ASRock Outs Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S Motherboard

[btarunr]

ASRock today rolled out the Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S motherboard. Clearly built to a cost, the board ships with a narrow ATX PCB, and is positioned below both the Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 and the Z390 Pro4. It draws power from a 24-pin ATX and an 8-pin EPS, conditioning it for the CPU with a 6+2 phase VRM. The LGA1151 socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, and a single PCI-Express 3.0 x16. The second x16 slot is electrically x4 and wired to the PCH. An M.2 PCIe E-key slot (for WLAN cards) and three open-ended PCIe 3.0 x1 slots make for the rest of the expansion area. Storage connectivity includes just the one M.2-22110 slot (PCI-Express 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gbps wiring), and six SATA 6 Gbps ports.

Display outputs include just the one HDMI port. USB connectivity includes eight USB 3.2 gen 1 ports, four on the rear panel, four by headers. The board's sole 1 GbE network interface is driven by an Intel i219-V controller. The onboard audio solution combines a rather premium Realtek ALC1220 CODEC with 6-channel analog output, audio-grade capacitors, and ground-layer isolation. Separate PS/2 ports, one 3-pin addressable-RGB, two 4-pin RGB, and five 4-pin PWM fan headers make for the rest of this board. We expect this to be ASRock's cheapest Z390 offering, priced between USD $110-120.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[randomUser]

Why did they push "Phantom gaming" on a budget MB? This logic is awkward.

The rest of the phantom series motherboards are pricey but have higher quality.

Its like they took Wv Golf and named it Porsche just because Porsche stands for higher quality pricier product.

 

[ShurikN]

God forbid you put anything higher than i5 in this thing.

 

[PanicLake]

God forbid you put anything higher than i5 in this thing.

You know that if you don't overclock the motherboard will run any supported CPU just fine right?

 

[bonehead123]

ewww.....Z390....those are soooo 2015-ish....

and on top of that, it's friggin fuuugggly as hell, all those stripes makes me wanna have a seizure

 

[ShurikN]

You know that if you don't overclock the motherboard will run any supported CPU just fine right?

Then why get z series at all.

 

[Assimilator]

Looks like this could be a decent platform for people who want to overclock and would rather spend their money on better components, than on RGB and bling and 20 bajillion phases.

 

[Caring1]

I saw 4S in the title and expected a server style board with 4 CPU sockets.

 

[randomUser]

Looks like this could be a decent platform for people who want to overclock and would rather spend their money on better components, than on RGB and bling and 20 bajillion phases.

You do understand that this motherboard only has 3+2 VRM, right?

What are you going to overclock? This kind of VRM would thermal throttle i9-9900K at stock speeds.
Even if you do intend to put i3-9xxxK in it, it will still get really hot (and possible throttle again).
With this kind of VRM you can't expect to have high OC results.

Look, they even use discreet low and high side mosfets. It means they are using cheapest possible mosfets with terrible capabilities.

No wonder it costs 110 USD. They added 30USD just for Phantom name, so they had to cut costs somehow else.

 

[bonehead123]

You do understand that this motherboard only has 3+2 VRM, right? What are you going to overclock? This kind of VRM would thermal throttle i9-9900K at stock speeds.
Even if you do intend to put i3-9xxxK in it, it will still get really hot (and possible throttle again).
With this kind of VRM you can't expect to have high OC results. Look, they even use discreet low and high side mosfets. It means they are using cheapest possible mosfets with terrible capabilities. No wonder it costs 110 USD. They added 30USD just for Phantom name, so they had to cut costs somehow else.

"CHEAP IS AS CHEAP DOES"

- FOREST, FOREST GUMP...

WELL SORTA ANYWAYS

 

[dj-electric]

ewww.....Z390....those are soooo 2015-ish....

and on top of that, it's friggin fuuugggly as hell, all those stripes makes me wanna have a seizure

What the hell is going on? It came to the point where nothing that comes out of your keyboard makes sense any more

 

[Assimilator]

You do understand that this motherboard only has 3+2 VRM, right?

What are you going to overclock? This kind of VRM would thermal throttle i9-9900K at stock speeds.
Even if you do intend to put i3-9xxxK in it, it will still get really hot (and possible throttle again).
With this kind of VRM you can't expect to have high OC results.

Look, they even use discreet low and high side mosfets. It means they are using cheapest possible mosfets with terrible capabilities.

No wonder it costs 110 USD. They added 30USD just for Phantom name, so they had to cut costs somehow else.

I don't particularly care if it has 3 phases or 33, for most people it will be more than sufficient.

 

[XL-R8R]

I don't particularly care if it has 3 phases or 33, for most people it will be more than sufficient.

This kinda tone isnt what I come to expect reading from someone with so many years service here....


I think its fairly "misleading" for companies to release a Z390 board's with basically zero OC capabilities - especially in a segment where consumers are typically expected to be overclocking - this openly-accepted statement that I just made somewhat diminishes the "more than sufficient" claim as 3 phases simply will not be enough.


Also, dare I even mention system longevity/component ware? 2 years down the line and this board wont be looking so healthy after accumulating any kind of serious on-hours.

 

[Assimilator]

This kinda tone isnt what I come to expect reading from someone with so many years service here....


I think its fairly "misleading" for companies to release a Z390 board's with basically zero OC capabilities - especially in a segment where consumers are typically expected to be overclocking - this openly-accepted statement that I just made somewhat diminishes the "more than sufficient" claim as 3 phases simply will not be enough.


Also, dare I even mention system longevity/component ware? 2 years down the line and this board wont be looking so healthy after accumulating any kind of serious on-hours.

It's a simple fact that most consumers simply don't do the kind of overclocking that requires a large number of phases. If you buy a motherboard that is far cheaper than other boards in its class, you shouldn't expect the same experience as the more premium boards. On the flipside, no company is going to intentionally design a defective product that they have to recall and replace at their cost, and possibly get sued over.