It is not any secret that Intel’s 10th era processors are power-hungry. Intel has been squeezing each final drop of MHz out of the 14 nm course of with its quickest desktop processors but, however generally typical air cooling simply will not suffice for these eager to push the bounds even additional. ASRock understands this, and constructing on the success of the elegant (but wallet-emptying) AMD Aqua, the corporate unveiled an Intel model.
The Z490 Aqua comes outfitted as a premium characteristic motherboard. The giant built-in monoblock which cools each the CPU and the board’s energy supply, amd it now contains a very cool OLED show. There can also be built-in Thunderbolt 3, 10 gigabit Ethernet, in addition to its giant 16-phase energy supply.
The Z490 Aqua: Time To Make a Splash
ASRock’s extremely premium and extremely priced Z490 Aqua, on appears alone, exhudes over-engineering. As a advertising platform, over-engineering is an effective factor, particularly when the motherboard prices twice as a lot because the processor. From my perspective, the visible impact of the ASRock Z490 Aqua makes it one of many best-looking motherboards of all time. The design and implementation of its giant CPU and VRM monoblock, with a seemingly infinite quantity of aluminum plating throughout the PCIe slot space, appears nice. Not solely that, however ASRock has included varied areas of addressable RGB LEDs constructed onto the board, with an beautiful OLED panel that may show data starting from CPU Voltage, CPU Temperature, and POST Status. It actually units it other than the X570 Aqua we reviewed final yr.
The ASRock Z490 Aqua is filled with options and attraction from high to backside, with high-end fanatics utilizing customized water cooling loops the first goal market. It contains some of the premium desktop characteristic units from any board we have seen from ASRock, with triple PCIe 3.zero x4 M.2 slots, eight SATA ports, and a strong networking array together with a 10 gigabit Ethernet controller, with a further 2.5 G port. An Intel-based Wi-Fi 6 CNVi offers each wi-fi networking and BT 5.1 capabilities, with an 8-layer PCB and a couple of ozcopper PCB for the board’s finer circuitry.
I acquired 99 issues, however an Aqua ain’t one
Focusing on the ability componentry of the Z490 Aqua, ASRock contains a big 16-phase energy supply, with fourteen premium 90An influence levels for the CPU, with two 90An influence levels for the SoC. It is cooled by the massive customized monoblock, which is the board’s essential characteristic, which can be wanted ought to customers even try to make use of the ability deliveries large 1260 A present the CPU part is designed to ship.
Another notable space is that the Z490 Aqua is properly outfitted in is connectivity, with an Intel Titan Ridge Thunderbolt Three controller. This offers two 40 Gbps ports on the rear panel in addition to with two mini DisplayPort inputs for customers trying to leverage the multi-display capabilities of Thunderbolt 3. Also included are three further USB 3.2 G2 Type-A and a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-C port, with 4 additional USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. This is numerous connectivity, so ASRock is attempting to ship on all areas with the Aqua, not simply at fanatics and overclockers, however content material creators too. ASRock additionally features a premium audio answer with a separate DAC designed to spice up customers wanting to make use of entrance panel audio.
In our check suite, the Aqua may be very aggressive with different Z490 fashions we have now examined up to now, with strong leads to our DPC latency testing, which I’ll be aware is finished at default settings with no OS tweaking. The figures in our energy testing had been a little bit greater than regular within the idle energy states, however the Aqua has plenty of controllers and RGB, so it is easy to see why. In the computation and gaming exams, the Aqua confirmed no gaping flaws and was…
