Z390 Fiasco to Freeasco! (2025)

I have been on 4th generation (Z87-Z97/i7 4790k) for 10 years since 2014. I used to upgrade every couple of years and was pretty savvy with my builds. Just before Halloween I decided it was time to Upgrade to some newer technology. Found a seller with a Z390 motherboard, RX 580 Nitro + GPU, and 40GB of memory. The seller had upgraded to a Z790 system and was selling his old stuff. I had all the parts by the 10th of November. It took two days to get the PC to boot. The GPU was DOA! The Memory only works in single channel! I spent a couple of more days troubleshooting the PC and believe the A2 memory slot is faulty. I contacted the seller and told him what issues I found and that I was considering a refund. While waiting for the seller to reply I was in the process of reporting the issues to ebay and uploading photos when all of a sudden I received a refund notification email from ebay! The seller apologized and initiated a refund in under five minutes! I contacted the seller to arrange return of his components. He may be able to RMA the board and GPU and sell the memory which appears to be fine. The seller told me not to worry about returning the components!!! I have ordered a NEW GPU and I am looking at a NEW Z390 motherboard. The Z390 motherboard is a brand NEW Chinese version with Chinese packaging and documentation. Has anyone here dealt with the Chinese version of their motherboard and are there any issues i need to worry about?

Glad you got your money back. Pretty much everything is out of warranty by now for sure.

Yeah, I was puzzled by all those goofy branded RX 580's all over the place. I ended up spending my whole refund on a NEW Power Color RX 6600 XT. Spent another $85.00 on a NEW Z390 motherboard. I don't Game as much as I used to. Mostly multi-media stuff (music, movies, etc.) with a minimal overclock. I don't plan on ever needing more than 8 cores but needed a legit Win 11 ready system going forward. I'll probably get STALKER 2 and Homeworld 3 after the new year. Good luck with that Z890 system. Edit: The Z390 boards that I'm dealing with are MSI MEG Z390 Gaming Plus boards. The NEW board is from a US seller but has Chinese packaging and documentation. Hopefully I can change the language in the Bios. Time will tell.

Well my neighborhood power company and grid has changed for the worse since 2019. Momentary power interruptions were rare before, but now I get one or two a month and occasionally two in one day. The power company recommends a UPS to protect sensitive electronics. Bios update will be a necessary gamble in my case. I'm hoping my Z390's are capable of being flashed with the power off via flash drive. I'm looking into that CSME flaw also. I'd hate to have to invest in a cheap UPS but it may be a wise bet. The Hellhound 6600XT was under $200 and ought to be good for 1080p gaming. My 8700k @ 4.00GHz and 32GB ( 16x2 ) Corsair ram ought to do the trick for casual gaming. The Chinese motherboard I bought comes with a 30 day warranty and appears to be legit, unlike them crypto fried fake RX 580's. Thanks to all for the tips, I've gotten a little rusty since Devils Canyon. I feel like a NOOB all over again.

The 6600 is fine.

This is so much fun! Some of you older TPU misfits (geniuses) from 2009- 2010 may have forgotten me. Remember the Core 2 Duo E8600 and the Unreleased Wolfdale E8700? Do you remember "@Fearlessleader, I got it by mistake days?" Things don't change much between Computers, Geeks, and Opinions! Google some of that old stuff and you will see the Dual Core speedsters vs the new Quads. This battle applied to the GPU's, and Memory at the time also. This is what we do! Although a lot of enthusiast sites have gone down since 2000-2020, TPU is my house. Discuss, Dispute, Argue (in a civilized manner) and learn. I see old names crawling out of the woodwork with valid things to say. Thanks to all, I'm Listening, I'm Learning!

@RJARRRPCGP, you were a voice in 2009. You made a valid comment about E8600 vs E8700 back then. At first there were two owners of this promised but unreleased E8700 Wolfdale. rockit00 and Fearlessleader accidently obtained the only two of them seen anywhere! There was a third owner from August 2009 who put his on ebay. The E8600's were breaking records back then. Fearlessleader was an overclocker with skills. I was a lucky E8700 finder who wanted to run at stock, compare and sell for a profit. There was a small window for good profit back in 2009-2010. The E8700 was Sasquatch and the Unicorn rolled into one. And while we were all marveling at this Intel freak rare CPU, some one let the DOGs OUT! In early 2010 the E8700 started appearing everywhere. All the E8700's flooded the market!!! HWbot,Overclock.net, Anandtech, Xtremssystems, and more. The internet never forgets. The main thing was the transition from Core 2 Duo to the next generation and the opinions and ideas going forward. I still want to know, WHO LET THE DOGS OUT E8700 Wolfdale, LMASOFL!!!

Well I got my new Z390 motherboard and RX 6600 XT on Friday. It turns out that the motherboard is a brand new sealed MSI Z390 Gaming Plus aimed at the Asian marketplace. The included manual is as thick as a hotel bible. Luckily the first chapter is in English followed by four other chapters of Asian languages. Probably not intended for the European market. I'm still practicing with the faulty memory slot Z390 for now. Bios update was a success, Win 10 to Win 11 upgrade was a success, gaming test with the RX 6600 XT was a success. I plan on a complete Win 10/Win 11 dual boot set up with this single channel Z390 and hope to swap with the NEW Z390 later this week. The single channel motherboard ought to make a good test rig down the road. Z390 will allow for i9 and XT 7000 upgrades in the future. Thanks to all for the tips.

30 days later.....It's ALIVE! I had hoped to have my new 8th gen build up and running on 11-11-2024 "Veterans Day". Alas due to un-anticipated events the offensive was delayed. On 12-11-2024 at 12:01 AM the deed is done! I swapped out the Z390 "Lemon motherboard" for the NEW Z390 motherboard. A swap tends to be twice the work of a straight new build and took three hours! Got it all connected and went for the mandatory BIOS update. 90 seconds of pure terror later I'm on the latest 7-2024 BIOS! And then I fell into the LOOP#%$!!! It took me 30 minutes to figure out how to solve the M2 Genie raid error. Had to go into the BIOS over and over to finally find the integrated peripherals settings to disable M2 raid and set to AHCI mode. @ Macro Device, you were correct about default English language BIOS, they are named Micro Star "International" for a reason! I could not be happier as I dodged a bullet two times. Customizing Windows 10 Pro as we speak and just received the Windows 11 Pro upgrade for FREE notification, LOL.