z390 board comparison

[ozz.yyy]

I'm looking to upgrade my system and have narrowed down my motherboard to two choices, they are the same price currently on amazon UK.

 

Asus TUF z390 Pro Gaming

Gigabyte z390 Gaming X

 

Any reason to choose one over the other? I have been reading about low end z390 boards having problematic VRMs and VRM cooling.

 

I will be using an i5 9600k and will probably overclock, possibly in a few years I will buy a 9900k as an upgrade.

 

Cheers

 

[LIGISTX]

5 minutes ago, ozz.yyy said:

I'm looking to upgrade my system and have narrowed down my motherboard to two choices, they are the same price currently on amazon UK.

 

Asus TUF z390 Pro Gaming

Gigabyte z390 Gaming X

 

Any reason to choose one over the other? I have been reading about low end z390 boards having problematic VRMs and VRM cooling.

 

I will be using an i5 9600k and will probably overclock, possibly in a few years I will buy a 9900k as an upgrade.

 

Cheers

 

Realistically, there isn't much difference between motherboards. They don't play any part in performance gains or losses, they just provide features in different ways or different quantities. If you need, say, integrated wifi, or 2 m.2's, or 4 m.2's, that is what should narrow down your motherboard choice. Beyond that, there isn't much difference.

 

Yes, some have more robust VRM's, but realistically any Z390 board from a reputable name (EVGA, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI etc) will be more than capable. I have a . relatively cheap Z390 board from MSI as I got it for free in a package deal with my 8700k, and it runs my 8700k @ 5 ghz no problem, has never blue screened, and I have recommended it to others.

 

With that, Asus TUF has historically been pretty solid, and their VRM cooling looks more than adequate. 

[Mister Woof]

51 minutes ago, ozz.yyy said:

 

 

I will be using an i5 9600k and will probably overclock, possibly in a few years I will buy a 9900k as an upgrade.

 

Cheers

 

Don't do that. It's absolutely a waste of money.

 

Either get the 9900k now, or just use your 9600k until it's time to upgrade and replace everything with current products. Especially with Intel, buying now with intent to upgrade within the same generation later is a waste.

 

Speaking from experience, I got my son a Z370 board and an i3-8350k because I thought he was only going to play WoW (which at the time only cared about IPC on a few cores) and I could "upgrade later) if I needed to. Fast forward, he doesn't play that game anymore, and I other games struggle with only 4/4. I picked him up an i5-9400 for $129 recently, but that means I spend $169 + $129, with almost impossible chance to offload an i3-8350k at a reasonable price, whereas I could have just got him a locked 8700 for $299 to begin with and we would not have a single problem and we'd be I'm a better position than the 9400.

 

Better yet, get a 3600x for the same price as the 9600k and it will probably last you longer since it has SMT.