Please note the Asus Prime Z490-P block diagram shown in the video was wrong, here is the corrected version: bit.ly/37lmS5p Just 5 signals are taken from the controller, not 10.
hey, was wondering if you guys might be able to get your hands on and test the new Samsung G7 monitor that is coming out 240hz! HDR600 and 1440p? someone pinch me! got to be too good to be true!
@@Zarcondeegrissom It doesn't change the results in anyway, it's just a bit of misinformation in the video that I wanted to correct. Thanks for the support mate.
ASRock Z490 Extreme4 im interested in this board and i love the reviews , is there anyway you guys can test this to let me know if its worth it. LOVE THE CONTENT KEEP IT COMING
@@ca9inec0mic58 asrock has never been great, it's always been ASUS vs MSI and well EVGA is great whenever they play the game Asrock competes with gigabyte and biostar
@@TheXlen I noticed it's more about the motherboards versions than the brand itself. Some AsRock motherboards perform better than some ASUS and look better at cheaper price, like the B450 Steel Legend for example, it's very close to the the B450 TOMAHAWK at performance and has a very nice rgb design.
@@teardowndan5364 I am not against Z490 as a technology. They are good pieces of hardware for sure. I just do not like overpriced platforms with overpriced cpus.
As someone who is running an x370 Asrock board ( X gaming), I'd never touch another Asrock product. I'll be replacing it next week after owning it from launch with a Gigabyte B550. Everyone has different experiences, but the amount of issues I've had is too long to list.
Probably because Z490 is kind of redundant in nature. No OEMs are really interested in Z490 but they have to put one out there. But that doesn't justify selling a board that doesn't stick to the marketing they put out. Also AsRock tweaks the specifications a bit too far that not a reliable brand in my opinion.
Nah, they're patting themselves on the back for dodging the bullet. If they'd provided the review samples, after this content their management would have had some questions. EDIT: Also, I bet Steve saying they had to purchase the boards really works for keeping relationships in the industry. This way the reps aren't thrown under the bus and will continue to speak to you - even be accommodating as long as it's not counter to their company's vital interests.
I think they said you should avoid benchmarks and buy processors for what they can do. I also think that was pretty stupid, if we do use their advice then we should buy AMD ryzen. Zen2 is better than intel in everything except gaming. Now that Zen 3 is here, intel is fucked. The only thing they have left is their brand. 😂
That's how I choose everything in life, because it makes me feel good. And my X570 and 3700x make me feel good. And my 4950x will make me feel even better. Jokes aside, that is very strange. It really is ridiculous for Intel to have made that statement the other day. In all my years I have never heard that come from any PC manufacturer before. The fact of the matter is, thanks but no thanks Intel, I much prefer benchmarks and competitive pricing. But you do you Intel, I will keep looking at benchmarks and pricing. But what gets me the most is, that those of us who do buy Intel CPUs (those who watch this channel specifically), will purchase Intel CPUs because of gaming benchmarks most likely. They are normally the guys who need every last frame (competitive gamers and/or super high refresh rate gamers). Doesn't discouraging benchmarks hurt that very specific consumers information to choose your products? Maybe Intel is saying this in anticipation of Ryzen 4000 launch? I can't see it any other way. Intel almost seems scared by making statements like that. Very strange indeed. It does seem like a preemptive defense, does it not?
@@sensibleplayer yeah, when u compare intel's best with amd's best gaming cpu, intel outperforms the ryzen by bout 20-30fps in some games. However, once you go to mid to budget range territory, amd is actually better at gaming by 5-10 fps (3600 vs 9400F). Most users dont need a 10900K with a 2080Ti anyways
@@joeyvdm1 The whole point was that benchmarks are a waste compared to what's going on in the world with the virus and people out of work. It would be more to the point if manufactures got together and hired some of those people. The title of the GN video was Click-Bait at it's best. Steve should be embarrassed. I watched the whole presentation by the Intel CEO while most others did not.
Between ASUS and MSI, you have some excellent choices I think. And according to Steve stress tests, they will handle even higher end 10th gen CPUs as well. So they will handle an i3-10100 no problem.
@@BananaBeach519 The X570 Tuf is an great MB. I purchased the X570-F Gaming myself. But I am looking at my local prices right now, and the X570 Tuf is actually more expensive at the moment compared to what I payed for my X570-F Gaming last year. And my X570-F Gaming is almost 35% more expensive compared to what I payed for it last year. I have been keeping my eye on my local pricing since CV-19 started, and pricing just keeps getting worse and worse. Even my 3700x is quite a bit more expensive, though not nearly as bad as MB prices. Man oh man, I am glad I purchased last year with sane prices in my country. It is absolutely not a buyers market for us right now here. I wonder how much worse it is going to get? I see prices going up monthly, almost every fortnight now.
@@joeyvdm1 yes u right its getting expensive everyday. i ve same combo, x570+3700x, it was 2000 dolar all pcbuild 9-10 month ago. now u cant buy with 3000 dolar.
@@BananaBeach519 My top 2 choices were the ASUS TUF Gaming X570 Wifi or the Gigabyte Aorus Elite X570 Wifi. I ended up going with Gigabyte because it has Intel lan & wifi instead of Realtek, but the TUF has a few nice features over it such as more fan headers and a post code IIRC.
Man, this is priceless info. You guys did great...it seems like a very hard thing to figure out with boards, whether or not the VRMs are good. Thanks for the vid.
Glad to see that some hardware reviewers care about people who don't want to spend all their money for a motherboard, most reviewers just care about expensive MB that they can have fun with.
Yeah I am so with this statement, all the time spent to give realistic information to all the people researching out there. Much respect Hardware Unboxed
Thank you Steve & HW team for making these content, reviewing budget parts is actually more important than reviewing top-end products, simply because more people are interested in these "best bang for your buck" products. I hope you could make many more contents like these.
Funny how that works, eh? I noticed the same thing with GPU ratings and video editing. MOST of the reviewers focused on "the best card for XXXXX," while most of the viewers simply wanted to know what GPU was the least expensive that could give them "good enough" performance. I think it's proof that a lot of these videos on YT these days are advertiser-funded and pushing a more expensive part.
I have a suggestions, use USB 3 speed (like 5Gbs, 10Gbs) instead of the name/version (like superspeed, or 3.1, 3.2). The naming scheme of USB is messed up
Saruman: "Harbor boxed... You fear to go into those benchmarks. The intel salesmen delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of lga1200... throttling and flame."
As a long time asrock customer this genuinely disappoints me. I've never had one bad board from asrock and them trying to pull this stunt and getting trashed for it is well deserved. Hope they get their act together otherwise that's me gone as a customer of theirs
I have a friend with 3000 hours in TF2, and I'm planning him a new system. I'd literally just recommended the Phantom board for overclocking the 10600k. Thankyou SO MUCH.
I love your videos! They are super informative and thorough and make lockdown so much more enjoyable. I always recommend your channel to anyone who asks about PC parts online. Keep up the good work!!
Damn, still owning an Asus P8P67 EVO Rev 3.1 and it puts to shame 2020 MB models. Bought it for $150 back in 2011 and it was packed with features + it has 12+2 Power Phase VRM.
Stive, I worked as computer service guy (my hobby since high school) and system integrator for three companies. Asrock was always POS in the low and middle budget MB. I still remember recently AB350M Pro4 and AB350M Pro4 horror VRM and how they died in strange ways and large number of units (3+ a day). Great job Stive!
Awesome. My favorite two brands, MSI and ASUS did okay. Asrock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4 Unmatched overclocking performance. That's good, I don't want any of my motherboard's overclocking to be anywhere close in matching these bad Asrock mobos.
I fully agree. Great to see MSI and ASUS pulling through with some great budget Z490 MBs. I had my doubts that every manufacturer would pull it off, but I am happy MSI and ASUS have. But Asrock is a major disappointment for myself as well. First Buildzoid did a video exposing their deceptive Z490 top tier MB marketing (I forget the exact MB, but he has a video covering it), and then this morning I found out Asrock used an misleading original BIOS for one of their launch X570 MBs. An BIOS that basically lied about power output to increase power delivery (and potentially performance) of said X570 MBs. And now Asrock does this with their Z490 budget MBs. Another bunch of deceptive marketing for these Asrock Z490 MBs, and they even refused to send out samples for testing, no surprise they refused, but very disappointing indeed. But, as you said yourself, we have MSI and ASUS pulling through with some great budget Z490 MBs, so happy days.
Excellent review, and really appreciate the professional way you've provided breaks and descriptions in the video so people can go back and forth to the bits that interest them. Really well done and thank you for the detailed info.
GOD BLEES YOU STEVE such a great video very helpful to anyone who is thinking to buy intel 10th gen cpu and Z490 mobo you are the real saviour, thanks a lot. AMD deserves our money over Intel for me.
Cool, good to see this. I don't really understand the VRM setups well but I do understand the end results. I think I will probably be picking up one of the next ryzen chips when they come out. My i5-750 looks at the new metro game that released on gog and cries
Wow, budget ASUS product that isn't crap, I'm impressed. I guess we have to wait for the TUF mobo that will somehow be more expensive while being completely shit.
The X570 Tuf was an excellent budget MB though. Terrific VRM. Same with their budget X570-P/Prime, also excellent VRMs and are directly comparable to this Z490 variant. It is pre X570 ASUS budget MBs that were terrible. This is the second gen in a row (X570/Z490) that ASUS has nailed it.
Tuf x570 is an exception though. 8 sata ports, 7 usb 3 rear io, 600 amp vrm, and pcie4 on all pcie slots and m.2 slots, of which there are two of, respectively.
Watching this video was a relief; I just purchased an MSI Z490 Pro-A yesterday, and only just saw this video! I am impressed so far and overclocking options are great, as is the VRM cooling. After a couple of days I got my 10600K at 4.9 GHz @1.37V set LLC5 (1.35 V max get) and G. Skill B-die RAM running at 3900 MHz 14-15-15-33 (overclocked from 3600 MHz 15-15-15-36)!
this puts a lot of faith into b550 mortar, a mobo i want to get, b450 mortar never failed me with 2600 4.2oc since inception, steady 10hr work sessions as of late and steady 10hr+ gaming sessions everyday.... thanks for the work you do
Thanks HU for the quality content. I really appreciate it. Based on your x570 VRM results i made a decision to avoid MSI Gaming Edge and go with ASUS TUF x570.
I was looking to do a quick upgrade of my PC to the 10600 just to last me another year or two. You just saved me a lot of headaches as I was looking at a few of these MBs. Thank you!
And queue the refund requests under ACL in Australia. Good job ASRock. Well done. This why I watch this channel. Brutally honest reviews & giving praise where it is deserved, but not being afraid to slam companies bad products.
I can't understand all that hate on ASRock. They have great boards, X299 Taichi was a good performer overall (some even called the perfect X299 Motherboard) on launch. They also have top dollar motherboards. They have been proven to be extremely reliable, my ASRock X79 Extreme 11 is the ONLY X79 Board I bought that is still working to this day, both my Asus Rampage and my MSI X79 died, and so did the replacement board from MSI lol. The only MINI ITX X299 Motherboard belongs to ASRock -> X299E-ITX/ac. When Intel "banned" Xeon CPU's from "regular motherboards" forcing motherboards to have a specific chipset to work [Intel® C232 ], ASRock was the ONLY company that released a 'gaming' motherboard that could use 8th gen Xeons. ASRock did it against Intel request. Intel pulled them from the stores as quickly as they could by moving a lawsuit against ASRock. They also have products to rival Asus top of the line such as the ASRock X570 AQUA (it is expensive and limited, WOWWOWOWOW!!!!, for people who think that PRICE = EVERYTHING). Is ASRock Z490 Pro4 a trash motherboard? Definitely. Is ASRock the WORST BRAND Ever? Far from it. Do your research and stop being fanboys.
Thanks so much for the honest reporting!!!! I really depend on you guys and similar channels like Gamers Nexus for true reviews about hardware before I buy it. Keep up the great work!!!
My family's experience with Asrock was buying two cheap Athlon boards both failed under year after warranty was stopped. Both boards were good value as during the warranty period but not for long term heavy use.
Will you be doing a review for B460 or H470 boards as well? I'm upgrading to Intel 10th gen this or next month and I can't decide on a motherboard. But I don't plan on overclocking or buying a 10700k or 10900k.
Saturation current of the chokes(inductors) is just a rating/limit, like 16V limit for capacitors, it's a parameter you dont reach, it's something you must do, and it's not directly going to improve anything.
I actually used the Asus Z490-P Prime in an build for my father with an 10700k and it runs really well actually, he's very pleased with the performance and I used an Noctua DH-15 Chromax.black to cool the CPU and it runs so quiet you have to check its working by looking to see if the board lights are lit. An awesome board imo and I encountered no issues with it whilst building and no issues whilst installing drivers either. Didn't do any overclocking with it though, although it easily ran the 10700k at 5.1Ghz all cores although in certain benchmarks like Cinebench R23 it was getting pretty toasty but that is without an AVX offset too. All in all an great board for the price, £165 I think I paid back in April 2021.
Fun side note: the only VRM I’ve ever managed to hit OCP on was an old gigabyte UD board that was running an FX-8350. It had eight sets of the exact same mosfets the reviewed UD board uses. Of course, to hit OCP I had to replace the stock VRM heatsink with a custom version with copper fins and active cooling. So, I consider it an improvement that now a UD board will hit OCP with the stock heatsink! Running my FX-8350 on that old 970 UD board was a terrible idea, and it looks like running a top-end cpu on the new UD board is just as bad of an idea.
Thank you for this review. I was going to buy the Asrock Z490 Pro 4. I had no inkling that it was so very bad. I may up my budget a bit, but i dont want to drop $700 on a mobo.
dont know why but this is the channel I trust. i really do trust the info you provide and most of my purchases are made after watching your reviews including the AOC 32G . thanks and keep up the good work.
Interesting result; although I can't say I've had the same performance issues with my ASRock Z490M-ITX/ac ... even with a 10700k crammed into a mini ITX case on air cooling (Node 202; Black Ridge HSF), it can sit at 4.7ghz all-core no issues (around 75 Celsius core temps; 3600 mhz ram @ 4000mhz).... funnily enough the feature set on such a small board appears to be better than some of those ASRock boards tested (dual M.2; USB C; 4x USB 3.0 ports; 1 GbE Intel ethernet; 2.5 GbE Realtek ethernet; Intel AC wifi etc.). Perhaps the VRMs were upgraded for the Z490M-ITX/ac? They do mention "Premium 60A Power Choke s", compared to the 50A ones on these boards? Maybe they took your criticism and made some upgrades...
You are aware... some of your videos, to include this one broach into a global level of public service. Thanks for keeping "them" honest, and us informed. You rock Mate...
I got the ASUS z490-P, glad it's a good board! I personally don't need more SATA slots or usb ports, have more than enough for my use between the back of the board and case ones.
It's why I have only ever bought Asus boards for the last decade, the last non Asus board I had was a Gigabyte and I had RAM issues and overclocking problems with it when tried modest overclock's with a Phenom II X2 550. Currently using a Asus TUF Z370-Gaming Plus II with a 8700K at 4.8GHz all core overclock with 3333MHz 16GB DDR4 with CL15 timings running flawlessly for 18 months.
As usual good info and well presented. Just love it how you call it as it is. Crap is crap and good is good based on testing without any bias. Can't wait for the next line up.
For proffetional streaming you suggest me this 10900k and z490 tomahok or better to go 11900k? i am just care about 8 cores and high temp... Any suggestion?
Steve like your videos, but could you consider mentioning the Rds-on (the Resistance of mosfet from gate to source when on) of the low side mosfet when dealing with VRMs using discrete mosfets instead of powerstages
Can't wait to see the B550 boards testing. OH BTW, the MSI MAG x570 tomahawk is in Spain at 229€, so not bad considering it came at higher price at first.
Change my mind, but for at the moment 120€ in germany, I see the Z490 UD as a great offer as it has proper features with 8 USBs, and for a light OC with a 10600K, it should work out fine.
Asrock have come full circle! I remember their P35 / X38 boards being trash back in the day. My X99 Extreme 6 is amazing though and one of my favourite boards I have owned.
Wow prices have gotten up. Back in 2013 I got my mid-ranged 4+1-phase Z77 board for ~100€ and that comes with 6 SATA and (total) 8 external USB. That is more ports than half the boards here which go for over 180€ now and are considered "entry".
I am planning on getting Gigabyte Z490 UD for either i5 10600k or i7 10700k. I am leaning toward the latter as this would be my last PC build, I will just have to wait for the RTX 3070. Do you think the Gigabyte z490 UD is perfect for the i7 10700k?
Please note the Asus Prime Z490-P block diagram shown in the video was wrong, here is the corrected version: bit.ly/37lmS5p
Just 5 signals are taken from the controller, not 10.
hey, was wondering if you guys might be able to get your hands on and test the new Samsung G7 monitor that is coming out
240hz! HDR600 and 1440p? someone pinch me! got to be too good to be true!
does it matter really, if that other one OTP's so bad at stock, lol. Mistakes happen, Great work Steve and crew. B)
@@Zarcondeegrissom It doesn't change the results in anyway, it's just a bit of misinformation in the video that I wanted to correct. Thanks for the support mate.
ASRock Z490 Extreme4 im interested in this board and i love the reviews , is there anyway you guys can test this to let me know if its worth it. LOVE THE CONTENT KEEP IT COMING
@@kaokaluki880 Skip the Extreme4, it has issues right now.
17:40 Well, the 'unmatched overclocking capabilities" part is right ... sort of.
Technically right. The best kind of right, amirite??
'Insertin obi wan form a certain point of view meme'
Yes! It's unmatched in the sense that no other board even comes close to being so bad at overclocking
I do not see problem with OC, I only see black screen ;)
lol
24 minutes and 33 seconds of Steve trashing ASrock. Ya love to see it.
I thought asrock was one of the "Top-Tier" motherboards manufacturer looks like it's only good for AMD
@@ca9inec0mic58 asrock has never been great, it's always been ASUS vs MSI and well EVGA is great whenever they play the game
Asrock competes with gigabyte and biostar
ASSrock boards are trash at 90% of all their boards.
@@TheXlen I noticed it's more about the motherboards versions than the brand itself. Some AsRock motherboards perform better than some ASUS and look better at cheaper price, like the B450 Steel Legend for example, it's very close to the the B450 TOMAHAWK at performance and has a very nice rgb design.
Tech jesus steve just railed on Asrock as well for the and cpu power thing
*Please don't let my mobo be on that list*
*Please don't let my mobo be on that list*
*Please don't let my mobo be on that list*
Do not buy Z490 at all and you are safe!
In recap. Don't buy untill media and reviewer test them
@@WCIIIReiniger There are bad motherboards for most other chipsets too.
@@teardowndan5364 *Intel motherboards most of them BTW
@@teardowndan5364 I am not against Z490 as a technology. They are good pieces of hardware for sure. I just do not like overpriced platforms with overpriced cpus.
Buildzoid generally likes the Asrock B550 boards. It seems like Asrock really didn't care about Z490.
They probably just looked at the total sale numbers and decided to focus on AMD. B550 boards of Asrock seem very good value.
As someone who is running an x370 Asrock board ( X gaming), I'd never touch another Asrock product. I'll be replacing it next week after owning it from launch with a Gigabyte B550. Everyone has different experiences, but the amount of issues I've had is too long to list.
Probably because Z490 is kind of redundant in nature. No OEMs are really interested in Z490 but they have to put one out there. But that doesn't justify selling a board that doesn't stick to the marketing they put out. Also AsRock tweaks the specifications a bit too far that not a reliable brand in my opinion.
Asrock saw the future. And the future is Zen 3
@Ignatius David Partogi any garbage will run a 4core
*Asrock rep sweating profusely*
Asrock VRM sweating profusely
To me, Asrock has always been a budget/shitty brand anyway. Fu*k em'.
Asrock VRM : This is fine *insert dog on fire meme
Nah, they're patting themselves on the back for dodging the bullet. If they'd provided the review samples, after this content their management would have had some questions.
EDIT: Also, I bet Steve saying they had to purchase the boards really works for keeping relationships in the industry. This way the reps aren't thrown under the bus and will continue to speak to you - even be accommodating as long as it's not counter to their company's vital interests.
That's a stupid generalization to make. They have some great boards in their line up.
well Intel said to avoid benchmarks and just buy it because its gonna make you "feel good" whatever tf that means
I think they said you should avoid benchmarks and buy processors for what they can do. I also think that was pretty stupid, if we do use their advice then we should buy AMD ryzen. Zen2 is better than intel in everything except gaming. Now that Zen 3 is here, intel is fucked. The only thing they have left is their brand. 😂
They said that about their cpu, not their mobo as mobo vrm design are totally in oem's hand, they just provided the chipset iirc
That's how I choose everything in life, because it makes me feel good. And my X570 and 3700x make me feel good. And my 4950x will make me feel even better. Jokes aside, that is very strange.
It really is ridiculous for Intel to have made that statement the other day. In all my years I have never heard that come from any PC manufacturer before. The fact of the matter is, thanks but no thanks Intel, I much prefer benchmarks and competitive pricing. But you do you Intel, I will keep looking at benchmarks and pricing.
But what gets me the most is, that those of us who do buy Intel CPUs (those who watch this channel specifically), will purchase Intel CPUs because of gaming benchmarks most likely. They are normally the guys who need every last frame (competitive gamers and/or super high refresh rate gamers). Doesn't discouraging benchmarks hurt that very specific consumers information to choose your products?
Maybe Intel is saying this in anticipation of Ryzen 4000 launch? I can't see it any other way. Intel almost seems scared by making statements like that. Very strange indeed. It does seem like a preemptive defense, does it not?
@@sensibleplayer yeah, when u compare intel's best with amd's best gaming cpu, intel outperforms the ryzen by bout 20-30fps in some games. However, once you go to mid to budget range territory, amd is actually better at gaming by 5-10 fps (3600 vs 9400F). Most users dont need a 10900K with a 2080Ti anyways
@@joeyvdm1 The whole point was that benchmarks are a waste compared to what's going on in the world with the virus and people out of work. It would be more to the point if manufactures got together and hired some of those people.
The title of the GN video was Click-Bait at it's best. Steve should be embarrassed. I watched the whole presentation by the Intel CEO while most others did not.
Hardware Unboxed and Actually Hardcore Overclocking, cutting through the motherboard manufacturers' marketing and keeping them honest.
Oh my God
did ASUS Nailed on extry level? did the world end tomorrow?
lmao asus nailed it and asrock didn't, how the tables turned
Asus entry level motherboards have in general good VRM. It is not always the best you can get but always a safe bet that it does the job.
How turntables
True, I was like "Wait What?"
@@marcelliusika this office joke is overused
These will be perfect for my i3-10100
Get me one aswell. It would roast my oc 8700k. >.>
Between ASUS and MSI, you have some excellent choices I think. And according to Steve stress tests, they will handle even higher end 10th gen CPUs as well. So they will handle an i3-10100 no problem.
Yes, even that will make the Asrock boards sweating.
L M A O
the i3-20-in-decimal
Northern hemisphere: pros and cons
Southern hemisphere: cons and pros
Awesome content, Steve. Your VRM testing really helped me when I was shopping for an X570 board last year. Keep up the great work!
same here :) tuf x570
I went with the MSI b350m mortar back in the day same with Steves go to mAtx board during 1st gen zen. Still rocking it today!
@@BananaBeach519 The X570 Tuf is an great MB. I purchased the X570-F Gaming myself. But I am looking at my local prices right now, and the X570 Tuf is actually more expensive at the moment compared to what I payed for my X570-F Gaming last year.
And my X570-F Gaming is almost 35% more expensive compared to what I payed for it last year. I have been keeping my eye on my local pricing since CV-19 started, and pricing just keeps getting worse and worse.
Even my 3700x is quite a bit more expensive, though not nearly as bad as MB prices. Man oh man, I am glad I purchased last year with sane prices in my country. It is absolutely not a buyers market for us right now here.
I wonder how much worse it is going to get? I see prices going up monthly, almost every fortnight now.
@@joeyvdm1 yes u right its getting expensive everyday. i ve same combo, x570+3700x, it was 2000 dolar all pcbuild 9-10 month ago. now u cant buy with 3000 dolar.
@@BananaBeach519 My top 2 choices were the ASUS TUF Gaming X570 Wifi or the Gigabyte Aorus Elite X570 Wifi. I ended up going with Gigabyte because it has Intel lan & wifi instead of Realtek, but the TUF has a few nice features over it such as more fan headers and a post code IIRC.
Man, this is priceless info. You guys did great...it seems like a very hard thing to figure out with boards, whether or not the VRMs are good.
Thanks for the vid.
Glad to see that some hardware reviewers care about people who don't want to spend all their money for a motherboard, most reviewers just care about expensive MB that they can have fun with.
Yeah I am so with this statement, all the time spent to give realistic information to all the people researching out there. Much respect Hardware Unboxed
Well, the ASRock is indeed outmatched... as a stove
Put a pot on the heatsinks and make some coffee
They had us in the first half, bot gonna lie.
Lmao
They live up to their name, I will use my new Pizza ASSrock in my stove when making pizza next time for a toasty crust
Well, there seems to be no board as bad as it is. So unmatched, but not in a good way...
Thank you Steve & HW team for making these content, reviewing budget parts is actually more important than reviewing top-end products, simply because more people are interested in these "best bang for your buck" products. I hope you could make many more contents like these.
Funny how that works, eh? I noticed the same thing with GPU ratings and video editing. MOST of the reviewers focused on "the best card for XXXXX," while most of the viewers simply wanted to know what GPU was the least expensive that could give them "good enough" performance. I think it's proof that a lot of these videos on YT these days are advertiser-funded and pushing a more expensive part.
Thank you for your time and effort in unmasking these sub standard items and their companies shocking marketing tactics ... much appreciated
I think someone needs to call-in asrock and be like "we need to have a little chat, please come in and take a seat...".
25 minutes later...
"Ok, you're free to go..."
"Phantom gaming" - Cause you sure ain't gonna be gaming with this board lol
Buyers will feel the phantom pain even years after. At least their wallets will.
I have a suggestions, use USB 3 speed (like 5Gbs, 10Gbs) instead of the name/version (like superspeed, or 3.1, 3.2). The naming scheme of USB is messed up
@Jason Poole USB 3.2 gen 2x2. Intel Thunderbolt 3 will be USB 4
@@mridho4070 i swear if they tries the "4.1 gen 1" again...
@@mridho4070 Thunderbolt 3 has been out for years...
@@LiLBitsDK No shit
@@LiLBitsDK I know, USB 4 will be "free" version of Thunderbolt 3
Saruman:
"Harbor boxed... You fear to go into those benchmarks. The intel salesmen delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of lga1200... throttling and flame."
That's funny, I watched the fellowship yesterday
Lol I dig it
This is what I was exactly waiting for. Budget Z490 mb review and performance metrics. Thanks guys!
Asrock what are you doing!?
My god, what are you doing!
@@laatma985 Hello, Gordon!
@@blendded6248 Look Gordon, ropes! We can use these t-- HELP ME GORDON
Eating crayons or sniffing glue.. or quite possibly both.
cashing in on a name that is well, dieing
As a long time asrock customer this genuinely disappoints me. I've never had one bad board from asrock and them trying to pull this stunt and getting trashed for it is well deserved. Hope they get their act together otherwise that's me gone as a customer of theirs
I have a friend with 3000 hours in TF2, and I'm planning him a new system. I'd literally just recommended the Phantom board for overclocking the 10600k. Thankyou SO MUCH.
You trying to make him play worse to make you look better?
Intel: We must ban Benchmarking results to prove our marketing is right.
Asrock: Yes that will help our BS claims too, how can we help.
After this video I only got one question ... Who at AsRock said: "these mainboards are fine we can release them" ?????
Not as bad as the thermals of the ASRock boards, but still, not great. Thankfully, they improved with the X570 boards.
@@piyushmenon4987 sry of course I meant AsRock 😄😬I fixed it
these boards are totally fine if you put a non-k cpu in it willing to overclock only RAM. wouldn't do it myself though, too expensive
@@MoltenPie Yeah, honestly, AMD is just a lot better of an option right now.
@@MoltenPie nooo! becasuse the asus and the msi boards are cheaper and better! You wouldn't buy them in any case
You guys deserve to have more than just half a million subs! Hope the channel grows to at least 5mill soon! Cheers Steve and Tim!
I love your videos! They are super informative and thorough and make lockdown so much more enjoyable. I always recommend your channel to anyone who asks about PC parts online. Keep up the good work!!
I love ASRock and i’m super disappointed with their Z490 line up.
Damn, still owning an Asus P8P67 EVO Rev 3.1 and it puts to shame 2020 MB models.
Bought it for $150 back in 2011 and it was packed with features + it has 12+2 Power Phase VRM.
Let’s see if Asrock is gonna be as graceful with this feedback as MSI was with the X570 fiasco.
Stive, I worked as computer service guy (my hobby since high school) and system integrator for three companies. Asrock was always POS in the low and middle budget MB. I still remember recently AB350M Pro4 and AB350M Pro4 horror VRM and how they died in strange ways and large number of units (3+ a day). Great job Stive!
Awesome. My favorite two brands, MSI and ASUS did okay. Asrock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4 Unmatched overclocking performance. That's good, I don't want any of my motherboard's overclocking to be anywhere close in matching these bad Asrock mobos.
I fully agree. Great to see MSI and ASUS pulling through with some great budget Z490 MBs. I had my doubts that every manufacturer would pull it off, but I am happy MSI and ASUS have.
But Asrock is a major disappointment for myself as well. First Buildzoid did a video exposing their deceptive Z490 top tier MB marketing (I forget the exact MB, but he has a video covering it), and then this morning I found out Asrock used an misleading original BIOS for one of their launch X570 MBs. An BIOS that basically lied about power output to increase power delivery (and potentially performance) of said X570 MBs.
And now Asrock does this with their Z490 budget MBs. Another bunch of deceptive marketing for these Asrock Z490 MBs, and they even refused to send out samples for testing, no surprise they refused, but very disappointing indeed.
But, as you said yourself, we have MSI and ASUS pulling through with some great budget Z490 MBs, so happy days.
Excellent review, and really appreciate the professional way you've provided breaks and descriptions in the video so people can go back and forth to the bits that interest them. Really well done and thank you for the detailed info.
GOD BLEES YOU STEVE such a great video very helpful to anyone who is thinking to buy intel 10th gen cpu and Z490 mobo you are the real saviour, thanks a lot. AMD deserves our money over Intel for me.
Cool, good to see this. I don't really understand the VRM setups well but I do understand the end results.
I think I will probably be picking up one of the next ryzen chips when they come out. My i5-750 looks at the new metro game that released on gog and cries
I'm surprised you've been able to rock the i5-750 so long. That's impressive. :)
Wow, budget ASUS product that isn't crap, I'm impressed. I guess we have to wait for the TUF mobo that will somehow be more expensive while being completely shit.
The best description of TUF lineup
I have always bought Asus or MSI when it comes to motherboards, have never been disappointed. Asrock has been mixed, some good ... some very bad.
Gotta continue the TUF tradition
The X570 Tuf was an excellent budget MB though. Terrific VRM. Same with their budget X570-P/Prime, also excellent VRMs and are directly comparable to this Z490 variant.
It is pre X570 ASUS budget MBs that were terrible. This is the second gen in a row (X570/Z490) that ASUS has nailed it.
Tuf x570 is an exception though.
8 sata ports, 7 usb 3 rear io, 600 amp vrm, and pcie4 on all pcie slots and m.2 slots, of which there are two of, respectively.
Watching this video was a relief; I just purchased an MSI Z490 Pro-A yesterday, and only just saw this video! I am impressed so far and overclocking options are great, as is the VRM cooling. After a couple of days I got my 10600K at 4.9 GHz @1.37V set LLC5 (1.35 V max get) and G. Skill B-die RAM running at 3900 MHz 14-15-15-33 (overclocked from 3600 MHz 15-15-15-36)!
MSI doing a good job on the entrylevel. Seems they learned from their B450 succes.
The best motherboard's testing I've seen in years on youtube! Great job! I'm suscribed!
Obligatory comment for the algorithm. Buuuttt, great content as per usual
this puts a lot of faith into b550 mortar, a mobo i want to get, b450 mortar never failed me with 2600 4.2oc since inception, steady 10hr work sessions as of late and steady 10hr+ gaming sessions everyday.... thanks for the work you do
Well, something tells me, that your B550 roundup is going to be a massive "bestviewer"
Thanks for this! Picking up the MSI board today to go with a 10600k I scored used for a good price.
Can't wait on the reaction from Tom's Hardware^^ Just buy it!!! Everything is perfect!! Don't look at the numbers!!! Fake News!! Trust us^^
Thanks HU for the quality content. I really appreciate it. Based on your x570 VRM results i made a decision to avoid MSI Gaming Edge and go with ASUS TUF x570.
I have a TUF X570 too, let me know if you want to know something more.
Guess the motherboard companies have given up on Intel and hopefully are working hard on their B550 motherboards.
B55's are going to be expensive as hell. Pretty close to X570 prices.
B550 is pointless. Just go X570 if you are at that stage.
I'm planning to build a PC next year and honestly content like this on cheaper, potentially good value products is the best. Huge fan
I was looking to do a quick upgrade of my PC to the 10600 just to last me another year or two. You just saved me a lot of headaches as I was looking at a few of these MBs. Thank you!
Absolutely love you honesty, it really gives us an extremely good idear about the good and the bad of all these boards.
And queue the refund requests under ACL in Australia. Good job ASRock. Well done. This why I watch this channel. Brutally honest reviews & giving praise where it is deserved, but not being afraid to slam companies bad products.
Hey Steve! Thanks for this kind of content. I appreciate that you do this kind of testing on entry level products, not just the high end stuff.
Aussie Steve and Murcia Steve calling out tech manufacturers? Love it!
I am happy to declare that this review has unmatched re-watching and over-sharing potential.
Good job! Takes loads of time to pull of what u did :)
I can't understand all that hate on ASRock. They have great boards, X299 Taichi was a good performer overall (some even called the perfect X299 Motherboard) on launch. They also have top dollar motherboards. They have been proven to be extremely reliable, my ASRock X79 Extreme 11 is the ONLY X79 Board I bought that is still working to this day, both my Asus Rampage and my MSI X79 died, and so did the replacement board from MSI lol.
The only MINI ITX X299 Motherboard belongs to ASRock -> X299E-ITX/ac.
When Intel "banned" Xeon CPU's from "regular motherboards" forcing motherboards to have a specific chipset to work [Intel® C232
], ASRock was the ONLY company that released a 'gaming' motherboard that could use 8th gen Xeons. ASRock did it against Intel request. Intel pulled them from the stores as quickly as they could by moving a lawsuit against ASRock.
They also have products to rival Asus top of the line such as the ASRock X570 AQUA (it is expensive and limited, WOWWOWOWOW!!!!, for people who think that PRICE = EVERYTHING).
Is ASRock Z490 Pro4 a trash motherboard? Definitely. Is ASRock the WORST BRAND Ever? Far from it. Do your research and stop being fanboys.
Thanks so much for the honest reporting!!!! I really depend on you guys and similar channels like Gamers Nexus for true reviews about hardware before I buy it.
Keep up the great work!!!
Literally just returned my AS ROCK Z490 Gaming a/C and ordered a Asus z490 A thanks abunch mate
My family's experience with Asrock was buying two cheap Athlon boards both failed under year after warranty was stopped. Both boards were good value as during the warranty period but not for long term heavy use.
"unmatched overclocking " is an accurate description. no other board matched there failures.
I am so glad you guys can review hardware like this. Few people keep their journalistic integrity when dealing with companies like this.
Will you be doing a review for B460 or H470 boards as well?
I'm upgrading to Intel 10th gen this or next month and I can't decide on a motherboard. But I don't plan on overclocking or buying a 10700k or 10900k.
Better mboard for i5 10400f ? Z490 - msi a-pro, asus prime-p or gigabyte ud ?)
I am in exactly the same situation.
Very thorough at listing specs, and comparing.
Good job!
Impressive technical review. Good work. Love the discussion on the details of the board's like the vrm and MOSFETs
Saturation current of the chokes(inductors) is just a rating/limit, like 16V limit for capacitors, it's a parameter you dont reach, it's something you must do, and it's not directly going to improve anything.
Glad I picked the MSI z490 gaming plus and i5 10600k for my upgrade 🙂
how's it working out for you? it's on sale now for $129.99. and i plan to put a 10600k on it.
Proud to be one of the twenty percenters. That could be a new idea for a range of merch? ;) :)
I went with the Asus z490-e for my 10700k build, has good reviews and benchmarks.
I was using Gigabyte UD since 2009 for amd Phenom x4 940 and intel core i5 4570. Both still running fine with SSD.
Thank you again for the time and energy put into these test. It is greatly appreciated.
I actually used the Asus Z490-P Prime in an build for my father with an 10700k and it runs really well actually, he's very pleased with the performance and I used an Noctua DH-15 Chromax.black to cool the CPU and it runs so quiet you have to check its working by looking to see if the board lights are lit. An awesome board imo and I encountered no issues with it whilst building and no issues whilst installing drivers either. Didn't do any overclocking with it though, although it easily ran the 10700k at 5.1Ghz all cores although in certain benchmarks like Cinebench R23 it was getting pretty toasty but that is without an AVX offset too. All in all an great board for the price, £165 I think I paid back in April 2021.
Nice video ! What about the Mid Tier ? Do you think a MB like the MSI z490 Carbon can handle a i9 10900k overclocked for 24/7 with a 360mm AIO ?
Nice work, I'm mostly eyeing up the MSI lower end boards but with 7 USB ports, either the Tomahawk or Gaming Edge Wi-Fi.
I was about to buy the MSI Z490-APRO, this reassures my choice
Thanks for putting in the time and letting people know what boards to avoid!
Which Micro-atx board should i buy, then? The Asus Prime z490m-plus? It has 8+1 vrms only... but it won't catch fire?
So telling on how the board partners react to just getting a sample request. Thank you for this Harbor Unboxed.
Fun side note: the only VRM I’ve ever managed to hit OCP on was an old gigabyte UD board that was running an FX-8350. It had eight sets of the exact same mosfets the reviewed UD board uses. Of course, to hit OCP I had to replace the stock VRM heatsink with a custom version with copper fins and active cooling. So, I consider it an improvement that now a UD board will hit OCP with the stock heatsink! Running my FX-8350 on that old 970 UD board was a terrible idea, and it looks like running a top-end cpu on the new UD board is just as bad of an idea.
Thank you for this review. I was going to buy the Asrock Z490 Pro 4.
I had no inkling that it was so very bad.
I may up my budget a bit, but i dont want to drop $700 on a mobo.
dont know why but this is the channel I trust. i really do trust the info you provide and most of my purchases are made after watching your reviews including the AOC 32G . thanks and keep up the good work.
Interesting result; although I can't say I've had the same performance issues with my ASRock Z490M-ITX/ac
... even with a 10700k crammed into a mini ITX case on air cooling (Node 202; Black Ridge HSF), it can sit at 4.7ghz all-core no issues (around 75 Celsius core temps; 3600 mhz ram @ 4000mhz).... funnily enough the feature set on such a small board appears to be better than some of those ASRock boards tested (dual M.2; USB C; 4x USB 3.0 ports; 1 GbE Intel ethernet; 2.5 GbE Realtek ethernet; Intel AC wifi etc.). Perhaps the VRMs were upgraded for the Z490M-ITX/ac? They do mention "Premium 60A Power Choke
s", compared to the 50A ones on these boards? Maybe they took your criticism and made some upgrades...
You are aware... some of your videos, to include this one broach into a global level of public service. Thanks for keeping "them" honest, and us informed. You rock Mate...
I got the ASUS z490-P, glad it's a good board! I personally don't need more SATA slots or usb ports, have more than enough for my use between the back of the board and case ones.
Thank you for the testing. I like your work a lot
Thanks for having our back Steve.
It's why I have only ever bought Asus boards for the last decade, the last non Asus board I had was a Gigabyte and I had RAM issues and overclocking problems with it when tried modest overclock's with a Phenom II X2 550.
Currently using a Asus TUF Z370-Gaming Plus II with a 8700K at 4.8GHz all core overclock with 3333MHz 16GB DDR4 with CL15 timings running flawlessly for 18 months.
Love your work, Steve. Amazing insight. Looking forward to next batch of Motherboard testing.
ASROCK PG4 is not only bad for overclocking. Making audio drivers work is also very very difficult.
As usual good info and well presented. Just love it how you call it as it is. Crap is crap and good is good based on testing without any bias. Can't wait for the next line up.
Thank you very much Steve and your team awesome work once again!! Cheers mate!!!
For proffetional streaming you suggest me this 10900k and z490 tomahok or better to go 11900k? i am just care about 8 cores and high temp... Any suggestion?
Steve like your videos, but could you consider mentioning the Rds-on (the Resistance of mosfet from gate to source when on) of the low side mosfet when dealing with VRMs using discrete mosfets instead of powerstages
Can't wait to see the B550 boards testing. OH BTW, the MSI MAG x570 tomahawk is in Spain at 229€, so not bad considering it came at higher price at first.
I don"t know what is is about a fellow Aussie voice. It just always seams more relaxed here than Linus or Jay.
Thanks for all the vids. :)
Change my mind, but for at the moment 120€ in germany, I see the Z490 UD as a great offer as it has proper features with 8 USBs, and for a light OC with a 10600K, it should work out fine.
When I'm about to purchase something I always look for your channel, I built my PC based on your honest opinions. Best tech channel so far.
Asrock have come full circle! I remember their P35 / X38 boards being trash back in the day. My X99 Extreme 6 is amazing though and one of my favourite boards I have owned.
Wow prices have gotten up.
Back in 2013 I got my mid-ranged 4+1-phase Z77 board for ~100€ and that comes with 6 SATA and (total) 8 external USB. That is more ports than half the boards here which go for over 180€ now and are considered "entry".
I am planning on getting Gigabyte Z490 UD for either i5 10600k or i7 10700k. I am leaning toward the latter as this would be my last PC build, I will just have to wait for the RTX 3070. Do you think the Gigabyte z490 UD is perfect for the i7 10700k?