The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTASUS ROG Strix Z590-A Gaming WIFI
The ASUS ROG Strix Z590-A Gaming WIFI is a four-letter distinguished Strix Z590 model, with a very subtle silver and white aesthetic on a black PCB. Some of the A's primary features include support for up to DDR4-5333 memory, three PCIe M.2 slots, six SATA ports, and an Intel 2.5 Gb Ethernet controller. Design-wise, the board uses silver, and white heatsinks, with ASUS Strix branding on the chipset heatsink and an RGB-enabled ROG logo on the rear panel cover.
Towards the board's center is three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that operate at x16, x8/x4, and x8/x4/+x4, with a single PCIe 3.0 x4 half-length slot. For storage, the Strix Z590-A has three M.2 slots, one operating at PCIe 4.0 x4, and two with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives. The board also has six SATA ports arrayed in a single file along the right-hand side, with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. In the top right-hand corner is four memory slots with support for up to DDR4-5333, with a maximum combined capacity of 128 GB.
On the rear panel are a single USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, four USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and five USB 2.0 ports. Included for users planning on using Intel's UHD integrated graphics are a DisplayPort and HDMI video output combination, with a single RJ45 port powered by an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller. The five 3.5 mm audio jacks are powered by a ROG SupremeFX ALC4080 HD audio codec, with a USB Type-C audio port which is quite rare. ASUS doesn't specify which Wi-Fi 6 interface it is using, but it's likely an Intel AX200 or AX201. Finishing off the rear panel is a small BIOS Flashback button.
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Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
You’ll never be able to block all the spyware with a firewall. Windows is just one component of it. Don’t forget things like stealth CPUs that are built into the CPU, like the little friend on Lando’s shoulder. Etc.lmcd - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
What, the tinfoil hat isn't enough anymore? The "spyware" is just as present on any Windows era.If you want to disable built in telemetry, pay for pro and disable it in the registry. It's not hard if you're really that into privacy.
Spunjji - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
@lmcd - but that would require *effort* - why waste that effort on customising a modern OS, when he could expend more effort cobbling together a barely-working platform on a 12-year-old one? 😂Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
lol all I saw in my head reading those post are "old man yells at clouds"Oxford Guy - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
That’s due to the fact that the old man has just as much chance of getting the spyware out of Windows and CPUs (and the rest) as you lot have a chance of saying something relevant.Oxford Guy - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
Call us when the shuttle lands, Pauline.Slash3 - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Z590 only provides six native SATA ports.ASRock's Z590 Taichi has eight ports, with two via an ASMedia ASM1061 controller.
Silver5urfer - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Got it thanks. I suppose that's how the EVGA Dark got it's 8 SATA ports too.weilin - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link
Z590, if i remember correctly... has 30 HSIO lanes total:6 of which are dedicated to USB (and can be ganged in pairs for 20Gb/s ports)
4 more that is either USB 10Gb/s or 5Gb/s or PCIe.
2 of them which can be Ethernet or PCIe,
2 of them which can be SATA, Ethernet, or PCIe.
6 of them which can be SATA or PCIe.
10 dedicated PCIe
So everything all together means theoretically maximum of:
4 LAN ports
8 SATA ports
10 USB ports
24 PCIe ports
It's up to motherboard manufacturers to configure them as they see fit. It seems like the popular choice is to maximize USB, leave SATA at 6 and put the rest on PCIe ports (take 1 or 2 away for Ethernet, and 4 away for Thunderbolt if present).
weilin - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link
If anyone's interested in see the doc:https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/produc...
On to left its under "Technical Documentation" -> "Intel® 500 Series Chipset Family Platform Controller Hub Datasheet, Volume 1 of 2" -> bottom of page 18