High-End Board for 8th and 9th Gen Intel CPUs
Gigabyte is bringing back the Designare board but this time sporting the latest Z390 chipset from Intel. This of course supports both 8th gen and 9th gen Intel CPUs. Unlike other gaming oriented designs in Gigabyte’s lineup, the Designare brand is for creative types. Thus it puts a lot less importance on RGB LEDs and prioritizes connectivity.
What Kind of Connectivity Options are Available on the Z390 Designare?
That is why the Designare Z390 comes equipped with not one, but two Thunderbolt 3 ports. These are Type-C reversible connectors in the rear IO, each capable of 40Gb/s single-wire bandwidth. Users can even daisy chain up to twelve Thunderbolt 3 devices on it.
Furthermore, the Z390 Designare has dual Intel Gigabit LAN and Intel 802.11ac Wave2 CNVi WiFi + Bluetooth 5 with cFosSpeed Internet Accelerator Software. So users can have fast network connection whether wired to a local network or via WiFi. This 2×2 802.11ac Wave2 is capable of delivering 1734Mbps speeds, in comparison to 2×2 802.11ac WiFi which only goes up to 867Mbps.
Internally, users also get two M.2 slots with thermal guard for SSD drives. There is also a third M.2 slot which is reserved for the built-in WiFi/BT card. There is also the standard 6x SATA6G ports and three PCIe x16 slots allocated as x8/x4/x4.
Does it Have RGB LED?
Yes. The entire board actually has it, except it is subtly located on the IO cover, PCH heatsink and the audio subsection separation. The IO cover RGB LED also reflects on the 12+1 phase VRM heatsink cover a bit on the left. Although there is no lighting around the top area. There is also a standard 4-pin 12V RGB LED header for users who want to attach a device or LED strip.
How Much is the Gigabyte Z390 Designare Motherboard?
The Z390 Designare Motherboard has an MSRP of $269.99 USD and should be available in retail stores with the next few weeks.
