ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac Review: ITX Excellence

[Crashman]

ASRock’s latest Mini ITX motherboard takes on ATX rivals in features, price, performance, and efficiency. It's an exceptional compact board for an Intel build.

ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac Review: ITX Excellence : Read more

 

[xidharta]

I love these reviews of itx boards, I would like to see gigabyte and msi ixt z390, which have a better price, many thanks!

 

[iankphone]

It'd be nice to see some followup with asrock regarding the dram over voltage...

 

[Crashman]

It'd be nice to see some followup with asrock regarding the dram over voltage...

"Everyone" does it, this time it was more egregious than the typical 15-25mV. I'm currently writing up a board that's only 7mV over. Seven. That's incredibly closer to spec than most competing products. Heck, I might just give the new board kudos for ONLY being 7mV over-spec.

 

[johnphilips]

I would love to see a roundup between all z390 itx boards, specially the overclocking part.

 

[echovelox]

What was your firmware ?

 

[Crashman]

What was your firmware ?

P1.27

 

[eddygonewild]

Why tom's hardware modifies pictures of reviews with extreme contrast. I can't see under the heatsink fins. Its totally useless, people are coming here to decide, not look at flashy eyecandy.

 

[Crashman]

Why tom's hardware modifies pictures of reviews with extreme contrast. I can't see under the heatsink fins. Its totally useless, people are coming here to decide, not look at flashy eyecandy.

The images match the profile of my monitor. Maybe I should be using a different monitor?

 

[ioanbordei]

Thunderbolt port is not working at full speed? 40Gb/s ? Why is running at half (20Gb/s) ?

 

[Crashman]

Thunderbolt port is not working at full speed? 40Gb/s ? Why is running at half (20Gb/s) ?

Because it's using a cheaper PCIe x2 controller.

 

[juanpihurtado]

I have been reading reviews in newegg warning that the two RAM slots sre very close together and that not all RAM models fit properly. I am thinking about buying this motherboard but want to use the two g.skill tridentz DIMMs I already own, which according to the reviews do not fit properly. Can you confirm this is the case?

 

[ioanbordei]

I like to create a workstation around this board. The Noctua NH-D15 coller is to big for this board? As a processor I will put an Intel Core i7-9700K. There will be space for the RAM also?

 

[ioanbordei]

OK! Thank you for this info! I have downloaded the user manual of this board but no word find about this limitation. Could this be a serious concern in a normal usage?
It is possible to boot up from an external Thunderbolt SSD? The speed limitation affect the normal working with the computer? It is M.2 interface faster than an external SSD in day by day using?

 

[Crashman]

I have been reading reviews in newegg warning that the two RAM slots sre very close together and that not all RAM models fit properly. I am thinking about buying this motherboard but want to use the two g.skill tridentz DIMMs I already own, which according to the reviews do not fit properly. Can you confirm this is the case?

Confirmed that TridentZ is a little too thick, modules can be forced in but push against each other. At 8.8mm, Trident Z is outside of industry spec.

I like to create a workstation around this board. The Noctua NH-D15 coller is to big for this board? As a processor I will put an Intel Core i7-9700K. There will be space for the RAM also?

There's around 90mm from the center of the socket to the back of the PCIe slot, so while the D15 could probably clear the graphics card, it will hang way past the top edge of the board. You'd have to put the EPS12V cable on before the cooler and bend it under the cooler. And any RAM you chose would have to be short enough to fit under the cooler, like this:
https://www.tomshardware.com/review...ual-nzxt-kraken-x61-noctua-nh-d15,4000-2.html
And even then I'm not sure if the heat pipes would clear the DIMMs.

OK! Thank you for this info! I have downloaded the user manual of this board but no word find about this limitation. Could this be a serious concern in a normal usage?
It is possible to boot up from an external Thunderbolt SSD? The speed limitation affect the normal working with the computer? It is M.2 interface faster than an external SSD in day by day using?

I don't believe there is boot ROM associated with the Thunderbolt interface, but someone might have better information than I. NVMe M.2 drives have a PCIe x4 interface, which is nearly 6x as fast as SATA, but the actual speeds you'll see depend on the drive you use.