our verdict
The ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi is beautiful, feature-packed, and offers better value than the MSI MEG Z590 Ace. It’s clear that the Z590 needs some tweaking in the weeks leading up to its official launch, but they’re minor and if we had $300 or so to spend, this is the board we’d buy.
- Good M.2 and VRM cooling
- Dual PCI-E 4 M.2 and 16x PCI-E slots
- M.2 latch makes installation easy
- M.2 Heatsink Block GPU Release Latch
- average audio performance
- No Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port
There’s so much to drool over Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi The motherboard is equally good considering it costs $300 (£340). During our hands-on testing, one of the standout highlights was M.2 SSD support.
Two slots support PCI-E 4 SSDs, two additional slots support PCI-E 3 SSDs, and one also supports SATA M.2 SSDs. They all feature a simple tool-free latch securing mechanism that takes seconds to install your SSD.
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All four are covered by large heatsinks, and the primary slot includes a nifty RGB-illuminated logo, as well as a thermal pad to cool the underside of the M.2 SSD. As a result, the lowest M.2 SSD load temperature in our tests was only 55°C.
However, the heatsink was installed close to the graphics card with the backplate attached, so I couldn’t access the release catch without a screwdriver. So I’ve docked some points for Asus here. Two slots instead of one support this high-speed standard, allowing you to run two GPUs in PCI-E 4 mode, but you’re still limited to eight PCI-E lanes each.
The rest of the board is beautiful, with an illuminated ROG logo and acrylic strip on the I/O shroud, and a nearly colorless all-black design. You don’t get all the onboard overclocking and testing tools, but there is a clear CMOS button, an LED POST code display, and a USB BIOS FlashBack button.
Both air-cooled and water-cooled systems also benefit from a feature set with eight 4-pin fan headers and a temperature sensor so you can control the fans based on coolant temperature. Despite the price tag, there is no Type-C Thunderbolt port, only a header like most other boards.
The VRM heatsink, on the other hand, is huge and connected to a heat pipe, and an optional fan can be installed for additional cooling. However, the latter is not necessary as the maximum temperature observed during the stress test was 59°C. This board also has a display output, so if you don’t have a graphics card, at least you can use your PC.
You also get a pair of 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 802.11ax Wi-Fi, and Asus has added Realtek’s ALC4080 audio codec. Audio performance was a bit disappointing, but this may be due to the initial software and drivers used.
The ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi achieved the highest score of any RealBench system at standard speeds without exceeding the power consumption graph, and also had the highest Cinebench single-threaded score.
However, overclocking wasn’t as smooth as on the MSI board and required more adjustments. Asus’ AI Suite software was also a bit hit or miss when it came to applying configured vcores. But in the end it managed an all-core clock of 5.1GHz at 1.34V, again achieving the highest system score. This is one of the best gaming motherboards around $300.
