Chipsets general information.
Chipset diagrams and PCie lines limits
Z170
Z270
Almost no change, but now it is 24 PCIe 3.0 lines go from chipset. 4 more than previous.
Z370
All same as Z270, just support for newer CPUs.
Z390
Only significant changes are USB 3.1 Gen2 ports supported by chipset and also support for additional WiFi and Bluetooth.
DMI 3.0, released in August 2015, allows the 8 GT/s transfer rate per lane, for a total of four lanes and 3.93 GB/s for the CPU–PCH link.
In August 2007, PCI-SIG announced that PCI Express 3.0 would carry a bit rate of 8 gigatransfers per second (GT/s)
So DMI 3.0 is PCIe 3.0 4x. And all this nice looking premium MB's share same actual 20x PCIe 3.0 lines.
CPUs to use
Top choice
Runners up
For older boards, if you can not make it support newer CPUs
Useful links
Making newer CPUs work on Z170 and Z270 MBs - http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/19131/intel-blocked-coffee-lake-on-old-mbs-or-how-to-run-it-on-z170-and-z270-boards#Item_3
Reserved, update soon.
VRM performance and temperatures
If you plan to use i9-9900K CPUs especially in extreme overclock and alike you can run quickly into VRM issues.
Main reason for this is simpler and cheaper VRM and also bad heatsinks being just slab of aluminium made be designer without any fine fins.
Note that issues can be also caused by unqualified or inexperienced testers.
Usage of water coolers
Usage of water cooler for hot new CPUs brings lot of advantages, but it also brings one big disadvantage.
Air flow near VRM drops extremely. Lot of testing sites do stupid tests putting most high end water cooler, putting board into open stand (or case even) and experiencing VRM throttling.
If you use water cooler you need to provide additional air flow into VRM area, such fan can drop temperatures 1.5-2 times.
Heatsink designs
In present day it is usually designers who make heatsinks, especially for consumer lines of motherboards.
They are made for looks, and not to be efficient in their real function.
Horrible one
Bad one
Better one
Really nice
Reserved, update soon.
Reserved, update soon.
List of all Z170 and Z270, Z370 and Z390 ATX sized motherboards
I do not include Biostar, EVGA, Supermicro here.
Red - something not good or missing feature.
Blue means - ok or average.
Teal - above average.
Green - really good for us.
ASRock
Asrock, continued
ASUS
ASUS, continued
Gigabyte
Gigabyte, continued
MSI
MSI, continued
VRM finished, chipsets diagrams added, moving to features and more info in initial posts.
Asrock finished (except OC capabilities).
MSI finished (except OC capabilities).
WoW Well Done Vitaliy !!!
Well. it is still badly unfinished.
Heatsinks info added to Asrock and MSI.
GIGABYTE AORUS Z390 Master started shipping
New entry level board - ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S
Everything cheapened.
Two other newer boards
AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7
Same as Gaming 6 + more RGB and nicer looks.
AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming X
More ports. Three Ethernet ports including 2.5Gbit one. 802.11ax Wi-Fi.
And $330 price more suitable for HEDT motherboards.
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