The ASRock Z590 OC Formula is a striking motherboard that is laser focused on extreme overclocking. The black and acid yellow aesthetic is a fresh look that lets the Z590 OC Formula stand apart in looks as well as performance. The RGB LEDs are bright and have good diffusion, continuing ASRock's trend of providing great RGB implementations.

Out of the box, performance was great for the ASRock Z590 OC Formula. Memory overclocking was about average, reaching 3900 MHz CL16 stable on my i9-10900K sample and 3733 MHz on my i9-11900k sample. Given the heavy overclocking focus on this board, I would have liked to see more headroom.

For CPU overclocking, I was able to achieve a rock-solid 5.3 GHz on all cores with my i9-10900K and 5.2 GHz on my i9-11900K. The largest limitation to overclocking with Z590 came down to dealing with the heat produced by the incredibly dense Intel Core i9-10900K and i9-11900K. To achieve the kind of overclocking results the ASRock Z590 OC Formula was designed for, exotic cooling is required. VRM thermals were excellent, peaking at just 48°C with the VRM fan enabled, and just 58°C with the fan disabled. Given how quiet the fan is, I would recommend leaving it on.

The ASRock Z590 OC Formula is designed for a very specific audience: extreme overclockers. If you are in the market for a platform for overclocking on Intel, the ASRock Z590 OC Formula is where you should start.