Introduction

After almost a decade of total market dominance, Intel has spent the past few years on the defensive. AMD's Ryzen processors continue to show improvement year over year, with the most recent Ryzen 5000 series taking the crown of best gaming processor: Intel's last bastion of superiority.

Now, with a booming hardware market, Intel is preparing to make up some of that lost ground with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors. Intel is claiming these new 11th Gen CPUs offer double-digit IPC improvements despite remaining on a 14 nm process. The top-end 8-core Intel Core i9-11900K may not be able to compete against its Ryzen 9 5900X AMD rival in heavily multi-threaded scenarios, but the higher clock speeds and alleged IPC improvements could be enough to take back the gaming crown. Along with the new CPUs, there is a new chipset to match, the Intel Z590. Last year's Z490 chipset motherboards are also compatible with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors, but Z590 introduces some key advantages.

First, Z590 offers native PCIe 4.0 support from the CPU, which means the PCIe and M.2 slots powered off the CPU will offer PCIe 4.0 connectivity when an 11th Gen CPU is installed. The PCIe and M.2 slots controlled by the Z590 chipset are still PCI 3.0. While many high-end Z490 motherboards advertised this capability, it was not a standard feature for the platform. In addition to PCIe 4.0 support, Z590 offers USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 from the chipset. The USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard offers speeds of up to 20 Gb/s. Finally, Z590 boasts native support for 3200 MHz DDR4 memory. With these upgrades, Intel's Z series platform has feature parity with AMD's B550. On paper, Intel is catching up to AMD, but only testing will tell if these new Z590 motherboards are up to the challenge.



The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita is a recent addition to ASRock's arsenal. The Phantom Gaming Velocita targets the gamer market with Killer Networking for both wired and wireless connectivity and even an option to route the network traffic straight from the Killer LAN controller to the CPU. The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita features a dependable 14-phase VRM that takes advantage of 50 A power stages from Vishay. The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita has all the core features for a great gaming motherboard. All that is left is to see how the ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita stacks up against the competition!

Specifications

Packaging and Contents

The front of the ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita box features a large "PG" logo on a brightly colored background. "Z590 PG Velocita" is just below the logo with the brand badging on the bottom right.

The back of the box has all the highlights: a top-down shot of the board, several panels detailing prominent features, a shot of the rear I/O, and the specifications list.


The accessories are above standard and include extras like Velcro cable ties and a keychain.

The star of the show is ASRock's new graphics card holder. This low-profile bracket mounts along the right side of the board and makes for a sturdy anti-sag bracket for your graphics card.

The full list of accessories includes:

• Quick installation guide, support CD
• 4x SATA data cables
• Graphics card holder
• Wireless dongle USB bracket
• 3010 cooling fan with bracket and screw package
• 4010 cooling fan bracket and screw package
• 2x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz antennas
• 3x Screws for M.2 sockets
• 3x Standoffs for M.2 sockets

Board Layout

The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita features a black, silver, and red color combination. This theme is now a familiar staple of the Phantom Gaming line and strikes a good balance between neutral tones and striking accents.


The CPU socket is open enough for most air coolers.


There are three M.2 slots on the ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita. All of these feature full-coverage heatsinks.

Note that the top M.2 slot is PCIe 4.0 compliant and will only function when an 11th Gen CPU is installed.


The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita offers three PCI Express x16 slots, all metal-reinforced. The top two slots are PCIe 4.0 compliant, while the bottom slot is PCIe 3.0 only. The board has a total of six SATA 6 Gb/s ports which are angled 90 degrees.


The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita has a reasonable I/O offering that includes an optical S/PDIF Out port and Wi-Fi 6E.

• 2x Antenna ports
• HDMI port
• DisplayPort 1.4
• Optical SPDIF Out port
• USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A port
• USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port
• 6x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports
• 2x USB 2.0 ports
• 2x RJ-45 LAN ports
• 5x 3.5 mm HD audio jacks

Networking on the ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita is handled by an Intel I219V as well as a Killer E3100G 2.5 Gb/s controller. For wireless connectivity, there is a Killer AX1675x WiFi 6E module.