSFETs and Black Capacitors for its 12-phase power design.
This should result in stable overclocks, even at the extreme end. Heat shouldn’t be an issue either, with two huge heatsinks in place to keep everything cool.
Down the right side of the board, you’ll find two USB 3.0 headers, as well as a Gen 2 USB 3.1 header.
There are plenty of USB 2.0 and all the usual external headers along the bottom row also.
More Storage?
The big thing I noticed is the use of 8 x SATA ports, where as all other Z390 boards we’ve seen only have 6 x SATA ports.
Storage options really are extensive here. You’ll find three M.2 drive mounts on the motherboard, with the bottom one supporting the largest length of drive, and featuring a huge heatsink cover. Furthermore, there are three full-size PCIe slots, wired at 16/8/4 with support for multi-GPU configurations. There are an additional three slots in-between should you need them.
The ALC1220 chipset and codec comes backed up with five good quality gold capacitors too, providing amplification for your headsets and speakers.
Finally, we have the rear I/O. There’s an interesting option of PS2 and VGA here. I’m sure some may need them, but what is this, 1999? Anyway, you’ll also find six USB ports, with Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C included. There’s the usual Gigabit LAN and audio near the bottom. Finally, you also have DP and HDMI for your other (more modern) display requirements.
What was VRM temperature OC, AVX?