ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming Velocita Motherboard Review

A Closer Look

The new ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming Velocita Motherboard is certainly impressive. The black grey and red design really catches your eye. I don’t think everyone will like the red, but it’s in places that will be much more hidden by the time you build your system. I quite like it though, but that’s subjective.

The motherboard features a lot of impressive hardware though, starting with that mighty 13 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design. Plus, there’s a huge bank of 12K Nichicon Black Caps in front of that too. Then you have the ASRock XXL Aluminium Heatsink Design. There are two of those large heatsinks and they’re joined by a massive heatpipe. There’s even a small active fan setup on the left VRM. It’s about one of the most robust overclocking setups you’ll find.

There are two more fans up on the top VRM too, and look at that beefcake heatpipe!

The power comes from a pair of reinforced 8-pin headers, so again, more power delivery than most are likely to need, but it’s nice to have it right?

Connectivity is incredibly good on this motherboard. You get eight SATA ports as standard while most boards make do with just six.

There are two Ultra M.2 mounts, giving you options for ultra-fast storage. Of course, they’ve booth been covered with massive heatsinks that should cool and protect your new drives.

There are just two full-size PCIe lanes, but they’ve booth been armoured for added durability. You also get three 1x PCIe lanes.

The audio hardware is superb too, offering up Nahimic Audio through the Realtek ALC1220 CODEC. It also runs an NE5532 Headset Amp for the front panel with 600 Ohm support.

The board features both built-in power controls, as well as a BIOS debug LED, which is great for solving issues, especially when overclocking.

The rear I/O is very cool looking with a custom graphic design and a pre-installed shield. There are a Display Port and HDMI at the top should you need them. Below that, there are six USB ports, including a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C. All of the audio jacks are gold plated, and they’ve included an SPDIF too. You’ve got two networking options too, with the Phantom Gaming 2.5 Gigabit LAN and the Intel Gigabit LAN.