The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero
Another model from ASUS's ROG Maximus line-up is the highly favorable Hero. The ROG Maximus XIII Hero offers Wi-Fi 6E, with dual 2.5 GbE and four PCIe M.2 slots. It uses a slightly different aesthetic compared with the previous Z490 Hero, with RGB LED lighting built into the rear panel cover and chipset heatsink. Still, ASUS's illustration leaves the question open whether or not the power delivery heatsink has them integrated too, which seems unlikely. The new Hero uses an ATX PCB, with a 14+2 power delivery with 90 A teamed power stages. Powering the CPU is a pair of 12 V ATX CPU power inputs.
The ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero includes a nice black and dark gray contrasting design, with three full-length PCIe slots. The top two operate at PCIe 4.0 x16 and x8/x8, while the bottom full-length slot is locked to PCIe 3.0 x4, and there is also one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The Hero includes six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, with four PCIe M.2 slots. Two of the M.2 slots operate at PCIe 4.0 x4, while the other two can support PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives. In the top right-hand corner are four memory slots with support for up DDR4-5333, with a combined capacity of 128 GB. In the top right-hand corner of the board is a two-digit LED debugger, with a power on and rest switch pairing just below it.
On the rear panel is two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, with six USB 3.2 G2 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports. ASUS includes two RJ45 ports powered by two Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controllers, with an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, which also includes support for BT 5.2 devices. For users planning to use Intel's integrated graphics, ASUS includes one HDMI video output. Regarding audio, ASUS is using a SupremeFX ALC404082 HD audio codec, with an ESS Sabre9018Q2C DAC. Finishing off the rear panel is a clear CMOS button and a BIOS Flashback button with a highlighted USB 2.0 port, which users can use to flash the board's firmware.
Typically bridging the gap between the ROG Maximus Extreme and Formula models to the Strix series, ASUS has set a price of $500. While this does seem on the high side of Z590 pricing, which we already know, ASUS does include a stacked rear panel including dual Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, dual 2.5 GbE, Wi-Fi 6E, as well as six USB 3.2 G2 Type-A.
88 Comments
View All Comments
worldnewsnow - Friday, March 12, 2021 - link
https://editorpen.com/https://editorpen.com/today-deals/
https://editorpen.com/news/
https://editorpen.com/news/entertainment/
itr75 - Friday, March 19, 2021 - link
There is an VERY IMPORTANT ERROR in this article about the Asus Z590 gaming series motherboards - one that has potentially just cost me a chunk of the £320 i paid for one!In the article above, it states that the Z590-F Gaming WiFi motherboard will run in either x16, x8/x8 or x8/x4/x4 modes. THIS IS WRONG! The board will actually only run x16 for PCIe slot 1, if you have a card in slot 2, it drops to x8/x4 not x8/x8. for me this is a complete deal breaker as I have an RTX3070 and an LSI SAS RAID card which runs at PCIex8 - and is now running at x4 :(
fizzbuzzbang - Monday, March 22, 2021 - link
Are there any Z590 mobos that do not have a PCIe switch between the socket and the gen4-capable slots?If not, what motherboard has the best throughput @ Gen4?
Looking to plug in something like a Mellanox ConnectX-6DX which can do 1x200GbE / 2x100GbE, and want best possible bandwidth.
gsuburban - Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - link
Only one PCIe slot is 4th gen on all of these current motherboards. The other one or two M.2 slots are 3rd gen so you don't need to bother spending more money on your other NVMe storage devices.Exotica - Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - link
Regarding your z590 Vision D description:“ Finishing off the rear panel is a pair of Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controllers, with Intel's latest AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, which also includes support for BT 5.2 devices.”
The article is in need of a correction: this board comes with the AX200 chip, not the ax210.
Lapajgo - Saturday, June 19, 2021 - link
Yeww ... a PS/2 port? I didn't know we still live in the 90s. Every time I start shopping for desktop upgrade, my search gets halted when I see PS/2 ports, VGA port, HDMI port or USB 2.0 port - it just makes me want to puke. And what's up with the motherboards that have 5 different video outputs? Pick a standard and stick with it! If I need to switch connectors I will use an adapter.P.S. Can we for ONCE see a motherboard with a decent amount of PCIe slots(I would like to see mATX with two x16 and two x4, none of that useless x1), no old USB ports but only the latest USB-C(we know how to use USB adapters and hubs), same type of video output(preferably something that supports the latest video standards), and NO legacy ports !!! Oh and if possible at least 3 M.2 NVMe ports, to allow for a decent RAID.
Lapajgo - Saturday, June 19, 2021 - link
Ah crap, I forgot - and a dual 2.5Gb LAN please. Some of us can no longer have their workloads on legacy 1Gb connections.rosarian0007 - Saturday, August 6, 2022 - link
Does the Asus Prime Z590-A Motherboard have a Third-Party USB Controller? Gensys Logic? I have an Asus Prime Z590-A it has a Gensys Logic USB Controller. Why would they not use the Intel Z590 Chipset USB controller.