Intel

ASUS Z590 ROG MAXIMUS XIII, TUF and PRIME Pictured

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Keeping up with the trend of pictured upcoming boards today, we have initial photos of the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII EXTREME GLACIAL, ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII HERO, ASUS PRIME Z590-A and the ASUS TUF Z590-PLUS WIFI, courtesy of VideoCardz and user harukaze5719 on Twitter. The EXTREM GLACIAL is clearly going to be a gorgeous but extremely expensive board, featuring built in waterblocks. The TUF and PRIME are also very attractive boards with large VRM heatsinks, dual M.2 slots with integrated heatsinks and more. Head on over for a better look at these boards.

GIGABYTE Z490I AORUS ULTRA

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The AORUS line from Gigabyte spans a broad range of products—laptops, peripherals, and core components. Across the enthusiast spectrum, the AORUS name denotes Gigabyte’s gaming-focused products. The AORUS motherboard range features a consistent naming scheme that includes the Pro, Elite, Ultra, Master, and Extreme motherboards. Within this line up, the Master serves as the high-end mainstream option offering prime features at a high, but attainable price point.

The Gigabyte Z490I AORUS Ultra features a robust VRM utilizing 90 A power stages, along with Q-Flash for a redundant safety net for ambitious overclocking. The Gigabyte Z490I AORUS Ultra also offers a full-coverage aluminium backplate for added rigidity and additional VRM cooling. This little board should pack a punch, so let’s see how the Gigabyte Z490I AORUS Ultra stacks up against the competition.

Read more @ TechPowerUp

GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS XTREME – First Pictures

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Over at VideoCardz, they have a couple photos of the upcoming GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS XTREME. These new 500-series motherboards are expected to launch next week, so this is only the first of many looks we’ll soon be getting with these new motherboards. The board features three PCIe x16 slots, two of which are PCIe Gen 4.0 compatible. Given the 20 lanes expected on Rocket Lake-S, this means we’re looking at a likely 1 x16 / 2 x8 PCIe 4.0 bifurcation setup. The board is also sporting three M.2 slots. One would run at PCIe 4.0, the remainder PCIe 3.0. For more, head on over to take a look.

Gigabyte is set to launch its 500-series motherboards next week. The company will refresh its Aorus Xtreme motherboard by adding more power stages and faster Wi-Fi.

The Z590 Aorus Xtreme motherboard features 20+1 digital power stages, which is more than the Z490 series which features 16+1. The motherboard is equipped with advanced networking such as 1x 10Gbe and 1×2.5 Gbe Ethernet ports, Thunderbolt 4, and Wifi 6E (a new standard that operates in a 6 GHz band).

– VideoCardz

GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS MASTER

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The GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Master is a very capable board for overclocking with its solid 14-phase power delivery for the CPU. It uses premium 90 A power stages, with adequate VRM cooling, which we saw in our thermal testing. The GIGABYTE performs better in this regard than most Z490 models we’ve tested, and when it came to testing the overclocks, we saw very tight VDroop control. There are plenty of potentials to unlock with the Z490 Aorus Master, not just for the CPU but also in memory, with official support for DDR4-5000 memory. 

Read more @ AnandTech

Intel Discontinues 300-Series Chipsets

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Intel isn’t slow to pull the curtain down on its products when replacements are waiting in the wings. Last month, the company discontinued its entire 9th-gen Coffee Lake Refresh line, including the still-excellent Core i9-9900K. Its predecessor, the 8th-gen Coffee Lake CPUs, were discontinued in June 2020.

The announcement comes just before the start of CES 2021 next week, where Intel will likely reveal its 500-series motherboards. These feature an LGA1200 socket, so both the 10th-gen Comet Lake-S and upcoming 11th-gen Rocket Lake-S chips are supported.

Read more @ TechSpot

MSI MEG Z490 UNIFY

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The MEG Z490 Unify, built around the LGA1200 socket and Intel’s Z490 chipset for its mainstream desktop CPUs, features an almost entirely black color scheme, with the only traces of contrasting color coming from capacitors and power phases on the board and the steel-reinforced PCI Express slots. If you’ve looked at motherboards over the last few years, it may come off a bit flat for your tastes.

Read more @ PC Magazine

BIOSTAR Racing Z490GTN

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Biostar is a familiar brand in the lower end of the price segment for Mini-ITX boards. The Racing Z490GTN is the company’s answer for anyone looking to build a compact system with 10th and 11th Gen Intel processors. It makes good use of Intel’s Z490 chipset, though you will notice some omissions compared to premium full-sized boards.

The Racing Z490GTN came in at $200 at launch, though you can easily find one for much less. The price is a little high even though it rocks the Z490 chipset. It’s possible to find a Mini-ITX for a little less if you are on a strict budget and don’t mind slightly downgrading to the Intel B460 chipset.

Read more @ Windows Central

NZXT N7 Z490

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The NZXT N7 Z490 is based on Intel’s Z490 Express chipset and supports all current LGA 1200 (10th generation) Intel CPU’s. It utilizes a 4-layer PCB and sports a 10-phase power design which we’ll talk about shortly. The motherboard is somewhat stripped feature-wise. That being said, it does offer a couple of things such as 2.5GbE LAN and WiFi 6 support. 

Read more @ The FPS Review

Z590 Motherboards – PCIe 4.0 Compatible w/11th Gen CPUs Only

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While perhaps not a surprise, by way of WCCFTech we’ve learned that multiple Z590 motherboards are noting that PCIe 4.0 support for GPUs and M.2 devices is limited to 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S CPUs. This will come with great disappointment for 10th Gen owners, limited to PCIe 3.0 lanes without upgrading their CPU.

As per the previously leaked information which covered all Intel Rocket Lake SKUs, the lineup will consist of Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 chips. The rest of the lineup which includes Core i3, Pentium & Celeron series will not offer PCIe Gen 4.0 support and will retain Gen 3.0 compliancy since they are part of the Comet Lake family. Only Intel’s Rocket Lake CPUs have the architectural upgrades necessary to support PCIe Gen 4.0.

– WCCFTech

Intel 500 Series Chipset Logos, Info Revealed

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Over at VideoCardz, they’ve posted some information on the forthcoming Intel 500 series of chipsets for the Rocket Lake-S platform. We have logos for the Z590, B560, and H510. They also have a slide outlining some key details of the 500 series. To start things off, 4 new PCIe lanes have been added to the CPU, upping the count to 20 similar to Zen 3. We also, finally, have an update to PCIe 4.0 for these 20 CPU lanes, allowing for support of PCIe 4 M.2 storage devices, as well as a direct PCIe 4.0 x16 GPU connection.

The DMI bus between the CPU and the chipset is now x8, doubling the bandwidth available currently to 64Gb/s each way. The 500 series chipsets themselves support additional PCIe lanes, as you’d expect, but they’re still limited to PCIe 3.0. That’ll do the job, but it’s a hit against the platform vs the full PCIe 4.0 support of the the AMD X570. Some other information notes increased DDR4 speeds. One would assume this means DDR4-3200, but time will tell. As will the “new overclocking features”. Head on over to read more.