Asus PRIME Z490-P (90MB12V0-M0EAY0)
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A relatively affordable version of the top motherboard of 2020 with an LGA 1200 processor socket and the flagship Intel Z490 chipset. Supports installation of 2/4/6/8/10-core Intel Core i9/i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron 10th Gen Comet Lake microarchitecture (14nm). Designed for assembly of performant gaming configurations and multi-purpose home systems. Thanks to the support of a full set of overclocking functions, it will be of interest to economical enthusiasts who can get maximum performance by fine-tuning the parameters of the components manually.
Thanks to the 12-phase (10+2) power subsystem, the Asus PRIME Z490-P motherboard is suitable for long-term operation of the system in the mode of significant overclocking of the processor and RAM (without extreme voltage increases). Supports connection of two high-speed M.2 SSD drives and one M.2 module with Wi-Fi adapter (sold separately). Thanks to four slots for installing DDR4 RAM, it allows you to create systems with an impressive amount of RAM (up to 128 GB), which is enough for any current/future games and resource-intensive professional tasks. To quickly handle heavy network traffic, there is a Realtek RTL8111H GbE controller.
Low-cost Ferrari
According to Asus' idea, the Prime line is a mid-range product whose capabilities should not exceed the solutions of the ROG series, but be slightly better than TUF Gaming. Therefore, the Asus PRIME Z490-P has a strange positioning — this is an entry-level motherboard, which is quite expensive due to the overclocking Z490 chipset. It turns out a strange oxymoron in the spirit of the "low-cost Ferrari".
Emphasis on reliability
As in all motherboards of the Prime line, the emphasis is not on decorations and additional goodies, but on increasing reliability. The manufacturer took into account the rather high requirements for cooling the power subsystem, so the heat from the power elements is removed by two independent radiators of different sizes. The power supply subsystem of the main processor units is made according to the 10+2 scheme. All 10 main phases are formed by NCP302045 mosfets. The board supports the installation of four sticks of RAM with a maximum frequency of 4600 MHz, is equipped with two three M.2 slots (two with cooling for SSD), a pair of PCI-E 16x and standard six SATA ports. Thanks to high-quality circuitry, a powerful power supply system, efficient cooling and a concise BIOS, this baby can be used to assemble a flagship assembly with a slightly overclocked Core i9-10900K and any graphics card available on the market.
And they forgot about USB-C
Considering not the lowest price, Asus PRIME Z490-P is easy to criticize. In fact, this is actually a reference board for the Z490, in which the eye has nothing to catch on. For more than $200, I would like to see some useful little things like a USB-C port. It was also a strange decision to abandon the Intel network controller in favor of Realtek. These little things will pass by the vast majority of users, but not us. Asus released the exact same Z390-based Prime last year, which built exactly the same amount but didn't give a damn about missing something useful.
