The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTMSI MAG Z590 Tomahawk WIFI
The Tomahawk series has been well regarded as one of the most cost-effective boards when considering both features and price points. For Z590, MSI looks to have gone a slightly different route and equipped it towards the mid-range, with plenty of competitive controllers and specifications. The MSI MAG Z590 Tomahawk is advertised with a large 16-phase power delivery and follows a black and dark gray color scheme throughout. MSI has gone as far as numbering its M.2 heatsinks, which resembles a militaristic theme that is fitting, as it hails from its Arsenal gaming series.
The MSI MAG Z590 Tomahawk's features include two full-length PCIe slots, with one full-length PCIe 4.0 x16, a second full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Similar to its MPG series of boards, the Z590 Tomahawk WiFi has three M.2 slots, each with heatsinks, and includes one PCIe 4.0 x4 and two PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA slots. MSI splits up the location of the SATA ports, with four right-angled connectors in an X-shaped cutout on the PCB, with two straight-angled ports located at the bottom. All six of the SATA ports include support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Memory support is impressive, with speeds of up to DDR4-5333 and up to 128 GB of capacity across four memory slots.
The MSI MAG Z590 Tomahawk WiFi includes one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. MSI includes a premium Intel pairing with its latest AX210 Wi-Fi 6E interface and a single I225-V 2.5 GbE controller for networking. Onboard audio is powered by an unspecified Realtek HD audio codec, with five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output included. Two video outputs include one DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.0b. Finishing off the rear panel, which includes a pre-attached I/O shield, is a tiny BIOS Flashback button.
MSI has set an MSRP of $239 for the MAG Z590 Tomahawk WiFi, which is more than it was for the launch of Z490. Despite this, the Tomahawk is no longer a bridge between the entry-level and the mid-range; it's a solid mid-range model. It has plenty to offer for the price, including premium 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 6E networking, as well as three M.2 slots and USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C.
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Duncan Macdonald - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Why so many motherboards for a product (Rocket Lake) that is outclassed before it is even available by the Zen 3 processors from AMD.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Mindshare. Intel still means better FPS to some gamers. I also hear AMD’s CPUs are hard to get, except for the 5800x which some believe is overpriced. My local MicroCenter was out of all but that one. I just checked and it has exactly 1 in stock. That’s it for the entire line.Deicidium369 - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
LOL - except it isn't - Zen 3 is nothing but more and more cache to cheese the synthetic benchmarks and impress the rubes. When you actually get a 5900X and a 5950X as I have you start to realize, that like the 6900XT - all AMD smoke and mirrors and little substance.Rocket Lake will wreck Zen 3 - and all the fanboyism won't change that - and one big plus for Rocket Lake is that it will be available in volume while TSMC scraps to get supplies - and Apple has priority - then AMD for the consoles - and whatever small crumbs that are left go to the AMD PC products. New microarch vs cache masquerading as a CPU - easy Intel win.
eva02langley - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
LMAO ROXXORMYBOXXORJust look at how stupid it sounds... you sound like this.
1. ES of Rocket Lake are showing REGRESSION in performances even in games.
2. It passes from 10 cores to 8 cores.
3. The prices are still the same... way overpriced compared to AMD...
4. AMD is looking like it will retain the performances crown in ST and MT performances.
Spunjji - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
"Rocket Lake will wreck Zen 3"Mate, Intel's own leaked benches are already disproving that. You're bending language so hard here that apparently a maximum 5% performance advantage in cherry-picked games at 1080p = "wrecked", and that's at nearly 1/2 the performance per watt.
It's amusing to see how literally all of the Intel shills across multiple sites have switched to banging on about stock levels. Do you have a secret site where you coordinate this, or do you just copy each other naturally? 🤣
Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
lol man this thread is pulling out all the weirdo's tonight.We got that guy stuck in 2008 and intel fan boys...
Oxford Guy - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
Thanks for spamming the topic with your insipid arrogance.gsuburban - Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - link
Lots of folks are looking for the 4th gen NVMe speeds. Also, they are getting more USB 3 and USB C ports that many of the newer cases come with located up front. Also, for those that don't need a video card, the 11th gen CPU's, the upper level ones, support HDMI 2.0 vs. HDMI 1.4 and have a different graphics chip, the UHD750. Other than these, there are not many other benefits however, cost wise at this time, its the same cost to spend on last years hardware so it seems more reasonable to buy this years hardware for the same price. It wouldn't be much value to take a 3 year old system and upgrade to this years hardware as the gains are not worth the cost.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Does running a display via Thunderbolt add latency?croc - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
The issue I see here is that Intel's first foray into PCIe 4.0 seems designed to meet, not exceed AMD's efforts. If you are behind the competition, then just meeting their specs is not the way to get ahead. Then there is Rocket Lake's max core count. Max of eight, due to the backporting of the 10nm Sunny Cove cores onto the 14nm litho. OK, AMD's 16 cores may be a bit overkill (for gaming) given the lack of PCIe lanes on their AM4 socket, but Intel is replacing a CPU that topped out at 10 cores with a CPU only allowing eight...Can't wait for the return of Gelsinger's return. I predict a large ship turning around at speed. Watch out for bow waves....