Equipped with Thunderbolt 3, CPU attached SSD support and DisplayPort 1.4 IN – is this Intel Z390 motherboard the perfect recipe for designers, content creators and professionals?
Product on Review: Z390 Designare Motherboard
Manufacturer & Sponsor: GIGABYTE
Street Price: £320 GBP – $329 USD
Since its release back in 2016, Designare has been a motherboard series which specialises in tools for the designer and content creator. Obviously, the Intel chipset places certain restrictions on what GIGABYTE can bring to the table and while many of the attributes found on these boards over the generations are identical to other models, there have been a few surprises to whet the appeitite for this niche.
For this season’s Intel Z390 chipset the Designare doubles down on Thunderbolt 3 – bringing in two USB-C ports on the Rear IO, as well as a plethora of other features including DisplayPort 1.4 Input. Another significant inclusion is CPU attached PCI Express, which allows SSD add-in cards to completely bypass the chipset controller and utilise greater throughput directly from the CPU.
All this sounds fascinating, but is it useful for the target audience?
About GIGABYTE
A global leader in the PC industry, GIGABYTE offers a comprehensive product lineup that aims to “Upgrade Your Life.” With expertise encompassing consumer, business, gaming, and cloud systems, GIGABYTE uses research and innovation to consistently meet user needs. GIGABYTE is renowned for award-winning products including motherboards, graphics cards, laptops, mini PCs, and other PC components and accessories, and has revolutionized the PC industry with patented DualBIOS™ and Ultra Durable™ technologies. As an expert in PC technology, GIGABYTE is poised to extend our scope in business servers and cloud systems with hardware and software solutions that integrate AI and AloT applications to develop the ideal infrastructure for future prospects in 5G.
Technical Specifications
Below are the technical specifications concerning the Z390 Designare:
CPU
• Supports 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors for Socket LGA1151
Chipset
• Intel® Z390 Chipset
Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB
– Supports DDR4 Up to 4266MHz
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports ECC, un-buffered memory
– ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)
• Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Slots
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (Modes: 16, 8, 4)
• 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot
Onboard Graphics
• 1 x HDMI™ port
• 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 IN
• 2 x Intel Thunderbolt 3 Connector (USB Type-C)
Multi-GPU
• Supports Quad-GPU AMD® CrossFire™ Technology
• Supports Quad-GPU NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Storage
• Intel® Z390 Chipset
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
• 2 x M.2 PCIe Gen3 slots (Supports Intel Optane Memory)
RAID
• Intel® Z390 Chipset
– Supports RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 for SATA storage devices
Audio
• Realtek ALC 1220-VB Codec
– 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
– Supports S/PDIF output
LAN
• 2 x Intel® GbE LAN phy (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Wireless
• Intel® CNVi interface 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, supporting 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band
– BLUETOOTH 5
– Support for 11ac 160 MHz wireless standard
Back Panel I/O Ports
• PS/2 Combo Port
• Gigabit LAN
• HD Audio Connectors
• 2x USB 2.0
• 1x DisplayPort
• 1x HDMI
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A + C
• 3x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A
• Optical S/PDIF out
Dimension
• 12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )
• ATX Form Factor
• Supports 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors for Socket LGA1151
Chipset
• Intel® Z390 Chipset
Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB
– Supports DDR4 Up to 4266MHz
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports ECC, un-buffered memory
– ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)
• Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Slots
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (Modes: 16, 8, 4)
• 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot
Onboard Graphics
• 1 x HDMI™ port
• 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 IN
• 2 x Intel Thunderbolt 3 Connector (USB Type-C)
Multi-GPU
• Supports Quad-GPU AMD® CrossFire™ Technology
• Supports Quad-GPU NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Storage
• Intel® Z390 Chipset
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
• 2 x M.2 PCIe Gen3 slots (Supports Intel Optane Memory)
RAID
• Intel® Z390 Chipset
– Supports RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 for SATA storage devices
Audio
• Realtek ALC 1220-VB Codec
– 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
– Supports S/PDIF output
LAN
• 2 x Intel® GbE LAN phy (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Wireless
• Intel® CNVi interface 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, supporting 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band
– BLUETOOTH 5
– Support for 11ac 160 MHz wireless standard
Back Panel I/O Ports
• PS/2 Combo Port
• Gigabit LAN
• HD Audio Connectors
• 2x USB 2.0
• 1x DisplayPort
• 1x HDMI
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A + C
• 3x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A
• Optical S/PDIF out
Dimension
• 12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )
• ATX Form Factor
Closer Look Video Review
For this review we’ve produced a video showcasing the items included in the box and a detailed rundown of the included features on this motherboard. Please click on this link or watch the video below:
Test Setup & Methodology
Test Setup
CPU Intel Core i9-9900K
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard GIGABYTE Z390 Designare
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz
Graphics GIGABYTE GTX 1080 G1 Gaming
Storage OCZ Vector 180 240GB SSD
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Monitor AOC U2879VF
Capture Device Epiphan AV.iO 4K
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard GIGABYTE Z390 Designare
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz
Graphics GIGABYTE GTX 1080 G1 Gaming
Storage OCZ Vector 180 240GB SSD
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Monitor AOC U2879VF
Capture Device Epiphan AV.iO 4K
Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
Other Software
Temperature Analysis: Real Temp
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Overclocking & VRM Cooling
Like previous generations, the Intel Core i9-9900K is unlocked and also has flexible attributes in terms of the BCLK and ratio/multiplier. This makes the job of overclocking much easier.
GIGABYTE has built Designare to have a solid digital VRM design with useful overclocking options within the BIOS too. We were able to shift the clock frequency up to 5.2GHz but no amount of voltage would allow us to gain stability. After repeated attempts, we finally settled at 5GHz as our stable maximum overclock – with 1.35v being required.
With the 5GHz overclock still applied – above is the result for the VRM temperatures, this test is run for over an hour, the temperatures hitting 70C.
Benchmarks: Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the Z390 chipset, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.
Benchmarks: Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.
Benchmarks: X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but we believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
Benchmarks: POV-RAY
Persistence of Vision Raytracer’s PovRay is a free and open source 3D animator application with versions for computers with different operating systems.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
Benchmarks: TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a discontinued source-available freeware utility used for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or encrypt a partition or (under Microsoft Windows except Windows 8 with GPT) the entire storage device (pre-boot authentication).
Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 Product Page
This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8 & PCMark 10
PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8 Photoshop
The PCMark 8 Applications benchmark measures system performance using popular applications from the Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. You can choose which tests to run based on the applications installed on your system. Each test automatically steps through a series of actions such as opening, editing and saving a file. The results are used to calculate the PCMark 8 Applications scores for the system.
Benchmarks: 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy
3DMark FireStrike Product Page
Fire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.
Benchmarks: ROT Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two recent gaming titles.
Conclusion
Should you buy Z390 Designare? Well, that depends entirely on your scenario and intended use.
The features which make Designare stand out from other Intel Z390 motherboards will almost certainly single this product out as being engineered for a specific group of users – designers, professionals, and creators. The average user won’t have any need for Thunderbolt 3 or CPU attached SSDs but for those who are in this field of expertise, having such tools at the fingertips will be invaluable.
As we pointed out in this review, GIGABYTE are fairly limited by the Intel Z390 chipset in terms of bringing exclusive features for a set target group, but they’ve included a handful of attributes which will certainly streamline workflow for enthusiasts in the professional field.
In all of our benchmarks the Designare delivered solid performance, remaining neck and neck with rival models donning the Z390 chipset. Furthermore, we managed to apply a 5GHz overclock to our Intel i9-9900K without much effort thanks to the digital VRM design and easy to use UEFI BIOS. VRM temperatures stayed within acceptable figures throughout this overclock, peaking at 70C after an hour stress test was performed.
Bring priced at £320 GBP – $320 USD pushes this board into the upper realms of this platform. Deciding on whether to buy this motherboard will boil down to those exclusive features. Do you need them? If you do, it’s a great buy. However, if you don’t need such specialised tools then there are plenty of suitable models in the mid-tier segment offering the same performance and similar features.
Donning Thunderbolt 3 and CPU attached storage, Z390 Desginare will appeal to power users who are keen to improve their workflow.
Pros
+ Easy on the eye
+ RGB features for those that want it
+ Solid performance
+ Good for overclocking
+ Uses strengthened PCI Express & memory slots
+ Users can benefit from CPU attached SSD add-in cards
+ Thunderbolt 3 via two USB-C ports
+ Plenty of functionality on Rear IO panel
+ VRM thermals are kept under control
Cons
– Specialist features aren’t for everyone – bumps price up
+ Easy on the eye
+ RGB features for those that want it
+ Solid performance
+ Good for overclocking
+ Uses strengthened PCI Express & memory slots
+ Users can benefit from CPU attached SSD add-in cards
+ Thunderbolt 3 via two USB-C ports
+ Plenty of functionality on Rear IO panel
+ VRM thermals are kept under control
Cons
– Specialist features aren’t for everyone – bumps price up
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