Z390 Mobo Recommendation

Hello,

I don’t have the coin to step up to X299 and Threadripper won’t work for me due to the NUMA hilarity involved. As a result, I am looking at Z390, but I have some weird PCIe requirements.

Basically, I need to run x8/x8/x4 (or x16/x0/x4). It’s fine (even preferred) if the bottom slot goes through the chipset. That said, from what I can gather Gigabyte is the only manufacturer that sets up their lanes this way. More commonly, I see x8/x4/x4 where all the lanes go to/from the CPU.

Can anyone recommend a board with such a PCIe setup? I’m not necessarily looking to overclock, but I do want stable VRMs that can support a 9900K without any issues.

Also I do not want a board with a PLX switch due to the additional cost/complexity.

Thanks in advance!

Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X have only 2 PCIe slots - one X16 and one X4 so you are quite lucky there and it ain’t crazy expensive…
Their entire AORUS line runs X8 X8 X4, but that is fairly pricy lineup of boards.
Gigabyte kinda have decent VRM at Z390 so any of their boards should be able to carry 9900K stock…