ASRock had made a surprise announcement unveiling two new motherboards, the Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 and Z390 Phantom Gaming X. Both boards bring improved aesthetics, power delivery, and with the Gaming X, improved networking, as well as support for 8th and 9th generation Intel Core CPUs.
ASRock Phantom Gaming 7
One of ASRock's newest additions, the Phantom Gaming 7, introduces a black color scheme with silver highlights, and red trim, as well as customizable RGB LEDs on the I/O shroud and PCH heatsink. The Phantom Gaming 7 continues to provide options for users interested in RGB lighting by including multiple RGB headers.
ASRock has integrated the I/O shield into the motherboard with an adjustable design, ensuring the I/O shield fits the chassis perfectly. This integrated design ensures the user will not forget to install the I/O shield, and, therefore, will prevent the user from being required to rebuild the system over a single mistake. Other manufacturers such as ASUS have begun to offer similar solutions. ASRock has also opted for an oversized aluminum heatsink design with the addition of a heat pipe.
The Phantom Gaming 7 features a Digital PWM, 10 Phase VRM with Nichikon 12K Black Caps, 60A Chokes, and 50A Dr.MOS, support for DDR4-4300+ memory overclocking, and dual LAN capability with a 2.5Gb Dragon RTL8125AG and 1Gb Intel I219V.
ASRock Phantom Gaming X
At the top of ASRock's product stack resides the Phantom Gaming X. The Phantom Gaming X follows the same aesthetic design as the Phantom Gaming 7, but with the addition of what ASRock calls 'Heatsink Armor' and a metal backplate, similar to ASUS' higher-end motherboards.
ASRock has carried the same features over from the Phantom Gaming 7, but with a few additions. The Phantom Gaming X features an improved VRM with a Digital PWM, 14 Phase VRM with Nichikon 12K Black Caps, 60A Chokes, and 50A Dr.MOS. The Phantom Gaming X also allows the installation of three M.2 drives beneath the heatsink armor. The Phantom Gaming X is the first motherboard on the market to bring 802.11ax network support via Intel 2T2R, providing both range and speed improvements over 802.11ac and 802.11ad, as well as Bluetooth 5.0 support.
ASRock has put great emphasis on reliability and durability on these boards, and it seems ASRock has truly made an attempt to live up to these claims.
