Motherboards

By Gavin Bonshor @ AnandTech

The battle between Intel and AMD fighting over market share is hotter than it has ever been. With each of the two colossal chip makers doing battle for brand supremacy, we’ve seen two primary desktop chipsets set the standard in the world of desktop motherboards; the Z390 and X570 chipsets. While the Z390 market is now mature, ASRock launched two new motherboards into its Intel Z390 product stack, and today we are taking a look at one of them, the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7. With a feature set spearheaded by a 2.5 GbE port, it sits between the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 and Z390 Phantom Gaming 6, aiming for a more mid-range user.

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By Gavin Bonshor @ AnandTech

The introduction of the X570 chipset has heralded some of the most impressive and feature-rich desktop motherboards for an AMD platform in recent times. One prime example of this is the GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Xtreme which includes an Aquantia powered 10 G NIC, Intel’s Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax wireless interface, and has support for up to three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives. Looking to live up to the Xtreme naming, there’s a 16-phase power delivery with dual BIOS for the more extreme enthusiast, whereas users looking to create a clean looking RGB laden system will appreciate the right-angled 24-pin motherboard power input. The X570 Aorus Xtreme is also the only current motherboard to include a passively cooled chipset heatsink, with GIGABYTE looking to make its flagship model unique and to stand out from the crowd.

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By Morry Teitelman @ PC Perspective

Released as part of ASRock’s AMD X570 product line, the X570 Steel Legend offers support for the latest AMD Ryzen 3000 series processor line as well as Dual Channel DDR4 memory running at up to 3200MHz speeds in stock configuration. The board features full RGB support integrated into it’s armored surface with active cooling provided for the X570 chipset integrated into the hybrid chipset / M.2 device overlay. Further, ASRock integrated PCIe 4.0 slot support into the board’s dual PCIe x16 slots for support of the latest in graphics technologies.

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By Matthew Hodgson @ Vortez

ASRock have been specialising in the development and manufacturing of motherboards since 2002 and have gone on to be a big player within an incredibly competitive market segment. They produce motherboards for both AMD and Intel and today we’ll focus on a high-end solution featuring the latest AMD X570 chipset.

The ASRock X570 Taichi is the latest in a line of premium motherboards that ASRock produce, offering a surfeit of features and performance. As you might have already heard, perhaps the biggest inclusion with the new X570 chipset is the long-awaiting PCI-E 4.0 specification, offering double the bandwidth, and full backwards compatibility, of the previous generation.

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Expansion and M.2 Aplenty

By Thomas Soderstrom @ Tom’s Hardware

The price of AMD’s X570-chipset motherboards may be off-putting to buyers accustomed to AMD’s low-cost story, and the lower cost of previous-generation X470 boards that, a lack of PCIe 4.0 support aside, are still viable options for AMD’s new Ryzen 3000 processors. Gigabyte’s X570 Aorus Master competes in a high-end enthusiast segment that, thanks to the added cost of new technology, starts at around $300. Users who have adjusted their value expectations to current market conditions will find the $360 for this model reasonable, with our apologies to buyers in U.K. (where it’s £390).

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By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

MSI offers something incredibly extreme with this X570 motherboard, meet the MSI MEG X570 Godlike. We check out this piece of hardware loaded with features, in combination with a Ryzen 7 3700X processor, AMD prepped the 570 chipset, that offers a more fine-tuned experience for your Ryzen Generation 3 processor. The new MEG, however, is taking things to an entirely new level. Including PCIe Gen 4.0 and AX Wifi and 10 Gbps Ethernet.

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By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

In this review, we peek at a more mainstream Z390 motherboard from ASRock, meet the Z390 Steel Legend. Ready for 8th or 9th Gen processors this board is about performance, aesthetics, and features. The board looks great, a PCH cover. and black and grey style with some gear imagery really looks nice. The board’s covered with Aluminum Alloy Heatsinks enhance stability and according to ASRock, overclocking potential. Dual full coverage M.2 SSD heatsinks dissipate heat efficiently to ensure your high speed drives always work at their best.

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By Gavin Bonshor @ AnandTech

On Intel’s desktop Z390 chipset, there are around 7 different ATX sized motherboards to choose from in the $180-200 price bracket. This not only puts pressure on manufacturers to deliver a high blend of premium features for a better price than the competition and use unique visuals like a peacock’s plume to entice users. GIGABYTE’s Z390 Aorus Pro WIFI is one with its $195 price tag. The Aorus brand is aimed squarely at gamers and the Z390 Aorus Pro WIFI looks to stake GIGABYTEs claim in a highly contested segment with a premium feature set at an affordable price.

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By Antony Leather @ Bit-Tech

There’s usually a lot of variation in terms of features as you dip down below £200 for an Intel Z-series motherboard, with manufacturers taking quite different approaches to cost cutting. MSI managed a fairly balanced approach with the MAG Z390 Tomahawk, dropping audio and Wi-Fi in favour of a fancy integrated I/O shield, USB 3.1 Type-C ports, plus the full complement of audio outputs. Today we’re looking at ASUS’ similarly-priced TUF Z390-Plus Gaming (Wi-Fi), which takes another very different approach.

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By Antony Leather @ Bit-Tech

There’s no getting away from the fact that motherboards seem to be a tad expensive these days, but like cars they’re very often just equipped with a ton more tech, which inevitably leads to higher prices. There’s USB 3.1, M.2 ports, the latest Wi-Fi standards, RGB lighting, etc. – they all add to asking prices, and finding a happy medium can be tricky, especially as you dip below £150 where things start to get very price-sensitive. The MSI MAG Z390 Tomahawk is slap-bang in the middle of all of this being the cheapest Z390 board we’ve reviewed so far. So what, if any, corners have been cut to get there?

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