As with most ROG products, the Strix Z390-I is a superb product. The design is slick and polished, the features are premium, and the layout is made to facilitate hassle-free installation. Just by looking at it, it’s noticeable that it’s built to support good cable management, it has a great gaming-oriented aesthetic that strikes a good balance between subtle and eccentric, and has a beefy passive cooling system.

Regarding the design, there are only two aspects we have an issue with. The 8-pin connector is placed in its typical ATX spot, at the top left side of the CPU block, which can make routing it a daunting task. The second thing is the lack of 90-degree SATA ports, which would’ve made routing cables to your HDD and SSDs much easier. That being said, the PCB is limiting, so it’s understandable when you see this sort of compromise in such products.

The 6-phase VRM that’s paired with their gorgeous ROG heatsinks performs beautifully, allowing you to install a 9900k and hit a stable 5 GHz overclock with ease. The fact that it holds two M.2 Socket 3 SSDs is amazing, especially considering the small form-factor, giving you plenty of room to store your precious games. If you’re having trouble sourcing NVMe drives with your budget, don’t fret. You also have 4 SATA ports for bulk storage.

The I/O comes with a pre-installed shield, which is always great to see and includes HDMI 2.0, Display Port, USB 3.0, 3.1, Type C, Ethernet, and HD audio. Having a lot of options for audio is nice since you won’t be able to install a sound card with the limited expansion slots.

To top it off, the small form-factor has enabled ASUS to equip it with Bluetooth 5.0 and Wifi 6, features that are standard with most mid and high-end Mini ITX board.