The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTWe start with ASRock's models by opening up our overview of each Z590 motherboard in alphabetical order (by the vendor). ASRock uses the latest Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E CNVi across its models. There is also an an ASRock Graphics Card Holder, designed to support bulky cards.
ASRock Z590 Taichi
Many years ago, ASRock entered into a sponsorship deal with a successful gamer to produce its gaming models. What they got was mostly a name to sell the hardware, and since then ASRock's most notable motherboard line is now the Taichi. Originally unveiled for Intel's Z270 chipset, it's a regular mainstay with its solid blend of cogwheel inspired aesthetics and premium features. The ASRock Z590 Taichi is ATX and looks to be the brand's flagship model at present.
ASRock Z590 Taichi with ASRock's new GPU holder
For 2021, the ASRock Z590 Taichi has opted for a more clean-cut all-black aesthetic, with RGB LED lighting elements within the rear panel, the chipset heatsink, and the underside of the board at the right-hand side. ASRock is also advertising an 8-layer PCB with a 14-phase power delivery with 90 A power stages. The Z590 Taichi includes three full-length slots, with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x16, two of them running at x8/x8, and a single small PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. Other features include triple M.2 slots, with one operating at PCIe 4.0 x4 from the CPU and two with PCIe 3.0 x4 from the chipset. These final two have SATA support, as well as the eight traditional SATA ports. It also includes four memory slots with support for DDR4-5000 memory, with a maximum capacity of 128 GB.
The rear panel includes dual Thunderbolt/USB 4.0 Type-C ports, with two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. It includes dual Ethernet, one driven by a Killer E3100G 2.5 G NIC and the other by an undisclosed Intel Gigabit controller. Wireless connectivity comes from an undisclosed Wi-Fi 6E interface, likely the Intel AX210, which includes support for BT 5.2. It uses a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec for onboard audio, with an assisting ESS Sabre ES9128 DAC for uprated audio capability. There is also a single HDMI video output.
At the time of writing, ASRock hasn't shared details on its Z590 pricing.
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lmcd - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
8 cores is plenty for this generation of memory bandwidth. The problem is that Intel's next gen will have "16" processors where 8 are full cores, while AMD will have a full 16 cores with all that bandwidth. This generation, Intel is competitive but late.rahvin - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Is this an attempt to be funny?pman6 - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
meh. show me the $80 b560 boards.this is overkill for me.
Geef - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Why is Intel always behind the game with memory speeds? 3200 is just a basic speed nowadays. Its great if your running CAS 14 chips but not many are. Why haven't they set a speed up to 4000 or 5000? They can keep XMP going just fine but wouldn't it be better to have systems automatically go that fast if they can?Deicidium369 - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
JEDEC tops out at 3200 - the fastest OFFICIAL speed it 3200. I have Gskill DDR4 4133 on my Gigabyte Z390 / i9900Kand JEDEC speeds are the same for AMD and Intel
Duncan Macdonald - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
For most games the 5800x is the sweet spot due to only having one CPU chiplet so no communication between chiplets. The 5900 and 5950 with two chiplets lose on many games due to the cost of inter chiplet communications exceeding the benefits from the extra cores.The 5900 and 5950 are best in programs that can make good use of all the cores (eg some video editing programs). For any game player with a 5900 or 5950, it might well be possible to get higher game performance by limiting Windows to only the first chiplet (using the numproc boot parameter).
Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
I agree with you however the 5800X is really overpriced right now. So when you only have to pay abit more for the 5900X its looks like a far better deal. I think once Rocket lake is out we should see a price correction on the 5800X so the time to buy those will be in March.yeeeeman - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
This....this is wasted resources IMO. There was no need to make another platform on 14nm when they have the 10th gen which is just fine. I mean, the 10900k/10700k are great CPUs still, even compared to 5000 Ryzen series, so I don't know...they should've focused the efforts on bringing Alder Lake and its successor platforms forward.Hope Pat will make a bit of order here and make the schedules and ambitions of Intel a bit more daring, cause Bob just...milked it like there is no tomorrow. Refreshes after refreshes and refreshes.
Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
That's what happens when you have a finance guy running the company he is just going to keep the wheels turning and not be aggressive. The new guy is an engineer and I believe he will push the pace which is what Intel needs now.Oxford Guy - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Well, the world really needed a stack of 15 boards from just one motherboard company, too.