Best z490 motherboard for gaming & overclocking [budget to high-end]

Final Thoughts

The ASRock Z490 Taichi is priced at (opens in new tab) which places it in the upper-midrange of Z490-based motherboards. When we compare it to other, similarly priced competition, including the (opens in new tab), (opens in new tab) and the (opens in new tab), it compares favorably on a few fronts, including eight SATA ports (others have six). It’s also the first Z490 board we came across with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C on the rear IO. It has cooler running power delivery and a premium appearance. While some of these other boards do look good, in this reviewer’s opinion, the design in the Taichi is a step above the rest.

Performance on our Z490 Taichi blended in well with all the other results, a goldilocks zone if you will, not too fast and not too slow — just right. From a big-picture perspective, you’re going to be hard-pressed to notice the performance differences between most of these competing motherboards (the Biostar stuck out, as it conforms to Intel specifications). Gaming performance was spot on, along with the other tests and overclocking is not an issue.

Overall, the ASRock Z490 Taichi is a great motherboard in the $350-$400 price bracket for building a Z490 system. If you need three M.2 slots and eight SATA ports, this is the only board around this price point with that storage configuration. If your budget allows for an upper mid-range board, ASRock’s Z490 Taichi should be at the top of the list.

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PCB and Circuit Analysis

Pulling all of the previously viewed cooling and other shielding features leaves us with the bare Taichi motherboard, as you can see here. A lot is going on here, and we will cover some of the high-level components in the following images.

The VRM of the Z490 Taichi is a 12+2 design powered by an Intersil ISL69269. The CPU phases are 50A SiC654 Vishay units and are using ISL6617 smart doublers. This is not nearly as powerful of a VRM solution as we have seen on some costly boards, but with a little math, I think we can safely say that there is plenty of room in this VRM for even XOC usage as it is fitted.

To the lower left of the VRM section, we spy the ASMedia ASM3242, which is the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 controller enabling the 20Gb capable USB Type-C port on the rear.

Here we see the two GT or iGPU phases, which are powered by SiC632A, which are also 50A power stages from Vishay, but these are used to drive the UHD 630 on the Intel CPU.

Next up, we have the ASMedia ASM1074which is the USB Superspeed or USB 3.2 Gen 1 controller for the 5Gb USB ports.

The audio solution is the ever-popular ALC1220 from Realtek, and it is backed by an ESS DAC. There are even large electrolytic Nichicon caps along with high-end WIMA film capacitors (not shown in image) in the audio solution.

Here we see the memory VRM, which is a dual-phase solution comprised of Sinopower dual N-channel MOSFETs model number SM7341EH. The PWM controller is a uP1674P to push the double memory phases.

Midboard, we have the SuperIO chip, the Nuvotron NCT6796D-E. Above the SuperIO, we have the PCIe 4 capable redrivers (P13EQX16) and P13DBS for the handling of the exchanging of lanes depending upon the slot population.

We also have the PCH at the lower right, and below that, to the right, we have the ASM1061, which is used for the two extra SATA 6Gb ports mentioned previously.

Moving to the rear of the board, we start at the top where we find the phase doublers used on the CPU power phases. We also see a row of aluminum electrolytic capacitors, which are nice, but in many cases, expensive additions when deployed in large quantities.

Next up is the rear of the socket, where we find a large number of ceramic caps, along with two smaller tantalum capacitors with a 150 microfarad rating. These are excellent additions and something we have seen slowly starting to take residence in the rear of the socket area.

Here we have the chipset labeled FlashBack 2, which is as you can probably guess used for the USB BIOS flashback function. This chipset allows for the boards UEFI to be flashed without a CPU in the system.

The last two parts on the rear of the board are the LAN chipsets. First up is the gigabit LAN, which is an intel I219V chipset.

The other chipset is labeled as a Rocket RTL8125BG, but for anyone who has been around the tech world for a while, we know that RTL part numbers are Realtek LAN. The only reason I can assume they are using the Dragon branding is to separate the Realtek name from the story, as some users abhorred Realtek in the past. We will test this solution and see if we have any issues with it in packet and file transfer testing.

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

VIEW GALLERY — 143 IMAGES

ASRock is the first of our Z490 boards we will be covering for the new Comet Lake desktop series of processors. We are starting with the top dogs from each lineup, and during launch from ASRock, the Taichi is the top dog. Since the launch, ASRock has released the Z490 Aqua, which I look forward to reviewing soon.

The Taichi is a quite subtle entry with needed features, but not a ton of crazy features piled on to inflate the price. ASRock has an engineered simplicity in its Taichi models, which is usually topped by a robust VRM and tuning combo with a feature stack that will make sense for most users, both mainstream and enthusiasts. Although I would say that the Taichi is a more enthusiast-focused product with other models, which we will look at in the following reviews that fill in the more gamer-focused markets.

Specifications

The Taichi supports DDR4 memory and has a claimed overclock capability of 4600MHz+, which of course, means you can overclock and tweak the memory to the limits of your IMC, DIMMs, or even the board.

The Taichi comes with the newest USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which is via a Type-C port on the rear I/O. This port is capable of up to 20Gb/s speeds, which we will test later in the review. The Taichi also offers the newest Wi-Fi 6/AX and 2.5G Dragon/Realtek LAN along with a 1Gb Intel-powered LAN port.

The VRM cooler is sizable and has three active fans, which we will look it when we take a look at the board.

PCIe support is PCIe 3.0 for Comet Lake, but many board vendors have stated that their boards are built for PCIe 4.0 spec as the next-gen LGA1200 compatible CPU from Intel is rumored to support PCIe 4.0 and should be a drop-in compatible CPU for the Z490 boards.

Pricing

The Z490 Taichi comes to the market at $369.99 at the time of writing. This is quite reasonable for a flagship board, and much less expensive than the top-end offerings from the competition.

With the intro out of the way, let’s start digging in to see if the price is justified and if the Taichi can battle on the same level as the boards, which are 2x the cost.

ASRock Z490 Taichi (Intel Z490) ATX Motherboard

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$366.33	$366.33	$366.33	$375.94	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 9/10/2022 at 7:39 am CDT — prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Overclocking

From our other Z490 motherboard reviews, we know the CPU sample lets us run up to 5.2 GHz at ~1.35V while keeping the CPU somewhere around 90 degrees Celsius. Overclocking using the ASRock Z490 Taichi was as easy as expected at this point. The board’s more-than-capable power delivery and cooling handled our 5.2 GHz i9-10900K without issue. A quick adjustment of LLC to the second highest level prevented what little vdroop we saw. After tweaking some power limits to make sure we don’t run into throttling issues, we were on our way.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Memory testing went well, with the Taichi easily able to handle our 2x8GB DDR4 4000 sticks, but 4x8GB DDR4 4000 proved to be more difficult with our configuration. This CPU may not be able to handle it, as we’ve not been able to stabilize 4x8GB @ DDR4 4000.

Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Elite AC

Форм-фактор: ATX
Тип разъёма: Socket 1200
Чипсет: Intel Z490
Поддержка процессоров: Intel Core 10-го поколения
Оперативная память: 4 x DDR4, 5000 МГц, до 128 ГБ
Поддержка видеокарт: AMD Quad CrossFireX

Компания Gigabyte заслужила внимание пользователей на рынке комплектующих. По возможностям Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Elite AC не уступает конкурентам

Она нацелена на сегмент материнских плат Z490 среднего класса. Используются 12-фазная подача питания для ЦП.

Включает в себя базовый набор функций, для накопителей два разъёма PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 с радиаторами, третий без него и шесть портов SATA, которые являются стандартными для модели размера ATX. Сам чипсет был оснащён фирменным алюминиевым радиатором.

Плата имеет Wi-Fi модуль Intel 802.11ac с поддержкой Bluetooth 5.0 и сетевой контроллер Ethernet Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 Гб/с. Пользователь имеет полный контроль над RGB-подсветкой материнской платы. Переработанное приложение RGB Fusion 2.0 заслуживает внимания.

ASUS ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming

Форм-фактор: ATX
Тип разъёма: Socket 1200
Чипсет: Intel Z490
Поддержка процессоров: Intel Core 10-го поколения
Оперативная память4 x DDR4 4600 МГц, до 128 ГБ
Поддержка видеокарт: AMD 3-Way CrossFireX, NVIDIA SLI,

Это самая дорогая материнская плата в линейке Z490 ROG Strix. Подойдёт для игрового компьютера на процессорах Intel Core 10-го поколения известных как Comet Lake-S (сокет LGA1200). Конечно же, обратной совместимости для старших поколений у разъёма нет.

Включает все новейшие возможности подключения Intel Wi-Fi 6, сеть 2,5 Гбит/с, разъёмы USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C и аудиокодек премиум-класса. Радиаторы набора микросхем, M.2 и VRM соединены с помощью тепловых трубок. Используется качественная 14-фазная схема питания VRM.

Можно одновременно подключить две видеокарты NVIDIA или три c чипами AMD. В разгоне процессора Intel Core i9-10900K удаётся взять 5.2 ГГц на всех ядрах. С использованием встроенного XMP-профиля комплект Trident Z Neo работает на заявленных 4000 МГц.

Заключение

Выбор материнской платы зависит исключительно от Вашего бюджета. Конечно же, более качественные материнские платы стоят в несколько раз дороже. Вы только посмотрите на цены плат: ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme, Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Xtreme, MSI MEG Z490 Godlike.

Думаю Вы понимаете… Мне кажется 1000 долларов для материнской платы это перебор. В рейтинг попали материнки размера ATX. Это не мешает Вам выбрать для себя microATX и даже Mini-ITX. Ещё отличные варианты Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Ultre G2 и ASUS ProArt Z490-Creator 10G.

Упаковка и комплектация

Материнская плата B550 Taichi Razer Edition представлена более чем эффектно. Девайс поставляется в огромной картонной коробке с качественной полиграфией, снабженной удобной ручкой для переноски. На упаковке присутствуют фотографии, демонстрирующие внешний вид и RGB-подсветку B550 Taichi Razer Edition.

В коробке для материнской платы предусмотрена возможность демонстрации B550 Taichi Razer Edition без извлечения из упаковки. Для этого сделано специальное прозрачное окно, через которое пользователь может рассмотреть девайс в деталях.

Комплектация B550 Taichi Razer Edition включает в себя:

руководство пользователя и гайд по программному обеспечению;
диск с фирменным ПО и драйверами;
два хомута для фиксации кабелей;
четыре кабеля SATA-3 6 Гбит/с;
два комплекта винтов для М.2 накопителей;
антенну Wi-Fi с подставкой;
фирменную шестигранную отвертку.

SmartBuy Stream E13T Pro 128 GB

Код производителя: SBSSD-128GT-PH13P-M2P4
Форм-фактор: 2280
Интерфейс: PCI-E 3.0 x4
Объем: 128 ГБ
Контроллер: Phison PS5013-E13T
Тип памяти: TLC 3D NAND
Макс. скорость чтения: 2500 МБ/c
Макс. скорость записи: 2100 МБ/c
Ресурс работы: 100 TBW

SmartBuy – давний партнёр компании Phison, производящей очень эффективные контроллеры для твердотельных накопителей. И неудивительно, что в модели Stream E13T были использованы последние наработки тайваньского производителя. Здесь стоит одна из лучших микросхем для работы с шиной PCI Express третей версии. В сочетании с качественной трехмерной памятью про-версия SSD способна показывать достойное качество работы. Паспортные характеристики устройства гласят, что максимальная скорость последовательного чтения составляет 2500 мегабайт в секунду, запись – 2100 мегабайт в секунду.

При вполне оформившимся тренде на замену накопителей, работающих с SATA, на те, что используют NVMe, твердотельник от SmartBuy можно считать крепким середнячком. Поскольку стоимость устройства находится на уровне традиционных накопителей, а качество работы значительно выше. Я не удивлюсь, если в скором времени SmartBuy станет эдаким стандартом по умолчанию в современных сборных ПК.

Packaging and Accessories

The packaging for the Taichi is familiar for anyone who has seen a Taichi model board in the past. The front of the box is mostly devoid of data besides the product name and a few feature support icons.

The rear of the box is where we can get access to a lot more information. One thing of note is the 14-phase power solution which I believe is the correct entry, as the website lists 15, but I think they are counting the I/O or SA rail into that count, based on the inductor position in the image we showed on the previous page which just seems silly.

Much of the information here, we covered on the previous page, so let’s open the front flap and see what it has to share.

Flipping open the front box flap, we see more of the features we discussed previously on the inner flap. Adjacent to this, we have the opening, which shows the board nestled in the foam inside the box.

Let’s open this box up and see what all comes inside.

In the accessory pack, it does not have stacks of gear, but it has the things needed to get you up and running, including:

Wi-Fi Antennae
3x M.2 screws and standoffs
4x plastic SATA cables
T8 Torx driver
HB SLI Bridge

The Torx bit is used to remove the M.2 cooler plates from the board.

There is also a sleeve in the box which holds the two manuals along with the driver CD. Now is the point where I will bring up that the drivers, whether they are offered on USB as some board manufacturers offer, or DVD is likely going to be older. Your best bet is to go to the webpage for your board and grab the newest offering, as it is very likely going to be newer than what comes in the package.

Inside the sleeve, we find a pamphlet, a pair of Velcro ties, and a sticker sheet.

Now that the accessories are out of the way let’s take a look at the board itself.

You shouldn’t buy this if you …

Are on a tighter budget
Don’t plan on using PCIe 4.0
Won’t be overclocking your PC

The Z490 Taichi is a good-looking and well-designed motherboard with plenty of features for a rather high asking price. If you can stretch your budget to cover the additional cost, it’s well worth considering for your Intel PC build, especially with the PCIe 4.0 support. But you should steer clear if you’re looking to save money or do not plan on overclocking.

There’s plenty to love about the Taichi and it could be considered for the list. It has a beefy power phase design for stable delivery to the CPU and other connected components, which results in a far better overclocking experience. There are also more storage connections than you’ll know what to do with, making this a great foundation for a gaming rig or PC with TBs worth of data.

The design of the board is good too, allowing for numerous custom PC designs. The M.2 slots all have passive cooling with heat pads and metal plate covers, there’s active VRM cooling, and the BIOS is easy enough for even overclocking newcomers to understand. You will want to alter the fan curve of the VRM cooling, however, as they can be a little loud by default.

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ASRock Taichi Z490

Bottom line: ASRock makes some excellent motherboards and the Z490 Taichi is yet another fine release in this well-established line of motherboards. Rocking support for 10th and 11th Gen Intel processors with PCIe 4.0, you’re going to have a grand overclocking time.

Thermaltake TOUGHRAM RGB R009D408GX2-3200C16A

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Форм-фактор: DIMM
Объем одного модуля памяти: 8ГБ
Количество модулей: 2
Тактовая частота: 3200 МГц
Тайминги CL: 16-18-18-38
Радиаторы: да
Подсветка: да
Напряжение: 1.35 В

В отсутствии ясной информации о новых чипах Samsung, нам остается лишь скупать остатки памяти на старых микросхемах. А между тем есть варианты, которые вполне можно назвать адекватной альтернативой прославленных B-die. Сейчас я говорю о Hynx с индексом CJR, которые пусть и не стопроцентно, но все же могут заменить чипы от Samsung.

Бодрые хинксы используются в разных модулях оперативки. Лично мне очень нравится комплект от Thermaltake. И не только потому, что тут имеется очень красивая и многоцветная RGB-подсветка. И уж вовсе не за оригинальный дизайн, который заметно выделяет модули среди прочих комплектующих. Мне импонируют рабочие качества этой пары планок с чипами C-die и рабочей частотой 3200 мегагерц.

И неоднократно подтверждено, что при вполне демократичной стоимости, модули Thermaltake на платформе Intel способны разогнаться без изменения таймингов и поднятия вольтажа до хороших стабильных частот всего лишь на XMP-профиле. А как раз это нам и требуется.

Порты

1.Порты USB 3.2 Gen 2 (USB-A)

USB 3.2 Gen 2 поддерживает скорость до 10 Гбит/с. Ранее он был известен как USB 3.1 Gen 2. Эти порты используют более старый разъем USB-A.

2.Порты USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB-A)

USB 3.2 Gen 1 поддерживает скорость до 5 Гбит/с. Ранее он был известен как USB 3.1 Gen 1 и USB 3.0. Эти порты используют старый разъем USB-A.

3.Порты USB 3.2 Gen 2 (USB-C)

Неизвестно. Помогите нам, предложите стоимость.

USB 3.2 Gen 2 поддерживает скорость до 10 Гбит/с. Ранее он был известен как USB 3.1 Gen 2. Эти порты используют разъем USB-C.

4.Порты USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB-C)

Неизвестно. Помогите нам, предложите стоимость.

USB 3.2 Gen 1 поддерживает скорость до 5 Гбит/с. Ранее он был известен как USB 3.1 Gen 1 и USB 3.0. Эти порты используют разъем USB-C.

5.порты USB 2.0

Чем больше портов USB 2.0, тем больше устройств, совместимых с USB 2.0, можно подключить к компьютеру.

6.Порты USB 3.2 Gen 2×2

Неизвестно. Помогите нам, предложите стоимость.

USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 был представлен в 2019 году. Он поддерживает скорость до 20 Гбит/с и использует разъем USB-C.

7.Порты USB 4 40Gbps

Неизвестно. Помогите нам, предложите стоимость.

Эта версия USB 4 поддерживает очень высокие скорости до 40 Гбит/с. В отличие от USB 3.2, USB 4 может распределять полосы пропускания для видео и данных. Эти порты используют разъем USB-C.

8.Порты USB 4 20Gbps

Неизвестно. Помогите нам, предложите стоимость.

Эта версия USB 4 поддерживает скорость до 20 Гбит/с. В отличие от USB 3.2, USB 4 может распределять полосы пропускания для видео и данных. Эти порты используют разъем USB-C.

9.Порты Thunderbolt 4

Неизвестно. Помогите нам, предложите стоимость.

Количество портов USB, совместимых с Thunderbolt 4. Эти порты поддерживают скорость до 40 Гбит/с, включая минимальную скорость PCIe 32 Гбит/с. Это гарантирует, что он может поддерживать два внешних экрана 4K (или один внешний экран 8K).

BIOS/UEFI and Software

ASRock UEFI

Moving into the UEFI, and you are greeted by the very user-friendly easy mode interface. Of course, we will be moving directly to the advanced mode. We will show you several screenshots of the UEFI below.

It seemed appropriate to end with the save/exit screen as we move into the OS and look at the software.

ASRock Software

Upon installing the software, we are greeted by the app shop interface, which has the LAN utilities along with RGB and other ASRock based utilities. One thing I hope most people avoid is the strange slots game, which is in the listing but seems odd to include in motherboard software. Also, I’m not a huge Norton fan as they have proven to be utter crap over the years, and well, that red «recommended» ribbon is not merited in my mind. But marketing is marketing.

Moving to the driver tab, we see the selection of drivers available. Here we also see the Realtek LAN driver, which further confirms what we already knew, which is that Dragon 2.5G LAN is indeed Realtek.

Here we have the A-Tuning utility, which is the all-in-one suite for monitoring, reporting, and tweaking motherboard settings. Here you can do everything from OS level overclocking to profile quick turning and also monitoring clocks and vitals of your system.

Here we have the Polychrome RGB application, which is used to control the onboard RGB along with the external headers for LED strips or other devices to sync.