Question Help choosing between the AORUS Z390 ULTRA or PRO WIFI Motherboard please

[chewiepanda]

Hello. I built my first PC last year in August 2018 and have not had any major issues until now. My current MOBO (Asus - ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ) died recently or so it seems that is what went wrong with my PC. BSOD then no displaying image at all. My specs are as follows.

i7-8700K (never overclocked)
Corsair - H100i v2 70.69 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (2 pair bought separately)
Samsung - 970 Evo 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
NVIDIA - GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Founders Edition Video Card
EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Corsair - LL120RGB LED (6 Fans With Lighting Node PRO) 43.25 CFM 120mm Fans
Acer - XB271HU bmiprz 27.0" 2560x1440 165 Hz Monitor

So I am looking to get a better MOBO and decided on the new Aorus Z390 boards since they have the best VRMs and I would like to overclock my i7-8700K to 5GHz. My previous Mobo did not seem like it was recommended for the task so I left it stock. I assume my AIO should suffice to keep my CPU from getting too high. I still plan on to RMA my current one but I will have it as a backup. ASUS is just too expensive still and MSI is not as good at the price point with features.

My concern is what is the difference between the two boards in question. Right now the price difference is $50 USD on NewEgg(200 and 250 USD). The Pro Wifi seems great. My main concerns are the lack of POST 2 digit code and the DRAM overclocking. With my ROG Stirx it was easy with XMP profile and I could control the RGB though the ASUS AURA sync, which honestly is garbage anyways since it would always freeze up and not work properly so honestly leaving it in rainbow is fine. RBG fusion should work according to G.skill box of the RAM but this is now 2.0 so idk and my specific RAM is not on the tested memory list for the Pro WIFI board although there are other variations of the same tridentZ RGB but I am wondering about the overclocking there. I think I read that 3600MHz should be no problem but if you plan on going higher if you have RAM that fast it would be an issue. I like this board since it is packed with features and has trhe best VRM available. The Ultra looks nicer but is it worth the extra 50.

Many thanks in advance. Hoping to order the board tonight.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Using the box the motherboard came in, setup your board on it.

Connect 24pin to motherboard.
Connect 8pin to CPU (EPS).
Put single stick into slot A2.
Put CPU into socket.
Put cooler on CPU using provided mounting solution.

Plug cooler into power and fans into CPU fan header.

The cooler should have thermal paste pre applied, if not then you need to add your own thermal compound.

Connect video cable to motherboard I/O then to monitor.

Make sure power supply is plugged in and the switch on it is flipped to on.

Use a screw driver to make the power + and - connect to each other to cause the system to boot.

 

[chewiepanda]

Using the box the motherboard came in, setup your board on it.

Connect 24pin to motherboard.
Connect 8pin to CPU (EPS).
Put single stick into slot A2.
Put CPU into socket.
Put cooler on CPU using provided mounting solution.

Plug cooler into power and fans into CPU fan header.

The cooler should have thermal paste pre applied, if not then you need to add your own thermal compound.

Connect video cable to motherboard I/O then to monitor.

Make sure power supply is plugged in and the switch on it is flipped to on.

Use a screw driver to make the power + and - connect to each other to cause the system to boot.

So I have been testing it out in the case but I called tech support and told me to do something similar, the typical troubleshoot process. I asked if I could do it out of the case and they said that was fine. Before that though I tired each individual ram stick separately into the first slot as they recommended which is the one next to the 24 Pin connector. 3 out of the four gave me debug code 65 or 63 and VGA LED on. That means CPU DXE initialization is started. Looke dup what it means and still have no idea.

One stick game me the code 0F and 6F which only found meaning for 6F and that was reserved. Also with the VGA light on.

All the meanwhile it would be stuck in a boot loop shutting on and off at different lengths. Case RBG not on, Mouse was not lighting up and the motherboard lighting was not as well.

I tried two or three of the Ram sticks in the A2 slot as mentioned and I was getting the C1 code which was also reserved. I also got that when I had two of them in. I might have to start another thread just general support because this is just worse now since now I don't know what component is bad. Could be the mobo has a bent pin, the CPU might be bad, Ram stick or sticks...etc

Honestly I am just getting too many different codes

 

[chewiepanda]

So I got a CPU to test the set, an i5-8400 and tried it on the gigabyte motherboard and I was able to POST with minimal components and tried each stick of RAM individually and it worked but when I tried to use the pairs together I failed to POST and gave the DRAM light and C1 code.

Then when I tried the CPU on my old motherboard, the ASUS ROG Strix E-Gaming Motherboard, I tried with the working CPU and minimal components out of the case as well and I failed to POST every time with each individual RAM stick, which worked in the Aorus motherboard including the paired combinations. Nothing displayed and the POST error light always showed the DRAM light.

So after this I can say that the CPU was indeed bad but there are other components that are bad as well which is super frustrating. Might be the motherboards, the RAM in some way (All four sticks) Next thing would be to find a way to get a pair of new ram sticks or working RAM sticks to test on both boards. I feel the ASUS board is fried at least when it comes to the DIMM slots. The gigabyte board might be working fully and it could be the DRAM causing some part of the problem. So its possible three components that I had in the original rig were damaged. I see lots of RMAs and returns ahead.

In the end I feel the BIOS update was the root of all the problems that occurred all of a sudden. If not it is too much of a coincidence since everything was working fine overall for months before that.