Board Layout

Unlike the Phantom Gaming 9 I reviewed last year, the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 does not borrow any visual elements from the Taichi board line. For the most part, I am glad for the change. A divergence in design is a good thing overall. I do personally think the heatsink from the Phantom Gaming 9 would look pretty good on the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7, but I get why ASRock sought to develop a new identity.

The theme for the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 does match the previous Phantom Gaming boards; it has streaks of gray and red on a black background. The chipset is a black and silver block with a red and black streak and stylized "PG" instead of the Taichi cog and gear theme.

The back of the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 is a similar black, but not empty. ASRock has placed a few key controllers on the back of this board, most notably for the 2.5 Gb/s LAN. Although very attractive overall, the board is less neutral than the Taichi because of its red accents.


The CPU socket is open enough to accommodate most coolers, and the VRM heatsink looks quite capable.


There are two M.2 slots on the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7; one above the first PCIe x16 and another between the second and third PCIe x16. Both feature full coverage heatsinks, which is a nice step up from the single heatsink on the Phantom Gaming 9.


IMPORTANT NOTE: the top M.2 heatsink overlaps with the chipset heatsink, and the two are interfaced with a thermal pad. On the sample I received, the thermal pad stuck to the M.2 heatsink with sufficient force that I deemed it wise to simply remove the chipset heatsink and leave them stuck together. This isn't a big deal if you install your M.2 drives before mounting the motherboard (which I would always recommend anyway).

So, if you have removed the three screws for the top M.2 heatsink and it does not want to come off, flip the board around and remove the two screws that retain the chipset heatsink. Both will come off as a single unit, and lining everything back up is simple and easy.

I did end up prying the two apart once the board was installed to make sure there wouldn't be any damage, and there wasn't. It still took a lot of force. ASRock may want to consider a slightly less sticky thermal pad material.


There is also an M.2 WiFi slot just to the left of the chipset. It seems a bit awkward, a long way away from the rear I/O where the antenna will need to be routed.



The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 offers three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, all encased in steel armor, as well as two PCI Express 3.0 x1 slots. The board has a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and all are angled 90 degrees from the board. Six of these ports are powered by the Z390 chipset, while the last two are supported by an ASMedia ASM1061 controller.


The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 has a good rear I/O offering that includes two LAN ports and an Optical S/PDIF Out port. The USB ports come in three slightly different colors, so I feel I should clarify a bit. The first four in a medium dark blue are USB 3.1 Gen1, while the two dark blue and very light blue (as well as the Type-C) ports are USB 3.1 Gen2.

• 2x Antenna holes
• 1x HDMI port
• 1x DisplayPort 1.2
• 1x PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo connector
• 4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port
• 2x RJ-45 LAN ports
• 1x Optical SPDIF out port
• 5x 3.5 mm audio jacks

Networking on the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 is handled by an Intel I2119V, while a Dragon RTL8125AG from Realtek provides the 2.5 G LAN (red port).