[SOLVED] ASUS Prime z390-A or ASRock z390 Phantom Gaming 6?

[rvald005]

Hello all! long time follower of the forums here but never really posted.

Anyway, I am making my first custom build (white/red) and was curious about which of the 2 mobo's is better/more preferred (gaming would be the primary purpose of the build).

I'm currently looking at:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/512012/prime-z390-a-lga-1151-atx-intel-motherboard

https://www.microcenter.com/product/512564/z390-phantom-gaming-6-lga-1151-atx-intel-motherboard

Both are close in price and I should be able to get an additional 30 USD off because I'm bundling it with an appropriate cpu.

I'll be using an i7-8700k cpu, geforce gtx 1070ti gpu inside the Lian Li PC-011 dynamic case (still in the process of collecting the rest of the parts).

I was trying to somewhat match the colors (primarily white/red) but obviously quality > aesthetics.

Have any of you guys used these boards? Any opinions about the two are welcome!

Thanks and I really appreciate the help.

all the best,

Robert

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I like the Asrock , but both of the boards are very good and would easily support your needs.

 

[rvald005]

I like the Asrock , but both of the boards are very good and would easily support your needs.

okay, great. Thank you for the prompt response!

 

[The Original Ralph]

personally, i'd go with the Asus - my Asrock Taichi Z390 fried itself and my cpu (i9-9900k) when i flashed the then latest BIOS P1.50) - then i researched it on the Asrock forum and there were 2 or 3 posters over there having issues with the same BIOS release. I came over here and posted a warning about it and a poster popped in indicating it had done the same to his board and cpu.

You'd think they'd make sure the next release was solid - nope, they pulled 1.50 off their web, and released P1.60 and right away posters showed one, one or two in my thread, complaining about issues with it. Rumor has it they're sending the BIOS engineer back to school for a few more classes. This was back in early November - i'm still waiting to hear back on my RMA - i was told 7-10 days from time of rcpt was normal turnaround. I kind suspect they're up to their ears in RMA'd Z390 boards

Went thru 2 gigabyte Z390 boards with weak BIOS chips, and some one on another board, actually a pretty highly ranked OC champion (#17xx out of 51,000) recommended both the Asus board and the MSI MEG Z390 - i went with the MSI and you couldn't pry this board out of my cold dead hands. You might take a look at it - only negative (to me), no HDMI or display port - you have to have a dedicated GPU

fwiw

 

[rvald005]

personally, i'd go with the Asus - my Asrock Taichi Z390 fried itself and my cpu (i9-9900k) when i flashed the then latest BIOS P1.50) - then i researched it on the Asrock forum and there were 2 or 3 posters over there having issues with the same BIOS release. I came over here and posted a warning about it and a poster popped in indicating it had done the same to his board and cpu.

You'd think they'd make sure the next release was solid - nope, they pulled 1.50 off their web, and released P1.60 and right away posters showe one, one or two in my thread, complaining about issues with it. Rumor has it they're sending the BIOS engineer back to school for a few more classes. This was back in early November - i'm still waiting to hear back on my RMA - i was told 7-10 days from time of rcpt was normal turnaround. I kind suspect they're up to their ears in RMA'd Z390 boards

Went thru 2 gigabyte Z390 boards with week BIOS chips, and some one on another board, actually a pretty highly ranked OC champion (#17xx out of 51,000) recommended both the Asus board and the MSI MEG Z390 - i went with the MSI and you couldn't pry this board out of my cold dead hands. You might take a look at it - only negative (to me), no HDMI or display port - you have to have a dedicated GPU

fwiw

O wow, thanks a lot for the information! This will definitely push me towards a different motherboard. Either the Asus one of the one you are talking about. I'll go back and do some more research, but i'd say the ASRock is out of the running (i'm a paranoid one...lol).

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I own 2 Asrock Extreme4 SETUPS Z370's...Never a single issue.

 

[The Original Ralph]

I own 2 Asrock Extreme4 SETUPS Z370's...Never a single issue.

SR-71 - i do not doubt your experience with Asrock - before my upgrade to Z390 i was on an Asrock X99 board, Fata1ty 7 Gaming Pro and loved it, stable as a rock. It's just on the Z390 chipset they seem to have "blown or missed the plot" as the Brits say

here's a link to the thread i had posted here warning about the P1.50 BIOS release, and there 's at least 3 other posters who chimed in, like i said, one ilndicating the same experience i had with board self destructing and frying the CPU with it (whatever happened it took out the video instructions or video side of the cpu as it would not display, and even after installing my GPU while it would display it would not get past POST. I'd have thought they'd have made double sure the next BIOS release was solid

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3825393/heads-asrock-z390-taichi-motherboard-owners.html

and to the OP, just to be clear, the OC champion or whatever the proper title is, recommended the Asus ROG Maximum XI - whether it was the HERO or the Extreme, i'd have to go back over to another forum and dig the thread up.

THen after the two Gigabyte boards had their BIOS chips go belly up, this MSI was a godsend - BIOS is rock solid stable, and in fact have not updated it. One lesson i took from the Taichi experience, not to update BIOS without researching if folks are having issues.

But it was not a banner month in my life having to change out 3 motherboards, AND re-installing windows, having to go thru 1.5 hour sessions with Microsoft re-activating a retail version of wiln 10 that was linked to my microsoft account. Sorry, that was an unnecessary rant to all concerned, except me

 

[The Original Ralph]

just did a search over on the Asrock Intel motherboard forum - when i first went over there back in November, the forum was dead as a doornail - but traffic seems to have picked way up - and it appears they're having issues with the latest BIOS (P1.80) for the Z390 chipset as well