The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTASUS has prepared an impressive line up of Z590 models. Starting with the flagships, ASUS has two prepared two new Extreme models, the ROG Maximus XIII Extreme Glacial and ROG Maximus XIII Extreme.
ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Extreme & Extreme Glacial
Both of these share the same core feature set with an advertised large 20-phase power delivery (18+2) with impressive 100 A teamed power stages. Interestingly, the Maximus XIII Extreme Glacial looks to include a centrally located screen, which could be customizable, but ASUS hasn't provided us any details at time of writing.
The biggest difference between both models is that the ROG Maximus XIII Extreme Glacial includes a large monoblock developed between ASUS and EK. This provides coverage of the CPU socket, power delivery, and chipset for liquid-cooled systems. ASUS includes integrated RGB LED lighting across both models, which can be found within the window of the monoblock and chipset area on the Extreme Glacial. On the Extreme, it is integrated into the rear panel cover and chipset heatsink of the Extreme, with both boards benefiting from a strip on the underside of the PCB at the right-hand side.
ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Extreme Glacial (left) and Extreme (right) motherboards
Both models include two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that operate at x16 and x8/x8, with a half-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. The PCIe 3.0 x4 slot is located at the top of the PCIe slot area on the Extreme Glacial, while it's the second slot on the non-monoblock version. Storage consists of three M.2 slots with all of them operating at PCIe 4.0 x4, although two of these revert to PCIe 3.0 x4 with Comet Lake processors and the third completely disabled without an 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPU installed. The ROG Maximus XIII Extreme and Glacial version includes six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, with four memory slots that can accommodate up to 128 GB of DDR4-5333 memory.
Included with both models is a new ROG Clavis USB Type-C DAC, with four ESS audio converters for variable spectral audio ranges. ASUS states that this ensures the highest levels of SnR with low distortion, with isolation shielding to ensure minimal interference.
ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Extreme Glacial (top) and Extreme (bottom) rear panels
On the rear panel of both boards, the only difference is in the color of the pre-attached rear I/O shield, white on the Glacial, and black on the regular Extreme model. ASUS has a stacked USB configuration, including two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C and eight USB 3.2 G2 Type-A ports. Networking capabilities include a Marvell AQtion AQC113CS 10 GbE controller, with a second Intel I225-V 2.5 Gb Ethernet port. The board also includes an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, with five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output powered by a SupremeFX ALC4082 and ESS Sabre ES9018Q2C DAC. To the far left of the panel are a clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback button pairing, with a single HDMI video output.
The ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Extreme Glacial is set to cost a whopping $1843, which I believe is the most expensive desktop motherboard to exist outside of workstation and HEDT variations. Based on this, the target market is likely to be slim, and I don't expect ASUS to shift as many units as its other boards. It's incredibly high-end, but outside of adding an aftermarket CPU block, even at the upper end for $1000 to the ROG Maximus XIII Extreme ($1166), it's an insane price.
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Gastec - Sunday, January 24, 2021 - link
Well, if you don't understand these prices, then you are not a good consumer. The more you buy the more we profit! It just works! Be a good chap and CONSUME!edzieba - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
ASRock ol' buddy ol' pal, you're breaking my heart here with the lack of SFF boards! The Z590I Vision D looks intriguing with the external DP injector for Thunderbolt transport, though.Dumping the ASMedia USB controller is fantastic news, this looks like a good platform for me to move onto.
RealBeast - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Nice summary, although my eyes are still watering from a couple of the top model prices. ;)shabby - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Yup pretty funny, i have to pay almost 1200 to get 10g network, thanks for the laughs asus.Kuifje76 - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Have a look at the Gigabyte Aorus Master Z590, it has 10g network :)Beaver M. - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Not for ASRock boards, since the ASMedia USB controllers were much more reliable and stable than the ones on chipset. Only an ASRock, though, and have been for almost 10 years now. IDK what they are doing.Extend a cable on a chipset ASRock board USB port or use a longer cable, and you will get random disconnects. No matter the cable quality.
Silver5urfer - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Can you guys please do an article like this for Z590 and X570 with Ryzen 5000 ?www.anandtech.com/show/11182/how-to-get-ryzen-working-on-windows-7-x64
If we search for "X570 Windows 7" on youtube there's a video showing MSI Ace X570 able to run it with Ryzen 3000. And I saw one person on a forum with notebooks where his Z490 Dark mobo was able to run Win7 except for the AX200 WiFi. Every piece of the board got the Drivers for the Win7, a small observation Z490 has ASMedia controller so it works with Win7 but this Z590 damn has that native bs meaning Intel will not provide the drivers for that USB3.2 for Win7..sad
Z590 Dark is coming I hope it's not this BS expensive, wtf is $1000 for a mobo for the dead end platform, MSI and ASUS insane pricing, esp MSI for it's Godlike having that tag, No matter what EVGA Dark will be the king in the OC and better support too.
In before someone reeeing over Win7. nope. Not interested in the bs talk, Win10 is a privacy nightmare even if I use WUB, O&O, Defender Blocker, WinAero, AeroGlass, Classic Shell and more it remains a stupid OS because of permanent Beta status. The 6 month releases cycle is complete BS. And on top unwanted unstable crap updates. I know how to get a Win10 stable with Enterprise and other modifications to remove useless components and unwanted bs like Defender etc. It never beats Win7 in UX and weight of the OS, too much bloatware esp that Xbox crap comes.
JfromImaginstuff - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Well then, install linux.Also it will work on windows 7, there are generic drivers that will allow the card to function, but eh function well is a different issue altogether.
Also, if you're not using linux and hating on windows like this and your not tied to the Mac ecosystem, give Linux a go, you might like it, plenty of choice if one doesn't quite meet your fancy. Just please don't use win 7, for your own online safety and stuff........
Silver5urfer - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Yeah Linux will be installed But I want a proper Stable Windows. Why do you think online safety ? Do you know that MS provides support, extended support updates are available plus even the best you can choose which of them to install and even have a pack made which removes all telemetry garbage CU updates that M$ pushes onto Win7, and with 8.1 also you can select and update what you want unlike Win10 BS. Oh and gaming with Proton on Linux I know but I want modding and all proper settings that I can enjoy for all the old fantastic games of the past decade. If there are any good games in future with DX12 only I will install Win10 Ent with all modifications. But that's not what I wanted, which only Win7 gets.Also on a side note, no top SKU has 8 SATA ports WTF ? Not even Extreme, Godlike, Xtreme. There's only one which is EVGA Z590 Dark. Stupid bs this is from all the OEMs esp the X570 got all the x8 SATA ports for top mobos.
supdawgwtfd - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
If you want all that then use windows.Expecting support and help on a discontinued product is ridiculous.
If you don't like the telemetry you know you can block it all with a firewall right?