8.8.2019

Short review: for the price, it does an amazing job. It works well with my i7 9700K.Longer review :)It just does the job. I tried overclocking (just for fun) the i7 9700K, and it was working fine. Put the CPU under 100% load using CPU-Z for a while and the system was handling fine. I didn't try other test bench software etc, I just use stock speed anyway.There are plenty of USB ports on the back panel and it works with the Sound Blaster Z pCIe card (that is reported to have compatibility issues with some MOBOs).It does support RGB lighting, but I don't use it as there is already even too much RGB for me with the cooler.It also has got 2 slots for M.2 SSDs,which is good for expansion!Let's put it that way: if you are looking for a functional mother board, get one, it does what it needs to do.The low price point is NOT going to affect performance or reliability for this product in my opinion.So, what are the things you are missing at this lower price point?Simple:- you get no wifi card and if you need wifi you will have to install a separate card- you get a mediocre sound card. Nowadays MOBOs sound cards are still quite decent also at low price point, but a good one will need a higher range of MOBO. I use the Soun Blaster as I absolutely love it, so it was no problem for me- you get less board connectors. In specific USB3/2 connectors. That means that if you are into installing many RGB options and things that are directly connected to the USB headers on the mother board, you will have to go with the 1 or 2 available connectors. Keep that in mind- you have "only" 2 PWM case fan connectors, so if you want to independently control more fans and external controller will be requiredAt this price point, having used it for 8 months now and considering it is an Asus product with a Z390 chipset, I can say I am really happy with itEDIT:I had to update the review as time has passed and things have changed. The Z390 chipset is now well established, which means that despite this motherboard being one of the cheapest, there are slightly more expensive options now that before would have been in a completely different price range and have slightly better performance.I lowered the review by 1 star because of this and because I forgot another thing: the motherboard is full ATX, but the width isn't (weirdly). The screws on the right hand side and the overall board are about 2cm recessed compared to a regular full ATX. So it is likely that the motherboard will be connected with 6 screws instead of 9, with the right part of the board not being fully sustained. My case can have the screws and mounting brackets moved, but not to fit the position of this MOBO...It works and it is fine, and I still believe it is a perfect mother board for the money, but now with discounts and an established market I would push a bit higher and maybe get a Aorus, which has got brilliant VRMs for about 30/40£ more

4.5.2019

If you have an older Asus board (e.g. Z170M) then this will be "deja-vu" for an 9th gen build. There is not much new in the BIOS from the UI/look to updates and UEFI format.If you're after a powerful but somewhat small system thus mATX format and 9th gen CPU (thus with hardware fixes for (current) vulnerabilities) and fast (4267Mbps+) memory then this is pretty cheap and nice board. For me it works great with 9700K and 3200 DDR4. Yes it goes higher but I have no current need.But if you're not going to use top-end CPU and high-speed memory (or overclock) I say save your money and get the cheaper H370M or B360M. There is also a Z370M/II but at pretty much the same cost as this one (why launch it now Asus?)The good:- 2x PCIe x16 length slots,but only one x16 (for dedicated GPU) and 2nd x4 for say 10Gbe LAN or more SSDs?- 2x USB 10Gbe ports (aka 3.1 gen 2) thus only major change from Z370M, Z270M or Z170M- 2x M.2 PCIe/NVMe ports x4 thus you can have 2x SSDs on the board! (only one supports SATA)- 3x PWM FAN headers (+CPU) thus pretty good control of modern fans- RGB header if you want to bling your case or fans (standard ones 12V RGB not directly addressable)- Obviously unlocked overclocking due to Z390 chipset; and more VRMs for high-end CPUs like 9700/9900 otherwise perhaps go for cheaper H370M or B360M?- Supports ME TPM thus you can use BitLocker in Windows 10/8.1. It works, but hardware crypto only with SATA SSDs not NVMe (see below)The mediocre:- No heatsinks for M.2 slots and you probably should get some as NVMe drives run hot. Don't spend too much though.- No DP port as per description but DVI? If you want to use built-in GPU best use HDMI.- HDMI is naturally 1.4 not 2.0 thus at 4k (2160p) you're limited to 30Hz (naturally no HDR either)! So if you wanted a HTPC system you're going to need a dedicated GPU with HDMI 2.0/60Hz (I assume you want 4k support for such a system)- No USB-C port anymore like the old Z170M or Z370M/II for some reason? Pity.- No header for USB 3.1 Gen2 front case ports. Perhaps too much to ask on this level?The bad:- BIOS-based Asus Q-Installer installs itself as a Windows service you cannot disable in Windows and runs each start. But thankfully you can disable it in BIOS/Tools. Nice injection vector there.- No Samsung NVMe SED SSD hardware crypto (e.g. 970, 960) support thus software BitLocker only. On the boot drive, secondary drives may work but it's inconvenient. No plans to fix.Asus BIOS is also easy to mod say if you wanted to add SLIC or other features but remember you need to extract the capsule. Asus seems reliable to me still have an old Z170M (thus older version of this) that works perfectly still.Price-wise it does seem more expensive than the competition but then Asus has always been so; feature-wise it is OK but still "Prime" is not high-end like Strix/ROG but decent. Kind of middle of the road I'd say.

6.3.2020

I bought this motherboard as part of a major upgrade to my PC. I went for the Intel i9 9900K 8-core CPU, so I wanted a motherboard that would complement it. There’s no point in buying a high-performance CPU without buying a motherboard that can handle it.After doing a lot of research, I settled on this Asus Prime Z390-A. It had all the features I needed and more. One of the features I did require was some M.2 NVMe sockets and this one comes with two. The NVMe compatibility was import as I also bought a Samsung 970 EVO plus 1TB SSD. Some sockets are only SATA compatible on other motherboards.Installation was pretty straight forward and no major problems were encountered.

4.2.2020

I have used MSI motherbaords for the last few years for my PC builds but MSI are annoying in that they do not like you using TVs as monitors and therefore trying to access the BIOS when your resolution is all screwed up when you don't have a VGA port is impossible! So I went for Asus. This board in particular because of the ports it offered, the reviews I found were good and I needed a Hackintosh compatible one.The first one I got, I had to send back. After installing it in the chassis and logging in to BIOS to change relevant settings (I do not do Overclocking so we are talking standard changes!), I rebooted and got a blank screen. No beeping alerts to suggest that there was anything wrong with the RAM or CPU but I was getting no life from it at all.

7.12.2019

A decent board for the money, given that this is toward the lower end of the z390 spectrum.The bios will be familiar to anyone who's owned an Asus board within the last few years, works fine but has its odd quirks and not the most logical layout.At first boot it would see my ssd, but wouldn't enable it or allow me to chose it as a boot device, I had to go into the advance settings and toggle something to on before it would appear. More trial and error as little info in the instructions or online.It's a nice looking board with protective plastic coverings on the white plastic shrouds to keep it looking super glossy while you're assembling it.Several fan headers plus aio pump and waterpump as well as external fan control header,

1.1.2020

This board has two M.2 slots. That's a primary reason I picked it. Actually, it's got 3 but one's really for a WIFI card. Setup was easy and ASUS's use of UEFI features to auto-preload the BIOS update software in to Windows is quite clever. I'm not really a fan of the pointless white silkscreening design, but despite that the sockets are all clearly labelled. Reasonable clearances for the RAM from the CPU cooler. Just two rather than four SATA cables provided - fair enough really. "Just worked" in both Windows10 and Linux (Debian 10). Just be a little careful when installing in a case as this is a "narrow" board, so only has 6 of the possible 9 mounting holes in use - meaning that when you're installing the main power cable,

5.6.2020

Installed in a Corsair 175R case with Vengeance LPX 16GB RAM, Corsair H100i and Asus ROG RTX 2070. First time building with RGB strips and the two RGB headers (top and bottom of mobo) are easily controllable using Armoury Crate & Aura Creator software - although it would be nice if you could control each RGB header independently. I also like that the RGB effects can be automatically changed depending upon what program/game is run.Easy to navigate UEFI with plenty of features for OC'ing and tweaking and some helpful guides too. Haven't tried the AI overclocking feature yet but certainly intend to once the remaining case fans have been fitted. Happy with purchase so far.

13.8.2019

The supplied BIOS is very slow - needed to update to latest version. Much faster now. Also needed to set the XMP option to get the correct DRAM speed - surely the BIOS should have been able to do that automatically. Had trouble getting into the BIOS on startup as it failed to respond to the function keys on my wireless keyboard - swapped to another wireless keyboard and that worked. There seems to be an option to update the BIOS via a Win 10 program, but Win 10 refused to run that for my own safety - even as administrator.

24.3.2019

All the support needed for direct use with 9th gen Intel processors and backward compatibility for 8th gen out of the box.Additional features such as M.2 and NVME support with USB 3.1 is a nice touch but should be standard to be honest.Overclocking wise, I am only using the RAM feature and getting 3200Mhz without issues with memory as such.Overall good buy and so far no issues even with install.Good quality board with no flex, and very solid when installing.Would recommend ASUS as always.

19.6.2020

I bought this motherboard as an upgrade to an aging Ivy Bridge setup I had. The build quality is great and the inbuilt BIOS is easy to use and navigate for overclocking purposes. I have this paired with a 10600k with 980 Ti in SLI and it works a treat. Also ARMOURY CRATE works well for keeping drivers up to date and this board supports AURA sync so you can add additional addressable RGB lighting which can all be changed to your liking. A good value board that does everything I need it to!

25.6.2020

Its not the flagship by all means, but its a very good all-rounder. My setup:i5 9600 with Corsair Cooler fanCorsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHzAn old nVidia GTS250 graphics cardSamsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)My PC is running well, although it looks like you cannot RAID SSD drives and use M.2 drives at the same time for some reason?

26.5.2019

Given the lack of reviews for this product I thought I’d send one up.This motherboard is really ideal for anyone looking to do some over locking, but also good for those who won’t be dabbling in it. It’s got a great colour scheme, everything is easy to locate on the board, and the main seller for me was the USB-C port on it. Highly recommend to both veteran and newbie pc builders.

28.6.2020

Fits my case really well, especially nice to see a motherboard with white and not silver. However, I cannot seem to turn off the Aura feature on the BIOS for when my computer is on standby, meaning I always have to turn off the power at the PSU to get rid of the cycling light at night. Unfortunately this is quite annoying for me so I give the product 4 stars.

5.4.2020

The 2x M.2 PCIe/NVMe ports x4 meant that I could have 2 SSDs on the board which is perfect for editing and similar work requiring lots of storage. Has 3x PWM FAN headers (+CPU) which is great for the price and RGB header with 3rd party support for personal customisation was a nice bonus feature.

4.5.2020

this product I had for just over a month and it all still works apart from one key feature on the Mb and its that the lights stopped working and as It turns out it isn't just a problem I've had multiple people have had it and I can't find any way to actually sort this problem out

Asus Prime Z490-A - Reviews

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