ASRock Z490 Aqua Motherboard Review: The $1100 LC Monoblock Flagship

Board Features

The ASRock Z490 Aqua uses an E-ATX sized frame and is aimed at enthusiasts and users looking to run Intel's 10th Gen desktop processors with custom water cooling. Aside from the custom monoblock which cools the CPU, power delivery, and chipset, there are a large array of premium features, the highlights of which include an integrated Thunderbolt 3 controller and 10 gigabit Ethernet.

On the rear panel is an array of input and output with two very fast Type-C connectors due to the inclusion of an Intel Thunderbolt 3 controller. ASRock also includes two mini-DisplayPort inputs for users looking to leverage Thunderbolt 3's video capabilities. Other notable connections include a pair of Ethernet ports with one driven by an Aquantia AQC107 10 G controller and the other by a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 G controller. There's also a wireless capability with a pre-installed Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 and BT 5.1 CNVI interface. Other prominent features include an overclockers toolkit with a power, reset, and clear CMOS switch, as well as and OLED status light. The impressive OLED screen on the rear panel cover, unfortunately, cannot be customized with GIFs or images. For cooling, the Z490 Aqua includes eight 4-pin headers, with one designated to a CPU fan, one for an optional CPU fan or water pump, with six for chassis fans.

Test Bed

As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews
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