ASUS Z490-Plus WiFi TUF Gaming Preview

Up Close

We’re so used to ROG packaging – in either black and red or Strix styling – that seeing the usual ASUS box came as a little bit of a shock. It takes us back to the old days of motherboards, even if the list of features and connectivity options on the Z490 TUF would be like staring into the future if we’d have seen it back then. Mind you our first motherboards supported RAM measured in megabytes and CPUs with clock speeds in the teens. How far we’ve come.

  
  

Inside the box we have a fairly minimalist set of accessories. Two SATA cables, the IO shield, M.2 screws, WiFi antenna and the DVD/Manual/Sticker triumvirate.

  

The motherboard itself looks pretty good from the top side. It’s certainly a different aesthetic to the current trend, but without looking wilfully old-fashioned or, worse still, cheap. Yes it’s a bit utilitarian but we’re hardly expecting the TUF to hit the market at the kind of price you’d pay for a Maximus, and we know that the classic aesthetic is proving popular amongst those pushing back against the sea of ‘black with RGB’ that dominates the market.

  

At the top left we have a 4+8 pin CPU 12V power input nestled behind the power heatsinks. The first time we set up this photo it was a bit of a surprise to see straight through the slots on the left to the PCB beneath. We can’t recall the last time we could do that.

  

Moving along there are two fan headers for the CPU cooling just above the northernmost heatsink, with a RGB LED strip header at the top right hand corner. How much you’ll enjoy the return to bicolour RAM slots is very much a matter of personal preference.

  

One area where the TUF really stands out when viewed against its contemporaries is the cut-out with dual SATA ports just behind it. It’s most definitely different – not unique of course because we’ve seen it before – and we’re not sure if we like the change it brings to the looks of the board more or less than we like how it’s moved a lot of the SATA ports to the bottom of the PCB. Those of you with one or two SATA drives will probably love it.

  

And another shot of that cut-away with two horizontal SATA ports. It seems a big commitment for little reward beyond a minor design flourish.