Review: Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi

by Tarinder Sandhu on 16 April 2021, 14:01

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

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Conclusion

...the improvement in specifications more than makes up for the price uptick.

It is usual for motherboard manufacturers to increase the price of boards from one generation to the next, even if the socket and general CPU support remains largely unaffected.

Asus duly does this with the Z590-E Gaming WiFi, now costing £330, but the improvement in specifications more than makes up for the price uptick.

Dual 2.5G Ethernet, class-leading WiFi, improved audio, four M.2 slots - two of which are PCIe 4.0 - 20Gbps USB, and heightened power delivery are all positive points. In fact, there's little reason to spend more than this as there's little scope to overclock 11th Gen chips further.

We're not fans of the head-inducing shield display and Z590 has a limited shelf life, but if you want to buy a high-quality board for 10th/11th Gen Core desktop processors right now, the Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi is a fine choice. Recommended.

The Good
  
The Bad
Excellent networking
Four M.2 slots
Good cooling
VRM overkill
USB 3.2 2x2

  
That blurry display


Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi

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TBC.

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HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Posted by Iota - Fri 16 Apr 2021 16:42
If you do choose to run both PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, the graphics card's lane width has to be manually adjusted in the BIOS to x8 - all lanes come from the CPU. If you don't, the secondary M.2 slot doesn't show up. On a better note, the two PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots have the rather good Q-Latch connector that locks them into place without the need to fiddle with tiny screws.

So is this a limitation of the amount of PCIe lanes, or is it a case of Asus has added more M.2 slots than can be supported all at once?
Posted by philehidiot - Fri 16 Apr 2021 19:53
Given the demise of Crossfire and SLI for any real mainstream or even general high end use, these mobos seem to be shipping with PCI-e slots which just aren't going to be used.
Posted by wazzickle - Sat 17 Apr 2021 09:22
philehidiot
Given the demise of Crossfire and SLI for any real mainstream or even general high end use, these mobos seem to be shipping with PCI-e slots which just aren't going to be used.

Another reason that ITX is the future.
Posted by MrJim - Sat 17 Apr 2021 10:01
philehidiot
Given the demise of Crossfire and SLI for any real mainstream or even general high end use, these mobos seem to be shipping with PCI-e slots which just aren't going to be used.

I think there are still plenty of applications for high-bandwidth PCIe slots - high resolution capture cards or additional NVMe M.2 adapter cards, for example. Of course not everyone needs such expansion, but that's why there are different form-factor motherboards :)