It’s been almost two years to the day since NZXT final launched a motherboard, which was the Z370 N7. NZXT initially used ECS as its motherboard OEM, however has opted to make use of ASRock this time spherical for a brand new N7 mannequin. This has the identical N7 infused armor, albeit utilizing a mixed metallic and plastic as an alternative of simply metallic which does cut back the general value. Aiming for the mid-range market, NZXT’s N7 Z490 options 2.5 GbE, Wi-Fi 6, twin M.2, and 4 SATA ports, and we give it our focus on this assessment.
The N7 Z490: Going For Mass Effect
At the start of September, NZXT reached out to me explaining that they meant to launch a brand new motherboard into an already cramped Z490 market. One of the weather NZXT needed to handle over its motherboard choices was the firmware and overclocking, provided that ECS is not actually a preferred title on these two fronts. This time round, NZXT has leveraged ASRock’s companies for the underlying platform, on prime of which NZXT has layered its personal styling and type.
Armed and geared up with an affordable mid-ranged characteristic set, the NZXT N7 Z490 features a premium HD audio codec, mixed with 2.5 GbE and an Intel Wi-Fi 6 interface. Perhaps some of the notable options is the boards full cowl armor plating (plastic and metallic), which customers conversant in NZXT’s earlier motherboards will acknowledge. It stretches throughout the whole lot of the PCB, solely displaying the CPU socket space, reminiscence slots, and the highest and backside edges of the board.
Looking at reminiscence assist nearer, the N7 Z490 consists of the capability to put in as much as 128 GB, with speeds of as much as DDR4-4266 supported. This is a few pegs decrease than different fashions in the marketplace, however the probability of standard customers choosing greater speeds than that is more likely to be slim as a result of value. The board makes use of two PCIe 3.zero x4 M.2 slots for storage, with 4 SATA ports obtainable. On the rear panel, the N7 Z490 makes use of simply two USB 3.2 G2 ports, a single Type-C, and only one Type-A, with two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A and two USB 2.zero ports.
In our efficiency testing, the N7 Z490 carried out and behaved like some other Z490 board we have examined from ASRock. We noticed the N7 Z490 do nicely in our Non-UEFI POST time take a look at, get a great end in our DPC latency take a look at, and noticed aggressive efficiency in our computational and gaming benchmarks. Overall, for any inventory degree efficiency, it was arduous to search out fault with the board.
For overclocking, the NZXT N7 Z490 carried out higher than any NZXT board I’ve examined thus far (I’ve owned all of them). Similar to different ASRock fashions, when adjusting the CPU VCore voltage within the firmware, it reverts the LLC profile to degree 1 for tighter and aggressive VDroop management. It feels as if the firmware is not fairly polished to the usual we’d count on for launch – in our guide overclock testing, setting 1.250 V within the firmware at 4.eight GHz, all cores gave us a load VCore of 1.384 V, which is means an excessive amount of. This introduced much more issues at greater overclocks and prompted a whole lot of downclocking, which skewed our outcomes, with a potential challenge inside the board’s loadline calibration profile settings. More data on this within the assessment.
The NZXT N7 Z490 has an MSRP of $230, which places it in direct competitors with fashions such because the ASRock Z490 PG Velocita ($235), the GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Elite AC ($220), and the ASUS Prime Z490-A ($230). All of the competing fashions embody assist for quicker reminiscence, extra SATA ports, with the ASUS mannequin providing higher USB 3.2 G2 connectivity. What NZXT has squarely in its favor is a aggressive networking mixture, with a novel and uniformed aesthetic because of the PCB armor, which seems nice. The crux of the matter is whether or not or not the NZXT N7 Z490 steps as much as the problem in our take a look at suite.
Read on…
