The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTGIGABYTE Z590 Gaming X
GIGABYTE's Aorus gaming series targets the mid-range. Still, for entry-level users looking for gaming-specific features, there's the Z590 Gaming X. Despite sitting towards the bottom of GIGABYTE's stack of gaming models, the Z590 Gaming X is advertised with a direct 12+1 phase power delivery, three M.2 slots, as well as Intel's 2.5 GbE controller.
The GIGABYTE Z590 Gaming X follows a modern black and brushed steel design, with LED's built onto the board in the top right and bottom right corners. The rear panel cover, M.2, and chipset heatsinks include a black contrasting design on a silver background, with an all-black PCB.
Towards the board's center and bottom are two full-length PCIe slots, with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x16, and the bottom slot locked down to PCIe 3.0 x4, with two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. For storage, the Z590 Gaming X includes three slots in total. The top M.2 slot operates a PCIe 4.0 x4, while the central and bottom M.2 slots have support for PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives. The board also includes six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays located in an X-shaped cutout. In the top-right hand corner is four memory slots with users able to install up to 128 GB, but GIGABYTE hasn't at this time released its QVL list, so for now, memory is only listed at DDR4-3200.
The rear panel includes one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, five USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Powering the single RJ45 port is a Realtek RTL8125 2.5 GbE controller, with an unspecified Realtek HD audio codec driving the board's six 3.5 mm audio jacks. Finishing off the rear panel is a DisplayPort video output and PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port.
At the time of writing, GIGABYTE hasn't shared any details on its Z590 models' pricing.
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WaltC - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
If my x570 Aorus Master fan is "active", it has sure fooled me...;) It is not audible.Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
I'm on a Asus Prime X570-Pro for just over a year now and I've not heard the chipset fan once totally overblown issue. Drama queens!Samus - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
I think it's impressive Intel kept a PCIe4.0 chipset down to 6w TDP. Definitely doesn't need active cooling.Slash3 - Sunday, January 24, 2021 - link
The chipset isn't Gen4.Spunjji - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Not surprised if they're expecting users to overclock chips that will exceed 200W at stock settings. 😬YB1064 - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Is it just me or are the MSRPs listed utterly insane? Intel has been relegated to a poor man's AMD, yet these crazy prices? As they say, a fool and his money are soon parted.Samus - Saturday, January 23, 2021 - link
I don't think it's actually the chipset costs that are inflating the price of the boards, but the ridiculous power circuit and components required to deliver over 200w of power to the CPU's in order for these board makers to take advantage of PL2.fundead - Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - link
I thought the active fan is for the 10 gig networking chip. It is facing that heatsink which is right next to the vrm heatsink.damianrobertjones - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Looking at the prices, I'm really, REALLY glad that I bought an AORUS Z490 Elite (£154, new) from eBay. I just don't understand the prices.aidan - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
I've just done exactly the same, no regrets whatsoever