How Much Does it Cost?
While this isn’t the flagship ASRock board it is still pretty high-end. They’ve stripped out things like WiFi and I even think the rear I/O is short on USB ports, but they’ve certainly put the budget towards performance. That being said, at £286.54 in the UK and $259.99 in the US, it is pretty affordable for a high-end board, especially one that was able to beat more expensive models.
Overview
ASRock really know how to make a quality product and that really shines through with the ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming Velocita. It may be a new range for them, but I’m already eager to see more. It feels like the leaner and meaner supercar version of one of their boards. Ultra-stylish design, but relentlessly focusing on the core performance. They put a lot of impressive hardware on this board and it pays off.
Build Quality & Design
It’s not the most over the top design, for that you’ll want the Taichi series and a lot more cash. But do you really need to spend that much money? If you don’t need dual thunderbolt, more storage and WiFi, then the Velocita is hardly spartan on features. The VRM design is bloody impressive and there’s a class-leading cooling setup for the CPU and M.2 mounts. Plus, you get armoured PCIe lanes, a pre-installed rear I/O and more.
Performance
Hands down, this is a FAST motherboard, it even managed to set a few new records for us today. 24391 is the highest score I’ve had in 3DMark (for motherboards), beating out the ASUS ROG Maximus II EXTREME! It gave us the third-fastest TimeSpy score, the fastest PCMark 10 Express score, the fastest time in Kraken, highest score in Web XPRT, and the list goes on. I suspect with a little fine-tuning and a good cooling setup, it’ll go even further too.
Added Value
There’s not a lot of added value here, you get exactly what you pay for. There are some nice additions overall though, such as the good quality audio hardware, which I always like to see. A few more USB ports on the back would have been nice though, but it’s hardly a deal breaker. While it lacks WiFi 6, having dual LAN options is great for speed and stability.
Should I Buy One?
I think this is one of the most exciting motherboards for the Z490 series as a whole. It’s by far not the most expensive option out there, but it still has all the premium feature you could want, backed up by titan-slaying performance that will put a big smile on your FPS counter. Highly recommended.
