The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTMSI MEG Z590 Ace & Z590 Ace Gold Edition
The MSI MEG Z590 Ace and MEG Z590 Ace Gold Edition both represent its enthusiast gaming series and sits just below the Godlike in both specifications and overall presentation. MSI has opted for a primarily black design with gold accents at various points of the board, including the power delivery and top M.2 heatsink, with more gold text on the audio PCB cover. It includes a stylish illuminated RGB MSI Dragon logo built into the rear panel cover, with more RGB LED's located within the bottom mesh of the chipset heatsink.
The only difference between the Z590 Ace and Z590 Ace Gold Edition is the aesthetic, with the latter decked out in gold and aluminum instead of black. The rest of the feature and controller set remains the same.
The MSI MEG Z590 Ace is stacked with features, including three full-length PCIe slots, with two operating at PCIe 4.0 x16 and x8/x8, with the bottom full-length slot locked to PCIe 3.0 x4. MSI includes plenty of storage options, including four M.2 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4, and three PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA, with six SATA ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 support. Going all out on memory capabilities, the Z590 Ace includes four memory slots, with support for up to DDR4-5333 and up to 128 GB.
The MSI MEG Z590 Ace Gold Edition which was announced alongside Rocket Lake
In the top right-hand corner is a two-digit LED debugger, while a power and reset button pairing is located in the bottom right-hand corner. MSI is advertising a 16+2 phase power delivery that uses doublers, with a pair of 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs.
On the rear panel are a pair of Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports with two mini-DisplayPort passthrough inputs, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. A single HDMI video output allows users to utilize Intel's HD graphics, while a Realtek HD audio codec drives five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output. MSI uses Intel's I225-V 2.5 GbE controller, with the latest Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, with support for BT 5.2 devices. Last but certainly not least, the Z590 Ace includes a clear CMOS button and a BIOS Flashback button to allow users an easy alternative to flash the board's firmware.
As it stands, MSI has an MSRP of $489 set for the MEG Z590 Ace, which is around $80 more than when it released the Z490 version. It does include a host of premium features and includes dual Thunderbolt 4 Type-C.
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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