The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTWe start with ASRock's models by opening up our overview of each Z590 motherboard in alphabetical order (by the vendor). ASRock uses the latest Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E CNVi across its models. There is also an an ASRock Graphics Card Holder, designed to support bulky cards.
ASRock Z590 Taichi
Many years ago, ASRock entered into a sponsorship deal with a successful gamer to produce its gaming models. What they got was mostly a name to sell the hardware, and since then ASRock's most notable motherboard line is now the Taichi. Originally unveiled for Intel's Z270 chipset, it's a regular mainstay with its solid blend of cogwheel inspired aesthetics and premium features. The ASRock Z590 Taichi is ATX and looks to be the brand's flagship model at present.
ASRock Z590 Taichi with ASRock's new GPU holder
For 2021, the ASRock Z590 Taichi has opted for a more clean-cut all-black aesthetic, with RGB LED lighting elements within the rear panel, the chipset heatsink, and the underside of the board at the right-hand side. ASRock is also advertising an 8-layer PCB with a 14-phase power delivery with 90 A power stages. The Z590 Taichi includes three full-length slots, with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x16, two of them running at x8/x8, and a single small PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. Other features include triple M.2 slots, with one operating at PCIe 4.0 x4 from the CPU and two with PCIe 3.0 x4 from the chipset. These final two have SATA support, as well as the eight traditional SATA ports. It also includes four memory slots with support for DDR4-5000 memory, with a maximum capacity of 128 GB.
The rear panel includes dual Thunderbolt/USB 4.0 Type-C ports, with two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. It includes dual Ethernet, one driven by a Killer E3100G 2.5 G NIC and the other by an undisclosed Intel Gigabit controller. Wireless connectivity comes from an undisclosed Wi-Fi 6E interface, likely the Intel AX210, which includes support for BT 5.2. It uses a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec for onboard audio, with an assisting ESS Sabre ES9128 DAC for uprated audio capability. There is also a single HDMI video output.
At the time of writing, ASRock hasn't shared details on its Z590 pricing.
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Duncan Macdonald - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Why so many motherboards for a product (Rocket Lake) that is outclassed before it is even available by the Zen 3 processors from AMD.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Mindshare. Intel still means better FPS to some gamers. I also hear AMD’s CPUs are hard to get, except for the 5800x which some believe is overpriced. My local MicroCenter was out of all but that one. I just checked and it has exactly 1 in stock. That’s it for the entire line.Deicidium369 - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
LOL - except it isn't - Zen 3 is nothing but more and more cache to cheese the synthetic benchmarks and impress the rubes. When you actually get a 5900X and a 5950X as I have you start to realize, that like the 6900XT - all AMD smoke and mirrors and little substance.Rocket Lake will wreck Zen 3 - and all the fanboyism won't change that - and one big plus for Rocket Lake is that it will be available in volume while TSMC scraps to get supplies - and Apple has priority - then AMD for the consoles - and whatever small crumbs that are left go to the AMD PC products. New microarch vs cache masquerading as a CPU - easy Intel win.
eva02langley - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
LMAO ROXXORMYBOXXORJust look at how stupid it sounds... you sound like this.
1. ES of Rocket Lake are showing REGRESSION in performances even in games.
2. It passes from 10 cores to 8 cores.
3. The prices are still the same... way overpriced compared to AMD...
4. AMD is looking like it will retain the performances crown in ST and MT performances.
Spunjji - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
"Rocket Lake will wreck Zen 3"Mate, Intel's own leaked benches are already disproving that. You're bending language so hard here that apparently a maximum 5% performance advantage in cherry-picked games at 1080p = "wrecked", and that's at nearly 1/2 the performance per watt.
It's amusing to see how literally all of the Intel shills across multiple sites have switched to banging on about stock levels. Do you have a secret site where you coordinate this, or do you just copy each other naturally? 🤣
Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
lol man this thread is pulling out all the weirdo's tonight.We got that guy stuck in 2008 and intel fan boys...
Oxford Guy - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
Thanks for spamming the topic with your insipid arrogance.gsuburban - Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - link
Lots of folks are looking for the 4th gen NVMe speeds. Also, they are getting more USB 3 and USB C ports that many of the newer cases come with located up front. Also, for those that don't need a video card, the 11th gen CPU's, the upper level ones, support HDMI 2.0 vs. HDMI 1.4 and have a different graphics chip, the UHD750. Other than these, there are not many other benefits however, cost wise at this time, its the same cost to spend on last years hardware so it seems more reasonable to buy this years hardware for the same price. It wouldn't be much value to take a 3 year old system and upgrade to this years hardware as the gains are not worth the cost.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Does running a display via Thunderbolt add latency?croc - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
The issue I see here is that Intel's first foray into PCIe 4.0 seems designed to meet, not exceed AMD's efforts. If you are behind the competition, then just meeting their specs is not the way to get ahead. Then there is Rocket Lake's max core count. Max of eight, due to the backporting of the 10nm Sunny Cove cores onto the 14nm litho. OK, AMD's 16 cores may be a bit overkill (for gaming) given the lack of PCIe lanes on their AM4 socket, but Intel is replacing a CPU that topped out at 10 cores with a CPU only allowing eight...Can't wait for the return of Gelsinger's return. I predict a large ship turning around at speed. Watch out for bow waves....