Intel's Rocket Lake chips are nearing with promises of up to 19% increases in IPC, and with that in mind, various manufacturers have started taking the wraps off their new Z590 boards. One of these vendors includes EVGA, which is showing off the new Z590 Dark and Z590 FWT WIFI -- and both look mean.
Of course, Z490 will also support Rocket Lake, but it wouldn't be Intel if a new chipset didn't come along, and although the new CPUs will be supported on the old platform, PCIe 4.0 compatibility cannot be guaranteed -- that's where Z590 comes in.
EVGA Z590 Dark
If you're looking for a board built for heavy overclocking, it may be worth keeping an eye on the EVGA Z590 Dark. It comes with an E-ATX layout, but spices matters up considerably to stand out from the crowd.
For starters, you'll notice that the CPU socket is rotated 90 degrees, and instead of four, there are only two DDR4 memory slots present not on the side of, but at the top of the motherboard. Two memory slots can be helpful when trying to achieve the highest possible memory overclocks, which is why you'll often see Mini-ITX boards used for these as the trace path along the PCB is shorter.
Of course, it's not all about memory. The centerpiece of this board is its insane 22-phase VRM circuitry, which is spanned around the CPU socket and cooled by beefy, all-copper heatsinks with a heatpipe that spans throughout the board, also cooling the Z590 chipset. The board's PCB consists of 10 layers.
Almost all the connectors are angled too, which will help with keeping very tidy appearances in builds. The board is complete with eight SATA ports, WiFi 6, more than a dozen USB ports, three M.2 slots, PCIe 4.0 -- everything you need for a high-end experience.
Also Starring: Z590 FTW WiFi
Of course, an overclocking board isn't everyone's cup of tea, and a large part of the high-end market wants something a little more conventional. In comes the EVGA Z590 FTW WiFi, which has a conventional ATX layout with four DDR4 memory slots which support up to 4800 MHz memory modules.
This board features a similar design language to the Z590 Dark. The VRM circuitry here also 'only' consists of 17 phases, though that's still very lavish, and the board uses an 8-layer PCB design -- plenty for more day-to-day high-end builds.
No word on pricing or availability for either of these boards, but naturally, we'll have to wait for Intel's Rocket Lake chips to come along first.
