The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined
by Gavin Bonshor on April 30, 2020 10:00 AM ESTASRock Z490 Aqua
The new ASRock Z490 Aqua builds upon the success of its AMD X570 based model, with a full cover block monoblock which cools the CPU and the 16-phase power delivery. Following the same design as the X570 model, the ASRock Z490 Aqua adds an OLED display which can display with CPU voltages, temperatures, system and POST statuses, with an abundance of premium controllers and features onboard.
Included in the long list of features are three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which run at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/+4, with two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. It uses a 16-phase power delivery which is kept cool by the large monoblock, and benefits from 90 A power stages with a maximum Vcore current of up to 1260. Providing power to the CPU is a pair of 8-pin 12V ATX CPU power inputs, with an Intersil ISL69269 PWM controller operating in a 14+2 configuration. There is support for DDR4-4700, with a total capacity of up to 128 GB across four memory slots. It does have support for ECC DDR4 UDIMMs, but these will operate in non-ECC mode.
The rear panel of the ASRock Z490 Aqua is stacked with two Thunderbolt 3 Type-C and two accompanying Mini DisplayPort input ports. Also present are three USB 3.2 G2 10 Gbps Type-A, one USB 3.2 G2 10 Gbps Type-C, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. For users intending to leverage Intel's integrated graphics, there is a single HDMI video input. For users demanding premium networking, the Z490 Aqua is using an Aquantia AQC107 10 G and Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 Ethernet controller pairing, as well as an Intel Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface which provides support for BT 5.0 devices. There are five 3.5 mm color-coded audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output which are powered by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec, which is assisted by an ESS Sabre 9128 DAC which controls the front panel audio. Finishing off the rear panel is a clear CMOS switch and a BIOS Flashback button.
Only 999 units will be available for purchase which will add an element of exclusivity, which we expect to add to the price tag. Another thing to factor in is the weight as the X570 Aqua weighed around 2.2 KG (5 lb) due to the aluminium armor, the custom monoblock, and its large metal backplate.
ASRock hasn't unveiled pricing at this time, but it's likely to be available either at the launch of Intel's 10th Gen desktop processors, or sometime shortly after.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
stevenfindley - Monday, June 8, 2020 - link
Printing from PC is that the commonest process especially in an office setting. So, when the printer unexpectedly rejects to print, a flow of delays and operation issues arise. Here are some effective methods, you'll do when your brother printer not printing from PC. additionally , you'll take complete guidance from the Brother Printer Help team. Certified Printer technicians have good knowledge to know the particular causes of this technical malfunction.If everything is ok but your Brother Printer not printing from PC, you would like to perform a chilly reset. a chilly reset or network factory default setting removes the recent settings and every one the archives. So, it's the best to line a backup before applying this solution. Whenever you face technical malfunctions together with your brother printer, of these are the effective solutions you'll attempt before calling a licensed technician or Brother Printer Support team. Before facing other issues, you would like to attach with online printer technicians to urge quick solutions.
There are various reasons thanks to which Brother printer stops printing. during this article, we've mentioned the methods by which you'll diagnose your printer problem. Thereby we've also provided you the solutions to repair these errors within the easiest method possible. So let's advance to our next section without wasting any time. Printer problems are caused by corrupted or outdated drivers, so you'll need dedicated help so as to unravel them. Download and install this driver updater tool to form sure you run their latest versions. Check your drivers in 3 easy steps:
https://printererrorassistant.com/brother-printer-...
Shinkiro - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
A lot of people don't upgrade every consecutive generation. My 3570k and 980ti have been serving me well for half a decade, but now that it's time to get new gear I'm happy to see higher maximum speeds and lower temperatures than the previous generation. The fact that gen10 requires a different socket than Gen 9 is completely irrelevant to me, aside from choosing a compatible board.Orange_Swan - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Exactly, my i5-4690k has served me well for just under 6 years (brought Nov. 14), I tend to buy a new CPU and Mobo every 5ish years.althaz - Saturday, May 2, 2020 - link
The point is though, that you need to buy a new motherboard, which means you'll probably consider AMD's Ryzen 3000 line-up (generally, AMD will give you better productivity performance, upgradability and lower power, but worse gaming performance, which is why I went Intel last year). If Intel weren't such dicks in forcing people to buy new motherboards, maybe you would be able to just drop in a new CPU (actually in your case it really is irrelevant, a new motherboard was *actually* needed for 6th gen, everything since then would work on the same boards if Intel weren't dicks, but the point stands in general).Tabalan - Sunday, May 3, 2020 - link
Intel i5 3570k was released 8 years ago, while i5 4690k is 6 years old. Wanting to upgrade build after 6 years with 3 years of mobo backward compatibility (like with AMD, Ryzen 1000 to 4000) means that you either buy 3 years old CPU or buy new mobo + new CPU. In latter case, it doesn't matter if you go with Intel or AMD, because it's down to same thing.bronan - Saturday, May 16, 2020 - link
Indeed my point exactly every year new stuff gets launched and loads of people jump onto the newest toys just because the cpu is maybe 0.1 Ghz faster if your lucky.Because that boost does not work constant at all, i saw that with several friends who bought the 8700k which claims to boost to 4.7 Ghz. Reality is that only 3 out of 28 of these cpu did boost up to 4.7 the rest only gets between 4.4 and 4.6 at the highest and to be honest only in certain tasks.
So if you follow the baseline of the cpu usage you see during some tasks a few spikes but most of the time it hangs around the baseclock speed.
I actually still was using my 6700k till 2 months ago on a z170 motherboard then i saw somebody selling his 8700k for a nice price and i switch over.
The performance increase is close to 0 in almost every task besides when i am packing and unpacking rar and zip files. In the games i do i see hardly any performance gains as well.
The only thing i am planning to update now is my graphics card, so i am kinda waiting for a very cheap AMD VII or if AMD releases the new big navy.
But the people who own the AMD VII tend to want to keep them because there had not been one for sale in many months for a reasonable price. The only one i saw was sold at a price above the release price when they came to market.....
So those who bought the cards seem to be content enough to not sell them at all.
So i am still stuck at my gtx 1070 and have no plans to pay a premium price for a next gen GPU.
@Orange_Swan i tend to buy only when i see a huge improvement for the tasks i do, if its below 3% increase i will not buy anything at all. So i sometimes keep running the same stuff sometimes even up to 12 years.
I got a huge amount of people who i help with their pc hardware and problems and almost everyone of them relies on my expertise to give them proper advise when they want some kinda upgrade.
Often i can asure them that even though the bragging bonus can be fun, they often will see no improvement at all if they buy a new system. So they wait till i tell them their system can be upgraded or replaced. In almost any case its the gpu which gets replaced by a second hand one in very rare situations i have to ask them to order a new one.
What i am saying is that even though they keep releasing new stuff, most people do not have a need to upgrade/update anything.
Actually for now there is absolute no need to have something faster at all for any game at all in the near future, because all will run fine with your current stuff.
I actually have several who have at least a titan from recent generation and still can not run their games at highest settings in 4K.
RealBeast - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
All of my builds since my Athlon have been Intel, but no way they'll suck me in on this Z490 1200 pin build, when their next decent CPUs will require something like a Z491 with 1201 pins. ;)Andrew LB - Saturday, May 9, 2020 - link
Intel has already said the next gen will still use LGA 1200 socket.WaltC - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Can't see much "exciting" about this...;)Oxford Guy - Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - link
It seems like a poster child for a Powerpoint on the inefficiencies of capitalism.Literally making another iteration of products "just because".