Z390- ASUS- Gene PCB breakdown

orbitalwalsh · 6 Sep 2018 at 10:02

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-rog-strix-z390-i-and-prime-z390-a-motherboards-leaked

is it me or are ITX boards getting nicer and nicer

pastymuncher · 6 Sep 2018 at 13:34

The Prime Z390-A looks terrible. All that awful plastic. These days it's getting more and more difficult to find a decent board that isn't covered in plastic and/or tacky rgb's. All I want from a board is for it give solid performance, have decent heatsinks and look good without all of this tat being added to it. Sadly the manufacturers think otherwise.

IT Troll · 6 Sep 2018 at 21:53

The plastic is essential for hiding the crappy VRM, then flashing RGB is used to distract you from the huge lumps of plastic.

chaparral · 6 Sep 2018 at 22:18

pastymuncher said:
The Prime Z390-A looks terrible. All that awful plastic. These days it's getting more and more difficult to find a decent board that isn't covered in plastic and/or tacky rgb's. All I want from a board is for it give solid performance, have decent heatsinks and look good without all of this tat being added to it. Sadly the manufacturers think otherwise.

My motherboard would be perfect for you then (ROG Maximus X Formula Intel Z370)

But surely you can remove a lot of the plastic on some motherboards if you don't like it...
Or you could use a PC case that doesn't have a window..

IT Troll · 7 Sep 2018 at 00:41

chaparral said:
My motherboard would be perfect for you then (ROG Maximus X Formula Intel Z370)

That is at least a decent board underneath. Unlike most the junk ASUS has been peddling recently. Just low end boards with added bling and impaired air flow.

pastymuncher · 7 Sep 2018 at 09:16

chaparral said:
My motherboard would be perfect for you then (ROG Maximus X Formula Intel Z370)

But surely you can remove a lot of the plastic on some motherboards if you don't like it...
Or you could use a PC case that doesn't have a window..

My pc is built into my desk with a 400x450mm glass plate over it so that I can see the internals so that won't work. Even if I had a case with no window I would still know all that tackiness is there plus I would still be paying for extra rubbish that I don't want. Just look at the current generation of my board, plastic everywhere, tacky RGB, heatsinks that have image over function and more than £100 more expensive than I paid for my Z87 Hero. On Z370 once you are past the low end budget boards there isn't a single motherboard that doesn't have unneccessary plastic all over it or RGB. Same thing with AMD boards. Manufacturers need to realise that not everyone wants their pc to look like a fairground arcade.

Vimes · 7 Sep 2018 at 10:44

^^^^ I have similar issues with bling and some of the cases you can buy these days.

At least my Fractal Design Define R5 is void of such flashing gizmo.
I don't mind the "Fan Stop" coloured lights on my GPU that much, altho pointless, but the cycling colours on the side of the GPU is just too much, even my Logitech mouse insists on pulsing different colours, thankfully I have my hand over that most of the time.
I watched the video on the Phantek Evolv X, in the case section, and I realised that I really am getting old

Distracted · 8 Sep 2018 at 16:19

chaparral said:
My motherboard would be perfect for you then (ROG Maximus X Formula Intel Z370)

But surely you can remove a lot of the plastic on some motherboards if you don't like it...
Or you could use a PC case that doesn't have a window..

I like the look of the formula. I'm waiting for the z390 Maximus boards to drop and will be getting either the formula or the extreme.

Distracted · 8 Sep 2018 at 16:22

Vimes said:
^^^^ I have similar issues with bling and some of the cases you can buy these days.

At least my Fractal Design Define R5 is void of such flashing gizmo.
I don't mind the "Fan Stop" coloured lights on my GPU that much, altho pointless, but the cycling colours on the side of the GPU is just too much, even my Logitech mouse insists on pulsing different colours, thankfully I have my hand over that most of the time.
I watched the video on the Phantek Evolv X, in the case section, and I realised that I really am getting old

All the RGB on everything PC related i own is customisable. I can set it to change colours or sit fixed or have it off entirely.

I dont think having choice is a bad thing.

chaparral · 8 Sep 2018 at 16:34

Distracted said:
I like the look of the formula. I'm waiting for the z390 Maximus boards to drop and will be getting either the formula or the extreme.

I also like the look of it but I sure didn't like the look of the price I paid for it...…

I blame it on them stupid impulse buys I keep doing on expensive items …

The main reason I bought the formula motherboard was due to it had more USB inputs on the rear panel compared to all the other Z370 motherboards.
As I need a lot of USB inputs due to owning a Rift VR head set

Vimes · 8 Sep 2018 at 16:54

Distracted said:
All the RGB on everything PC related i own is customisable. I can set it to change colours or sit fixed or have it off entirely.

I dont think having choice is a bad thing.

Good point as I do remember Gigabyte releasing motherboards at one time looking as tho they had been designed with Crayola in mind.
At least you have choice with some of the lighting.

Distracted · 8 Sep 2018 at 21:16

Vimes said:
Good point as I do remember Gigabyte releasing motherboards at one time looking as tho they had been designed with Crayola in mind.
At least you have choice with some of the lighting.

I know you can turn off the logitech rgb in the software for mice and keyboards. At least on the ones i've had.

I dont know what gpu you've got but it might be worth installing the rgb/control software for it to see if you can switch it off or tone it down.

Dan82 · 8 Sep 2018 at 22:13

chaparral said:
My motherboard would be perfect for you then (ROG Maximus X Formula Intel Z370)

But surely you can remove a lot of the plastic on some motherboards if you don't like it...
Or you could use a PC case that doesn't have a window..

It's funny, used to despise lighting on cases, my first proper build had a case with bubble lighting strips on the front and I ended up ripping it out as it would keep me awake if I'd been downloading a game over night lol.

But my recent build has that motherboard installed in a corsair 500d rgb se case and it looks the part. When im listening to music the lights help me fall asleep.

Probably more the fact I'm a few years of 40 now

pastymuncher · 9 Sep 2018 at 10:49

It's all very well being able to turn off RGB lighting but that doesn't change the fact that we are still paying for something that a lot of us don't want. The price of motherboard these days is just shocking. As I posted above, the current version of my board is £100 more expensive than what I paid for mine and in my eyes looks terrible with all that plastic and RGB.

LePhuronn · 13 Sep 2018 at 10:01

LEDs cost pennies, all this RGB stuff adds no perceptible cost. Inflation, cost of materials and price gouging, that'll add cost to the motherboard.

Distracted · 13 Sep 2018 at 12:39

If the boards are released on the 1st of Oct does that mean we are expecting them to be available then?

Or is it generally a case of press release first and availability at a later date with new motherboards?

No crystal balls i know, i mean based on past product launches.

orbitalwalsh · 27 Sep 2018 at 12:57

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-z390-maximus-xi-extreme-and-gene-leaked

https://videocardz.com/78256/asus-z390-rog-maximus-xi-strix-prime-and-tuf-motherboards-leaked

LePhuronn · 27 Sep 2018 at 13:08

That Gene is weird. Extended M-ATX is suddenly a thing? 2 DIMM slots and only 1 16x PCI-E? I know multi-GPU is pretty much dead, but still. But, 2 8-pin EPS points at it being a M-ATX overclocking monster. The Apex's baby brother, if you will.

And dear Maximus XI Formula. The Rampage VI Extreme called and wants its aesthetic back. You can keep the EK VRM block though.

Actually, I wouldn't mind having the Formula, provided I could also pinch the VRM block off the Code or Hero

orbitalwalsh · 27 Sep 2018 at 13:13

@LePhuronn still standard matx format, just the dual DIMM and DIMM.2 makes it look longer

LePhuronn · 27 Sep 2018 at 13:16

Yeah, I just properly looked at the mounting hole pattern and it's clearly a standard M-ATX. D'oh