ASUS ROG Strix Z590-I Gaming WiFi Review

Up Close

It’s still really surprising to see the background of the Strix Z590-I box looks identical to the lighting we have in the office. Especially given how famous that multi-hued ROG Eye had become on Strix products. A change is as good as a rest we suppose.

 

It’s worth noting, as you can see from the box above, that the M.2 heatspreader has an RGB Strix logo built in. A very cool touch indeed.

  

12V CPU Power comes via a single 8pin connector. It’s a common element of ITX motherboards, like the manufacturers accept that anyone who is buying an ITX understands the limitations of the format and isn’t expecting to run a 360mm AIO and attempt to overclock their Core i9 to beyond 5 GHz.

  

Just above the VRM heatsink we find an RGB LED strip header for connection your sparkly lights to the ASUS AURA lighting system. Next to those two CPU cooler headers with a dedicated pump header should you be running an AIO on your Strix Z590-I.

  

Front panel USB connections are a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C and USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A.

 
  

Whilst vertical SATA ports are a big negative on ATX motherboards, we always accept them on ITX ones because it’s just the nature of the beast.

  

Making sure there isn’t a single tiny bit of space unused even the gap below the RGB heatspreader for the M.2 NVMe drives has got a fan header an addressable RGB LED strip header squeezed in.

  

Such is the ubiquitous nature of USB that it’s amazing how quickly you can fill up the available ports. Mouse, keyboard, headset, game controller and boom, four of them are gone. With the ASUS Strix ITX we’ve only got 8 and two of those are Type-C. Thank goodness for front panel ports, particularly if you’ve got a Stream Deck or other aid to broadcasting your exploits to the world. The Strix-I still has Thunderbolt 4, Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 and the 2.5G LAN port though, so just because there isn’t a hole in every spare bit of IO shield doesn’t mean you’re lacking in connectivity options.