Last year, AMD released the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors in one of the most monumental hardware launches of the modern era. This final step completed the Red brand’s ascent back into the forefront of the desktop processor market that began with the launch of the first generation of Ryzen CPUs.
With the Ryzen 3000 launch in 2019 came the AMD X570 chipset. Featuring PCIe 4.0 support, X570 was an impressive leap from generations past. It was also hot, with motherboards often including chipset cooling fans, and, more significantly, expensive. The high cost of the chipset increased the average cost of X570 motherboards considerably over previous generations.
While AMD has done a great job of maintaining motherboard compatibility with new generation processors, none of the previous-generation AM4 motherboards featured official PCIe 4.0 support, not even for the storage and PCIe controlled by PCIe 4.0 compatible CPUs. Enter B550, the more value-oriented little brother of X570. While the B550 chipset is PCIe 3.0 only, B550 motherboards support PCIe 4.0 from the CPU to the primary PCIe slot as well as the primary M.2 slot (dependent on a PCIe 4.0 ready CPU). With PCIe 4.0 support also came increased cost. PCIe 4.0 devices are still rare in 2021, so for those on a budget, the tried and true B450 chipset is the way to go. What B450 lacks in cutting-edge features it makes up for in value.
The ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming II features a robust VRM cooling solution and a 8+4 VRM design. BIOS flashback has also been included, as well as ASUS’s excellent BIOS designed to provide an optimal, stress-free overclocking experience. The ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming II is even compatible with the latest Ryzen 5000 series processors. All of this performance is bundled into a sleek, modern package that comes in at less than US$150.
Let’s take a closer look at what the ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming II has to offer.
Specifications
Specifications
CPU Support:
AMD AM4 Socket for AMD Ryzen™ 5000 Series/ 4000 G-Series/ 3rd/2nd/1st Gen
1x RJ45 Ethernet port 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 USB Type-C® 1x BIOS FlashBack™ Button 1x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port 1x DisplayPort 1x HDMI 2x USB 2.0 1x Optical S/PDIF out 5x Audio jacks
Audio:
1x Realtek ALC1220A Codec
Fan Headers:
6x 4-pin
Form Factor:
ATX Form Factor: 12.0 in x 9.6 in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm
I would like to thank Fractal Design for supplying the review sample.
Today, we are reviewing the Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact. As the name implies, it a shorter and thus smaller variant of the original Meshify 2. Fractal Design is following the same MO by taking the tooling and frame of the Define 7 Compact and adding the Meshify exterior with its front mesh design and airflow-focused top panel. You may still pick between several different colors and even grades of tint for the glass window. For the review of the Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact, we received the gray variant, which is also a first for us.
Fractal Design’s Meshify 2 Compact offers an excellent foundation for thermally demanding ATX gaming systems. And although it’s a bit expensive, it’s a very well thought-through chassis that ships with three good fans.
For
Thoughtful interior and classy design
Ships with three quality fans
Great cable management
Excellent thermal performance
Easy filter access for cleaning
Against
Strong competition
Materials could be better
Sticky power button (at least on our sample)
Fans don’t have PWM control
No RGB (a pro, for some)
Specifications and Features
When Fractal Design launched its Meshify 2 chassis, it impressed us so much that we had no choice but to award it a rare five stars. So you can imagine that I was quite excited when the company reached out asking if I wanted to review the new Meshify 2 Compact. In essence, it’s the same case but a little shorter, cutting back on the extreme storage or radiator setup possibilities, but offering the same basic design.
Because of this, the Meshify 2 Compact is arguably the more mainstream case suited to standard ATX setups that don’t need a ton of space – the vast majority of gaming systems. However, priced at $110, it’s not the most budget-friendly option, and it’s competing in a crowded segment. Let’s find out if Fractal Design has what it takes to earn yet another spot on our Best PC Cases list.
Specifications
Type
Mid-Tower ATX
Motherboard Support
Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX
Dimensions (HxWxD)
18.7 x 8.3 x 16.8 inches (474 x 210 x 427 mm)
Max GPU Length
14.2 inches (360 mm)
CPU Cooler Height
6.7 inches (169 mm)
Max PSU Length
6.5 inches (165 mm)
External Bays
✗
Internal Bays
2x 3.5-inch
2x 2.5-inch
Expansion Slots
7x
Front I/O
2x USB 3.0, USB-C, 3.5 mm Headphone, 3.5mm Mic
Other
(Removable) Tempered Glass Panel
Front Fans
2x 140mm (Up to 2x 140mm, 3x 120mm)
Rear Fans
1x 120mm (Up to 1x 120mm)
Top Fans
None (Up to 2x 140mm)
Bottom Fans
None (Up to 1x 120mm)
Side Fans
✗
RGB
No
Damping
No
Warranty
1 Year
Features
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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For this review, I asked Fractal Design to send us the gray option as I was curious to see how this color option would turn out. We had already seen the black color on the full-size Meshify 2, and white wasn’t available just yet.
Circling around the case, it’s immediately clear that this is a Fractal Design chassis – if not from the ‘Fractal’ text on the front mesh’s door handle, you can tell from the folds in the mesh and the grille pattern that’s also unique to Fractal Design.
The sheet metal isn’t particularly thick, nor is this a heavy case. If you’re after a tank-type case, perhaps the Lian Li Lancool II Mesh is more up your alley. But the thin sheet metal here is only really noticed when you’re handling the case. Once sat in place, the Meshify 2 Compact looks like a quality piece of kit and the design efforts stand out beautifully.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
That being said, Fractal Design goes out of its way to make the case look good, almost to a fault. At the top IO, you’ll note that the tolerances between the removable top panel and the ports and buttons is extremely tight. This looks great, and for the ports it isn’t an issue, but it’s a little bit problematic on the power button. Our sample had a sticky power button. If you pressed it near the top, the button would get stuck in the down position – and yes, it did shut down our PC when we weren’t paying attention.
We didn’t experience this issue with the bigger Meshify 2, so it’s very possible that it’s something down to our sample. But if you have the same issue, don’t hesitate to ask Fractal Design for a fix . A sticking power button shouldn’t happen with any case, especially not one that costs $110.
Otherwise, top IO comprises discrete headphone and mic jacks, a USB Type-C port, and two USB 3.0 ports – all very complete.
To pull off the side panels, you simply pull them from the rear tab and take them off the case – it’s that easy. With that, we move on to the case’s internals.
Internal Layout
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When it comes to the interior layout of the Meshify 2 Compact, there’s very little worth mentioning – it’s all very industry standard with a main motherboard compartment with room for GPUs up to 13.4 inches (341 mm) long with the front fans installed (14.2 inches, or 360 mm without), CPU coolers up to 6.7-inches (169 mm) tall, two 3.5-inch drives in the PSU compartment and two 2.5-inch drives behind the motherboard tray.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
What I also appreciate is the cable management system. The case comes with rubber grommets on almost all access points to the main compartment, which goes a long way to making things look tidy on the inside by hiding the clutter behind the motherboard tray.
Cooling
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
You can fit up to a 240mm AIO at the top of the case, along with up to a 360mm AIO at the front. The PSU shroud will be in the way of longer radiators on the intake, but it has removable pieces to make space for bigger coolers. Just note that if you do install a large radiator at the front, you’ll have to bump the HDD tray to make space. That said, 280mm radiators will fit fine without this sacrifice.
Of course, the Meshify 2 Compact’s strength is in cooling. The chassis comes from the factory with two 140mm fans on the intake and one 120mm fan at the rear exhaust, which is very complete indeed. That’s more than most cases, but it should be for $110.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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Filtration is provided on every possible intake location, including the top exhaust. The front filter is easily removed by swinging the door open, pulling it out of its hinge, and then removing the filter. You can access the top filter by pulling off the top panel from the rear.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Another detail we appreciate is the bottom filter, as it’s removable from the front of the case. If you’re like us and have the back of your PC stuck near a wall, you know how annoying it can be to have to move the entire chassis to get to the PSU’s filter.
Last year, AMD released the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors in one of the most monumental hardware launches of the modern era. This final step completed the Red brand’s ascent back into the forefront of the desktop processor market that began with the launch of the first generation of Ryzen CPUs. Now, while Intel prepares to fire back with the launch of the 11th Generation Intel Core processors, we take a look at a less common specification of the forward-compatible 400 series.
While the 10th Gen Intel Core processors did not support PCIe 4.0 connectivity due to signal integrity issues, many of the 400 motherboards are designed to support the PCIe 4.0 specification. This is accomplished by adding clock generators to help clean up the signal. Generally speaking, when it comes to long-term platform support, AMD has been the trendsetter. Has AMD’s long support of the AM4 socket on its newer generation processors inspired Intel to take similar steps?
So what is the 400 series offering right now? For starters, there has been a large focus on VRM and VRM cooling design. With the top-level Intel Core i9-10900K featuring ten cores along with HyperThreading, the ability to deliver clean, continuous power is going to be one of the primary factors that separates a good 400 series board from the competition. With the introduction of HyperThreading on Intel’s mid-range line-up, power delivery is going to be vital in all segments.
The Vision line from Gigabyte targets content creators with a focus on connectivity, performance, and durability. The Gigabyte W480 Vision D features a direct 12-phase VRM for clean power delivery, as well as a direct-touch heatpipe for optimal cooling. An ample helping of USB ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and 2.5 Gb/s Ethernet promote superior connectivity while the white aesthetic lends visual flare. The W480 chipset supports Xeon W and ECC memory at the cost of locked down CPU overclocking.
Let’s take a look at the Gigabyte W480 Vision D and see how it stacks up against its Z490 counterparts!
Specifications
Specifications
CPU Support:
Intel 10th Gen or later Core processors Intel Xeon W series processors
1x DisplayPort In port 2x Thunderbolt™ 3 connectors 1x HDMI port 2x SMA antenna connectors 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports 2x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 2x RJ-45 ports 1x optical S/PDIF Out connector 5x audio jacks
Lian Li might be enjoying the fullest success of its existing case lineup, but the company isn’t sitting idly by. Today, Lian Li is unveiling four new cases in its 2021 Expo, which is set to kick off in a couple hours. Meanwhile, we’ve got a few pictures and details about the cases they’re about to show off, so we’re bringing those to you early. So without further ado, let’s dig in:
All-new O11D Evo
(Image credit: Lian Li)
The O11D Evo is meant to slot in as an airflow-optimized version of the original O11 Dynamic, bringing features to the table that the O11D XL such as rear exhaust, RGB lighting, and better cooling, but at the same footprint and similar dimensions of the ‘regular-sized’ O11D. It will support up to E-ATX motherboards, GPUs up to 445mm long, PSUs up to 200mm in length, and a plethora of storage options. Of course, being a case built for cooling, fan and radiator support is ample too.
Of course, we’re really looking forward to this case. One of the things we liked about the O11D Mini is that it did away with the painted steel exterior panels and replaced them for aluminum, and the same is coming to the O11D Evo — the top and side panels are either made of glass or aluminum for a much more premium finish, and supposedly better airflow as the panels themselves are said to act as the air filters.
SFX Goodness: A4-H20
(Image credit: Lian Li)
Built in collaboration with the community-born DAN-cases, the A4-H20 brings a much-needed update to the Dan A4 case. This one supports 240mm radiators along with 2.7-slot GPUs up to 315mm long — and that’s big news for a case that’s only 10.4 liters in size.
But Wait, More SFX Joy: The All-New Q58
(Image credit: Lian Li)
If you’re not dead-set on an absolutely tiny enclosure, but still want something small, capable, and pretty, the Q58 might be for you. At 14.3 liters in volume, it’s still a small case, but it’s capable of housing GPUs up to 320 mm long next to the mesh intake on the side for great cooling, and you can fit up to a 280mm radiator for cooling the CPU. With a half-glass half-mesh intake on the side, RGB, machined aluminum front panel, this is a case that appears to strike a great balance between looks and cooling, and we can’t wait to get it on the test bench.
Some Full-Tower Love Too: V3000+
(Image credit: Lian Li)
But of course, there’s always a crowd that wants full-tower cases. For them, Lian Li is updating the V3000 into the V3000+. The V3000 isn’t exactly old dating back to 2017, but it’s looks are tad out of date with today’s trends and we can see the potential for an update. This is a massive full-tower case that will house two systems, two power supplies, GPUs up to 420mm in length, up to 16 hard drives or 19 SSDs, and of course there’s a plethora of tempered glass, venting, and classy but subtle RGB accents with a remote control.
Full Details Coming Soon
At this time, this is all the information we have. The Expo is premiering in a few hours, so be sure to tune in.
MSI dropped some bombs today during the transmission of its MSI Insider Show. In addition to revealing the pricing for its B560 and H510 motherboards, the company the also teased its upcoming MEG Z590 Unify/Unify-X motherboards for Rocket Lake-S processors.
MSI’s Unify series of motherboards are recognized for two main traits. They arrive with a pure black design that lacks RGB lighting (for those that hate RGB), and they’re also heavy on overclocking features. As anticipated, MSI will be bringing the MEG Z590 Unify and Unify-X motherboards to exploit Intel’s Rocket Lake-S chips. The pair of motherboards are like manna from heaven for enthusiasts that require more connectivity than what the MEG Z590I Unify has to offer.
Adhering to the standard ATX form factor, the MEG Z590 Unify and Unify-X share identical specifications, except for the number of memory slots. The Unify-X will only come with two DDR4 memory slots that will ultimately help with memory overclocking, given the shorter traces.
MEG Z590 Unify (Image credit: MSI)
Made to compete with the best motherboards, both Unify motherboards exploit a 16-phase power delivery subsystem with power stages rated for 90A each. A pair of 8-pin EPS power connectors are present to feed the processor with more juice than it can handle. MSI didn’t touch too much on the memory slots, but we expect the motherboards to easily support all of the best RAM, including memory modules faster than DDR4-5000.
Despite being overclocking-oriented, the MEG Z590 Unify and Unify-X aren’t short on other features either. The storage options include six normal SATA III connectors, three PCIe 4.0 x4 slots and one PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. Since multi-GPU setups are a thing of the past, the Unify motherboards only come with one PCIe 4.0 x16 expansion slot.
With Rocket Lake-S, you basically have 20 high-speed PCIe 4.0 lanes at your disposal. The Unify motherboards’ layout allows you to manage the PCIe 4.0 x16 expansion slot in two ways. If you decide to limit the PCIe 4.0 x16 expansion slot to x8, it opens up the opportunity for you to run the three M.2 slots at PCIe 4.0 x4. On the flipside, if you rather have your expansion slot at x16, you’ll be limited to one M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 slot.
The Unify motherboards’ other attributes include 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet networking, Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, Lightning USB 20G (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2) port and MSI’s Audio Boost 5 technology.
Razer’s Tomahawk takes an excellent case as foundation and bolts on some basic design flaws, ruining a case design that could otherwise have been brilliant
For
Absolute tank of a chassis
Heavy, quality materials
Quiet operation
Great looks
Against
Restricted front intake
Air doesn’t flow through front intake filter
Only includes one fan
Thermally abysmal
Features and Specifications
When Razer announced its Tomahawk ATX chassis, the first thing that stood out to me is that it appeared to carry the same internals as the Lian Li Lancool II Mesh, a case that we awarded full marks. As such, the Tomahawk ATX is off to a good start, but there’s one big elephant in the room that we must address before we continue: this Razer chassis, despite the same foundations, costs a mighty $200 – twice the price of Lian Li’s excellence.
Therefore, when Razer offered to send a sample, I was very curious to find out where the added $100 went. So without further ado, let’s find out whether the Tomahawk ATX is actually worth its price tag and deserving of a spot on our Best PC Cases list, or whether you should save yourself some money and opt for the excellent Lancool II Mesh instead.
Specifications
Type
Mid-Tower ATX
Motherboard Support
Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATX (280 mm)
Dimensions (HxWxD)
18.7 x 9.3 x 19.5 inches (475 x 235 x 494 mm)
Max GPU Length
15.1 inches (384 mm)
CPU Cooler Height
6.9 inches (176 mm)
Max PSU Length
8.3 inches (210 mm)
External Bays
✗
Internal Bays
3x 3.5-inch
2x 2.5-inch
Expansion Slots
7x
Front I/O
2x USB 3.0
3.5 mm Headphone
3.5mm Mic
Other
2x (Removable) Tempered Glass Panel
Chroma RGB Controller
Front Fans
None (Up to 2x 140mm, 3x 120mm)
Rear Fans
1x 120mm (Up to 1x 120mm)
Top Fans
None (Up to 2x 140mm)
Bottom Fans
None (Up to 2x 120 mm on PSU shroud)
Side Fans
✗
RGB
Yes, Razer Chroma
Damping
No
Warranty
1 Year
Features
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Circling around the outside of the chassis, it’s clear that Razer opted for a very clean and blocky style. It’s quite appealing really, as paired with the extremely dark-tinted glass panels, the chassis has a heft, power, and mystery to it. This thing does look like a $200 case.
But don’t miss me when I say heft – this is a chonky 30-pound (13.5 kg) boy. I’m not kidding when I say it was a challenge to take out of the box.
Okay, so maybe I’ve been away from the gym too much in this pandemic, but all the 0.8mm thick steel and oceans of tempered glass do give the case a quality feel. It’s built like an absolute tank and that goes a long way toward justifying the price point.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Both the tempered glass panels swing outwards to open up. First, you press them once to click them out, after which you can pull the door away from the magnet – or if you don’t want to get fingerprints on them, just grab the panels from below to pull them out. After opening all the way, you can lift both panels off their hinges.
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And with the hinges, Razer went the extra mile. Whereas the Lancool II has hinges on the outside that kind of look a little cheap, Razer designed a hinge that sits on the inside of the case, giving a much cleaner appearance on the outside – even if it’s at the back of the case.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Front IO comprises USB-C (something that’s an optional extra on the Lancool II Mesh), two USB 3.0 ports, and discrete headphone and mic jacks.
Internal Layout
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Turning to the inside of the chassis, on the motherboard side we find space for up to 280 mm wide E-ATX motherboards, though you’ll have to remove the cable management cover to fit such boards. Standard-width ATX boards fit best. GPUs can be up to 15.1 inches (384 mm) long and CPU coolers up to 176mm tall.
The PSU shroud has a door that’s also magnetically held in place and can flip down for access. Here you’ll find a trio of 3.5-inch caddies that slide out toward you. There’s plenty of space here for large PSUs too, with supported lengths of up to 8.3 inches (210mm).
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Behind the motherboard tray on the other side of the case you’ll find two 2.5-inch drive bays. These can be moved to the top of the PSU shroud if you want to show off pretty SATA SSDs. You’ll also find the cable management space here with three Velcro straps and the Chroma RGB hub. This hub connects to and is powered through an internal USB 2.0 header.
Cooling
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When it comes to cooling, I suspect things are going to get interesting with the Tomahawk ATX – and I don’t mean that in a good way.
Starting with the good stuff, the case has plenty of room for fans and radiators. You can fit up to two 140mm spinners at the top, two 140mm spinners at the front (or three 120mm units in both cases), two 120mm fans on top of the PSU shroud, and one 120mm spinner at the rear exhaust location. There’s also lots of radiator space in here.
Where things go sour is in the intake design and the included fans – or rather, lack thereof. From the factory, Razer only includes a single 120mm fan, and it isn’t even PWM controlled, nor does it feature any RGB. This isn’t the kind of skimping you expect to see on a $200 case.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
That being said, we’ve proved in the past that cases can get away with a single fan, right? Well, yes, but only if the intake is open mesh – which it isn’t here. As you can see in the images above, the front intake for the Tomahawk ATX is severely restricted, with an attempt at filtration behind the already tight perforation on the front edges.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To make matters worse, the case also has a shortcut that air can take around this intake – at the bottom handhold to pull the front panel off. As such, the Tomahawk ATX doesn’t have any real airflow path, nor proper intake filtration – this system will get dirty on the inside faster than other cases.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Fortunately the power supply does have a good air filter, so you won’t need to tear it apart for cleanup jobs.
Update: The original listing for the PSU is sold out. It is available from another seller on NewEgg here for $330 instead. Original Article below:
Using GPUs for mining cryptocurrency, especially Ethereum, is currently witnessing an intense flare-up, and manufacturers are coming out with all sorts of devices to make it easier. In that light of that, EVGA’s new power supply is just what you need to set up a lavish mining rig, packing a 1300 W power rating and including cables for up to six GPUs, as spotted by Vortez.
Of course, EVGA isn’t being loud about the launch — there was no announcement or press release. Rather, the unit just appeared on NewEgg, seemingly out of nowhere, but I guess this is logical: companies that come out with mining hardware aren’t exactly popular right now. The PSU also isn’t listed on EVGA’s website either.
The power supply comes with an 80-plus Gold rating, is fully modular, and has all the protection mechanisms we’d expect from a modern power supply including over-voltage protection, short-circuit protection, over-temperature protection, and a few more.
(Image credit: NewEgg)
The actual 12V stable power output is rated at 1296 W, which is not a figure to scoff at. Included cabling comprises a single 4+4 pin cable for the CPU (because mining rigs don’t need much CPU power), an ATX power cable, and some molex and SATA power cables.
Meanwhile, it’s not exactly clear how many GPU cables the power supply comes with. Newegg’s page suggests twelve 6+2 pin and six 6-pin power cables for your GPUs, but the image shows six cables with a 6+2 pin and 6 pin configuration — either way, enough for six GPUs.
The included warranty is surprisingly good with 3 years on parts and two years on labor — I’d have expected less given that buyers of this power supply are likely to run it at near-full power much more than most PSUs conventionally would.
The PSU is currently in stock for a price of $330.
Does This Mining Craze Upset You Too? You’re Not Alone
Of course, this is all bad news for gamers, who would rather not see crypto reach these levels of popularity and want the ability to purchase graphics cards at somewhat normal prices. The GPU situation was already bad before the new crypto bubble, and this makes matters even worse.
In recent years, several representatives from PC case companies have told us that mini-ITX cases are a niche, without enough interest to be worth heavily investing in. Yet oddly, over that same period, more and more companies seem to be churning out these compact small form-factor (SFF) chassis.
The latest entry into the mini-ITX case space is the Meshlcious, from Ssupd (Sunny side up design), a new spinoff brand from Lian Li. As you might guess by the name, the Meshlicious is all about mesh–or nearly, as the case ships with one tempered-glass side panel, which can be attached to either the GPU or CPU side of the case. It will also be available in either black or white. Our review unit arrived dressed in black.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
At 14.17 x 9.65 x 6.55 inches, the Meshlicious is similar in size to the Jonsbo A4 case we used for the
RGBaby build
last year (the A4 is 13.39 x 10.75 x 6.65 inches), and much smaller than the last ITX case I built in,
Asus’ ROG Z11
(20.9 x 7.6 x 15.2 inches) pictured above. At $119 (MSRP) the Meshlicious is also much cheaper than either of those cases, while offering up lots of versatility (within the confines of its 14.67 liter volume), as well as a riser cable for showing off your graphics card. To help keep your components cool, it has mesh covering four of its six sides (or five if you spend $30 on a second mesh side panel to replace the glass side that ships in the box). As I found during testing, though, you’ll probably want to add at least one front intake fan.
Despite its small size, the Meshlicious supports graphics cards up to 12.6 inches and four-slots thick, thanks to a motherboard tray that can be slid forward or back to make room for thick cards. Just note that, as with all cases this small, there are a whole lot of limitations due to space constraints. Installing a long graphics card limits space for SATA storage, for instance. And while you can use a full-size ATX power supply, you may want to opt for a modular SFX PSU just so that there’s less excess cabling to hide. There’s really nowhere to hide excess bulky power cables.
Specifications
Type
Mid-ITX Tower
Motherboard Support
Mini-ITX
Dimensions (HxWxD, vertical orientation)
14.17 x 9.65 x 6.55 inches (360 x 245 x 166.4mm)
Max GPU Length
12.6 inches (320 mm)
CPU Cooler Height
2.87 inches (73mm) with 3-slot GPU, 2.09 inches (53 mm) with 4-slot GPU
External Bays
✗
Internal Bays
Up to 2x 3.5-inch and 3x 2.5-inch with SFF GPU, or 3x 2.5-inch with full-length GPU
Expansion Slots
1x
Front I/O
1x USB 3 Type-A, 1x USB-C
Other
Tempered Glass Side Panel
Front Fans
None (2x 120/140mm supported)
Rear Fans
None
Top Fans
None
Bottom Fans
None
Weight
8.16 pounds (3.7 kg)
Warranty
?
Panels Galore
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Working in the Meshlicious is fairly easy for an SFF chassis, thanks to its easily removable panels. Every side save for the bottom has one, and by default, all are mesh except for one side which is tempered glass with a moderate tint. As noted earlier, you can pop that glass side on either the motherboard side or the graphics card side, depending on which you want to show off.
Metal push pins hold all the sides on, and they stay on snugly and pop off with ease. This is a mechanism I wish more case makers would use, though I’m sure it works much better with small panels than it would with large full-ATX towers. The case and side panels are all steel (save for the glass panel) and reasonably thick and rigid. Nothing feels cheap or flimsy, which is nice given the case’s relatively low price for an ITX chassis.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
With the side panels off, the Meshlicious becomes a minimal shell, housing a PCIe 3.0/4.0 riser cable for vertically mounting your graphics card, and a few cables for the top-panel connections. (The $119 version we tested has a PCIe 3.0 cable, but a $159 version with a PCIe 4.0 cable will also be available.)
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Speaking of the top ports, things are fairly minimal (like the rest of the case’s design), with one USB 3 Type-A port and one Type-C. There’s no real need for an audio jack in a case this small, given that the audio ports around back are inches away from the front, and will generally deliver better audio than external ports would anyway.
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The included accessories are also minimal, and include a bracket for mounting SATA drives, which you’ll need to leave in the box if using a long graphics card — as I did for this build. Also included is an angled HDMI cable, which you’ll need if using a full-size graphics card, as the Graphics card ports are at the bottom in this layout. The cable I got was quite short at just over three feet (not quite enough to make it to my arm-mounted test monitor), but a company rep told me Ssupd would make a change to include a longer cable (and larger zip ties) on future shipments, although initial versions will likely include what you see above. The zip ties included aren’t nearly big enough to wrangle the excess mess of power cables I encountered with my ATX power supply.
The silver aluminum bar above is a shorter mount for the motherboard tray. You’ll use this if installing a four-slot graphics card, to shift the tray more toward the motherboard side. Keep in mind that doing this also minimizes the cooler clearance, which is also quite limited to begin with. You get 2.87 inches of CPU cooler clearance as standard, which shrinks to 2.09 inches if you make room for a thicker card. That means if you’re using a 4-slot card, there will even be some AIO coolers you’ll need to avoid. As I used a slim Noctua air cooler (more on this below), the limited space here wasn’t an issue.
The 2.5-slot Zotac RTX 2080 Amp Extreme I used fit without adjusting the motherboard tray, but left little room between the side panel and the case fans. So I’d recommend either opting for the mesh panel on the GPU side or moving the motherboard back. 240 or 280 mm radiators (or just 120/140mm fans) are supported in the front for cooling your CPU. But note if adding a fan and radiator, things will likely get very tight, since this is also where your excess power cable slack also needs to go. Even if you just install intake fans here, you may have issues with cables pushing up against your fan blades. So you’ll need to take extra care to keep this from happening.
The case supports either SFX or larger ATX power supplies, although the bracket of an SFX power supply comes pre-installed. And I’d recommend using one of these smaller supplies if at all possible, since it will give you extra space and you’ll likely have less cable slack. I used a modular ATX Seasonic Focus PSU and wound up with a big ugly bundle of cables zip-tied together and no place to hide them.
The Meshlcious supports basically two distinct component layouts, each with a mini-ITX motherboard. You can either use a small-form-factor graphics card mounted horizontally, up to 8.3 inches (or less with a front radiator), or a longer full-sized GPU up to 12.6 inches mounted vertically (which is what I installed). With the former, you can also install a drive rail system for 3.5 or 2.5-inch drives. With averically mounted longer GPU you’re limited to mounting two 2.5-inch drives on the bottom of the case. Rather than go over the full details of possible layouts, here are a couple of diagrams, direct from Ssupd.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The build scenario I went with was a combination of these two, using an air cooler like in the image above, left with a long GPU (below, right).
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Building in the Ssupd Meshlicious
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With the four sides popped off in a matter of seconds, building in the Ssupd Meshlicious was fairly straightforward, at least at first.
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For the sake of simplicity, I carried over the core components from the Asus ROG Z11 case story, including an ROG Strix B550-I Gaming motherboard, an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU, a low-profile Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 chromax.Black CPU cooler, and the aforementioned Zotac RTX 2080 graphics card. We would have loved to upgrade to a Rzyen 5 CPU and a 30-series graphics card. But in case you haven’t noticed, both have been extremely scarce since launch, and for our purposes here, the existing parts work just fine.
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I dropped the motherboard in first, complete with the cooler and RAM. Next I tried to jam the ATX power supply in before realizing the SFX bracket comes pre-installed. I removed that via four screws, then slotted in the Seasonic ATX PSU in the area to the right in the image above. That went without issue, until I realized the GPU riser cable wasn’t fully extended on the other side, and was stuck behind my power supply. So I had to remove the PSU momentarily and secure the PCIe slot near the bottom of the case for the vertical RTX 2080. For smaller cards mounted horizontally, the cable gets mounted near the top.
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That done, I was ready to install the graphics card and the sole SATA SSD for this build, an attractive Team Group T-Force Delta Max RGB model that added some extra RGB to this case that ships without lighting or fans. In this configuration, another 2.5 inch drive can be mounted on the bottom, in a tight spot below the power supply. But for that you’ll need remove the PSU, or install it and connect the cables before installing the power supply. Again, for those who want to install more than two 2.5-inch drives here, you’ll need to use the drive bracket, which necessitates you also use a much shorter graphics card, mounted horizontally. But given many ITX motherboards include two M.2 slots (one often hidden on the back like with our Asus board), plus the ability to install two 2.5 inch drives on the floor of the Meshlicous, that should suffice for most setups. If you’re looking to install lots of storage drives, you probably aren’t also looking for a super compact case.
With everything installed in the Meshlicious,it was instantly clear that I had a bunch of excess cabling, mostly from the power supply, but some from the SATA drive (which also requires a USB cable for its light show). And given that the case is so small, there was no place to effectively hide the mess. Had I installed a radiator and fans in the front and used an SFX PSU with shorter cables, perhaps I could have hidden the cables along the back edge of the radiator. But of course the radiator, pump and fans would have introduced more cabling and taken up a fair amount of space itself.
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For the sake of hitting the launch day on this case, I bunched the cables together hastily with a few zip ties and velcro straps and called it a day. I clearly could have been a bit neater, but with the cables near the CPU/motherboard side of the case, they aren’t all that visible with either the tinted tempered-glass side over the GPU area, and even less so if you opt for using the mesh panel here.
Gaming and Conclusion
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Given that most of the sides on the Meshlicious are mesh, you could get away without adding intake fans for plenty of builds, as I did here. But adding at least one in the front would be a good idea. Either that, or if you’re using a large and powerful GPU, you might want to consider buying a second mesh side panel to replace the glass one — even if just during long gaming sessions. The panel can be popped off and replaced in just a few seconds.
After about a half hour of playing Borderlands 3 at high settings with the glass panel on, the panel got surprisingly hot, which isn’t exactly surprising given how close the fans are to the un-vented side panel. And while you could swap the side panels and put mesh in front of the graphics card, that would mean your glass panel is going to sit right up against the intake of your power supply. I don’t have to tell you that restricted airflow like that — at the very least — isn’t great for the longevity of your PSU.
Moving the motherboard tray back nearly an inch, as noted earlier, could alleviate this issue somewhat, but not if you’re using a graphics card that’s 3 slots or more thick. It would have been nice if Ssupd had included at least one fan to mount in the front, but I can also see why the company didn’t. Most people will likely either want to install a front radiator (which will come with a pair of fans on its own) or use specific fans, be they RGB or, say, quiet and efficient Noctua spinners.
And again, for many more modest builds with graphics card TDPs south of 200 watts, you could likely get by without any added fans. After all, the Meshlicious gets its name from the fact that three of its sides are all mesh by default. Opt for a fourth mesh side panel for an extra $30 and your CPU and GPU coolers shouldn’t have an issue dissipating heat themselves.
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Just don’t expect the Meshlicious to be any quieter than your components of choice, especially if you opt to put the mesh panel in front of your graphics card. Just as small cases like this involve tradeoffs in terms of component support, a mesh-covered case is going to trade some noise for better thermal dissipation. You should always choose your components wisely. But if building in this Ssupd case is your aim, you’ll want to spend extra time making sure your parts will … mesh well with the Meshlicious.
Gigabyte’s Z590 Aorus Tachyon has yet to debut in the U.S. market, but the overclocking-oriented motherboard has already emerged at overseas stores. Tto Austrian retailers, (as spotted via momomo_us), have listed the Z590 Aorus Tachyon for €509 (~$612.59).
Deducting the 20% VAT rate would bring the price down to $510.49, which is around the pricing that we can expect in the U.S. market.
Gigabyte hasn’t uploaded the product page for the Z590 Aorus Tachyon, so a bit of mystery still engulfs the motherboard. Built with overclocking in mind, the Z590 Aorus Tachyon flaunts an overpowered 12+1-phase power delivery subsystem. Gigabyte has confirmed that each phase offer up to 100A, bringing the total power delivery to a whopping 1,300A. The design in addition to the twin 8-pin EPS power connectors will feed even the most power-hungry Intel Rocket Lake-S processors, including the flagship Core i9-11900K.
Adhering to the E-ATX form factor, the Z590 Aorus Tachyon has more than enough landscape to accommodate the tools needed to help elite overclockers break world records. There’s an array of buttons and switches to directly modify the installed processor’s operating frequencies, as well as voltage readouts to get precise measurements.
The Z590 Aorus Tachyon, like other offerings seeking to compete with the best motherboards for overclockers, only comes equipped with two DDR4 RAM slots. However, the slots are placed as close as possible to the CPU socket, allowing for minimum signal noise and interference. This should allow overclockers to hit higher memory frequencies.
The available storage options on the Z590 Aorus Tachyon include six SATA III ports and one or two M.2 ports. We’re unsure about the latter because the huge passive PCH heatsink covers the ports in photos.
As for expansion, the motherboard offers four PCIe x16 expansion slots. Without the specification sheet, however, it’s unknown of they all adhere to the PCIe 4.0 standard, which is one of selling points for Rocket Lake-S CPUs.
The Z590 Aorus Tachyon’s rear panel exposes two buttons. One’s for flashing the motherboard’s firmware, but the function of the other button is unknown.
There are seven USB ports in total, including on USB Type-C port. The motherboard also provides one Ethernet port, as well as wireless connectivity. Keeping it old school, the Z590 Aorus Tachyon even supplies two PS/2 ports for ancient motherboards and mice. For audio, the motherboard has six 3.5mm audio jacks and one optical S/PDIF out connector.
While we still don’t have an Intel Rocket Lake-S Core i9-11900K CPU to use for testing, the Intel Z590 motherboards are arriving in our labs and on store shelves. So while we await the ability to talk benchmarks, we’ll be walking in detail through the features of these brand-new boards. First up on our bench was the ASRock Z590 Steel Legend 6E Wi-Fi, and now we have the Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master to dive into.
The latest version of this premium motherboard line includes an incredibly robust VRM, ultra-fast Wi-Fi and wired networking, premium audio, and more. While we don’t have exact pricing information at the time of this writing, the Z490 version came in just under $400, which is around where we expect the Z590 version to land, if not slightly higher.
Gigabyte’s current Z590 product stack consists of 13 models. There are familiar SKUs and a couple of new ones. Starting with the Aorus line, we have the Aorus Xtreme (and potentially a Waterforce version), Aorus Master, Aorus Ultra, and the Aorus Elite. Gigabyte brings back the Vision boards (for creators) and their familiar white shrouds. The Z590 Gaming X and a couple of boards from the budget Ultra Durable (UD) series are also listed. New for Z590 is the Pro AX board, which looks to slot somewhere in the mid-range. Gigabyte will also release the Z590 Aorus Tachyon, an overbuilt motherboard designed for extreme overclocking.
We’re not allowed to list any performance metrics for Rocket Lake (not that we have a CPU at this time) as the embargo wasn’t up when we wrote this article. All we’ve seen at this point are rumors and a claim from Intel of a significant increase to IPC, but the core count was lowered from 10 cores/20 threads in Comet Lake (i9-10900K) to 8 cores/16 threads in the yet-to-be-released i9-11900K. To that end, we’ll stick with specifications and features, adding a full review that includes benchmarking, overclocking and power consumption shortly.
The Z590 Aorus Master looks the part of a premium motherboard, with brushed-aluminum shrouds covering the PCIe/M.2/chipset area. The VRM heatsink and its NanoCarbon Fin-Array II provide a nice contrast against the smooth finish on the board’s bottom. Along with Wi-Fi 6E integration, it also includes an Aquantia based 10GbE, while most others use 2.5 GbE. The Aorus Master includes a premium Realtek ALC1220 audio solution with an integrated DAC, three M.2 sockets, reinforced PCIe and memory slots and 10 total USB ports, including a rear USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port. We’ll cover those features and much more in detail below. But first, here are full the specs from Gigabyte.
Specifications – Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master
Socket
AM4
Chipset
Z590
Form Factor
ATX
Voltage Regulator
19 Phase (18+1, 90A MOSFETs)
Video Ports
(1) DisplayPort v1.2
USB Ports
(1) USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, Type-C (20 Gbps)
(5) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A (10 Gbps)
(4) USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-A (5 Gbps)
Network Jacks
(1) 10 GbE
Audio Jacks
(5) Analog + SPDIF
Legacy Ports/Jacks
✗
Other Ports/Jack
✗
PCIe x16
(2) v4.0 x16, (x16/x0 or x8/x8
(1) v3.0 x4
PCIe x8
✗
PCIe x4
✗
PCIe x1
✗
CrossFire/SLI
AMD Quad GPU Crossfire and 2-Way Crossfire
DIMM slots
(4) DDR4 5000+, 128GB Capacity
M.2 slots
(1) PCIe 4.0 x4 / PCIe (up to 110mm)
(1) PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe + SATA (up to 110mm)
(1) PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe + SATA (up to 110mm)
U.2 Ports
✗
SATA Ports
(6) SATA3 6 Gbps (RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10)
USB Headers
(1) USB v3.2 Gen 2 (Front Panel Type-C)
(2) USB v3.2 Gen 1
(2) USB v2.0
Fan/Pump Headers
(10) 4-Pin
RGB Headers
(2) aRGB (3-pin)
(2) RGB (4-pin)
Legacy Interfaces
✗
Other Interfaces
FP-Audio, TPM
Diagnostics Panel
Yes, 2-character debug LED, and 4-LED ‘Status LED’ display
Opening up the retail packaging, along with the board, you’re greeted by a slew of included accessories. The Aorus Master contains the basics (guides, driver CD, SATA cables) and a few other things that make this board a complete package. Below is a full list of all included accessories.
Installation Guide
User’s Manual
G-connector
Sticker sheet / Aorus badge
Wi-Fi Antenna
(4) SATA cables
(3) Screws for M.2 sockets
(2) Temperature probes
Microphone
RGB extension cable
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After taking the Z590 Aorus Master out of the box, its weight was immediately apparent, with the shrouds, heatsinks and backplate making up the majority of that weight. The board sports a matte-black PCB, with black and grey shrouds covering the PCIe/M.2 area and two VRM heatsinks with fins connected by a heatpipe. The chipset heatsink has the Aorus Eagle branding lit up, while the rear IO shroud arches over the left VRM bank with more RGB LED lighting. The Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 application handles RGB control. Overall, the Aorus Master has a premium appearance and shouldn’t have much issue fitting in with most build themes.
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
Looking at the board’s top half, we’ll first focus on the VRM heatsinks. They are physically small compared to most boards, but don’t let that fool you. The fin array uses a louvered stacked-fin design Gigabyte says increases surface area by 300% and improves thermal efficiency with better airflow and heat exchange. An 8mm heat pipe also connects them to share the load. Additionally, a small fan located under the rear IO shroud actively keeps the VRMs cool. The fan here wasn’t loud, but was undoubtedly audible at default settings.
We saw a similar configuration in the previous generation, which worked out well with an i9-10900K, so it should do well with the Rocket Lake flagship, too. We’ve already seen reports indicating the i9-11900K has a similar power profile to its predecessor. Feeding power to the VRMs is two reinforced 8-pin EPS connectors (one required).
To the right of the socket, things start to get busy. We see four reinforced DRAM slots supporting up to 128GB of RAM. Oddly enough, the specifications only list support up to DDR4 3200 MHz, the platform’s limit. But further down the webpage, it lists DDR4 5000. I find it odd it is listed this way, though it does set up an expectation that anything above 3200 MHz is overclocking and not guaranteed to work.
Above the DRAM slots are eight voltage read points covering various relevant voltages. This includes read points for the CPU Vcore, VccSA, VccIO, DRAM, and a few others. When you’re pushing the limits and using sub-ambient cooling methods, knowing exactly what voltage the component is getting (software can be inaccurate) is quite helpful.
Above those on the top edge are four fan headers (next to the EPS connectors is a fifth) of 10. According to the manual, all CPU fan and pump headers support 2A/24W each. You shouldn’t have any issues powering fans and a water cooling pump. Gigabyte doesn’t mention if these headers use auto-sensing (for DC or PWM control), but they handled both when set to ‘auto’ in the BIOS. Both a PWM and DC controlled fan worked without intervention.
The first two (of four) RGB LED headers live to the fan headers’ right. The Z590 Aorus Master includes two 3-pin ARGB headers and two 4-pin RGB headers. Since this board takes a minimal approach to RGB lighting, you’ll need to use these to add more bling to your rig.
We find the power button and 2-character debug LED for troubleshooting POST issues on the right edge. Below is a reinforced 24-pin ATX connector for power to the board, another fan header and a 2-pin temperature probe header. Just below all of that are two USB 3.2 Gen1 headers and a single USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C front-panel header for additional USB ports.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Gigabyte chose to go with a 19-phase setup for the Vcore and SOC on the power delivery front. Controlling power is an Intersil ISL6929 buck controller that manages up to 12 discrete channels. The controller then sends the power to ISL6617A phase doublers and the 19 90A ISL99390B MOSFETs. This is one of the more robust VRMs we’ve seen on a mid-range board allowing for a whopping 1,620A available for the CPU. You won’t have any trouble running any compatible CPU, including using sub-ambient overclocking.
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
The bottom half of the board is mostly covered in shrouds hiding all the unsightly but necessary bits. On the far left side, under the shrouds, you’ll find the Realtek ALC1220-VB codec along with an ESS Sabre ESS 9118 DAC and audiophile-grade WIMA and Nichicon Fine Gold capacitors. With the premium audio codec and DAC, an overwhelming majority of users will find the audio perfectly acceptable.
We’ll find the PCIe slots and M.2 sockets in the middle of the board. Starting with the PCIe sockets, there are a total of three full-length slots (all reinforced). The first and second slots are wired for PCIe 4.0, with the primary (top) slot wired for x16 and the bottom maxes out at x8. Gigabyte says this configuration supports AMD Quad-GPU Cand 2-Way Crossfire. We didn’t see a mention of SLI support even though the lane count supports it. The bottom full-length slot is fed from the chipset and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. Since the board does without x1 slots, this is the only expansion slot available if you’re using a triple-slot video card. Anything less than that allows you to use the second slot.
Hidden under the shrouds around the PCIe slots are three M.2 sockets. Unique to this setup is the Aorus M.2 Thermal Guard II, which uses a double-sided heatsink design to help cool M.2 SSD devices with double-sided flash. With these devices’ capacities rising and more using flash on both sides, this is a good value-add.
The top socket (M2A_CPU) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 devices up to 110mm long. The second and third sockets, M2P_SB and M2M_SB, support both SATA and PCIe 3.0 x3 modules up to 110mm long. When using a SATA-based SSD on M2P_SB, SATA port 1 will be disabled. When M2M_SB (bottom socket) is in use, SATA ports 4/5 get disabled.
To the right of the PCIe area is the chipset heatsink with the Aorus falcon lit up with RGB LEDs from below. There’s a total of six SATA ports that support RAID0, 1, 5 and 10. Sitting on the right edge are two Thunderbolt headers (5-pin and 3-pin) to connect to a Gigabyte Thunderbolt add-in card. Finally, in the bottom-right corner is the Status LED display. The four LEDs labeled CPU, DRAM, BOOT and VGA light up during the POST process. If something hangs during that time, the LED where the problem resides stays lit, identifying the problem area. This is good to have, even with the debug LED at the top of the board.
Across the board’s bottom are several headers, including more USB ports, fan headers and more. Below is the full list, from left to right:
Front-panel audio
BIOS switch
Dual/Single BIOS switch
ARGB header
RGB header
TPM header
(2) USB 2.0 headers
Noise sensor header
Reset button
(3) Fan headers
Front panel header
Clear CMOS button
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
The Z590 Aorus Master comes with a pre-installed rear IO panel full of ports and buttons. To start, there are a total of 10 USB ports out back, which should be plenty for most users. You have a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port, five USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports and four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports. There is a single DisplayPort output for those who would like to use the CPU’s integrated graphics. The audio stack consists of five gold-plated analog jacks and a SPDIF out. On the networking side is the Aquantia 10 GbE port and the Wi-Fi antenna. Last but not least is a Clear CMOS button and a Q-Flash button, the latter designed for flashing the BIOS without a CPU.
Firmware
The Z590 Aorus Master BIOS theme doesn’t look any different from the Z490 versions. The Aorus board still uses the black and orange theme we’re familiar with. We’ve captured a majority of the BIOS screens to share with you. Like other board partners, Gigabyte includes an Easy Mode for high-level monitoring and adjustments, along with an Advanced section. The BIOS is well organized, with many of the more commonly used functions easily accessible without drilling down multiple levels to find them. In the end, the BIOS works well and is easy to navigate and read.
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Software
Gigabyte includes a few applications designed for various functions, including RGB lighting control, audio, system monitoring, and overclocking. Below, we’ve captured several screenshots of the App Center, @BIOS, SIV, RGB Fusion and Easy Tune.
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Future Tests and Final Thoughts
With the release of Z590, we’re in a bit of a pickle in that we have boards in our hands, but not the Rocket Lake CPU designed for it. We know most of these boards should perform similarly to our previous Z490 motherboard reviews. And while there are exceptions, they are mostly at the bottom of the product stack. To that end, we’re posting these as detailed previews until we get data using a Rocket Lake processor.
Once we receive a Rocket Lake CPU and as soon as any embargos have expired, we’ll fill in the data points, including the benchmarking/performance results, as well as overclocking/power and VRM temperatures.
We’ll also be updating our test system hardware to include a PCIe 4.0 video card and storage. This way, we can utilize the platform to its fullest using the fastest protocols it supports. We will also update to the latest Windows 10 64-bit OS (20H2) with all threat mitigations applied, as well as updating the video card driver and use the newest release when we start this testing. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted.
While we do not have performance results from the yet-to-be-released Rocket Lake CPU, we’re sure the 90A VRMs will handle the i9-11900K processor without issue. We quickly tested the i9-10900K and found the board quite capable with that CPU, easily allowing the 5.2 GHz overclock we set. For now, we’ll focus on features, price, and appearance until we gather performance data from the new CPU.
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
The Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master is a well-rounded solution, bringing a lot of premium features to the table. Baked into the chipset is USB 3.2 Gen2x2 support, and on the network side, a 10 GbE port and Intel’s Wi-Fi 6E AX210 card are basically the best you can get out of the box. The 90A 18-phase VRM for the processor does not have any issues with an overclocked Comet-Lake CPU, so the new Rocket-Lake CPUs at the same TDP shouldn’t have a problem. This board can be used for sub-ambient overclocking (though the Gigabyte Z590 Tachyon is the purpose-built board by Gigabyte for such a thing).
Since Z590 added native PCIe 4.0 support (with Rocket Lake CPUs only) and additional PCIe lanes, we’ll see more boards with up to three M.2 sockets, just like the less-expensive Steel Legend has. The Aorus Master sports one PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) slot and two PCIe 3.0 x4 (32 Gbps) slots. Add to that the six SATA ports and nearly everyone’s storage needs should be covered. The 10 USB ports on the rear IO include a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port and should be plenty for most users.
If I had to pick out something that needs improvement, I would like to see more expansion slots. As it stands, there is only one full-length PCIe slot. The $400-plus price tag will also likely put off budget users. While Gigabyte hasn’t listed an exact price for the Aorus Master, the Z490 version came in at just under $400. We expect the Z590 version to be at that point or a little higher.
Compared to similarly priced peers (think ASRock Z590 Taichi, MSI MEG Z590 Unify and the Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi ), the Gigabyte Aorus Z590 Master covers all the bases. If you prefer the latest audio codec and four M.2 sockets, instead of three, the Asus Z590-E Gaming has you taken care of. If you need ultra-fast networking, Gigabyte has you covered with its 10 GbE. All of the comparable boards are certainly capable and include quite a bit of features at this price point, so it comes down to the price, appearance, and features you need.
In the end, The Gigabyte Aorus Z590 Master is, like most Z590 motherboards, an iterative update from Z490. You get Rocket Lake support out of the box, superior power delivery, ultra-fast networking, and a premium appearance. If you’re looking for a Z590 motherboard around the $400 price point, The Z590 Aorus Master should be on your shortlist. Stay tuned for benchmarking, overclocking, and power results using the new Rocket Lake CPU short list.
Phanteks’ P360A is an excellent, affordable residence for a moderate build, and it comes with a whole lot of good-looking RGB too!
For
So much RGB
Includes well-featured standalone D-RGB controller
Chart-leading thermal performance
Excellent case for simple ATX systems
Just $65
Against
Materials are kinda cheap
No real intake filtration
Features and Specifications
Whenever a new case comes out with a price point that’s below $100, I get a little excited. When its $25 below that, it gets me pretty excited. So just imagine my joy when Phanteks sent me the P360A, which carries an MSRP of just $70 but is available for a few dollars less if you shop around.
Add to that an absolutely brilliant, vibrant, and lavish RGB implementation with two fans, an LED strip and a genuinely effective controller. My day has been made, and if you’re in the market for a case for a budget-oriented system but still want it to look good, this case is for you.
Of course, clear shortcuts have been taken to bring this kind of feature set to the table at this price. The sheet metal is quite thin, the paint job on the interior doesn’t ooze quality like more expensive cases, and the case doesn’t even include basic essentials such as a power LED, HDD LED, or a reset switch. There’s no USB Type-C to be found here, either.
However, none of those things really matter at this price – when finished, a system in the P360A genuinely looks good, cools well, and it’s easy to assemble. In case you haven’t guessed yet, the Phanteks P360A is easily deserving of a spot on our Best PC Cases list as Best Budget ATX case. Let’s find out why, shall we?
Specifications
Type
Mid-Tower ATX
Motherboard Support
Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX
Dimensions (HxWxD)
18.5 x 7.8 x 17.7 inches (465 x 200 x 455 mm)
Max GPU Length
15.7 inches (400 mm)
CPU Cooler Height
6.3 inches (160 mm)
Max PSU Length
9.8 inches (250 mm)
External Bays
✗
Internal Bays
2x 3.5-inch
2x 2.5-inch
Expansion Slots
7x
Front I/O
2x USB 3.0, 3.5 mm Audio/Mic Combo
Other
Tempered Glass Panel, D-RGB Controller
Front Fans
2x 130 mm (Up to 2x 140mm, 2x 120mm)
Rear Fans
None (Up to 1x 120mm)
Top Fans
None (Up to 2x 140mm)
Bottom Fans
✗
Side Fans
✗
RGB
Yes, Two Fans, LED Strip, D-RGB Controller Included
Damping
No
Warranty
1 Year
Features
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Touring around the exterior of the Phanteks P360A, it is immediately clear that this is a budget case. The sheet metal and glass panel are thin and the latter doesn’t quite line up with at the back of the case. And the PSU shroud is external, allowing for a smaller glass panel. Regardless, these shortcuts don’t take much away from the final look of the product, as the paint job on the outside is nice. The mesh intake is also well-manufactured, and as you’ll see later, there is a very nice RGB strip along the bottom of the side panel.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Phanteks doesn’t bother with a power LED, HDD LED or reset switches – all of that costs money and is rarely important anyway, so why bother when the funds can go to RGB instead? Front IO is covered by two USB 3.0 ports and separate headphone and mic jacks. The power button is at the center, and the two buttons you see below the USB ports are the RGB mode and RGB color selectors.
Internal Layout
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Inside the P360A there is space for up to an ATX motherboard and long graphics cards up to 400mm (15.75 inches), so you’ll be able to fit very powerful gaming systems in here. Storage options aren’t lavish, but then again that isn’t the focus of this chassis. There’s room for two 3.5-inch drives that slide in from the front, and two 2.5-inch drives behind the motherboard tray. You can buy an optional third tray to add a third 2.5-inch drive.
You’ll notice that on the interior, the paint job isn’t quite as nice as the outside, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.
The connectivity for the RGB is also found inside. The fans and LED strip all connect through Phanteks’ own 3-pin headers, but a ‘standard’ header is present to connect additional RGB devices not from Phanteks, and you can opt to connect the RGB to your motherboard and override the built-in controller. But in all fairness, what’s here is quite a good controller – there’s no need to shop for a board that has an A-RGB header, which can help you save some money.
Cooling
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Another spot where Phanteks cut costs is in the filtration – or rather, lack thereof. Of course, the marketing lingo is all about how the front panel filters without the need of a filter, but we both know that’s to cut the cost of a real air filter. The front has a 1mm perforation, which should take care of the worst offenders, but stuff will still get through more than a dedicated filter. Of course, the lack of removable filtration will be good for cooling.
That being said, you have to evaluate these things on a per-use-case basis. If you’re like me, and you run your PC for 12+ hours a day, you obviously want to pass on the P360A because you’ll be cleaning out the interior far too often. But if you only play games on it for a couple hours a day or so, the amount of dust that accumulates in the system will be far lower, so won’t be as much of an issue. Fortunately, there is a filter at the top above the radiator exhaust to protect from falling dust and debris, which will protect the system from passive pollution. The power supply also has its own filter to spare cleanup jobs there.
However, cooling is another area where the P360A differs from the P300A. It comes with two RGB fans instead of one non-RGB spinner, and the top radiator mount supports up to 240mm radiators instead of only a 120mm unit – something many buyers may appreciate. Theoretically, the case should also be able to fit a 280mm cooler at the top, but you’ll undoubtedly run into the VRM coolers or tall memory with the vast majority of motherboards, so I’d recommend you stick with a 240mm AIO at the largest.
If you’re dead-set on a 280mm radiator though, you can mount it at the front, but I don’t see why you would want to get rid of the pretty fans that are included.
Last year, AMD released the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors and finally took the gaming performance crown Intel had held for so long. This final step completed the Red brand’s ascent back into the forefront of the desktop processor market that began with the launch of the first generation of Ryzen CPUs.
With the Ryzen 3000 launch last year came the AMD X570 chipset. Featuring PCIe 4.0 support, X570 was an impressive leap from generations past. Ryzen 5000 did not launch with a new chipset, but many manufacturers are still launching improved versions of their best X570 boards in order to best cater to new AMD adopters. Today, we are looking at ASRock’s newest launch with the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition.
As the name suggests, the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition is a collaboration with Razer, the world’s first motherboard to natively support Razer Chroma RGB lighting. Along with the improved RGB lighting and support for Razer’s Synapse 3 RGB software, the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition also features 2.5 Gb/s LAN from Killer Networking, as well as Killer Networking WiFi 6 and a beefed up VRM design to top everything off.
A brand-new look of an award-winning board, the X570 Taichi Razer Edition has a lot going for it, but is the performance still there?
Specifications
Specifications
CPU Support:
AMD AM4 socket Ryzen 3000, 4000 G-Series, and 5000 series processors
Power Design:
CPU Power: 16-phase Memory Power: 2-phase
Chipset:
AMD X570
Integrated Graphics:
Dependent on installed CPU
Memory:
4x DIMM, support for up to dual channel DDR4-4666+(OC) MHz
BIOS:
AMI UEFI BIOS
Expansion Slots:
3x PCIe 4.0 x16 slots (x16/x0/x0 or x8/x8/x0 or x8/x4/x4) 1x PCIe 4.0 x1 slots
Storage:
8x SATA 6 Gb/s port 3x M.2 port (SATA3/PCIe 4.0 x4)
2x Antenna ports 1x HDMI port 1x Clear CMOS Button 1x BIOS Flashback Button 1x Optical SPDIF out port 1x LAN (RJ45) port 1x USB 3.1 (Gen2) Type-C port 1x USB 3.1 (Gen2) Type-A port 4x USB 3.1 (Gen1) ports 2x USB 2.0 ports 5x 3.5 mm Audio jacks 1x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard combo port
Audio:
1x Realtek ALC1220 Codec
Fan Headers:
6x 4-pin
Form Factor:
ATX Form Factor: 12.0 x 9.6 in.; 30.5 x 24.4 cm
Exclusive Features:
ASRock Super Alloy
XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
Premium 60A Power Choke
50A Dr.MOS
Premium Memory Alloy Choke
Nichicon 12K Black Caps
I/O Armor
High Density Glass Fabric PCB
2 oz copper PCB
Killer 2.5G LAN
Killer 802.11ax WiFi
Killer DoubleShot™ Pro
ASRock steel Slot Gen4
ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink
ASRock Ultra USB Power
ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs for workstations are prohibitively expensive due to their exclusive capabilities and positioning. Asus this week announced the pricing of its AMD WRX80-based motherboard, and unlike the processors, the platform isn’t too costly by today’s standards. In Europe, it will carry a price tag that is significantly below a psychologically important €1000 level.
The Asus Pro WS WRX80E-Sage SE WiFi is set to be one of a few retail motherboards carrying AMD’s WRX80 chipset as well as sWRX8 socket that exclusively support AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs. The platform will be available sometime in the first quarter for €868, including VAT, according to a press release published by Hardware-Inside.
Given the price of the Pro WS Sage SE in Europe, it is logical to expect the motherboard to carry an $880 ~ $900 MSRP in the U.S., which is not cheap but is still well below the price of high-end platforms mainstream platforms, like Z490 or Z590, for overclockers and enthusiasts. Comparatively, you get a lot more bang for your buck with this board – especially if you’re looking for the ultimate workstation platform.
(Image credit: Asus)
The Pro WS WRX80E-Sage SE WiFi from Asus is indeed the mother of all motherboards as it has a complete roster of features found in workstations, servers, and enthusiast platforms, all wrapped in a 12-pound package.
(Image credit: Asus)
The E-ATX monster comes in black and does not have any RGB LED bling. But to ensure absolute stability and reliability, the Pro WS WRX80E-Sage SE WiFi is equipped with a 16-phase voltage regulating module (VRM) for the CPU that gets power from three EPS-12V connectors (i.e., the mobo will require an advanced PSU). The VRM is covered with two massive all-black aluminum heatsinks (one of which has a fan), which is adjacent to heatsinks covering the chipset (which is also actively cooled) as well as M.2 slots for SSDs. To further improve cooling and add some rigidity to the mainboard, it has a rather huge backplate.
(Image credit: Asus)
AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs support up to 1TB of DDR4 memory as well as 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes, so the board carries seven PCIe x16 slots, three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, and two U.2 ports. In addition, the Pro WS Sage SE has eight SATA ports for those who need high-capacity local storage.
(Image credit: Asus)
As far as connectivity is concerned, the Pro WS WRX80E-Sage SE WiFi is a no-compromise product. The motherboard is equipped with a Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth adapter (the Intel AX200), two 10GbE ports controlled by the Intel X550-AT2 chip (one of which connects to a baseband management controller), seven USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A connectors, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port, and a 7.1-channel audio subsystem.
(Image credit: Asus)
As the name of the motherboard suggests, it is positioned for professional workstations, yet ASUS stresses that the Pro WS WRX80E-Sage SE WiFi is DIY friendly. Whether or not a lot of DIY enthusiasts decide to build a professional workstation with all of its attributes is something that remains to be seen, but at least it is safe to say that they will have such an opportunity when the platform hits the market this February or March.
Choosing the best motherboard is in many ways the most integral part of your PC build, although choosing the best graphics card and best CPU often get more attention. Every part of your PC plugs into the motherboard you choose. Its form factor dictates the size of your computer and how much you can plug into it, and the chipset / CPU socket define what kind of processor you can install.
Motherboards (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Motherboards—particularly high-end models—are often made up of a confusing collection of features, and can range in price from sub-$60 (£50) budget boards to as much as $1,000 or more. We’re here to help untangle the complexities and make sure you pick the right model for your needs, without blowing too much of your build budget for other parts.
Speaking build budgets, if you’re looking to save some money while shopping , you should check out our feature about the eight features you probably don’t need on a motherboard.
And if you’re after a brand-new board from Intel’s new Z590 or AMD’s X570 linuep, note that motherboard prices for both platforms have increased over previous generations, at least in part due to support for PCIe 4.0. Just note that while AMD’s B550 boards support PCIe 4.0 now with a Zen 2/3-based processor, the Intel Z490 boards that list PCIe 4.0 support (and all new Z590 boards) will only activate that support when paired with a next-generation Rocket Lake-S CPU. Those processors aren’t quite here yet, but should arrive in the next few months.
TLDR
Get the right socket for your CPU: You can find great CPUs from either Intel or AMD, but whatever CPU you buy, make sure that your board has the correct socket to support it. The latest mainstream AMD chips use AM4 sockets while current Intel 10th and upcoming 11th Gen Core CPUs work in LGA 1200 sockets.
Smaller boards = fewer slots and features. Motherboards come in three main sizes, from largest to smallest: ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX (Yes, Mini is smaller than Micro). You can use a smaller chassis with the micro or mini boards, but you’ll have to settle for fewer PCIe slots, RAM slots and other connectors.
You can spend under $150: You can often find a decent motherboard for less than $150. But if you want to overclock an Intel chip, you want PCIe 4.0 or you need a lot of ports, you will have to spend more, often more than $200. High-end desktop chips like AMD Threadripper require expensive $200-plus motherboards.
Pay for built-in Wi-Fi, high-end ports only if you need them. Don’t spend extra for wireless if you are using a wired connection. You can futureproof your PC by getting USB 3.1 Gen 2 and / or Thunderbolt 3 support, as well as PCIe 4.0.
The Basics: Chipsets, Board Size, Connectors & Ports
If you’re after a refresher on motherboard basics, including the differences between chipsets, motherboard sizes, connector and port features, and RAM slots, you can find them in our Motherboard Basics feature. There we dive deep into the complexities of board design and features, so you’ll know exactly what to look for (or ignore) when shopping for a motherboard.
Motherboards
How much can you spend on a motherboard?
Prices range from below $50 (£40) on the low-end to above $1000 (£772) for premium boards that support HEDT (High-End Desktop) chips like Core X and Threadripper. Here’s roughly what you get at each price range:
Up to $100/£80: You can get overclockable boards for AMD chips (even with the premium, last-generation X370 chipset) in this range. But with Intel, you’re stuck with stock speeds (though that may change with Intel’s upcoming B560 and H570 boards). Depending on sale prices, you can get a host of features, including onboard Wi-Fi, although Wi-Fi-equipped boards usually start above $80/£60.
Sub $150/£140: Boards with Intel’s Z490 and chipset, which you’ll need for overclocking, start at the low end of this range. You also start to see more AMD boards with higher-end chipsets (X570) and premium features such as RGB lights lights and Wi-Fi. Note that, when we wrote this, pricing for the full range of Intel’s latest Z590 motherboards was still very much up in the air.
Sub $200/£180: As you start to climb into the premium tier, you’ll see more RGB lights, beefier heatsinks and better power phases and VRMs (voltage regulation modules)–which are important for competitive overclocking. You’ll also find a better selection of ports at this level, including a greater number of USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 2 connectors. The bulk of Intel’s Z490 boards also start in this range, right around or above $150.
$200/£180+: For mainstream platforms, before Z490 and X570, this was the truly premium price range, where you’d see the best board components, giant (often very stylized) heatsinks, and I/O covers designed to deliver a slick, premium look. Extreme overclocking features, which mainstream builders don’t need, are also often a key feature set.
For more recent chipsets like Z490 and Z590, the truly premium boards start above about $250.
Also in this price tier, you’ll find HEDT motherboards for CPUs with very high core counts (Intel Core X and AMD Threadripper). Threadripper boards in particular start at around $300 (£250).
What CPU are you using with your motherboard?
The CPU you’re planning on pairing with your board will narrow down your options, since the CPU socket on a given motherboard will only work with the chip line it was designed for.
For instance, if you’re buying an Intel 10th or 11th Generation Core processor, you’ll need a board with an LGA 1200 socket. Older 9th Generation processors need boards with an LGA 1151 socket. AMD makes this process a bit less confusing because (for now at least) the company uses the same AM4 socket for all of its mainstream current-gen chips, from Athlons all the way up to 16-core Ryzen 9 parts, although you may run into complications installing newer CPUs on previous-generation motherboards. Intel, on the other hand, has a tendency in recent years to switch sockets (or at least socket compatibility) from one generation to the next, although that’s not the case this generation, with Socket 1200 sticking around for two generations.
For the true high-end, both Intel (LGA 2066) and AMD (TR4) have different sockets to accommodate the larger size and power draw of their Core X and Threadripper processors. For more on processor considerations, see our CPU Buying Guide.
Sockets
Enthusiast/Mainstream
HEDT
Intel
LGA 1200
LGA 2066
AMD
AM4
TR4
What size motherboard do you want?
We’ve covered this in detail in our Motherboard Diagram feature. But most modern motherboards come in three sizes.
ATX is the de facto standard and offers the most space for plugs and slots.
Micro-ATX is 2.4-inches shorter, which means less room for expansion slots.
Mini-ITX can make for a tiny PC, but you’ll usually only have room for one add-in card (like a graphics card), and fewer connectors for storage and RAM.
What ports do you need?
It’s always important to check the I/O area on a motherboard to make sure it has the external connection options you’re after, but also check for USB headers on the motherboard. These will let you add more ports via front-panel connection on your PC case, or via inexpensive expansion slot brackets at the back.
Here’s a list of common ports, and our take on each:
USB 3 / USB 3.1 Gen1: You can never have too many of these, because they work with most peripherals.
USB 2: Slower than USB 3 / 3.1, but more than adequate for keyboards, mice and many other devices.
USB 3.1/3.2 Gen2: Not many peripherals take advantage of this standard yet, but it delivers 10 Gbps of bandwidth, which is double what you get with USB 3.1 Gen 1 / USB 3.0. USB 3.2 Gen2 2×2 doubles that bandwidth again, with two 10 Gbps lanes. You’ll often only find one of these ports on mid- and high-end boards.
USB Type-C: These ports could be either USB 3.1 Gen1 or USB 3.1 Gen2 compatible and are designed for newer devices such as phones. A few are also just USB 2.0, and often get labeled as Audio USB-C ports, aimed at connecting USB-C headsets.
HDMI / DisplayPort Video out: You only need these if you plan to use integrated graphics. Discrete cards have their own ports.
Audio ports: Important if you plan to connect analog speakers or headphones.
PS/2 ports: Give you compatibility with really old keyboards and mice.
Thunderbolt: Very rare to find this built into motherboards, but some boards support it through dedicated add-on cards. Provides the fastest possible connections, up to 40 Gbps.
While you may not need many USB 3.1 Gen 2 or Type-C ports today, they are good ways to future-proof your PC.
How many RAM slots do you need?
Most mainstream boards these days have four RAM slots, although compact Mini-ITX models often have just two, and high-end HEDT boards (like the one pictured below) frequently offer eight. The amount of slots of course limits the amount of RAM you can install.
But for mainstream tasks and games, 16GB is sufficient and 32GB is ample. And even with just two slots, you can install as much as 64GB of RAM. Note, though, that you will often pay a premium for denser 64 and 32GB kit that uses two sticks, rather than a kit that’s spread across four sticks.
What expansion slots do you need?
You’re most likely to come across just two types these days: the short PCIe x1 shot (often used for things like USB and SATA expansion), and the longer PCIe x16 slot (used for graphics cards, RAID cards, and extremely fast PCIe storage like Intel’s Optane 905 SSD). If you’re just planning on installing a single graphics card, a couple of SATA/M.2 drives, and perhaps a video capture or sound card, you should be fine with most ATX or Micro-ATX boards, which offer at least one x16 slot and one or two x1 slots.
But note that recent X570 and B550 as well as upcoming Intel Rocket Lake-S boards (and, confusingly, some previous-generation Z490 boards) also support PCIe 4.0 rather than the 3.0 that’s been standard for the past several years. PCIe 4.0 technically doubles the available bandwidth of every PCIe lane. But outside of PCIe 4.0 SSDs, most devices haven’t taken major advantage of PCIe 4.0 yet. So think of it as some future-proofing on your board.
However, figuring out how many drives and cards you can install is tricky, because no matter how many physical slots you have, there’s a limited number of HSIO (high-speed input/output) lanes and PCIe lanes that all of your components must share. We could spend 3,000 words trying to explain how these lanes work, but the bottom line is that many mainstream motherboards compensate for bandwidth limitations by switching some connections off when you install hardware in specific slots.
For example, adding a PCIe M.2 drive may disable some SATA ports, or installing a card in a third PCIe slot may disable a second (or third) M.2 slot, etc. These issues vary greatly by motherboard model, so you’ll need to consult online manuals before buying–especially if you’re planning on loading up your board with lots of components.
That said, if you are planning on plugging lots of drives and cards into your PC, it’s worth considering one of the high-end HEDT platforms, as they have more PCIe lanes to work with. All of AMD’s Threadripper processors have 64 lanes (60 from the CPU, 4 from the chipset), while Intel’s competing Core X platform provides up to 44 lanes, depending on the CPU, and up to 24 more from the chipset. So if you’re planning on plugging, for instance, multiple graphics cards and a RAID array of PCIe/NVMe storage, or other bandwidth-hungry hardware into your system, these higher-end platforms are definitely the way to go.
Which chipset should you get?
Your CPU choice will dictate your compatible chipset options, and if you opt for the highest-end consumer Intel or AMD chips (Core X or Threadripper), you’ll only have one choice (X299 for Intel or X399 for AMD). But for mainstream users who just want to install a single graphics card and a few drives, you can often get the features you’re after by opting for a chipset below Intel’s Z590 or X570 for AMD.
Previously, if you chose, say, an H470, B460, or H410 board on the Intel side, you’d lose the option to overclock, though only a handful of mainstream Intel chips are unlocked for overclocking anyway (those with product names that end in the letter “K”). But that looks to be changing with upcoming Intel 500-series boards. Stay tuned to our motherboard reviews for more info there as we get to test a new round of mainstream Intel boards.
On the AMD side, the B550/X570 (as well as older B450, B350 and B300) chipsets still support overclocking. Although you will lose some fast USB and SATA ports and PCIe lanes over the X570 chipset, enough of those connectivity options remain to support most mainstream computing tasks. If you need more ports and drives, stepping up to an X570 board is worth the money, especially considering that many higher-priced B550 boars are just as (if not more) expensive than many X570 offerings.
Do you plan to overclock?
As we noted in the chipset section above, if you plan to overlock on the Intel side, for older boards, you’ll need to opt for a Z490 chipset and a CPU with a “K” in its model name (like the Core i7-8700K), or step up to the high-end X299 platform and a Skylake X chip. It looks like lesser Intel 500 series boards will also make overclocking possible, though you’ll still need an unlocked “K” processor. On the AMD side, things are a lot simpler, with nearly all current-generation Ryzen chips supporting overclocking, and all but the lowest-end chipsets (A320 and A300) supporting overclocking as well.
But that doesn’t mean that mainstream users should overclock their processors. As we said in our CPU Buying Guide, in order to make your CPU achieve higher clock speeds than it’s rated for out of the box, you’ll likely spend extra on an enhanced cooling system and a high-end motherboard. By the time you factor in all these extra costs, you may be better off budgeting another $50-$100 (£40-80) for a CPU that comes with higher clock speeds out of the box.
Now, if you already have a top-of-the-line chip and want to push it even further, or you just enjoy the challenge, by all means, spend the extra money and time to squeeze out that extra speed.
What about audio?
Unless you’re a serious audiophile, you happen to get faulty hardware, or you opt for the lowest-end motherboard possible while still expecting exquisite sound, you should get by with on-board audio these days just fine.
Motherboard audio quality is primarily defined by the audio codec (aka the audio processing chip) a given board uses. So, if you’re a stickler for sound quality, you can look up the codec a given board uses before buying and see if it’s a mid-range or high-end model. Alternatively, you can, of course, still opt for a dedicated sound card, or USB speakers that move the DAC (digital-to-analog converter) hardware outside of the PC altogether, like the Audioengine A2+.
Given the sheer number of features that board makers sometimes slap on motherboards–particularly high-end models–it’s impossible to discuss them all. But here are a few to keep an eye on:
On-board on/off switches: These can be handy in the initial build process, or if your system is being housed in an open case for benchmarking/component testing. But for the average user, on-board buttons (which sometimes also include buttons to clear the CMOS or do basic overclocking) aren’t necessary.
LED diagnostic readouts: The tiny speaker that plugs into motherboard headers to provide diagnostic beeps when something goes wrong is going the way of the dodo. In its place, many mid-to-high-end boards now include a two-or-three-digit display for the same purpose, giving you an alpha-numeric code when something goes wrong. This can be a real help when building a PC or upgrading and you either forget to plug something in, something isn’t seated properly, or one of your components turns out to be faulty.
Wi-Fi Card: If you don’t have Ethernet near your computer, you want this. And if you plan on keeping your PC around for years to come, look into a board with Wi-Fi 6.
Dual Ethernet ports: A single Gigabit Ethernet port has plenty of bandwidth for Internet traffic, so this is helpful mainly if you plan to use the computer as a server and the board can aggregate the two connections into one. For those with heavy-duty wired network needs, look for a board with 2.5Gb or 10Gb Ethernet.
For more on what features you don’t need, see our 8 Motherboard Features You Probably Don’t Need.
How important are aesthetics to you?
If the only time you’re going to see your system’s innards is when it’s powered down with the side panel off, there’s no reason to opt for RGB lights or flashy I/O covers and heatsinks. However, if your case has a window, you should get a board that you like looking at–with lights if you like them.
Just keep in mind that, particularly if you’re a novice builder, a dark motherboard can make building or updating your system more difficult, as on-board labels will be harder to see. Also, if you are building a system that you want to look as clean as possible (that is, with few visible wires snaking around the motherboard), look for a board with its fan and USB headers placed around the edges, and SATA and USB 3 header ports that point to the side, rather than sticking up vertically. This will make accomplishing a clean build much easier.
MORE: Best Motherboards
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