ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 Motherboard Review

Verdict and Conclusion

The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 is one of those motherboards the offer near enthusiast grade performance with tons of features, at mainstream prices. And this really confuses me … do I get the Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 ($20-$25 more) or this?

Well the answer to that question is … get the Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 of course. If just want 2 LAN ports (one 2.5GbE and one 1GbE), no AC wifi, and you want to stay under $200, then look no further.

As far as performance is concerned, it performed very well in all of our benchmarks. In PCMark10, it produced as score of 5,735, and for Time Spy we got a score of 6,524. I think my trusted old GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is starting to show its age.

For overclocking, we managed to overclock our Core i7-8700K to a amicable 5.0GHz. A very nice overclock indeed, but I think with the right cooling I could take it higher. If you do overclock, I recommend you go get yourself a decent AIO cooler such as the CORSAIR H100i PRO RGB Liquid CPU Cooler or the Cooler Master ML240R AIO Liquid Cooler.

If you’re lucky enough to own a wifi 6 router such as the ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 or the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 and AX12, , then you’ll be able to take advantage of the 2.5GB/s LAN connectivity this motherboard has to offer.

The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 motherboard comes with a price tag south of USD $200, which make it extremely attractive, especially when it offers high-end enthusiast features at mainstream prices.

You can buy the higher spec’d model ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 Motherboard from various online retailers including Amazon for around USD $220 – https://amzn.to/2KC3k3s. 

Pros:

• Supports all 8th and 9th Gen Intel processors (inc new stepping)
• Intel Z390 chipset
• Good overall performance
• Good overclocking options for both CPU and memory
• Flexible integrated I/O shield
• 3 x PCIE x16 slots for Nvidia SLI or AMD CrossfireX
• 1 x Realtek Gaming 2.5GB/s LAN
• 2 x Ultra M.2 slots for SSD with 2 full coverage heatsink

Cons:

• None I can think of 

Final Words:

The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 is a very capable motherboard that come packed with some great enthusiast grade features. It overclocks well, performs well and comes with a flexible integrated I/O shield …  you get all this for under USD $200. What more do you want?