The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined
by Gavin Bonshor on April 30, 2020 10:00 AM ESTASRock Z490 Steel Legend & Z490 Extreme4
Another uniquely styled and ATX sized model from ASRock is the Z490 Steel Legend. Aimed towards the lower part end of its mid-range product stack, the ASRock Z490 Steel Legend still has plenty of impressive features to for users to sink their teeth into. It also shares the same PCB design and componentry, and consequently, the same feature set as the ASRock Z490 Extreme4 model. The only difference between the two comes is in the aesthetics. Both models include a PCIe 4.0 clock generator giving PCIe 4.0 support when Intel releases its Rocket Lake processors, something which not a lot of vendors have done so far on Z490. Also present is two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots, dual PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, and a Realtek 2.5 G Ethernet controller.
ASRock Z490 Steel Legend
Following its previous iterations of its Steel Legend models, ASRock has gone with a grey and silver-coloured theme on its heatsinks, with a silver and black RGB enabled rear panel cover. The PCB is black with an urban camouflage patterning and has three areas of customizable integrated RGB LED lighting; the rear panel cover, within the chipset heatsink, and the underside of the board along the right-hand side.
The ASRock Z490 Extreme4 has a more subtle styling grey and black styling, with a primarily black PCB with some grey patterning. It has grey and black heatsinks, with the same three customizable RGB LED lighting zones as the Steel Legend, with the rear panel cover, the chipset heatsink, and on the right-hand side of the board at the back.
ASRock Z490 Extreme4
As both the ASRock Z490 Steel Legend and Z490 Extreme4 are both ATX-sized, they have two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16+4 and has three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. For storage, it includes two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, each with its own individual heatsink, and six SATA ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 array support. It includes four memory slots with support for up to 128 GB of DDR4-4266 memory, which is a considerable gap when compared with other ASRock Z490 models that support up to DDR4-4666. While it doesn't come equipped with any wireless interface, it does have an M.2 Key-E slot for users to install their own, with antenna holes on the rear panel IO shield.
On both rear panels is minimal amounts of USB support including one USB 3.2 G2 10 Gbps Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 10 Gbps Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. There is also a single Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 G Ethernet port, with five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output controlled by a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec. Also present is an HDMI and DisplayPort 1.4 pairing of video outputs, as well as a PS/2 combo port, and two holes designed for users looking to install their own wireless interface into the provided Key-E M.2 slot.
The ASRock Z490 Steel Legend and ASRock Z490 Extreme4 and are designed to offer users two different aesthetical takes on ASRock's latest Z490 entry-level design. Both benefit from uprated 2.5 G Ethernet controllers when compared to the previous Z390 namesakes which had Gigabit controllers. Both also feature a PCIe 4.0 clock generator for support with Intel Rocket Lake processors when Intel drops these chips sometime in 2020. At this time, ASRock hasn't unveiled pricing, but we will update this as soon as we receive the official information.
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Andrew LB - Saturday, May 9, 2020 - link
So these boards bring Wifi6, PCI-Express 4.0, gigabit 2.5, and for people like myself who are upgrading from a Z87 board.... just about everything is a huge leap.... yet you think there is just 'more of the same'? I guess if you're one of those idiots who buys a new CPU every year, then clearly this is not the release for you. Nor would AMD's latest offerings if that same metric is applied.So what's your problem with Capitalism? Do incremental design improvements offend you? Or is it profit that does? Hate to break it to you, but its profit motive that fuels innovation. Collectivism is a cancer and by its very nature hinders progress due to it not rewarding exceptionalism. It's why countries like China don't innovate. Otherwise they wouldn't need forced technology transfers from those who manufacture goods in their country.
Zenzdeluxe - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
Thanks for that. The hypocrisy of these people. Imagine imbibing in the fruits of the capitalist system which besides continuing innovation, provides more spoils at lower price points for everyone than ever before. The audacity of such entitlement and seemingly collectivist / marxist based criticism is mind boggling. Cognitive dissonance off the scale indeed.ilkhan - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Details page for GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Pro AX (copy and paste because who can keep them straight otherwise) makes a big deal of no usb-C, but it's there in the picture...ecjp - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Yeah, I noticed that too. Gigabytes site shows same picture and lists "1 x USB Type-C™ port on the back panel, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support" in the specs, so I assume its an error in the article.gavbon - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Thanks for picking that up. I must have been writing about the wrong board. Apologies, it's updatedregsEx - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
"Integrated into the Z490 chipset is an Intel Wi-Fi 6 CNVi which allows motherboard vendors to integrate its AX200 wireless solutions directly from the chipset with a CRF module."CNVi is an old generation 802.11ac controller. Here it is CNVio2. CRF module is AX201. AX200 is a standalone controller that can work on any system. X570 motherboards with 802.11ax support, for example, packs with AX200 card.
lunaticbunny - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
There are no boards under $200. Seems like this Z490 chipset got the X570 inflation treatment as well.drexnx - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
just like the X570 boards, they've all got seriously beefed up VRMsand maybe the pcie4 tax wasn't just a cash grab? we'll really see when AMD B550 comes out, where those board prices land
Andrew LB - Saturday, May 9, 2020 - link
Plenty of boards under $200.ASUS Prime Z490M-PLUS
GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS Elite
ASUS TUF Gaming Z490-Plus
ASUS TUF Gaming Z490-Plus wifi
GIGABYTE Z490 UD
MSI Z490-A PRO ProSeries
A bunch of Asrock boards will be under $200 as well. You can see many prices already on Amazon.
dgingeri - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
It looks like, potentially, at least Gigabyte has decided to include a decent number of USB ports. I can't tell with the Asus board, but all the rest look to have only 6 USB ports, an annoyingly small number. I have been really annoyed with the lack of USB ports on boards for the last 5 years. Heck, with the old 440BX boards, we had 2 ps2, 4 or 6 USB, 1 or 2 serial, and a parallel port. We've lost the other ports, and internal drives in most computers, and not gained USB ports to compensate for it. External hubs aren't going to do it, either, as those stupid things keep dying in a matter of months.