ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 Motherboard Review

Features and Specifications

Features

Supports 9^th and 8^th Gen Intel^® Core™ processors (Socket 1151)
Phantom Gaming 2.5 Gigabit LAN, Dual Intel^® Gigabit LAN
IR Digital PWM, 12 Power Phase design
Supports DDR4 4266+(OC) MHz
3 PCIe 3.0 x16, 2 PCIe 3.0 x1
NVIDIA^® Quad SLI™, AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™
Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort
7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec)
Supports Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 5
8 SATA3, 3 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)
5 USB 3.1 Gen2 (1 Front Type-C, 1 Rear Type-C, 3 Rear Type-A)
8 USB 3.1 Gen1 (4 Front, 4 Rear)
Intel^® 2T2R Dual Band 802.11ac WiFi (2.4/5GHz), supports up to 1.73Gbps wireless network and BT v5.0
ASRock Polychrome SYNC
Hyper BCLK Engine II

Phantom Gaming 2.5 Gb/s LAN

The intelligent Phantom Gaming 2.5Gb/s LAN platform is built for maximum networking performance for the demanding requirements of home networking, content creators, online gamers and high-quality streaming media. Boost networking performance up to 2.5X the bandwidth compared to the standard gigabit Ethernet, you’ll enjoy the faster and uncompromised connectivity experience for gaming, file transfers and backups.

2.5G ETHERNET, HIGH TCP & UDP THROUGHPUT

Going beyond gaming! ASRock 2.5Gb/s LAN motherboard with higher throughput that is excellent at a small package file transferring and unleash the stunning performance especially for gaming.

Fully Supports 9th Gen Intel^®Core Processors

The motherboard is designed to make the best out of 9th Generation Intel^®Core™ Processors, the sturdy VRM design provides extreme overclocking potential, lower temperature during gaming and reinforced system stability for taking on all sorts of arduous computing tasks.

2 POWER PHASE DESIGN (IR^® DIGITAL PWM)

Featuring sturdy components and completely smooth power delivery to the CPU. Plus, it offers unmatched overclocking capabilities and enhanced performance with the lowest temperature for advanced gamers as well.

RULE YOUR OWN LIGHTING WAY – POLYCHROME RGB

In addition to the built-in RGB illumination, it also features onboard RGB headers and an addressable RGB header that allow motherboard to be connected to compatible LED devices such as strip, CPU fans, coolers, chassis and so on. Users may also synchronize RGB LED devices across the Polychrome RGB Sync-certified accessories to create their own unique lighting effects.

Blistering Fast Wireless Internet Connections

2T2R Intel^® 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi & BT 5.0

Dual Intel^® LAN

A new world of cinematic audio that delivers unprecedented levels of audio realism, dynamics and punch to gaming sound. Whether you’re gaming or watching a movie, Reality 3D technology lets you enable 5.1/7.1 surround sound for an additional layer of transience to your listening experience even with just a pair of headphones or stereo speakers.

Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink

A massive full coverage M.2 heatsink that is able to dissipate heat efficiently to ensure your high speed M.2 SSD always working at its best.

Specifications

Gaming Armor

Power
– Hi-Density Power Connectors (24 pin, 8 pin and 4 pin)
Memory
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
VGA Card
– 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE2)
Internet
– Phantom Gaming 2.5G LAN
Cooling
– XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
– Heat Pipe Design
Audio
– Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 5
Unique Feature

ASRock USB 3.1 Gen2
– ASRock Front Panel Type C USB 3.1 Gen2 Header (10 Gb/s)
– ASRock Rear USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A Ports (10 Gb/s)
– ASRock Rear USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s)
ASRock Super Alloy
– XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
– Premium 60A Power Choke
– Premium Memory Alloy Choke (Reduces 70% core loss compared to iron powder choke)
– Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM)
– Combo Caps (Nichicon 12K Black Caps)
– Nichicon 12K Black Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors)
– I/O Armor
– Matte Black PCB
– High Density Glass Fabric PCB
ASRock Phantom Gaming 2.5G LAN
Intel^® 802.11ac WiFi
ASRock Steel Slots
ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink
ASRock Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)
ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
ASRock Live Update & APP Shop
CPU

– Supports 9^th and 8^th Gen Intel^® Core™ Processors (Socket 1151)
– IR Digital PWM
– 12 Power Phase design
– Supports Intel^® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology
– Supports Intel^® K-Series unlocked CPUs
– Supports ASRock BCLK Full-range Overclocking
– Supports ASRock Hyper BCLK Engine II
Chipset

– Intel^® Z390
Memory

– Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
– 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
– Supports DDR4 4266+(OC) /4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC ) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3200(OC) / 2933(OC) / 2800(OC) / 2666/2400 / 2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
– Supports ECC UDIMM memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
– Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB*
– Supports Intel^® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 2.0
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots

*Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows^® 32-bit OS. For Windows^® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.
BIOS

– 2 x 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support (1 x Main BIOS and 1 x Backup BIOS)
– Supports Secure Backup UEFI Technology
– ACPI 6.0 Compliant wake up events
– SMBIOS 2.7 Support
– CPU Core/Cache, GT Core/Cache, DRAM, VTT DDR, PCH 1.05V, VCCIO, CPU PLL 2, VCCSA, VCCPLL, CPU Cold Bug Killer, CPU PLL 1, CLK VDD, DMI, CPU Internal PLL, GT PLL, Ring PLL, System Agent PLL, Memory Controller PLL Voltage Multi-adjustment
Graphics

– Supports Intel^® UHD Graphics Built-in Visuals : Intel^® Quick Sync Video with AVC, MVC (S3D) and MPEG-2 Full HW Encode1, Intel^® InTru™ 3D, Intel^® Clear Video HD Technology, Intel^®Insider™, Intel^® UHD Graphics
– DirectX 12
– HWA Encode/Decode: AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265 8-bit, HEVC/H.265 10-bit, VP8, VP9 8-bit, VP9 10-bit (Decode only), MPEG2, MJPEG, VC-1 (Decode only)
– Dual graphics output: Support HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 ports by independent display controllers
– Supports HDMI 1.4 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 30Hz
– Supports DisplayPort 1.2 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2304) @ 60Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI 1.4 Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports HDCP 2.2 with HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports
– Supports 4K Ultra HD (UHD) playback with HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports

*Intel^® UHD Graphics Built-in Visuals and the VGA outputs can be supported only with processors which are GPU integrated.
Audio

– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec)
– Premium Blu-ray Audio support
– Supports Surge Protection
– Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps
– 120dB SNR DAC with Differential Amplifier
– NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier for Front Panel Audio Connector (Supports up to 600 Ohm headsets)
– Pure Power-In
– Direct Drive Technology
– PCB Isolate Shielding
– Impedance Sensing on Rear Out port
– Individual PCB Layers for R/L Audio Channel
– RGB LED
– Gold Audio Jacks
– 15μ Gold Audio Connector
– Supports Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 5
LAN

1 x 2.5 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000/2500 Mb/s (Dragon RTL8125AG):
– Supports Phantom Gaming LAN Software
– Smart Auto Adjust Bandwidth Control
– Visual User Friendly UI
– Visual Network Usage Statistics
– Optimized Default Setting for Game, Browser, and Streaming Modes
– User Customized Priority Control
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE
2 x Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s (1 x Intel^® I219V, 1 x Intel^® I211AT):
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
– Supports Dual LAN with Teaming*
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE

*Teaming is supported on Windows^® 10 RS2 and above.
Wireless LAN

– Intel^® 802.11ac WiFi Module
– Supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
– Supports Dual-Band (2.4/5 GHz)
– Supports high speed wireless connections up to 1733Mbps
– 2 antennas to support 2 (Transmit) x 2 (Receive) diversity technology
– Supports Bluetooth 5.0 + High speed class II
– Supports MU-MIMO
Slots

– 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE2/PCIE4/PCIE5: single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4); triple at x8 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE4) / x4 (PCIE5))*
– 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 Slots (Flexible PCIe)
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– Supports NVIDIA^® Quad SLI™ and SLI™
– Supports NVIDIA^® NVLink™ with dual NVIDIA^® GeForce RTX series graphics cards**
– 1 x Vertical M.2 Socket (Key E) with the bundled WiFi-802.11ac module (on the rear I/O)
– 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE2)

*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks

**NVIDIA^® NVLink™ Bridge does not come with the package. Please purchase it from NVIDIA^® if necessary.
Storage

– 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel^®Rapid Storage Technology 16), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug*
– 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug*
– 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_1), support M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**
– 2 x Ultra M.2 Sockets (M2_2 and M2_3), support M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**

*M2_1, SATA3_0 and SATA3_1 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
If M2_2 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA3_3 will be disabled.
M2_3, SATA3_4 and SATA3_5 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.**Supports Intel^® Optane™ Technology
Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Supports ASRock U.2 Kit
Connector

– 1 x TPM Header
– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 2 x RGB LED Headers*
– 1 x Addressable LED Header**
– 1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin)***
– 1 x CPU/Water Pump Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)****
– 6 x Chassis/Water Pump Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)*****
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x 4 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector (15μ Gold Audio Connector)
– 1 x Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector (5-pin)
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 3 USB 2.0 ports) (Intel^® Z390) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Headers (Support 4 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports) (ASMedia ASM1074 hub) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x Front Panel Type C USB 3.1 Gen2 Header (ASMedia ASM1562 Retimer)
– 1 x Performance Mode / Easy OC Header
– 1 x Dr. Debug with LED
– 1 x Power Button with LED
– 1 x Reset Button with LED

*Support in total up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip

**Supports in total up to 5V/3A, 15W LED Strip

***The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.

****The CPU/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.

*****The Chassis/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.
CPU_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN1~6/WP can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
Rear Panel I/O

– 2 x Antenna Ports
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort 1.2
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 3 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A Ports (10 Gb/s) (ReDriver) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ReDriver) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports (Intel^® Z390) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 3 x RJ-45 LAN Ports with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– 1 x Clear CMOS Button
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone (Gold Audio Jacks)
Software and UEFI

Software
– ASRock Phantom Gaming Tuning
– ASRock Phantom Gaming LAN Software
– ASRock Polychrome SYNC
– ASRock Key Master
UEFI
– ASRock EZ Mode
– ASRock Full HD UEFI
– ASRock My Favorites in UEFI
– ASRock Instant Flash
– ASRock Internet Flash
– ASRock Easy RAID Installer

*These utilities can be downloaded from ASRock Live Update & APP Shop.
Support CD

– Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar
Accessories

– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 4 x SATA Data Cables
– 1 x ASRock SLI_HB_Bridge_2S Card
– 1 x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5 GHz Antenna
– 3 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
Hardware Monitor

– Temperature Sensing: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Fan Tachometer: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Quiet Fan (Auto adjust chassis fan speed by CPU temperature): CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Fan Multi-Speed Control: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore, DRAM, PCH 1.05V, VCCIO, DRAM VPP, VCCSA, VCCST, DMI, CPU Cold Bug Killer
Form Factor

– ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm

More information can be found on ASRock’s website.