The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined
by Gavin Bonshor on April 30, 2020 10:00 AM ESTASUS ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming
ASUS has announced just one mini-ITX model for Z490 so far, the ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming. While not clear when it will be released, it includes an actively cooled power delivery heatsink. This is designed to keep the 8+2 power delivery cool with a single 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input. This includes a large aluminium rear panel cover, heat pipe connected heatsinks, and comes with two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots.
Looking at a rendering of the ASUS ROG Strix Z490-I, it follows a black and silver theme, with a lot of focus on its cooling capabilities. On the power delivery heatsink integrated into the rear panel cover is a small cooling fan, with a U-shaped heatsink design that stretches around the LGA1200 CPU socket. At the bottom is a single full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, with two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots which are both located on the front of the board underneath a beefy M.2 heatsink. The ROG Strix Z490-I also has four SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Due to its small size, it has two memory slots with support for up to 64 GB of DDR4-4800 memory.
While we don't currently have rear panel specs, we do know the ASUS ROG Strix Z490-I has support for up to 13 USB ports when combining front panel headers and what's on the rear panel. From what we can make out, it has three USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Included is an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface with BT 5.1 device support, as well as a single Intel I225-V 2.5 G Ethernet controller powering the single Ethernet port. A pair of video outputs with a higher-spec HDMI 2.0a, and DisplayPort 1.4 video output. A SupremeFX S1220A HD audio codec powers the three 3.5 mm audio jacks.
Even though we won't see the ASUS ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming at launch, it will come with an MSRP of $300 which is considerably higher than mini-ITX Intel-based desktop boards have been in the past.
This page will be updated when more information becomes available to us.
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Andrew LB - Saturday, May 9, 2020 - link
So these boards bring Wifi6, PCI-Express 4.0, gigabit 2.5, and for people like myself who are upgrading from a Z87 board.... just about everything is a huge leap.... yet you think there is just 'more of the same'? I guess if you're one of those idiots who buys a new CPU every year, then clearly this is not the release for you. Nor would AMD's latest offerings if that same metric is applied.So what's your problem with Capitalism? Do incremental design improvements offend you? Or is it profit that does? Hate to break it to you, but its profit motive that fuels innovation. Collectivism is a cancer and by its very nature hinders progress due to it not rewarding exceptionalism. It's why countries like China don't innovate. Otherwise they wouldn't need forced technology transfers from those who manufacture goods in their country.
Zenzdeluxe - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
Thanks for that. The hypocrisy of these people. Imagine imbibing in the fruits of the capitalist system which besides continuing innovation, provides more spoils at lower price points for everyone than ever before. The audacity of such entitlement and seemingly collectivist / marxist based criticism is mind boggling. Cognitive dissonance off the scale indeed.ilkhan - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Details page for GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Pro AX (copy and paste because who can keep them straight otherwise) makes a big deal of no usb-C, but it's there in the picture...ecjp - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Yeah, I noticed that too. Gigabytes site shows same picture and lists "1 x USB Type-C™ port on the back panel, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support" in the specs, so I assume its an error in the article.gavbon - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Thanks for picking that up. I must have been writing about the wrong board. Apologies, it's updatedregsEx - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
"Integrated into the Z490 chipset is an Intel Wi-Fi 6 CNVi which allows motherboard vendors to integrate its AX200 wireless solutions directly from the chipset with a CRF module."CNVi is an old generation 802.11ac controller. Here it is CNVio2. CRF module is AX201. AX200 is a standalone controller that can work on any system. X570 motherboards with 802.11ax support, for example, packs with AX200 card.
lunaticbunny - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
There are no boards under $200. Seems like this Z490 chipset got the X570 inflation treatment as well.drexnx - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
just like the X570 boards, they've all got seriously beefed up VRMsand maybe the pcie4 tax wasn't just a cash grab? we'll really see when AMD B550 comes out, where those board prices land
Andrew LB - Saturday, May 9, 2020 - link
Plenty of boards under $200.ASUS Prime Z490M-PLUS
GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS Elite
ASUS TUF Gaming Z490-Plus
ASUS TUF Gaming Z490-Plus wifi
GIGABYTE Z490 UD
MSI Z490-A PRO ProSeries
A bunch of Asrock boards will be under $200 as well. You can see many prices already on Amazon.
dgingeri - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
It looks like, potentially, at least Gigabyte has decided to include a decent number of USB ports. I can't tell with the Asus board, but all the rest look to have only 6 USB ports, an annoyingly small number. I have been really annoyed with the lack of USB ports on boards for the last 5 years. Heck, with the old 440BX boards, we had 2 ps2, 4 or 6 USB, 1 or 2 serial, and a parallel port. We've lost the other ports, and internal drives in most computers, and not gained USB ports to compensate for it. External hubs aren't going to do it, either, as those stupid things keep dying in a matter of months.