ASUS Socket 1151 DDR4 M.2 U.2 ATX Motherboard for 9th Generation Intel Core Motherboards WS Z390 PRO

Pros - up to 4x graphics cards supported in SLI, Thunderbolt header, 6x USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (5x Type-A + 1x Type-C) 4x USB 2.0 ports (with an additional 2x available)Cons - No Aquantia 5G, no wireless or bluetooth built in, no onboard RGB LEDs (might actually be a positive) there is a header for one LED strip tho, and no backplateThere are only two Z390 boards on the market that allow you to use up to 4x graphics cards at once (Asus and SuperMicro) and while SuperMicro is a company to watch going forward they are new and their boards are still full of issues. Asus on the other hand is well established and know what they are doing. I recommend you check out anandtech.com where they have a "Choosing the Right Z390 Motherboard" section dedicated to side-by-side comparisons of 50+ different boards all using the Z390 chipset (sorry, I am not allowed to post links, per Amazon) Asus has a similar comparison table on their website, but obviously only covers their own boards.Now if you've already decided that the WS-Z390-Pro is the one you want lets cover installation (not physical I'll leave that up to you and the user's manual, I'm talking drivers and software)First thing you'll want to do after putting everything together is update the BIOS, the latest version can be found on Asus' support page. Remember to unpack and rename the .CAP file you download to WS390P.CAP then just follow the directions under section 2.2 of the user manual to flash the BIOS. (The latest version of the user manual can also be found on that website)Next lets cover the operating system, unless you are setting up a server you'll want Windows 10 x64. You may or may not know this, but you can actually get a free (and legal) copy of Windows 10 if you owned a previous version of Windows and still have that product key somewhere. Just Google "download windows 10" and pick the microsoft.com link. Yes, microsoft.com aka the official source of Windows. Use the media creation tool to create a bootable USB or DVD with Windows 10 on it. Go through all the steps of installing the OS, it is always better to do a fresh install on a newly formatted drive, by booting from that USB/DVD you just created. When it asks you for a product key just give it your old one. Once it is able to verify the old product key online, Microsoft will give you a new *digital* product key for Windows 10. This is taking advantage of Microsoft's offer for free upgrades to old OSes that has since expired, but either purposefully or accidentally still works via this method. I'm sure there are limitations, and this might not work forever, but while it works take advantage of it!If you are going to use Intel's new Optane Memory you'll want to read its user manual before you format your harddrive because there are specific steps you'll need to take to make sure Optane works for you.But here are the important bits;"BIOS SATA controller mode set to 'Intel RST...' with remapping enabled on the slot connecting the Optane module""Ensure the BIOS is in UEFI mode with CSM disabled before installing the operating system""When installing Windows, make sure to leave an 'Unallocated' space with a minimum of 5MB at the end of the disk"Now, the Asus support page also has downloads for several drivers and utilities, BUT some of them are out of date so lets go through each one.The first of these you'll want to install is the chipset driver, or at least the readme says to install it before any other :PThe Asus page shows version 10.1.17695.8086But you can find a newer version on Intel's site: Version 10.1.17903.8106 as of 1/29/2019 titled "Server Chipset Driver for Windows*"Don't be scared away by the "server" part, this is the right one, or you can of course just run the auto-detect Intel's site offers.Intel Management Engine Version 1815.12.0.2021You can find a newer version on Intel's site: Version 1824.12.0.1140 as of 4/18/2018 titled "Management Engine Driver for Windows 7*, 8.1*, and Windows 10"Now just going down the list...VGA Version 24.20.100.6291You can find a newer version on Intel's site: Version 25.20.100.6519 as of 1/17/2019 titled "Graphics Driver for Windows 10"You can skip this step if you are going to use a seperate graphics card, as this is for the integrated graphics.Audio - Asus seems to have the latest (and perhaps even proprietary) drivers in this category. Asus' AISuite and Aura are also optional grabs from their support site; Aura is only needed if you have RGB LED strips on or around your motherboard. And some people actively loath AISuite, your mileage may vary.LAN Version 23.2.0.1006You can find a newer version on Intel's site: Version 23.5.1 as of 12/14/2018 titled "Network Adapter Driver for Windows 10"Just for reference this board uses I210-AT and I219-LM controllers.Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility Version 6.4.1.205You can find a newer version on Intel's site: Version 6.4.1.25 as of 9/6/2018 titled "Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel XTU)"SATA Version 16.7.1.1012You can find a newer version on Intel's site: Version: 16.8.0.1000 as of 12/8/2018 titled "Rapid Storage Technology (RST) User Interface and Driver"Unless you use RAID arrays, you really don't need this oneIntel Optane - this one isn't on the Asus support page, you'll find all the drivers and software on Intel's site. They have three main downloads listed under the category of "Downloads for Intel Optane Memory" 1) "SSD Firmware Update Tool" 2) "Solid State Drive Toolbox" 3) "Optane Memory User Interface and Driver for System Acceleration." You really only need that last one, and as far as I can tell it is very similar to the RST download listed above but it specifically says it is for Optane so I'd download this one. Just note that Optane and RAID are mutually exclusive, you can't use both at the same time! Also something to note; this motherboard will disable SATA slots 5&6 if you put the Optane in M.2 slot 1 and SATA slots 1&2 if you plug it into M.2 slot 2. Additionally, there is no benefit to using two (or more) Optane memory cards at the same time, only one will ever be active.Then of course you'll want to install any graphics card drivers (if you have a graphics card) from either NVIDIA or AMD. Just get your drivers directly from NVIDIA or AMD instead of through any after-market retailers like EVGA or Gigabyte.

when you try to find any modern premium Motherboards that are able to fit dual RTX 3090 in SLI mode in casual PC case without using GPU cable extension or GPU extender case. This motherboard is the only one and unfortunately, I haven't seen any similar motherboards for 10th/11th gen motherboards. it is sad due to this motherboard is almost old for outdated flagship CPU.I'm using it 24/7 without any break - only when home power is cutting - and it still working solid. I'm using it for gaming/rendering/mining and I'm very happy with it. the overclock isn't my concern.and if you wanna upgrade your PC to its maximum parts for beyond gaming, this motherboard is the choice.

The issue im putting in ablut is that this is mother board is not whats advertised, it says it can handle 9th generation processors, but in the manual it says it can only handle 8th generation, causing to waste almost 300 dollars and 7 hours of my day trying to make this work, its probably a good mother board, but I cant even test it to see because of the parts involved.

The onboard PCX chip allows (4) x16 PCIe cards to operate at x8 electronically while a 5th PCIe holds a x4 PCIe card. I've got my GPU, Blackmagic Decklink, LSI RAID card, M.2 PCIe card, and 10G network cards all running simultaneously. Connected to the motherboard are (2) M.2 cards and a 3rd connected to a U.2 to M.2 adapter - so (4) M.2 cards all running at full speed. I have some of the BEST 9900K video render speeds compared to other 9900K systems. It runs stable 24/7 even when my CPU is at 100% usage during renders for 6-8 of those hours.