Intel Z490 VRM Testing, Budget Buyers Beware of Lies & Misleading Marketing

[Kenrou]

 

[DaveB]

Nothing surprising there. ASRock budget boards have always had low-end power designs, both for AMD and Intel. I noticed issues with my ASRock B450 Pro-4 and Z370M-ITX/ac. The Z370M-ITX/ac would VRM throttle trying to OC my i7-8700K to 5 GHz but did fine with the i5-8600K @ 5 GHz. Similarly, the B450 Pro-4 was fine with my Ryzen 5 1600 but struggled with a Ryzen 7 1700. When I tried to help ASRock by reporting some errors in their B450 BIOS, the BIOS support group got angry and suggested I go buy a Gigabyte or MSI board. As far as the Hardware Unboxed crew goes, I guess only they believe the marketing dribble on the manufacturer websites.

 

[trents]

The title of the thread could be a little more focused as it's really only ASRock that is misrepresenting their product. And no doubt ASRock produces some high end Z490 chipset boards that go toe to toe with same rung products from other board makers.

 

[Kenrou]

ASRock and Gigabyte (entry level z490).

Gigabyte surprised me because they did such a good job on the x570 boards. I wanted to put a TLDR but these are not the only boards reviewed so far, so thought it would be better to leave it to the person watching the video to make their own conclusions ?

 

[trents]

I am gaining more and more respect for MSI products. There was a time when they almost disappeared from the landscape but have rebounded nicely.

 

[DaveB]

ASRock and Gigabyte (entry level z490).

The ASRock budget boards sucked donkey balls for sure, but the Gigabyte didn't do bad at all for a budget board. It got both CPUs to 5 GHz which is great for a budget board. A few years ago I bought the cheapest Gigabyte Z370 to OC my not so wonderful i7-8700K to 5 GHz @ 1.42V. It's VRM setup got bad reviews too but they didn't even get hot OC'ing the i7-8700K.

 

[Kenrou]

The ASRock budget boards sucked donkey balls for sure, but the Gigabyte didn't do bad at all for a budget board. It got both CPUs to 5 GHz which is great for a budget board.

Didn't do bad is in the eye of the beholder, the MSI and the Asus are miles better and slightly cheaper ? He even says they pigged out on the heatsinks (probably) because the VRMs are so cheap. Well, maybe it wins out on the features to make it a worthy purchase

 

[BugFreak]

Didn't do bad is in the eye of the beholder, the MSI and the Asus are miles better and slightly cheaper ?

I don't know about that. I'm a loyal ASUS buyer but these newer ASUS boards are getting plain ridiculous in price.

 

[Kenrou]

Intel Z490 vs. B460 VRM Temp Testing feat. Core i9-10900K

 

[Kenrou]

00:00 - Welcome back to Hammer on Box
00:39 - Gigabyte Z490 Vision G
01:40 - MSI Z490 Gaming Edge WiFi
02:10 - Asus TUF Gaming Z490 Plus
02:55 - Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Elite
03:29 - MSI Z490 Tomahawk
04:03 - Asrock Z490 Steel Legend
04:42 - Asrock Z490 Extreme4
05:01 - Gigabyte Z490 Gaming X
05:19 - Test System Specs & Setup
06:29 - VRM Temp Results
10:33 - Final Thoughts

 

[Woomack]

I don't know about that. I'm a loyal ASUS buyer but these newer ASUS boards are getting plain ridiculous in price.

All brands released pretty ridiculous Z490 motherboards if we look at the price. I remember that I paid about as much for Maximus XI Gene/Z390 as now costs Z490-G Strix while the Gene looks much better and is clearly better designed. Also, Gene is supporting memory better.
If you don't need fancy heatsinks and additional LEDs here or there then for example Gigabyte is using the same PCB/power design for their ~$250 and up to ~$500 motherboards. The difference is mostly in 1 more (usable) M.2 socket, mentioned LEDs, and larger heatsinks. The same if we take a look at some MSI or other brands. There is pretty much no point to spend more than ~$350 on Z490 motherboard as it won't overclock better and won't have many more features worth paying for.
I will skip all these $800+ mobos as they're simply ridiculous.

I wouldn't care so much about all the noise regarding VRM and power design. When people have nothing to say about then find some topic "on top" and now it's power design when there are many other differences and usually more important for users.
I highly doubt that many users will try to get the cheapest motherboard and install there 10900K while everything like locked i3/i5 should run without issues on every motherboard. Not to mention there is something like RMA. If the motherboard doesn't work as specified so for example is crashing under load with a CPU that is on the supported hardware list, then just return it or make an RMA. Really, no one has to know what power design has the motherboard. It's useful for enthusiasts but others should get fully functional hardware for which they pay without digging into technical details.

After analyzing some motherboards I can say that MSI has the cheapest motherboards that can handle the 10900K. On the other hand, everything that costs $250+ won't have problems at all. I don't get all the noise about some ASRock motherboards. No matter how they designed a power section on some motherboards (count here these $250+) then they handle overclocked 10900K without problems. Really who cares what is under the heatsinks when it does its job? Don't like it then don't buy but don't spread false info that the motherboard is faulty or something like that. (this comment isn't directly about the linked video but in general about what I see in the web).

There are still other things about which some portals should mention like used LAN and Intel 225v issue, audio or memory support. These things are not even mentioned in reviews. Literally most reviews look the same, like approved by vendors.

Also, eh, another videos from the same site ...

 

[Kenrou]

Yep, another from the same website still saying only good about all z490 except ASRock and one Gigabyte, thought you welcomed good publicity ? All the review websites I’ve seen so far say the same as him, ASRock bad, everything else ok [emoji13]

 

[Woomack]

Yep, another from the same website still saying only good about all z490 except ASRock and one Gigabyte, thought you welcomed good publicity ? All the review websites I’ve seen so far say the same as him, ASRock bad, everything else ok [emoji13]

Actually, except maybe 3-4 websites, no one else says anything bad about ASRock Even those who say bad things focus only on 2-3 motherboards and they have like 20 B460/Z490/W480 in their offer. Maybe 95% of reviews on the web give everything good reviews. I can see scores like 8/10+ everywhere. It's probably because most are afraid to lose a vendor as most big companies won't send them review samples after too many negative comments.
I only wish that reviewers focus on some other things than the power section as there are many other things worth describing.