Which Z490, Asus, Asrock or MSI, GB?

I'm looking at these two, I already have i5 10500 and g.skill trident neo 3600 mhz CL16 (can do 4000mhz CL16) as a stop gap until RocketLake comes, then I'm going to put in 8core RL sometime later next year and sell this i5.

Asrock is fully pcie 4.0 ready, while Asus only has 16x pcie 4.0 slot., but I do like Asus bios more.. any suggestions?
Someone @ amazon bought this Strix-f but exchanged for that extreme4, saying m2 slot had issues by windows boot/install...


1. Asus ROG Strix-F Z490 (~230€)

ROG STRIX Z490-F GAMING | ROG Strix | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global
ROG Strix Z490-F Gaming motherboard features boosted power delivery, optimized cooling, and AI Overclocking, AI Cooling and AI Networking. This high-performance motherboard has cyberpunk-inspired aesthetics for a unique-looking build.
rog.asus.com

2. Asrock Z490 Extreme 4 (~190€)

ASRock Z490 Extreme4
Supports 10th Gen Intel Core™ Processors and 11th Gen Intel Core™ Processors (LGA1200)<span style=color:red;>*</span>; 11 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design; Supports DDR4 4266MHz+ (OC); 2 PCIe 3.0 x16, 3 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 (Key E) for WiFi; AMD CrossFireX™; Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort...
www.asrock.com








For those who will bring up, but why no AMD?
well.. it's just to expensive now, I'm on a tight budget now and I was hopping 8core would be less, even that 5600x 6core is imo a lot with 300€+.

 

I was gonna get the strix F at one point, very solid board, good power delivery and very good audio.

 

• MEG Z490
• MPG Z490
• MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK

 

Audio good enough to ditch my trusty xfi titanium hd?

 

Meg is too expensive, mpg also kinda..

Tomahawk, Ive been looking at that one, but all are not really pcie 4.0 ready, except the most expensive MEG.

But bios looks kinda so so..



I've just seen some 5600x Polish official benchmark scores, i admit it looked nice, 10-15% faster compared to i5 10400F @4.2ghz by gaming., but it also costs 2x more.

I got i5 10500, which is 200-300mhz faster so i guess that gap drops by 5-10%.

Rocketlake will zero that gap for sure, actually it will take the lead judging by higher L1 cache and the same L2 512kb cache as zen3 vs 256kb now by commet lake.

 

Hi there

Just don't get ASRock boards, that's my recommendation, went through 3 X99 boards and mainly there in BIOS you don't have any control of System Agent and few other voltages where you can only apply offset,their BIOS is not bad, but is not Asus which I think have best BIOS layout

Gigabyte boards are good too with good VRM and good OC

From two boards which you are chosen then Asus there

I will have here for testing Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Ultra with 10900k and will see if I have any issues with that, last time I used Z390 and 9900k went through the hell hahaha

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

Thanks, Im more and more leaning toward that Asus strix-f, it looks super cool and very strong vrm etc,..


I just hope it won't be too much crippled by pcie4.0 support. Although to be honest I don't really care if it has pcie 3.0 nvme or pcie 4.0nvme, as long as that 16x pcie is 4.0 - and that is by all from what I've seen.

 

What I dislike or don't like on Strix is no dedicated Reset and power button plus error code reader

Hero would be better but it cost probably £100-£150 more than this board

If it will be crippled by PCI 4.0 not sure, on my Crosshair Hero VIII I'm running 3*GPUs(*8/*8*4) with PCI_E SATA Card etc and no issues with bandwidth or in rendering and don't think you will ever habe issues with gen 4 PCI_E

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

Mother boards are subjective at best, just like cars, some like Fords, and other Chevys. They all do the same basic things, some better then others. I have only two problem's ever using a AsRock boards, that was on P67 chipset, the PS2 port stopped working. Another was 1 out of 3 Z390 Extreme 4 would not overclock any ram I put in, but the other two worked find, and still have. In general all board brands (I have owned Asus, Gigabyte, Biostar, etc. Some models have had issues, and others haven't) have some manufacturing failures at some point.

Right now, I have the Z490 Velocita, running a 10700k@5Ghz with no problems. Previous board was Z390 Extreme 4 with 9700k, which my son has at his mom's house with a 9600K. At my house, my son has my old 9700K, with a z390 Phantom Gaming X (this thing is built like a tank, and has great vrm for a 9900K), I bought used for $150, which I will upgrade to an used 9900K at some point when I can find one for $300 or below in the future.

If choosing any of the Z490 AsRock boards, I would only consider a Velocita, Taichi, or W480 Creator. These boards have the more VRM's and VRM's cooling then the rest of the line. Before anybody says something about the VRM cooling fans, you cannot hear them, they can be adjust in bios, and replacements can be found. That Z490 Extreme 4 only has 8 phases for the cpu, the other 3 phases are use for other things.

Update 11/6/2020: Almost forgot, I would not recommend either board if you plan upgrading that I5 to something more power hungry in the future, look at something else.

 

Now Im also looking at - MSI MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE WIFI, somewhat reasonable price too ~ 210-230€.
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-Z490-GAMING-EDGE-WIFI


Well this list really bugs me out, Asus looks to be the worst from all
source:https://wccftech.com/z490-motherboards-pcie-gen-4-support-detailed-asus-msi-asrock-gigabyte/

 

Aorus ultra here, all i need for pcie4 is a rocket lake cpu but that ain't gonna happen.

 

I've been currently looking into the Gigabyte Aorus Z490 Xtreme. Pretty sleek looking board but heard it had issues on bootup. Not sure if that has been sorted...

 

Looks good, but costs waaay too much. I said wont give more then 250€.

And that MSI MPG Carbon just about falls into this limit, So do Asus rog strix-f and Asrock extreme 4.

 

True, true but I want a bad ass board that's not all RGB in your face and if it's anything to go by. It'll last me as long as this Asrock Z77 Extreme 6 lasted me. 8 years. Which has still been giving me great performance but I now need better.




Plus the power delivery sounds impressive.

 

Ok now I'm completely set on MSI.

1. MSI z490 Carbon
2. MSI z490 Unify


Carbon has igpu output, which is kind of "important" by gpu change , while unify has very strong super cool VRM. Price difference is basically not worth mentioning ~15€.

Any extra suggestions, Im leaning more on Carbon, but its VRM is not so cool, 20-30C difference is something, but I was thinking if it gets "hot" I would use Antec spotcool to cool it e.g. with RocketLake, sounds reasonable?

 

Well, I went ahead and ordered z490 unify today, got "ok" deal on it too for ~ 250e. Better safe then sorry later @ Rocket lake.

Should be here sometime this week.

 

Asus almost sets the voltage to high as a gag which is what I'd like to believe at least...

its so much grandfathering in culture with the english translation on these really good boards.

 

What voltage? CPU? Disable MCE. See vid in #10 above.

 

Not looking for advice but thanks.