SuperO C9Z390-PGW Motherboard Review – Server Level Design & More PCIe Lanes on a Gaming Motherboard

Test Setup

For testing, we used the latest Intel Core i9-9900K which was sent to us by Intel. The Intel 9th Gen Coffee Lake Refresh family comes with a higher core count on the mainstream platform but prices are close to the predecessors in the same segment. The Core i9 SKU wasn't available last time but the Core i7 price matches around the same as what you paid for the Core i7-8700K. The CPUs was tested on the SuperO C9Z390-PGW motherboard.

Intel Z390 Chipset Motherboards Test Platform

Processor	Intel Core i9-9900K
Motherboard	ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 ASUS ROG Maximus XI HERO (Wi-Fi) ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-E Gaming ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate Z390 AORUS Master
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200i PSU
Solid State Drive	Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB)
Memory	G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series 32 GB (4 x 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz
Video Cards	MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X
Cooling Solutions	Corsair H115i GTX
OS	Windows 10 64-bit

Our test rig includes the Samsung 960 EVO 500 GB SSD that boots up our main OS while a 2 TB Seagate HDD is used for demonstration purposes for the Intel Optane memory. In addition to these, we are running an MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X graphics card, a Corsair AX 1200i power supply and 32 GB of G.Skill provided Trident Z RGB series memory which runs with a clock speed of DDR4-3600 MHz. For cooling, we used the  Corsair H115i PRO cooler. At stock (out of the box) settings, all motherboards maintained a 100.00 MHz BCLK ratio out of the box.

We won't be focusing on Intel's Core i7-8086K architecture in this review since it is entirely the same chip as Skylake along with minor improvements. The Skylake / Kaby Lake architecture analysis can be seen in detail here. For overclocking, I made the following tweaks to the CPUs:

• Intel Core i9-9900KK @ 5.3 GHz With 1.385V (100 x 53) on SuperO C9Z390-PGW

You can find additional information about our hardware review process and ethics policy here.

9.4

WCCFTECH RATING

The SuperO C9Z390-PGW is really a server-grade board designed for both, the gaming and entry-level workstation builders, providing one of the best OC support, a large number of PCIe lanes for additional graphics cards or storage and an impressive list of features which only a flagship tier motherboard could provide.

Pros

• Support for Intel 8th and 9th Generation Coffee Lake CPUs
• Up To 8 Core Processor Support
• Excellent Overclocking Support on Unlocked Intel CPUs
• Excellent Design Scheme With Solid Heatsink Solution
• Excellent Build Quality With High-Quality VRM and PCB
• Broadcom PLX PCIe Switch For 16 Extra PCIe Lanes
• Aquantia 10Gb Ethernet LAN Port
• 10 Phase Server-Quality Grade VRM
• Tons of Connectivity Options
• Tons of USB 3.1 Gen 2 and Gen 1 Ports
• Intel Wireless-AC 9560 With 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi + Bluetooth v5.0 Support
• Up To 4000 MHz (OC+) DDR4 Memory Support
• Dual M.2 Slots With full coverage heatsinks
• Lots of Software Support

Cons

• Extremely Expensive Motherboard ($374.99 US)
• Very Generic BIOS layout
• Only Two M.2 slots

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