Previews

ASUS Z490 Motherboard Preview

How Much Does it Cost?

Right now, the prices are still in flux, as is always the way pre-launch. AMD will no doubt counter with some sort of launch, and even that may cause Intel to be more flexible with their prices, and board partners will follow suit. The three MSI boards I have are wildly different, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the prices were drastically different. I suspect around £300 for the “entry-level” enthusiast boards, and I fear you may be looking closer to £1000 for the absolute top-end stuff. That’s before you dive into the cost of the CPU too. The Godlike has been rumoured to cost nearly a thousand, but we’ll have confirmation on that soon enough. Either way, Z490 will be mostly what you expect, and the top end boards are going to slay your wallet.

I suspect the TUF will be under £300, but I don’t know for sure, and while very high-end, I don’t think the HERO will be the most expensive from ASUS either, but it’ll certainly be up there.

Overview

ASUS always has one of the most comprehensive motherboard ranges for any launch and just from the two we have in the office, that’s clearly going to be the case this time around too. I’d have like to have seen more of them for this preview, but I’m sure we’ll have more hitting the office as the launch approaches.

While I love the high-end stuff, there’s a lot of cool stuff going on in the more affordable ranges too. The TUF series has made great progress over the year and the Z490 one looks like it may be their best yet. PCIe 4 ready, loads of storage options, Type-C, good VRM, it’s pretty solid. I can’t wait to see how it performs and what price point it hits, it should be very competitive.

If you’re more into extreme overclocking, kick-ass aesthetics and bragging rights, the HERO is obviously just the thing for you. It’ll be pretty expensive, but I honestly think it may be one of the best motherboards this launch. We’ve heard the CPUs are going to be power-hungry and a bit hot under the hood, and that MONSTER VRM configuration and the big heatsinks looks like the right tool for the job.

Gigabyte AORUS Z490 Motherboard Preview
MSI Z490 Motherboard Preview

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Peter Donnell

As a child still in my 30's (but not for long), I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!