Intel Z390 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on October 8, 2018 10:53 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- EVGA
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- Z390
ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula
Another high-end board on the Z390 chipset from ASUS is the ROG Maximus XI Formula which has a similar rear panel cover as the Maximus XI Code along with what looks to be a near identical PCIe slot layout. Other similarities stretch to the use of a PCB cover which looks to have a little more flair and more RGB than the Code, but from a quick glance, the entirety of what's visible PCB wise looks to be identical to the ROG Maximus XI Code; this is not necessarily a bad thing. The biggest difference and impressive inclusion on the Formula over the Code is the EKWB power delivery water block which allows enthusiasts to hook it up to custom water cooling loops for even lower VRM temps; perfect for users to overclock their processors and NOT have to worry about the quality of the power delivery heatsinks.
The Maximus XI Formula keeps the same power and reset buttons with a LED debug in the top right corner. There are four RAM slots with support for DDR4-4400 with a maximum capacity of up to 64 GB in total. Built-in into the board is a pair of PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots (one with SATA support and one without) which feature a pair of heatsinks which amalgamate into the boards overall aesthetic. Also present is a total of six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays.
The board has three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which allow for two-way SLI and three-way CrossFire multi-graphics card support at x16/x0/x4 and x8/x8/x4 respectively much like the majority of the Maximus XI boards including the Hero, Hero (Wi-Fi) and Code. This also stretches to the onboard audio and networking with a Supreme-FX S1220 8-channel HD audio codec and a single Intel I219V Gigabit NIC on the rear panel.
With a host of quality connections integrated, there's dual LAN with one port being powered by an Aquantia AC111C 5 G NIC and the second by an Intel I219V Gigabit controller. Wireless networking is provided by a Wave 2 2T2R 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter and a single HDMI 1.4b video output. The same pair of buttons consisting of a BIOS Flashback and clear CMOS is featured much like the Code, and the onboard audio is controlled by a gaming-focused SupremeFX S1220A HD audio codec. Last but not least is USB support, with three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports, a single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port and a hefty six USB 3.0 Type-A ports completing a packed rear IO.
The ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula has an unknown price as of yet, but is one of the top ASUS Z390 boards at launch with a clear focus on gaming based features and enthusiast grade components such as the EKWB made power delivery heatsink. The Formula is primarily targeted at gamers and enthusiasts with overclocking as a focus and the inclusion of 5 Gigabit LAN sets this board apart from the most of the Maximus XI range.
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Chaitanya - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
That video advert on pages is stupid pain in rear side to say the least when reading through all those pages.Mr Perfect - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
The "How to pick a CPU" video? If you pay close attention to it, it's actually Anandtech content.That being said, they'll probably be fine with you ad-blocking it. Blocking content doesn't affect ad revenue, right? ;)
leexgx - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
I just opened the site in edge now so I could block them as very distracting and annoying (as well as the scam ads between the article and comments section that I have to scroll past )edwpang - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
I tried not to block ads, but I cannot bear the sight of some pictures and videos.imaheadcase - Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - link
I don't understand how anandtech would allow the scam ads to appear on here, its prob the #1 reason i use a adblock in the first place. The only reason i know about it is from phone, when i first saw them i was like "wtf is this shit".I guess anandtech doesn't think its ads reflect its site.
Ryan Smith - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
If you guys are encountering issues with the ads, please reach out to me and let me know. Ads fall under a different department in Future, but if there are specific problems then I can at least pass those along to get them addressed.Ananke - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
The ads /the video/ are super annoying - its the same style as Tom's Hardware, apparently as business has been merged. The slotted video, or the minimized video screen upon changing the tab size for example makes me avoiding Anandtech and Tom's alltogether, after reading it for 20 years /yeah, since Anand was a teenager and started it as a blog/. I am multitasking, and I can't read when screen is smaller, and I use smaller screen at work, because you know, I work.hoohoo - Thursday, October 11, 2018 - link
Hi Ryan,The Choose a CPU video is auto-play. On a phone or mobile device this is obnoxious for two reasons: (1) it uses a lot of bandwidth and mobile plans usually have a cap on data above which the reader must pay extra; (2) when the video plays it either pauses any already playing media (mp3 player on the phone) or just plays in addition to the existing media, both are irritating.
Please explain to your ad people that auto-play video is not nice.
Valantar - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
It's likely the camera/render angle playing tricks on me, but the VRM heatsink/rear I/O shroud on the ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming looks like it'll interfere with GPUs with backplates ...The Chill Blueberry - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
It's most likely just the camera angle. see how the top of the rear I/O is sticking out over the board. A big company like Asus couldn't forget about such an important detail.