Top 5 Intel Z390 Motherboards: The best boards for your high-end gaming rig

[Julio Franco]

First things first, you need to choose sides. Whether you're going AMD or Intel, there are loads of motherboards to choose from. If you've followed our previous motherboard buying guides covering Z370, B450 and X470 motherboards, you're probably in for a surprise once you see how this one turned out.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/bestof/intel-z390-motherboards/

 

[BigBoomBoom]

First time no ASUS model recommended anywhere, not even alternatives.

 

[fktech]

2nd mortgage here....

 

[BSim500]

Here's an idea for an article - do a test on the effectiveness of M2 heatsinks included with motherboards. The whole point of a heatsink is to have fins or ribs to maximise surface area (and thus heat dissipation). Yet half these M2 heatsinks look like flat bits of metal whose heatsink-ness is not very heatsinky. Have they improved or is it still a case like that MSI M2 "heatsink" which raised rather than lowered NVM drive temps. Same goes with "double-decker" style on ITX boards (where the M2 is over the chipset and both are "cooled" by one M2 heatsink) - what are drive / chipset temps like now?

 

[EClyde]

I never thought I would want any LEDS in my system. I like them now. I think LED's on Mobo's is goofy but one day I will like them too

 

[mrjgriffin]

Considering how much of a piece of trash my gigabyte board is I really hate seeing gigabyte boards being recommended lol but this old girl is getting old so its......eh. it took 5+ years before my board started giving me hassles so I guess I cant complain too much for a 140 dollar mobo.

 

[toooooot]

Considering how much of a piece of trash my gigabyte board is I really hate seeing gigabyte boards being recommended lol but this old girl is getting old so its......eh. it took 5+ years before my board started giving me hassles so I guess I cant complain too much for a 140 dollar mobo.

I have been spoiled by asus and asrock boards I guess .
I never had to replace them. Only thing I ever had a problem with was when it touched the carpet while it was on. I had to send it to fix it.
I heard of gigabyte's long history of "average" quality products. Right now, I am using msi gaming krait. Has been almost 4 years without any noticeable issues. So I do recommend these.

 

[isomage]

I've been using an ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate and have been real happy with it. They've released a few BIOS updates but I haven't had any issues that required or made updating it essential.

My only complaint is that despite advertising "DTS Connect" and "Dolby Digital Live" all over the product, all they've included is the stock, base Realtek drivers and no way to make those formats default. That's very disappointing, but then almost none of the mobos available today get that right.

 

[daDaffmeistah]

How about the SuperMicro vs the MSI Godlike for the "No Compromise"? title? The SuperMicro has a PLX chip for more PCI-E lanes and 10G LAN.

 

[B_randon]

I'm curious why asus isnt on the list as well and why the review states they are of lower quality. Ive always had great success with there ROG series. I guess its time to do research

 

[condelio]

Hey Steve, or someone with experience... I have an ASRock z370 fatal1ty gaming itx/AC with updated bios, do you think it can manage a 9900k fully unleashed? or with 95w cap in bios? or would it be preferable to pair it with a 9700k/8700k... the 9900k is a little bit out of my confort zone anyway...thanks in advance

 

[complexxL9]

Is this techspots channel since it seems these are all the same picks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQacSdJt7c

 

[Bobbydpue]

Considering how much of a piece of trash my gigabyte board is I really hate seeing gigabyte boards being recommended lol but this old girl is getting old so its......eh. it took 5+ years before my board started giving me hassles so I guess I cant complain too much for a 140 dollar mobo.

Contact the manufacturer and see what they can or will do for you. MSI sent me a bad motherboard, which I understand can happen, but their handling of the situation made me avoid MSI products since: The motherboard ruined any RAM module placed in the motherboard and it was at a time when 16GB kits cost $200. I explained what happened and asked if I could send the RAM so they could see for themselves what happened, but they refused to entertain my claim their product ruined my RAM. So I was out $400 in RAM since the RAM wasn't an MSI product and they don't warrantee products connected to their products, but they did say they would send me a replacement motherboard. I had already replaced that motherboard with a new one from a different company that worked fine, however, only with new kits of RAM. Any RAM I had put in that board's slot closest to the CPU was ruined and I had swapped the slots the modules were in while trying to troubleshoot the booting issue. I used a new kit of RAM and one I had pulled from a known working computer

Instead of sending me a brand new motherboard which they were replacing they sent me a refurbished motherboard that would boot and would let me install an OS, but as soon as I tried to get the computer to boot from the OS it would lock up while it moved data from the OS drive to RAM. Turns out that motherboard also damaged RAM in both slots. Again I bought another motherboard for the build and everything worked, except the RAM I put in the MSI motherboard. I sent a message to MSI telling them they sent me another bad motherboard and they never responded. They cost me $500 in RAM, shipping costs to ship the board to them and the cost of the original motherboard.

If I have the choice between a $400 MSI product and a $500 product from another company I'll spend more on the other brand. If it's a choice between an MSI video card and no video card I'm go to go without a video card.