The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTMSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon WiFi
A mainstay from the MPG performance gaming series, the MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon WiFi is using a carbon fiber inspired design throughout. Opting for a more aggressive and futuristic look compared to its Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi model. From the black PCB to the black and slightly dark grey heatsinks throughout its design, MSI looks to stamp a new style to its motherboard range. Notably, the heatsink fan array on the power delivery heatsink is very striking, with an RGB-enabled rear panel cover, and more RGB LEDs integrated into the chipset heatsink.
The MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon WiFi doesn't just look fresh, but it has some very impressive features. This includes three full-length PCIe slots, with two operating at PCIe 4.0 x16 and x8/x8, with the other operating at PCIe 3.0 x4. There is also one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, with a trio of M.2 slot heatsinks flanking the PCIe slot area. MSI includes one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, with two PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA slots, with six SATA ports offering support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. There is also support for up to DDR4-5200 memory, with a total combined capacity of up to 128 GB available across four memory slots.
On the rear panel is a single USB 3.2G2x2 Type-C port, with three USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. There is one DisplayPort and an HDMI video output pairing for users looking to leverage Intel's integrated graphics. A Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec powers five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output. MSI uses an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller for word networking, while an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E interface takes care of the wireless and adds support for BT 5.2 devices.
Representing the mid-range, the MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon WiFi has an MSRP of $324. The MPG series is catered towards the mid-range of the Z590 market, and it has plenty of features to make it a solid option, including USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, 2.5 GbE, and Wi-Fi 6E.
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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.