ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WIFI Motherboard Review: Is $260 Mid-Range or High-End?

Board Features

The ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WIFI is a mid-range ATX motherboard that caters to gamers and sits as one of the ASUS core gaming series. It includes plenty of features and specifications, including plentiful storage options consisting of one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, two PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slots, and six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. ASUS includes plenty of expansion support which consists of one full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, one full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. In regards to memory support, users can install DDR4-5133 with a combined capacity of up to 128 GB across four memory slots.

Cooling options on the Z590-Plus WIFI include six 4-pin headers, with two designated to CPU fans, one for an AIO water pump, and three for chassis fans.

Connectivity has been a big focus over the years for ASUS, and the TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WIFI benefits from one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel. Users can add to this via the front panel headers, which include one USB 3.2 G1 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G1 Type-A header (two ports), and two USB 2.0 headers (four ports).

Looking at networking options, ASUS is using an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 CVNi, with a single Intel I225-V 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet controller. Users planning on using Intel's integrated graphics can do so via the HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 video output pairing on the rear panel. Onboard audio is provided by a Realtek ALC S1200A HD audio codec, which powers five 3.5 mm audio jacks and one S/PDIF optical output on the rear panel.

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.

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