Wednesday, June 24th 2020
NZXT N7 Z490 Motherboard Renders Revealed
Here are some of the first pictures of the N7 Z490 motherboards by NZXT. Historically, NZXT is known to source its motherboard through OEMs such as ECS, but with great design and quality oversight, which could be the case with the Z490-based N7 board, too. Built in the ATX form-factor, the N7 Z490 draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, and 8+4 pin EPS power connectors, conditioning it for the CPU with a 12-phase VRM. The board is characterized by a front shroud that covers most of the business side of the PCB, and comes either in matte black or white, blending into the design scheme NZXT uses for its cases.
Expansion slots on the N7 Z490 appear to include one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, one x16 (electrical x4), and three x1 slots. Storage options include two M.2-2280 slots, each with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring; and four SATA 6 Gbps ports. USB connectivity includes two 10 Gbps USB 3.1 gen 2 ports (from which one is type-C), and four 5 Gbps USB 3.1 gen 1 ports. An HDMI port provides the sole display output. Networking options include 802.11ax + Bluetooth 5 provided by an Intel AX201 WLAN card; and 2.5 GbE wired networking from a Realtek RTL8125BG controller. The onboard audio solution uses premium Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec. There's no information on pricing or availability.
Source:
momomo_us (Twitter)
Expansion slots on the N7 Z490 appear to include one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, one x16 (electrical x4), and three x1 slots. Storage options include two M.2-2280 slots, each with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring; and four SATA 6 Gbps ports. USB connectivity includes two 10 Gbps USB 3.1 gen 2 ports (from which one is type-C), and four 5 Gbps USB 3.1 gen 1 ports. An HDMI port provides the sole display output. Networking options include 802.11ax + Bluetooth 5 provided by an Intel AX201 WLAN card; and 2.5 GbE wired networking from a Realtek RTL8125BG controller. The onboard audio solution uses premium Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec. There's no information on pricing or availability.
22 Comments on NZXT N7 Z490 Motherboard Renders Revealed
f.A.i.L...
They certainly aren't lacking in physical features, but the BIOS could use some work.No, the first slot is above the GPU, the lower slot is near the lower edge of the board.
The covers over the VRM sections are well ventilated, sure a fan over them would help, but i'm happy with the low temps mine runs at.
Having owned a board before that had an all plastic shroud covering tthe entire motherboard i never had any temp issues. That that was back at P67 days when Intel did not generate that much heat.
He just sounds like a fanboi of a motherboard that has meh reviews and is more about the style then the abilities (that said you'll never get him to change his mind set). they are clean looking boards but I will stick to functional boards from the better know board brands.
Knowing NZXT this thing will be priced up next to the M12H but it only has 2 M.2 slots, 4 SATA ports, 6 USB ports, and a single display out??? Even setting aside the fact that it will probably have mediocre VRM and the cooling will probably be rubbish it looks pretty pathetic. And I'm not going to speak about NZXT being a small mobo vendor so their memory support is probably rubbish too.
But hey I guess they have something they can stuff in their prebuilts and sell to the few fanboys who really must have an NZXT board
Also can we stop advertising 8+4 pin CPU power as a feature? Or start advertising 20+4 power connectors as well?
I did however say my system runs at 28C (idling online, browsing and replying to people like you).I can only say that my board which is a couple of versions earlier in production has metal shrouding, except for the plastic M2 covers.
Reviews of the last two boards were not kind when it came to build quality, pricing, BIOS quality, or cooling, but at least there was some ventilation around the socket. This one looks like they've gone out of their way to protect those poor little VRMs from dangerous fresh air.
Who is even buying these boards if you cant OC on them? just people that want to make a RGB rig and look at it?
Maybe you should update the Bios on yours.