ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 Review

WEB: ( ASRock ) MSRP: US$ 233.99 AUTHOR: Neo

Whatever one may believe about the order of the pack in as far as motherboard vendors are concerned. I think we can all agree that ASRock is somewhat underrated. The products for the most part offer the best bang for buck.

This isn’t a thumb suck, but it manifest in their components, such as this Z390 Phantom Gaming 9. As the flagship Z390 board, one would expect this to retail for well over $400, but fortunately it’s only $234. That’s right an inexpensive Z390 motherboard, that is about the functional equivalent of all other premium offerings from competitors.

The formula for gaming motherboards, hasn’t changed in years and the Phantom Gaming 9 is evidence of this. In 2019, that means Polychrome RGB, a 2.5G LAN, WiFi, BlueTooth and Sound Blaster Cinema 5 software. It’s a standard high-end board, lacking on the finishing touches that more premium boards would offer. That said, some of these value add-ons are offer limited opportunities for use. So, their absence while noted, I’d consider a host of other properties before these extras.

There’s little out of the ordinary here. It’s a standard gaming board which makes available all the chipsets native features and a couple more via ASMedia controllers. As it is the Z390 chipset packs a lot of functionality, so it leaves little for vendors to add. Even with a relatively bare bones configuration however, the PG9 has most if not all you may need.

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Jump to page…Page 1 – IntroductionPage 2 – HardwarePage 3 – Software and UEFIPage 4 – Test ConfigurationPage 5 – Memory Bandwidth and GeekBenchPage 6 – CineBench and FryBenchPage 7 – HWBOT X.265 Benchmark and 3DMark TimeSpyPage 8 – Overclocking and Verdict