ASRock Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E Review: Z590 On A Budget
by Gavin Bonshor on August 6, 2021 9:00 AM ESTBoard Features
The ASRock Z590 Steel Legend Wi-Fi 6E and Z590 Steel Legend (non-Wi-Fi) are positioned in the mid-range of its stack of Z590 motherboards, with plenty of features designed for gamers and enthusiasts. With its ATX size, it is compatible with most chassis types and includes four memory slots with support for up to DDR4-4800, with a combined capacity of up to 128 GB. While ASRock opts for a more budget-friendly Realtek ALC897 HD audio codec, it does include five 3.5 mm audio jacks and a S/PDIF optical output. In terms of expansion slots, the Z590 Steel Legend has one full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 driven by the CPU, a second full-length PCIe 3.0 slot, which is electronically locked to x4. Inbetween the full-length slots are three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. For storage, ASRock includes three M.2 slots, one with support for fast PCIe 4.0 x4 drives and two supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 and M.2 SATA devices.
Looking at cooling options, both Z590 Steel Legend models have a total of six 4-pin headers, with one for a CPU fan, one for an optional CPU fan and water pump, and five which can be used for either chassis fans for additional water pumps, including AIO coolers.
| ASRock Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E ATX Motherboard | |||
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
| Product Page | Link | ||
| Price | $ | ||
| Size | ATX | ||
| CPU Interface | LGA1200 | ||
| Chipset | Intel Z590 | ||
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 128 GB Dual-Channel Up to DDR4-4800 |
||
| Video Outputs | 1 x HDMI 2.0 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 |
||
| Network Connectivity | Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 GbE Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E |
||
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC897 | ||
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 1 x PCIe 4.0 (x16) | ||
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 |
||
| Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 (Z590) | ||
| Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA |
||
| Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps) | N/A | ||
| USB 3.2 (20 Gbps) | 1 x USB Type-C (One header) | ||
| USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) | 1 x USB Type-C (Rear panel) 1 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) |
||
| USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) | 2 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) |
||
| USB 2.0 | 2 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) |
||
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin Motherboard 2 x 8-pin CPU |
||
| Fan Headers | 1 x 4-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin CPU/Water pump 5 x 4-pin Water Pump/chassis |
||
| IO Panel | 2 x Antenna Ports (Intel AX210) 1 x PS/2 Combo port 1 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-C 1 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 2 x USB 3.2 G1 Type-A 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A 1 x RJ45 (Realtek) 5 x 3.5 mm audio jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Optical output (Realtek) |
||
Another element to consider is the networking, as the ASRock Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E uses Intel's latest AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi. Both the WiFi and non-Wi-Fi editions are using a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 GbE controller. In terms of USB, on the rear panel are one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. ASRock uses USB 3.2 G2x2 via the Z590 chipset, but users looking to leverage this will need to do so via the front panel header. For users looking to use integrated graphics can use the HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.4 video output pairing.
Test Bed
With some of the nuances with Intel's Rocket Lake processors, our policy is to see if the system gives an automatic option to increase the power limits of the processor. If it does, we select the liquid cooling option. If it does not, we do not change the defaults. Adaptive Boost Technology is disabled by default.
| Test Setup | |||
| Processor | Intel Core i9-11900K, 125 W, $374 8 Cores, 16 Threads 3.5 GHz (5.3 GHz Turbo) |
||
| Motherboard | ASRock Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E (BIOS L1.34) | ||
| Cooling | Corsair iCue H150i Elite Capellix 360 mm AIO | ||
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum 850 W | ||
| Memory | G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 CL 14-14-14-34 2T (2 x 8 GB) | ||
| Video Card | MSI GTX 1080 (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
| Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
| Case | Corsair Crystal 680X | ||
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit: Build 20H2 | ||
We must also thank the following:
| Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Noctua Coolers |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
15 Comments
View All Comments
poeticjustic - Saturday, August 7, 2021 - link
there is probably a bigger problem with the audio codec ALC897 that Asrock uses in its motherboards. When you install the audio driver from Asrock's site (ver:9079.1_UAD_WHQL), it creates instability in windows and makes shutdown and start up times too long!Also, this audio codec doesn't exist in realtek's site and you can't find any other drivers on the internet for this codec except from Asrock's site.
eastcoast_pete - Sunday, August 8, 2021 - link
The biggest problem this and other boards for Rocket Lake have is that they are essentially EOLd already. RL was intended and released as a stop-gap, and that gap is supposed to be closed later this year. Unless you really want or need an Intel-based system really badly right now, I'd wait and see how Alder Lake performs. And, if one believes Intel, the sockets for AL will also work with the following generation.Samus - Monday, August 9, 2021 - link
It tickles me they still put PS2 on a modern motherboard. Not complaining, quite awesome actually.MickDaDick - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
I have an Asrock Z590 Steel Legend wifi 6e. I am having a hard time figuring out how to change my ram speed. Anyone know how?Thanks
Jerson - Sunday, December 12, 2021 - link
Friend I have a problem with my card, when I connect a graphics card it does not give me video, the graphics is good because I have another computer and it works perfectly. They told me that I had to change something in the bios so that it would recognize it but I don't know what I should change. It would help me?