The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTGIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite & Elite AX
Representing the mid-range of Intel's Z590 chipset is the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite, and the Wi-Fi 6 enabled Z590 Aorus Elite AX. Aside from the Intel Wi-Fi 6 CNVi, both models are identical in design and aesthetics, with an advertised 12+1 phase power delivery, with support for 128 GB of DDR4-5000 on an ATX PCB. The design follows a simple black and silver color scheme, with RGB LEDs built into the Aorus logo at the bottom of the chipset heatsink.
The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite and Elite AX include two full-length PCIe slots, the top one supporting up to PCIe 4.0 x16, while the bottom slot is locked to PCIe 3.0 x4, with one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot also present. For storage, the Elite pairing includes two M.2 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot with a heatsink, and a second slot supporting both PCIe 3.0 x4, and SATA drives. GIGABYTE also includes six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays for more conventional storage devices. A total of four memory slots located in the top right-hand corner allow for up to DDR4-5000, with a combined total capacity of up to 128 GB.
The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite (top) and Z590 Aorus Elite AX (bottom) rear panels
Both the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite and Elite AX models include one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports, with a single DisplayPort 1.2 video output. A Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec powers five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, while GIGABYTE includes a Realtek RTL8125 2.5 GbE controller. On the Z590 Aorus Elite AX, GIGABYTE uses an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 CNVi with support for BT 5.1 devices. The middle red bottom USB port, with what says BIOS next to it, would be the BIOS flashing port.
At the time of writing, GIGABYTE hasn't shared any details on its Z590 models' pricing.
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James5mith - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Awesome, Multi-GbE this generation! Remind me again which company sells Multi-GbE switches for less than $20/port?Tilmitt - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
We live in joyful hope.dtexo - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compar...AX210 doesn’t seem to be CNVi, but PCIe+USB
dtexo - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Same with Killer Wi-Fi card(s)https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/produc...
Oxford Guy - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
So Intel can marry its "Killer" ethernet port to its skull-bearing SSDs for maximum performance in Edge.Harry Lloyd - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
The price of the PRIME Z590-A cannot be right. That has always been the fully-featured variant of an entry-level Z-chipset model. The Z490-A costs just over 200 $ now. Is this because of the VRM setup? Who needs 16 phases on a board like this? You will not buy this for extreme overclocking anyway.All these ASUS prices seem ridiculous.
Targon - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
And I thought the X570 chipset boards were a bit crazy when it comes to prices, these are off the rails on the crazy train! I am all for having a POST code display, but OLED screens to see on the motherboard what this or that is also seems like a waste of money. If you can get the machine to POST in the first place, going to the BIOS to get data about what is going on with this or that is enough. A waterblock for those who plan to use liquid cooling will also add to the price, no question, and it isn't a bad idea, but some of these other things that just add to the price without adding functionality is what I have a problem with.PaulHoule - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
Ugh.I've never found motherboard reviews that helpful and the last article I read on this site makes me feel worse about it because now I know the performance of a system I build might depend more on the turbo behavior of the motherboard than on the CPU.
I've often found that getting a motherboard is a crap shoot and frequently you find that a particular motherboard has limitations on what you can do with the PCI lanes, or a component that had 35 db of noise for the reviewer has 50 db of noise for me and so forth. I see that $1800 motherboard and I ask myself, "do they make enough of these that they really know that the analog audio path is clean?" and such.
Last time I built a system I had to replace about half of the components at least once to get something I was happy with.
These days I'm inclined to go to a system builder just to have somebody to RMA it to, but if reviews were useful I might go back to building a system myself.
Ghostline91 - Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - link
How's the Biostar Z590 board? It looks like they're going back to more high-end specs and this one might be a good one to try out. When will we see reviews?vinicici22 - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - link
do you guys know if the z590-a rog strix out yet? or it's just already sold out on every sites?