Our Verdict
The ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi is gorgeous, loaded with options and it affords higher worth than the MSI MEG Z590 Ace. It’s clear there’s nonetheless some fine-tuning to be achieved within the weeks earlier than the official Z590 launch, however they’re minor and if we had round $300 to spend, that is the board we’d purchase.
- Good M.2 and VRM cooling
- Twin PCI-E 4 M.2 and 16x PCI-E slots
- M.2 latches make set up simple
- M.2 heatsink blocks GPU launch latch
- Common audio efficiency
- No Thunderbolt 4 Kind-C port
There’s lots to drool over with the Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi motherboard, which is simply as effectively contemplating it prices $300 (£340). Throughout hands-on testing, one of many standout highlights was its M.2 SSD assist.
Two slots assist PCI-E 4 SSDs and an extra two slots assist PCI-E 3 SSDs, with one additionally providing a house to SATA M.2 SSDs. All of them function a easy tool-free latch-securing mechanism that takes seconds to put in an SSD.
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All 4 are coated by giant heatsinks and the first slot not solely features a snazzy RGB-illuminated emblem however has a thermal pad that cools the underside of M.2 SSDs as effectively. This resulted within the lowest M.2 SSD load temperature on check at simply 55°C.
Nevertheless, the heatsink sat so near our backplate-fitted graphics card that we couldn’t entry the discharge catch and not using a screwdriver, so we’ve docked a few factors from Asus right here. You possibly can run two GPUs in PCI-E 4 mode thanks to 2 slots supporting this quicker customary slightly than only one, though you’re nonetheless restricted to eight PCI-E lanes apiece.
The remainder of the board is gorgeous, with an illuminated ROG emblem and acrylic strip on the I/O shroud and an all-black design that’s principally color-neutral. You don’t get the total complement of on-board overclocking and testing instruments, however there’s a clear-CMOS button, LED POST code show, and a USB BIOS FlashBack button.
Each air and water-cooled methods will profit from its function set too, with eight 4-pin fan headers and a thermal sensor, so you’ll be able to management followers primarily based on coolant temperature. Regardless of the worth tag, there’s no Kind-C Thunderbolt port – solely a header as with many of the different boards.
In the meantime, the VRM heatsinks are big and linked with a warmth pipe, plus there’s an non-obligatory fan you’ll be able to connect for additional cooling. Nevertheless, the latter isn’t wanted, seeing as the best temperature we noticed throughout our stress check was 59°C. This board additionally has show outputs, so if you find yourself and not using a graphics card, you’ll be able to at the least use your PC.
You additionally get a pair of two.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 802.11ax Wi-Fi and Asus has added Realtek’s ALC4080 audio codec. The audio efficiency was somewhat disappointing, however this may very well be all the way down to the early software program and drivers we used.
The ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi hit the highest RealBench system scored at inventory pace in our check, and had the best Cinebench single-threaded rating too, with out topping the ability consumption graph.
Overclocking wasn’t as slick because the MSI boards, although, requiring much more tweaking and Asus’ AI Suite Software program was somewhat hit and miss as as to if it utilized the set vcore or not. Nevertheless, in the long run, we managed a 5.1GHz all-core clock with 1.34V, once more attaining the best system rating. It’s the most effective gaming motherboards round $300.
