ASUS Z590-A Prime vs Strix B560-A Comparison
Wrap Up
From our testing of the newest Rocket Lake chipsets it was clear that the Z590 didn’t really offer much beyond PCI Express 4.0 over it’s 10th Gen counterparts, and as soon as the B560 motherboards landed it almost rendered the Z590 obsolete for all but the most well-heeled, demanding enthusiast.
This pair of motherboards were so clearly based upon the same design that it was the perfect opportunity to show how little difference there is between the two newest Intel Chipsets, even from the same manufacturer, and flag up what little you would be missing out on should you go for the more affordable setup.
With a retail price difference of ninety pounds if you wanted to get the B560 Strix you would have enough cash to pay for half of the Core i5-11400. Or a 500GB Corsair MP600 PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive for “free”. Suddenly what might be a difficult choice becomes clear as day. Who wouldn’t want a 5GB/s M.2 to power their system and take advantage of the PCI Express 4.0 bandwidth? Especially when, as you saw throughout this, the main difference is that the Z590 Prime has full PCI Express 4.0 slots whilst the Strix only has the one PCIe 4.0 GPU slot and all the rest are PCI Express 3.0. We don’t know about you but most of our other slots below the GPU are dustier than the back of the fridge, so it’s not a loss at all.
Yes you have a single USB port fewer, and they aren’t all the full speed options you get on the Prime, but unless you’re dealing with external storage then any port is strong enough for what you plug into it. No point in bemoaning that you’ve only got a USB 3.2 Gen1 port if all you’re putting in it is your keyboard or mouse. Lastly the Z590-A Prime has an extra PCIe 3.0 M.2 slot, should you be on a very tight budget but also have three NVMe drives on hand. It’s not very likely is it.
With identical looks, identical hardware in all the key places, and a massive price drop if you go for the B560 then we think the end result is a clear one. What do you think?
Discuss the ASUS Z590-A Prime and Strix B560-A on the OC3D Forums.
