Intel are launching the Z390 chipset to support their newer 9th generation of CPUs, and starting
off on that coverage I’ve got the Z390 MPG Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard from MSI here,
so let’s check it out and find out a bit more about the 9th gen CPUs.
Inside the box we of course have the motherboard itself, manual and driver CD, and various
cables, including two SATA cables, 3 RGB cables, and a two way SLI bridge.
Alright so I haven’t been able to get my hands on any Intel 9th gen CPUs yet, but I’ll
be discussing them more towards the end of the video, so I’ll just be testing this
Z390 board with my trusty 8700K instead, which brings me to the first and perhaps most interesting
point of the Z390 boards.
It’s possible to use 8th gen Intel CPUs in Z390 motherboards, and also the other way,
so 9th gen CPUs in the older 8th gen motherboards after a BIOS update, they both use the LGA
1151 socket, so a nice change from Intel’s recent launches.
Anyway, back to the motherboard.
It’s an ATX board with a nice clean black and metallic silver colour scheme, with a
couple of spots of carbon fiber pattern.
There’s RGB lighting on the right hand side and towards the top left which can be controlled
through MSI’s Mystic Light Sync software, and there are 17 different effects available,
or you can disable it if you prefer, I’m not here to tell you how to live your life.
Starting with the IO from left to right there’s a PS/2 port, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, Displayport
1.2 and HDMI 1.4 outputs, three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports and single Type-C port, gigabit
ethernet, and the audio ports.
The I/O shield comes mounted like this too, so no need to stick it into the case first,
easy installation.
Next to the CPU socket are the four memory slots which run in dual channel, and can support
up to 64GB of memory with support all the way up to DDR4-4400 speeds, I suggest referring
to the QVL to confirm supported memory.
As for the PCIe slots they’re all version 3.0, and from the top down the first is a
PCIe by 16 slot to the CPU, followed by two PCIe by 1 slots via the chipset, then a physical
PCIe by 16 slot although it’s wired for 8 lanes to the CPU, and then another PCIe
by 1 slot via the chipset and a third PCIe by 16 physical slot although wired by 4 through
the chipset.
The board also gives you support for either two way SLI or up to three way Crossfire,
and the first two PCIe by 16 slots are reinforced with metal.
The first M.2 slot is found just above the PCIe slots, and it takes drives of these sizes.
There’s a second M.2 slot towards the bottom, and it’s hidden behind this piece of metal
which helps to dissipate the heat, just make sure you peel the plastic off of the thermal
pad before installation.
Both M.2 slots support PCIe or SATA storage.
Due to limitations of the platform if you use different combinations of M.2 slots or
SATA ports others may become disabled, as per this table.
For example, if both M.2 slots have PCIe storage installed then SATA ports 5 and 6 will not
be usable.
Along the top of the board there are 4 and 8 pin power connectors, CPU fan header, RGB
header and Corsair connector.
Along the right hand side there’s 6 SATA 3 connectors, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 connectors,
a single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C connector, the 24 pin power connector, and system and pump
fan headers.
Along the bottom there’s the front panel audio, two more RGB headers, three more system
fan headers, two internal USB 2 headers, thunderbolt connector, and front panel connectors.
The 5th system fan header is found just above the top M.2 slot, and there’s a TPM connector
just above the second PCIe by 16 slot.
Using the SATA ports there’s support for RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10, and you can also use Intel’s
Optane with either M.2 slot, which basically caches frequently accessed items from a hard
drive, resulting in faster overall performance, and there’s also the option of running the
two M.2 slots in RAID 0 or 1.
To boot into the BIOS simply press the delete key during boot.
I found it easy to navigate through and make changes, basically the same as all of the
other MSI motherboards I’ve used.
Interestingly there’s no BIOS flashback button on this board, a nice feature on previous
MSI boards I’ve looked at which allows you to update and flash BIOS without the system
running or even without a CPU installed.
I suppose that feature may be reserved for AMD’s Ryzen platform where they’ve actually
guaranteed support of it until 2020, whereas who really knows with Intel, I’m still pretty
surprised that I can use an 8th gen or 9th gen processor in this board.
Here are the specs of some of the new 9th gen Intel CPUs, namely the i9-9900k, i7-9700k,
and i5-9600k.
This is the first time we’ve had an i7 chip without hyperthreading, if you want that you’ll
be looking at the top end 9900k, and this is also the first time Intel’s mainstream
lineup has had an 8 core option, finally matching AMD’s Ryzen in core count.
The clock speeds out of the box are just a touch ahead of the 8th gen, so I’m keen
to see how they compare.
Interestingly, Intel appear to have taken another leaf out of AMD’s book and are using
a soldered IHS, so in theory that should help thermal performance of these undoubtedly hot
parts.
With that in mind though we’ll need to see further testing to find out whether or not
the older boards designed for the 8th generation are able to provide enough power to 8 core
chips like the 9700K or 9900K, I suspect they would probably be best paired with a Z390
board, especially when overclocking.
Otherwise the Z390 chipset isn’t too different from Z370, with Z390 there’s now integrated
USB 3.1 Gen2, WiFi, and SDXC support.
Pricing of the Gaming Pro Carbon will change over time, so check the links in the description
for up to date prices.
At the time of recording, so just a little before the official Z390 release, MSI have
advised that the board should be going for around $339 AUD or $369 for the AC model with
WiFi built in.
I’m not too sure about US pricing at the moment, again look for the links in the description
later.
While I haven’t seen official pricing of other boards yet, as again this video was
made pre launch, I suspect that the Gaming Pro Carbon will continue to be a mid to upper
range option, there’ll be cheaper more budget friendly options, and absolute insanity like
the MSI Godlike board.
In any case the Gaming Pro Carbon seems like a pretty solid motherboard, I liked the colour
scheme, tasteful RGB lighting and I had no issues to report while using it.
Let me know what you guys thought of the board and your take on the Z390 launch and 9th gen
CPUs down in the comments.
Again sorry that I wasn’t able to do more interesting testing with an Intel 9th gen
CPU, it is what it is and I’m just happy I was able to get the board in time for the
Z390 launch!
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one.