The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTMSI MEG Z590 Godlike
The MSI MEG Z590 Godlike is the flagship model from its premium MEG (MSI Extreme Gaming) series and is designed to target performance users and enthusiasts. It uses a new fresh metallic inspired design throughout, with a black PCB, black and silver styled armor, with its Dynamic Dashboard II dominating the aesthetic. The integrated OLED panel can display critical elements such as CPU VCore, CPU Core clock speed, among other useful information. The Godlike also benefits from subtle RGB LED lighting built into the large Dragon infused rear panel cover and the elegantly designed chipset heatsink. On the right-hand side, MSI includes its Dynamic Dashboard II OLED panel.
Among the waves of black and silver armor, the Z590 Godlike includes three full-length PCIe slots, with the top two of these operating at PCIe 4.0 x16 and x8/x8, with the third slot hidden by a strip of black armor electronically locked down to PCIe 3.0 x4. Offering the fastest memory support out of the box, users can install up to DDR4-5333 memory, with up to 128 GB of capacity across four memory slots. There's also plenty of storage input for users to sink their teeth into with four M.2 slots in total, including one PCIe 4.0 x4 and three PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slots. This also includes six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. MSI is advertising one of its biggest desktop VRMs with its direct 20-phase power delivery.
The rear panel includes a generous selection of input and output, including two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, each with its own mini DisplayPort passthrough port. Other USB connections include two USB 3.2 G2 10 Gbps Type-A and six USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. MSI uses a premium networking configuration on the Z590 Godlike, which includes two Ethernet ports, with one driven by Aquantia AQC107 10 GbE controller and the other by an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller. The Godlike is also using Intel's latest Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, the Intel AX210. Finishing off the rear panel are five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output controlled by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec, a Clear CMOS button, as well as a BIOS Flashback button.
For all the Godlike offers, MSI has set an MSRP of $1019, which is pretty standard for a flagship in the current climate (Ian: still very crazy). The accessories bundle includes MSI's Gen4 M.2 Xpander-Z M.2 add-on card, a set of DIY stands, and an MSI Tuning controller for overclockers hardcore enthusiasts. This also adds to the cost, but the MSI MEG Z590 Godlike has plenty of premium controllers with 10 GbE, Wi-Fi 6E, and it looks new instead of a direct refresh from the previous generation.
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worldnewsnow - Friday, March 12, 2021 - link
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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.