Review: Z590 Aorus Master

by Tarinder Sandhu on 15 February 2021, 14:01

Tags: AORUS, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

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Conclusion

...the 18-phase CPU power supply is barely tickled at stock and unruffled when overclocking.

Aorus knows it has to release a number of Z590 boards because Intel retains commanding market share in the consumer desktop market. Focussing on the key changes over the Z490 Master, power delivery is beefed up further, there's improvements in connectivity and networking, mostly from the chipset, whilst the rest is kept similar - why change a formula that works?

Power consumption remains high as the Aorus BIOS pushes the Core i9-10900K all the way up to an all-core 4.9GHz by default. Even so, the 18-phase CPU power supply is barely tickled at stock and unruffled when overclocking.

It's a shame the topmost M.2 slot is rendered unusable with anything other than an 11th Gen CPU, leaving two, but there's little else to criticise for what is a good example of a premium Intel motherboard.

We shall really know the Z590 Aorus Master's worth once the Core i9-11900K is in the socket, but for now, it has enough over the previous model to be of genuine interest to the well-heeled enthusiast looking forward to a premium build in 2021.

The Good
  
The Bad
Excellent power supply
10G Ethernet
Dual BIOS
USB 3.2 2x2
Good temps all round

  
Top M.2 inoperable with 10th Gen CPU
A touch expensive


Z590 Aorus Master

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TBC.

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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



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Posted by will19565 - Mon 15 Feb 2021 14:16
I wish more manufacturers would start replacing Type-A USB ports with Type-C ports
Posted by LSG501 - Mon 15 Feb 2021 14:24
will19565
I wish more manufacturers would start replacing Type-A USB ports with Type-C ports
I literally have two things that uses a usb c connections and that's my phone and tablet, neither of which physically attach to my pc and the only use of the port is for charging….

On my pc front, not one single item has a usb c connection (although an external ssd I'm eyeing will have support) and in the case of my mouse/keyboard/3d connexion (all wireless dongles and no support for bluetooth) don't even have the option of using usb c, hell I don't know of any usb c wireless adapters full stop…

The hardware we use needs to catch up or support usb c sockets before adding more usb c slots. In all honesty on a pc backpanel, where majority of the time the ports are permanently used, I doubt it makes much difference to the user to go from a usb a to a usb c via the cable.
Posted by Iota - Mon 15 Feb 2021 17:22
LSG501
I literally have two things that uses a usb c connections and that's my phone and tablet, neither of which physically attach to my pc and the only use of the port is for charging….

On my pc front, not one single item has a usb c connection (although an external ssd I'm eyeing will have support) and in the case of my mouse/keyboard/3d connexion (all wireless dongles and no support for bluetooth) don't even have the option of using usb c, hell I don't know of any usb c wireless adapters full stop…

The hardware we use needs to catch up or support usb c sockets before adding more usb c slots. In all honesty on a pc backpanel, where majority of the time the ports are permanently used, I doubt it makes much difference to the user to go from a usb a to a usb c via the cable.

I have two USB Type-C ports, one back panel and one on my case. The back one is in permanent use for an external M.2 NVMe drive, the front one gets used for phone / iPad (same cable). Until mouse / keyboard / dongles all start using the extra bandwidth available with the Type-C I just can't see the need for more ports, I'd also be annoyed at losing USB 2/3 ports as most of mine are in use to the extent I actually use the passthrough on my monitor for my xbox controller dongle.
Posted by DevDrake - Mon 15 Feb 2021 18:56
will19565
I wish more manufacturers would start replacing Type-A USB ports with Type-C ports
chicken/egg problem, we are not getting more USB C the devices that uses double sided USB C connector are few. I got USB C in my phone, but still cable is USB A to USB C.
it would be good if at some point we change all the cables and ports to USB C connector but I guess people dont care that much about that.
anyway, decent number of USB ports, nice mobo, price over the top.
Posted by LSG501 - Tue 16 Feb 2021 01:35
Iota
I have two USB Type-C ports, one back panel and one on my case. The back one is in permanent use for an external M.2 NVMe drive, the front one gets used for phone / iPad (same cable). Until mouse / keyboard / dongles all start using the extra bandwidth available with the Type-C I just can't see the need for more ports, I'd also be annoyed at losing USB 2/3 ports as most of mine are in use to the extent I actually use the passthrough on my monitor for my xbox controller dongle.

Honestly I'm starting to get to the point where I'm using even less usb sockets on my actual pc….

I don't use one of my printers these days and the my other one is a multifunction one and can use wifi (not that I use that much either), my scanner is basically redundant due to the wifi print/scanner, I have a hub built into my screen where I can plug my dongles for mouse etc, so can run from just one usb cable from the pc. I'm moving away from usb hard drives to just nas storage so my pc could literally run on power, sound, display, ethernet and 1 usb at the back if I wanted it to. I can connect up to my tablet/phone via apps and wifi so they don't even need to be connected to the pc.

Always handy for the front ports for usb drives though as it's a quick plug in point, reaching round the back of the pc can get annoying lol.

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