ASRock Z490 Steel Legend Motherboard Preview

Although the NDA has been lifted for Intel’s latest Z490 chipset and its motherboards from various manufacturers … there’s still a NDA for publishing performance tests, and benchmark results on Intel’s 10th Gen (Comet Lake) processors.

We’ll be getting our Intel’s 10th Gen processor (retail pack) when it comes out later this month around 20th May, and then we will re-visit ASRock’s Z490 Steel Legend motherboard and publish a full review.

You can buy the ASRock Z490 Steel Legend Motherboard for around USD $220 from Amazon – https://amzn.to/3gl1QIe

In the meant time … enjoy the video and photos gallery below.

Features

Supports 10th Gen and future generation Intel^® Core™ Processors (Socket 1200)
10 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design
Supports DDR4 4266MHz+ (OC)
2 PCIe 3.0 x16, 3 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2(Key E) For WiFi
AMD CrossFireX™
Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort
7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1200 Audio Codec), Nahimic Audio
6 SATA3, 2 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)
2 USB 3.2 Gen2 (Rear Type-A+C),
7 USB 3.2 Gen1 (4Front, 2 Rear, 1 Front Type-C)
Dragon 2.5 Gigabit LAN
ASRock Polychrome SYNC

Specifications

- Unique Feature
  
  ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2
  – ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s)
  – ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s)
  ASRock Super Alloy
  – XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
  – Premium 60A Power Choke
  – 50A Dr.MOS
  – Nichicon 12K Black Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors)
  – I/O Armor
  – Shaped PCB Design
  – Matte Black PCB
  – High Density Glass Fabric PCB
  – 2oz Copper PCB 2.5G LAN
  ASRock Steel Slot
  ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink
  ASRock Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)
  ASRock Ultra USB Power
  ASRock POST Status Checker (PSC)
  ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
  ASRock Live Update & APP Shop
- CPU
  
  – Supports 10th Gen and future generation Intel^® Core™ Processors (Socket 1200)
  – Digi Power design
  – 11 Power Phase design
  – Supports Intel^® Turbo Boost Max 3.0 Technology
  – Supports Intel^® K-Series unlocked CPUs
  – Supports ASRock BCLK Full-range Overclocking
  – Supports ASRock Hyper BCLK Engine III
- Chipset
  
  – Intel^® Z490
- Memory
  
  – Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
  – 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
  – Supports DDR4 4266+(OC)* / 4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3200(OC) / 2933 / 2800 / 2666 / 2400 / 2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
  – Supports ECC UDIMM memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
  – Max. capacity of system memory: 128GB**
  – Supports Intel^® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 2.0
  – 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
  
  *Please refer to Memory Support List on ASRock’s website for more information.
  Core™ (i9/i7) support DDR4 up to 2933; Core™ (i5/i3), Pentium^® and Celeron^® support DDR4 up to 2666.**Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows^® 32-bit OS. For Windows^® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.
- BIOS
  
  – 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support
  – ACPI 6.0 Compliant wake up events
  – SMBIOS 2.7 Support
  – CPU Core/Cache, GT, DRAM, VPPM, PCH 1.05V, VCCIO, VCCST, VCCSA Voltage Multi-adjustment
- Graphics
  
  – Hardware Accelerated Codecs: AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265 8bit, HEVC/H.265 10bit, VP8, VP9 8bit, VP9 10bit, MPEG 2, MJPEG, VC-1**
  – Graphics, Media & Compute: Microsoft^® DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Intel^® Built In Visuals, Intel^® Quick Sync Video, Hybrid / Switchable Graphics, OpenCL 2.1
  – Display & Content Security: Rec. 2020 (Wide Color Gamut), Microsoft^® PlayReady 3.0, Intel^® SGX Content Protection, UHD/HDR Blu-ray Disc
  – Dual graphics output: support HDMI and DisplayPort 1.4 ports by independent display controllers
  – Supports HDMI 1.4 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 30Hz
  – Supports DisplayPort 1.4 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2304) @ 60Hz
  – Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI 1.4 Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
  – Supports HDCP 2.3 with HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.4 Ports
  – Supports 4K Ultra HD (UHD) playback with HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.4 Ports
  
  *Intel^® UHD Graphics Built-in Visuals and the VGA outputs can be supported only with processors which are GPU integrated.
  
  **VP9 10bit and VC-1 are for decode only.
  VP8 and VP9 encode are not supported by Windows^® OS.
- Audio
  
  – 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1200 Audio Codec)
  – Premium Blu-ray Audio support
  – Supports Surge Protection
  – 110dB SNR DAC with Differential Amplifier
  – PCB Isolate Shielding
  – Individual PCB Layers for R/L Audio Channel
  – Gold Audio Jacks
  – Nahimic Audio
- LAN
  
  – 2.5 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000/2500 Mb/s
  – Dragon RTL8125BG
  – Supports Dragon 2.5G LAN Software
  – Smart Auto Adjust Bandwidth Control
  – Visual User Friendly UI
  – Visual Network Usage Statistics
  – Optimized Default Setting for Game, Browser, and Streaming Modes
  – User Customized Priority Control
  – Supports Wake-On-LAN
  – Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
  – Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
  – Supports PXE

Slots

– 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3: single at x16 (PCIE1); dual at x16 (PCIE1) / x4 (PCIE3)*
– 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 Slots
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– 1 x M.2 Socket (Key E), supports type 2230 WiFi/BT module and Intel^® CNVi (Integrated WiFi/BT)

*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Storage

– 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel^® Rapid Storage Technology 17), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug*
– 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**
– 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_3), supports M Key type 2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**

*If M2_2 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA3_1 will be disabled.
If M2_3 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA3_5 will be disabled.**Supports Intel^® Optane™ Technology
Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Supports ASRock U.2 Kit
Connector

– 1 x SPI TPM Header
– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 2 x RGB LED Headers*
– 2 x Addressable LED Headers**
– 1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin)***
– 1 x CPU/Water Pump Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)****
– 5 x Chassis/Water Pump Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)*****
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x 4 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
– 1 x Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector (5-pin) (Supports ASRock Thunderbolt™ 3 AIC R2.0 Card only)
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Intel^® Z490) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Headers (Support 4 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports) (ASMedia ASM1074 hub) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x Front Panel Type C USB 3.2 Gen1 Header (Intel^® Z490) (Supports ESD Protection)

*Support in total up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip

**Support in total up to 5V/3A, 15W LED Strip

***The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.

****CPU_FAN2/WP_3A supports the water cooler fan of maximum 3A (36W) fan power.

*****The Chassis/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.
CPU_FAN2/WP_3A, CHA_FAN1/WP, CHA_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN3/WP, CHA_FAN4/WP and CHA_FAN5/WP can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
Rear Panel I/O

– 2 x Antenna Ports
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 2 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (ReDriver) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ReDriver) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports (Intel^® Z490) (Supports ESD Protection)*
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone (Gold Audio Jacks)

*Ultra USB Power is supported on USB3_12 ports.
ACPI wake-up function is not supported on USB3_12 ports.
Software and UEFI

Software
– ASRock Motherboard Utility (A-Tuning)
– ASRock Dragon 2.5G LAN Software
– ASRock Polychrome SYNC*
UEFI
– ASRock EZ Mode
– ASRock Full HD UEFI
– ASRock My Favorites in UEFI
– ASRock Instant Flash
– ASRock Internet Flash
– ASRock Easy RAID Installer

*These utilities can be downloaded from ASRock Live Update & APP Shop.
Support CD

– Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar
Accessories

– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD
– 2 x SATA Data Cables
– 4 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
– 2 x Standoffs for M.2 Sockets
Hardware Monitor

– Temperature Sensing: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Fan Tachometer: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Quiet Fan (Auto adjust chassis fan speed by CPU temperature): CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Fan Multi-Speed Control: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore, DRAM, VPPM, PCH 1.05V, VCCSA, VCCST, VCCIO
Form Factor

– ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm
– 2oz Copper PCB

More at ASRock’s website.

Box and Packaging

The Motherboard

A Closer Look

ASRock have always produced good motherboards. I like the design and the solid performance that ASRock offers … so I’m expecting no different with the Z490 Steel Legend.

Interestingly, we’ve recently learned that most of the Z490 motherboards is PCIE 4.0 ready and will support PCIE 4.0 standard on both the PCIE slots and M.2 connectors. That’s odd because Intel’s new 10th Gen processors does not support PCIE 4.0. I’m guessing a lot of manufacturers are trying to future-proof themselves for the next 11th Gen processors, which will hopefully have native PCIE 4.0 support.

Watch out for a full review and performance test on this motherboard and other Z490 motherboards right here at Funky Kit.