The Supermicro C9Z390-PGW Motherboard Review: The Z390 Board With PLX and 10GbE
by Gavin Bonshor on February 1, 2019 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Broadcom
- Supermicro
- ATX
- PLX
- PLX8747
- Supero
- Z390
- C9Z390-PGW
- PEX8747
Board Features
The C9Z390-PGW represents Supermicro's flagship entry onto the Z390 chipset. It also represents one of just two Z390 motherboards (one general consumers, one for workstations) to include a Broadcom PEX8747 PLX chip which allows users to use up to four PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. This is useful for users running mutliple PCIe accelerators with full bandwidth available. T
| Supermicro C9Z390-PGW ATX Motherboard | |||
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
| Product Page | Link | ||
| Price | $371 | ||
| Size | ATX | ||
| CPU Interface | LGA1151 | ||
| Chipset | Intel Z390 | ||
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 64 GB Dual Channel Up to DDR4-4000 |
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| Video Outputs | 1 x HDMI 2.0 2 x DisplayPort 1.2 |
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| Network Connectivity | Aquantia AQC107 10G Intel I219 V 1 G Intel 9560 802.11ac 2T2R |
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| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220 | ||
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 4 x PCIe 3.0 x16 | ||
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1 | ||
| Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 | ||
| Onboard M.2 | 3 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA, RAID 0/1 | ||
| Onboard U.2 | 2 x U.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 RAID 0/1 | ||
| USB 3.1 (10Gbps) | 3 x Type-A Rear Panel 1 x Type-C Rear Panel 1 x Type-C Header |
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| USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) | 2 x Type-A Rear Panel 2 x Type-A Header |
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| USB 2.0 | 2 x Header | ||
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8pin CPU |
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| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x 12 V pump (4-pin) 3 x System (4-pin) |
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| IO Panel | 3 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A 2 x Network RJ45 5 x 3.5mm Audio Jacks 1 x S/PDIF Output 1 x PS/2 combo port 1 x HDMI 2.0 2 x DisplayPort 1.2 2 x Intel 9560 Antenna Ports |
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It's no secret that the Supermicro C9Z390-PGW motherboard is one of the most expensive Z390 motherboards on the market with a hefty price tag of $371 at Newegg. There's a host of high-quality features such as the included PLX chip, the Aquantia AQC107 10G NIC port and even the Intel 9560 Wi-Fi adapter which is one of the better ones currently available. There is plenty of USB 3.1 Gen2 connectivity with a total of nine available with up to seven Type-A and two Type-C supported; one of the Type-C is via a front panel header along with four Type-A. Storage capability is offered via two M.2 slots, two U.2 ports and six SATA ports.
Test Bed
As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
While we have been able to measure audio performance from previous Z370 motherboards, the task has been made even harder with the roll-out of the Z390 chipset and none of the boards tested so far has played ball. It seems all USB support for Windows 7 is now extinct so until we can find a reliable way of measuring audio performance on Windows 10 or until a workaround can be found, audio testing will have to be done at a later date.
| Test Setup | |||
| Processor | Intel i7-8700K, 65W, $300, 6 Cores, 12 Threads, 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz Turbo) |
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| Motherboard | MSI MEG Z390 ACE (BIOS Version 7B12v12) | ||
| Cooling | Corsair H100i V2 | ||
| Power Supply | Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Gold PSU | ||
| Memory | 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400 Ran at DDR4-2666 CL16-18-18-35 2T |
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| Video Card | ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
| Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
| Case | Open Test Bed | ||
| Operating System | Windows 10 RS3 inc. Spectre/Meltdown Patches | ||
Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.
| Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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New Test Suite: Spectre and Meltdown Hardened
For the start of our Z390 reviews, we are using an updated OS, updated drivers, and updated software. This is in line with our CPU testing updates, which includes Spectre and Meltdown patches.
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42 Comments
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Flunk - Sunday, February 3, 2019 - link
The 10 series cards don't have enough SLI connectors to run in more than 2x SLI without severely downgraded bandwidth. It takes both connnectors for a 2 card HB SLI bridge. For the 20 series the RTX 2080 is the cheapest card that supports SLI. Nvidia is definitely limiting SLI to the most expensive cards.FastCarsLike - Friday, February 1, 2019 - link
Pretty much abandonware. The z390 Master from Gigabyte is significantly better. Audio improvements, 10gb internet, 3x NVME slots (although capped to 3 gb/s), and significantly better support than Asus. In addition, supermicro is way too cautious in the bios department than other manufacturers. (Bought a brand new Skylake Xeon motherboard from them, and had to select "experimental" NVME x4 to run a 760p from Intel!) Not worthy of mainstream.JoeyJoJo123 - Friday, February 1, 2019 - link
I've had similar issues with a SuperO board with PLX chip in the past, probably 2 years. Very common 16GB DDR4 set of Corsair Memory (DDR4-3000, CL15), wouldn't post with XMP enabled. I had to submit a support ticket to see what they could do about getting the memory kit supported. They had to order the memory in and find some stable memory timings, and sent me over the list of timings I should change. (Yeah, quite a few of the memory subtimings beyond the main 5 or so needed configuring... One of those subtimings went from a default 8 cycles to 22 cycles or something.)I wouldn't say they provide terrible value or terrible boards, but uhhh... Sometimes you just want stuff to work out of the box, and right now they're still a bit behind the usual motherboard vendors in regards to ease of use to work with.
Rocket321 - Sunday, February 3, 2019 - link
It does, however, sound like they provided you with an amazing level of support. Above and beyond what I would have expected the response to be.StrangerGuy - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
Reviewing a mobo with 10GbE/PLX but not do any testing on both features seems to miss the whole point completely.The_Assimilator - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
Another swing and miss from Supermicro. SLI is going the way of the dodo and quad-SLI especially is already extinct, so the PLX chip is well-nigh useless. Then we have not one, but two U.2 ports which are also useless.I dunno, man. Every time I read a review of a SM board it's like they just grabbed a bunch of arbitrary features and threw them together without any thought as to whether they even make sense together.
"There are two USB 2.0 headers, two USB 3.1 G1 headers and one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C header."
It's pretty interesting how you supposedly did a visual inspection yet failed to notice there are not two, but one USB 2.0 header; ditto for the USB 3.0 header.
jabber - Sunday, February 3, 2019 - link
Yep I would just prefer 1x16/4x4Aenra - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
Lurker that couldn't help but (finally) comment..- Testing this board with a 8700K is not exactly ideal; one would have expected a 9900K, which you do own. A very bad start from the get go. No one can know what the board's really capable of, so there goes the entire review. Well done.
- You mention an LLC of 6, but without specifying what it entails; there are board manufacturers that use high numbers for lowest, others for highest. A serious omission here. Were you even aware?
- To add to the confusion (one thinks lack of understanding's the issue here), you criticise vdroop twice and that's before you even mention the LLC..
- You mention the PLX chip time and time again, but fail to even convince us you grasp of its downsides. A testing of any PCIe interface card other than GPUs would have been a good start towards that. Further testing performance with just a GPU to compare would've been even better.
- We've zero interest in the thermal throttling of your specific CPU, nor any knowledge as to whether it might be a 'dud', or not. Using its thermal throttling so as to 'comment' on the board's OC capabilities is.. ridiculous, sorry.
- Automated RAM timings are what's usually the make or break in terms of frequencies.. and you don't even mention how they're handled when on a manual RAM overclocking.
- Personally? I'm not sure you should be doing board reviews in the first place.
Not the first Anandtech review i see that is bad, but.. do please improve.
Korguz - Sunday, February 3, 2019 - link
Aenra... if you think you can do better.. then please do...Personally ? im not sure you would be able to do a better review...
yobbo7 - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
So, TU-62/NP175 are both mid-Tg generic FR4 class materials with a dielectric constant of over 4.This is standard stuff, it is not special at all and I would be surprised if anyone in the industry used anything worse on this class of motherboard.
There are still better materials available from the likes of Isola before you get into the RF materials like Rogers.