ASUS Leads Intel Z390 9th Gen Core Assault With ROG, ROG Strix, Prime, WS And TUF Gaming Motherboards
There are obviously too many motherboards to go over in exhaustive detail in just one article, but we'll try to hit a few of the highlights. For example, there's the ROG Maximus XI Extreme which supports up to 64GB DDR4 memory (4400MHz OC), and up to four M.2 SSDs. In addition to support for Intel Gigabit Wi-Fi, Intel I219-V/Aquantia AQC111C 5G Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth 5.0, there’s support for 2-way SLI along with 3-way Crossfire. Onboard you'll find 10 USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, 3 USB 3.1 Gen 2 (USB-A) and 1 USB 3.1 Gen 2 (USB-C).
There are a total of seven motherboards in the ROG Maximus XI Series including the pint-sized ROG Maximus XI Gene, which supports many of the same features of its larger ATX-based siblings with the exception of the SLI and CrossFire support.
Likewise, there are four members of the ROG Strix Z390 family (which slots in below the Maximus XI family with regards to pricing), including the ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming which features a Mini-ITX form-factor. The ROG Strix Z390 motherboards support up to 64GB DDR4, up to 2-way SLI/3-way CrossFire, and a single Intel-based GbE adapter. You'll find up to a total of 10 USB ports mixed between USB 3.1 Gen 1 (and Gen 2).
Other motherboards announced include the WS Z390 Pro (which is aimed at workstation users) and three members of the Prime family (Prime Z390-A, Prime Z390-P, and Prime Z390M-Plus). And not to be left out, there's a the TUF Gaming Z390 Series, which is available in both ATX and mATX form-factors. ASUS' TUF series is dedicated to giving gamers just the essentials in order to reach value price points.
ASUS' new motherboard lineup will serve as a home to Intel's three new 9th generation Core Coffee Lake Refresh processors:
- Core i9-9900K: 8 cores / 16 threads, 3.6GHz to 5GHz, 16MB L3 cache, 95W TDP
- Core i7-9700K: 8 cores / 8 threads, 3.6GHz to 4.9GHz, 12MB L3 cache, 95W TDP
- Core i5-9600K: 6 cores / 6 threads, 3.7GHz to 4.6GHz, 9MB L3 cache, 95W TDP
ASUS says that its motherboards will be available to purchase from a wide variety of retailers starting today.
