The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined
by Gavin Bonshor on April 30, 2020 10:00 AM ESTBiostar Racing Z490GTN
Considered a consistent and staple model from its range, the Biostar Racing Z490GTN is its sole mini-ITX sized offering which offers a lower entry cost to the world of small form factor on Z490. It’s simplistic in design with black heatsinks on a black PCB, with a budget-focused feature set. Included in its feature set are a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, with four SATA ports and an Intel Gigabit Ethernet controller.
Biostar Z490GTN is advertising the Z490GTN as having a 9-phase power delivery, but inspecting the board itself shows it has a 6+1 power delivery, with six phases for the CPU, and one for the SoC. The black aluminium heat sink doubles up as a rear panel cover, and has a matching black chipset heatsink. There is a single full-length PCIe 3.0 slot, with a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot mounted to the rear of the board. For SATA devices, the Z490GTN has four straight-angled SATA ports. On the right-hand side of the board is two memory slots which support DDR4-4000, with a maximum capacity of up to 64 GB. Users looking to add a wireless interface can do so by using the M.2 Key-E slot at the top left of the board.
On the rear panel are four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports, with a D-Sub and HDMI video output pairing for integrated graphics. A Realtek ALC887 HD audio codec powers three 3.5 mm audio jacks, while the board also has a single Ethernet port powered by an Intel I219-V Gigabit controller. Finishing off the Z490GTN rear panel is a single PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port.
The Biostar Racing Z490GTN is geared for the lower-end of the market, offering a cheaper alternative to models from other vendors including ASUS which is asking $300 for its model, albeit with a higher-end feature set. It's unclear how much the Z490GTN will retail for at launch, but given the budget-focused controller set, it's likely to be under $200. Users planning on running an NVME PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD on the rear-mounted slot should also look for an aftermarket M.2 heatsink, just to be on the safe side.
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DanNeely - Thursday, April 30, 2020 - link
I really hate when new articles are inserted below the lead spot because it's hit or miss if I ever notice them. I missed this one during several visits to the site and only found it when Google suggested it in response to a search I made.Jedibeeftrix - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
agreed, i found this by accident, and check AT twice or more a day.sunshinerevans55 - Sunday, May 3, 2020 - link
I basically make about $12,000-$18,000 a month online. It’s enough to comfortably replace my I was amazed how easy it was after I tried it . This is what I’ve been doing old jobs income, especially considering I only work about 10-13 hours a week from home… www.iⅭash68.ⅭomYB1064 - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
This must have taken some writing. Kudos to the author(s). A good one stop article for anybody planning on going the Intel route. Intel seem to be adept at packaging old milk (not wine) in a new bottle. At least increase the number of PCIe lanes...boozed - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
I recommend using the RSS feed, then you get everything and you get it chronologically.Exodite - Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - link
+1 on RSS!The "magazine layout" that plagues many sites and makes it impossible to distinguish between old articles, new articles and commercials can thankfully still be avoided through RSS.
Wardrop - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Funny that ASRock are the only manufacturers to have a mATX X570 motherboard for AMD's platform, yet for Intel they're the only one's NOT to have a mATX motherboard.Beaver M. - Saturday, May 2, 2020 - link
You mean they are relevant again, because they have fixed their stereotypical USB issues?Marlin1975 - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
So in other words a re-spin of previous chipset with little to no real useful extra features but will require a new board. Classic intel. This is one of many reasons my last system was Intel and my new system is AMD now.Unless you are a intel fanboy why keep supporting this?
regsEx - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
New networking controllers, support for PCIe 4 CPUs (RKL-S that will be released in future).Some boards also have USB Gen 2x2 support with external ASMedia controller. I know no any X570 board with USB Gen 2x2 support. Only Gen 2x1.