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
System Performance
Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.
For Z390 we are running an updated version of our test suite, including OS and CPU cooler. This has some effect on our results.
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS GTX 980 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Thermaltake 1200W power supply. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
For a flagship motherboard, the Supermicro C9Z390-PGW displays quite efficent power draw when at full load. It's consistent with other models at long idle and in idle states when tested with our power hungry i7-8700K test bed chip.
Non-UEFI POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.)
The Supermicro C9Z390-PGW represents one of the slowest boards recorded in our POST time test. Supermicro doesn't have a good record in this regard as three out of four LGA 1151 boards that we've tested sit at the bottom.
DPC Latency
Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.
If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.
None of the LGA 1151 motherboards tested so far has been optimized for DPC latency. The C9Z390-PGW sits middle of the road with a result of 127 ns; it performs just better than the MSI MEG Z390 ACE and sits below the ROG STRIX Z370-F Gaming.
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Lord of the Bored - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
"Both of the power delivery heatsinks ... are constructed of metal."I would certainly hope so. What else would one make a heatsink out of?
GreenReaper - Sunday, February 3, 2019 - link
Diamond? At least in part. There has been some promise shown by diamond-metal composites - the idea is more to spread the heat from the center of the die to the edges for further conduction (thermal conductivity raised ~25% for Noctua):http://www.rhp-technology.com/en/products/diacool-...
https://www.eteknix.com/computex-noctua-show-coppe...
https://noctua.at/media/wysiwyg/images/computex_20...
http://web.archive.org/web/20061004161221/http://w...
https://web.archive.org/web/20181117185351/http://...
https://web.archive.org/web/20071004215124/http://... (see illustration to right on page 2)
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030183368 (abandoned patent, just an example)
Realistically water works well, but you could use diamond-copper in combination with it. Or if you want an edge, maybe silver?
https://www.overclockers.com/easy-heatsink-mods-to...
And of course, diamond grease:
https://www.overclockers.com/diamond-thermal-greas...
zbc - Monday, February 4, 2019 - link
I'm curious if that switch in the way of PCIe lanes is a performance bottleneck. And it would have been nice if you benchmarked 10G ethernet to see if it reaches its advertised speed during peak load (doubt it since it shares bandwidth with so many devices on the PCH).Korguz - Tuesday, February 5, 2019 - link
welcome to the lack of foresight on intels part, and not increasing the lanes available on their platforms... 40/44 lanes is just not enough any more for the HEDTPeterSun - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - link
Now I know what the red circle in their company logo means. XDadiots123 - Saturday, February 9, 2019 - link
Sli impossible!!C9z390-pgw doesn't pay for sli certification license!!!
niemi - Thursday, February 14, 2019 - link
Anandtech, which program do you use to measure DPC latency?Is it idle or load numbers, and for how long do you run the test?
Any chance of a ‘highest measured’ or a curve over time as a supplement to the median? That would help when comparing for spikes.
Dan62 - Thursday, March 21, 2019 - link
Is it possible to mirror the 2 M.2 drives?Dan62 - Thursday, March 21, 2019 - link
Will this board support a redundant power supply?