# Board for Intel 10th gen



## leank1 (Jun 29, 2020)

Hi guys!


Which one of this boards will you choose to pair with 10700k/10900k?

Aorus Elite AC
Aorus Pro AX
Asus Z490-E (worried about cpu cooler and ram clearance)




Im not an extreme overclocker, just a little bit.


Thanks in advance!


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## cucker tarlson (Jun 29, 2020)

all of them are good
I say take elite ac,solid board,gets good press while the price is relatively reasonable.
was my 1st choice too.checks all the boxes.

cool vrm - no problem
usb - tons and tons,front and back.I just love the 4x 2.0 placement.
*usb bios recovery qflash  - check*
debug led - check
decent audio -check
3x m.2 - check
wifi - check

amazing board for the money.gets A rating for vrm quality and A rating for features.








						LGA1200 VRM list
					

400-series  2020-09-05,LGA1200 VRM list by /u/qhfreddy,Thanks to asdkj1740 @OCN for compiling many sources in this thread: <a href="https://www.overclock.net/forum/6-intel-motherboards/1746916-1440a-madness-z490-vrm-discussion-thread-v2-5-6-5-20-a.html">https://www.overclock.net/forum/6-intel-mot...




					docs.google.com


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## cucker tarlson (Jul 1, 2020)

important - if you're gonna buy aorus elite then the new bios is a must.
the board ships with f2 and it's fine,performs well and it's stable,but f3 claims "improved 3d gaming performance"
I decided to test it and expected nothing but holy smokes perf increase is real

I tested in ac origins alexandia,exactly the same shot before/after bios update showed 89-90 fps vs. 97-100 fps
gpu usage was at costant 91%,now 94%

I noticed that core voltage and package power draw went up slightly.

also,disable "energy efficient turbo" in advanced cpu configuartion,it messes with boost clocks.


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## bonehead123 (Jul 1, 2020)

As long as you are ok with the 2-gen lifecycle, then it really doesn't matter which one you get, cause they all are essentially dead-end products before you even get them  

But if ya gotta, IMHO, the elite would be the better of the 3


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## cucker tarlson (Jul 1, 2020)

also,I thought the led was a nice looking gimmick,but it actually lights up usb ports on the rear so even it the night time you see exactly where you're plugging stuff
I love this board more and more.



bonehead123 said:


> As long as you are ok with the 2-gen lifecycle, then it really doesn't matter which one you get, cause they all are essentially dead-end products before you even get them
> 
> But if ya gotta, IMHO, the elite would be the better of the 3


how is z490 more dead end than x570
the op asked


leank1 said:


> Which one of this boards will you choose to pair with 10700k/10900k?


I don't think am4 cpus are topping 10900K gaming performance and there's rocket lake coming to lga1200 yet


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## bonehead123 (Jul 1, 2020)

cucker tarlson said:


> how is z490 more dead end than x570, the op asked



I don't know for sure, but within the recent past, AMD's chips have been good for *at least* 2-3 gens for the most part, save for a few additional features here & there, but we'll have to see when the next new ryzen chips come out...


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## cucker tarlson (Jul 1, 2020)

bonehead123 said:


> I don't know for sure, but within the recent past, AMD's chips have been good for *at least* 2-3 gens for the most part, save for a few additional features here & there, but we'll have to see when the next new ryzen chips come out...


yeah that is true but we're at the point of a refresh of 3rd gen


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## cucker tarlson (Jul 3, 2020)

another thing I found in aorus elite - ring offset is on by default.your ring frequency will be -3x from your core frequency.tested in watchdogs2, about 2-3 fps gained in cpu heavy area on the main street.

so update your bios to f3 or later,disable energy efficient turbo,raise p1 and p2 limits,disable ring offset and I'm looking at performance increase in double digits on my 10500,can't say exactly  but +15% by the looks of it.that includes turning on HAGS on my 2070S too.

hope this might help someone.aorus elite is a very good board feature wise,but requires slight tuning.


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## John Naylor (Jul 4, 2020)

I have learned my lesson ... I never buy / build with 1st stepping boards

Have had a lot of discussions with users planning a build ... and the most talked about board so far at the $200 - $300 price point is the Gaming Edge Wifi.  I havent started reading the test and reviews as yet as we won't be building anything till end of summer.  Was curious enough to go read whose having what problems folks were having w/ Z490 ?

Only 1 board had more than 12 reviews and now i know why it was so oft mentioned ... it was  Gaming Edge Wifi.  I havent seen and component listing for this board yet.  One thing I have noticed is a leg of debug code displays which I find disturbing ... I was kinda hoping LEDs would go the way of the beeps

Looking at your 3 boards wile I was looking at user experiences ... 

Aorus Elite AC - Just one review, not statistically significant but gave it 5 eggs

Aorus Pro AX - only 2 reviews a 1 egg and a 2 egg.  To small a number to call statistically significant ... users not looking too well experienced

Asus Z490-E - Not listed

At this point, I'm liking the Z490 Unify ... and one of iyts biggest assets  ... no RGB








						MSI MEG Z490 Unify Review
					

Focused on VRM power and thermals, as well as a sleek and stealthy aesthetic, the MSI MEG Z490 Unify is shaping up to be a serious contender for the best value enthusiast board. With sixteen 90 A power stages from Intersil and active VRM cooling, no CPU is too power hungry for the Unify.




					www.techpowerup.com


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## cucker tarlson (Jul 4, 2020)

John Naylor said:


> I have learned my lesson ... I never buy / build with 1st stepping boards
> 
> Have had a lot of discussions with users planning a build ... and the most talked about board so far at the $200 - $300 price point is the Gaming Edge Wifi.  I havent started reading the test and reviews as yet as we won't be building anything till end of summer.  Was curious enough to go read whose having what problems folks were having w/ Z490 ?
> 
> ...


also no support for igpu
you're buying a K-series sku that has one and are force to get a dgpu when you need one i.e. for troubleshooting or in between cards.stupid.

and tbh aorus elite gets good press from site reviews and has really good feature/quality to price ratio.
cool as polar bear's toenails


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Jul 4, 2020)

Get the aorus pro ax, its a higher tier board than the elite ac and has everything you would want for a high perrformanc gaming build. Just flash it to the latest bios when you set it up the first time


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## cucker tarlson (Jul 4, 2020)

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) said:


> Get the aorus pro ax, its a higher tier board than the elite ac and has everything you would want for a high perrformanc gaming build. Just flash it to the latest bios when you set it up the first time


pro ax runs warmer than elite





						Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Pro AX moederbord - Hardware Info
					

De Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Pro AX is een ATX Socket 1200 moederbord gebaseerd op de Intel Z490 chipset, geschikt voor Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7 / i9 / Celeron / Pentium processors. Het bord dient gecombineerd te worden met DDR4 geheugen, waarvoor 4 sloten beschikbaar zijn. In totaal heeft de Gigabyte...




					nl.hardware.info
				








						Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Elite AC moederbord - Hardware Info
					

De Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Elite AC is een ATX Socket 1200 moederbord gebaseerd op de Intel Z490 chipset, geschikt voor Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7 / i9 / Celeron / Pentium processors. Het bord dient gecombineerd te worden met DDR4 geheugen, waarvoor 4 sloten beschikbaar zijn. In totaal heeft de...




					nl.hardware.info
				




and I don't think elite is missing any big features


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## Caring1 (Jul 5, 2020)

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) said:


> Get the aorus pro ax, its a higher tier board than the elite ac and has everything you would want for a high perrformanc gaming build. Just flash it to the latest bios when you set it up the first time


Settle petal, no need for larger font in bold.
I'm sure no one reading these forums is blind.


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## aeros (Jul 8, 2020)

Hello guys. I must make a decision in a short time and I have many doubts. Can you help me?

I must choose a board for a 10700K. (not extreme OC) Moderate oc with undervolting. Priority use of games.

The price cannot exceed € 300 but the lower it is, the better. So I need one that best suits my needs.

The important thing for me is that it is compatible next gen (pcie 4.0) network 2.5g (I have read something of a bug in intel and it lowers you to 1g) and a good sound. What a good gaming board.

My options

Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Elite
Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Pro
MSI MPG z490 Gaming PLUS
Msi MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon
Msi MEG Z490 UNIFY
Asus Rog Strix Z490-E Gaming
Asus Rog Strix Z490-F Gaming



I have seen the excel and I think that what ASUS (Strix z490-E)  marks is not reliable since its voltage is lower than that of the others. And I'm sure you don't need that voltage as high as gigabyte and msi.

I accept suggestions from other models.

Thanks


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## cucker tarlson (Jul 8, 2020)

they're all very good.
imo best quality - unify (but you're missing igpu functionality)
best value - aorus elite

btw,one more thing I discovered on my aorus elite - there's a dedicated m.2 pcie4 slot under the cpu for a gen4 drive when you upgrade to rocket lake,since it's supposed to have gen4 cpu lines.nice!

also,this is what I was talking about


cucker tarlson said:


> I thought the led was a nice looking gimmick,but it actually lights up usb ports on the rear so even it the night time you see exactly where you're plugging stuff


super easy to plug stuff in the dark


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