ASUS ROG Strix Z590-I Gaming WiFi Review

Pricing and Conclusion

Dear reader, you get the benefit of grabbing your favourite beverage and sitting down to check out our coverage of today’s launch of the Z590 chipset and Intel 11th Generation “Rocket Lake” processors. Many of you will be reading this later on just to see how that motherboard you’ve had your eye on performs. Like building a house though, we here at OC3D Towers have had to reach this point building one brick at a time, and for your writer this is the last page of the last review, so it is with a sense of relief at having done so much in such a short period of time that I welcome you to the conclusion of the ASUS ROG Strix Z590-I Gaming WiFi.

It’s also a brilliant place to wrap things up, because normally with ITX motherboards we talk about how good it is that the manufacturer has squeezed so much on to such a small PCB, but that it naturally comes with performance limitations. Not so here. If you’ve been keeping up with our benchmark graphs then by now you’ll be well aware that the Strix ITX is a pocket rocket. It isn’t just good for an ITX motherboard, it’s good full stop. Performance across the range of Z590s is very close and there usually isn’t much of an actual gap between the best and the worst, so whichever you buy you’ll be happy, but the latest addition to the ASUS Strix range was consistently up amongst the highest performers, matching the MSI MEG Ace.

Available to purchase here: Strix Z590-i – https://geni.us/Strix_ITX

  
 

Pricing sees the Strix Z590-I in the middle of the pack, and that’s to be expected considering how much has to be trimmed to squeeze all the Z590 features on to a PCB that would fit in the palm of your hand. What is surprising, beyond the performance, is how much of the new feature set the Strix ITX manages to have. PCI Express 4.0 slot, PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe support and even Thunderbolt 4 is all present and correct. It runs our Core i9-11900K – a CPU that is absolute overkill for a motherboard in this format – as quick as any other and, surprisingly, cooler than most too. Maybe paradoxically the reduced power phases meant that the Rocket Lake flagship processor ran a little cooler and thus the Adaptive Boost Technology could keep it running faster for longer. Whatever the case if you’re worried that the ITX format is going to cripple the performance of your new system then fear not, the ROG Strix Z590-I is a beast.

Clearly you have to make some connectivity concessions to achieve an ITX footprint, and the Strix Z590-I Gaming WiFi is no exception. However, like the TUF it has all the headline features present and correct, so you’re getting enough to run a blazing gaming system should you so choose. The ASUS ROG Strix Z590-I Gaming WiFi is an affordable, high performance, total surprise packet and puts a smile on our face every time we think of it. It wins the OC3D Performance Award.

  

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