ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Preview

[Black Haru]

The ASRock Z490 PG Velocita is ready for Comet Lake with Socket LGA 1200. "Velocita" is ASRock's latest edition to the award-winning Phantom Gaming motherboard line and features 2.5 Gb/s LAN, PCIe 4.0 readiness, and an uncompromising VRM thermal solution with three fans.

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[Kapone33]

Why does this board seem meh to me? PCIe expansion 1 16 slot 3 x1 and x4 are paltry even compared to X570. I want to see how many people complain about Intel boards now needing fan arrays to cool components.

 

[Black Haru]

Why does this board seem meh to me? PCIe expansion 1 16 slot 3 x1 and x4 are paltry even compared to X570. I want to see how many people complain about Intel boards now needing fan arrays to cool components.

There are 2 PCIe x16 slots. This configuration is specifically designed to be able accommodate two triple slot Graphics cards. Some people like it, some don't but it makes sense for a gaming focused board.

 

[Landcross]

There are 2 PCIe x16 slots. This configuration is specifically designed to be able accommodate two triple slot Graphics cards. Some people like it, some don't but it makes sense for a gaming focused board.

There are two physical x16 slots, but electrically it's wired up as 1 x16 and 1 x4.
It's indeed a bit meager when you consider that on X570 (AMD) you can get x16 and x8 with PCI-e 4 (which is essentially more than two times x16 3.0).

 

[Black Haru]

There are two physical x16 slots, but electrically it's wired up as 1 x16 and 1 x4.
It's indeed a bit meager when you consider that on X570 (AMD) you can get x16 and x8 with PCI-e 4 (which is essentially more than two times x16 3.0).

Ah, I see what you mean. Specs-wise it is a big discrepancy, but in real world performance I doubt it amounts to a large difference.

 

[Kapone33]

Ah, I see what you mean. Specs-wise it is a big discrepancy, but in real world performance I doubt it amounts to a large difference.

Well if you wanted to get a super fast scratch disk you would be limited on this board. NVME is here to stay and the more of them you have the more you appreciate how much faster your system feels. There is also the fact that there is in some cases a 200% markup from a 2TB NVME drive to a 4TB NVME drive. With modern games (easily 50 to 100 GB downloads), I fell you need a large drive (Not all of us have the luxury of double downloading a game at no added cost). I know that HDDs can be mass storage but that feels so 2000s in both noise and performance.

Theoretically you could have 3 NVME drives in RAID 0 but that would also depend on how the lanes are allocated. I would also add that with the 1220 Codec there is (in my opinion) no need for a Sound card, taking away one of the 4 PCIe 1 lanes in terms of potential so what would you fill those with? That is actually a serious question because I can't think of anything other than a USB card. Even the fact that it has a WIFI 6 adapter excludes network cards. I know the board is supposed to be electrically wired for PCIe 4.0. Could that mean the unthinkable and these boards will be compatible with 10NM CPUs? Even then I feel this board would have been better served with 3 PCIe x16 slots with 2 of them being x4 allowing for additional NVME storage or other more rewarding things like a capture card.

 

[gamefoo21]

There are two physical x16 slots, but electrically it's wired up as 1 x16 and 1 x4.
It's indeed a bit meager when you consider that on X570 (AMD) you can get x16 and x8 with PCI-e 4 (which is essentially more than two times x16 3.0).

Switches are such fun...

16x0x0x
8x8x0x
8x4x4x

That's my X570 TaiChi.

Also assuming Intel gets PCIe 4 sorted out for the next chip, this board has PCIe 4.0 support as well.

Ah, I see what you mean. Specs-wise it is a big discrepancy, but in real world performance I doubt it amounts to a large difference.

Difference is you aren't crippling the primary slot if you stick anything else into that second slot you aren't dropping from 16x to 8x.

So it's just a different approach. Asrock put a lot of money into different areas and just left out the SLI support.

I bet the VRM cooler works a lot better without the stupid shrouding.

 

[Black Haru]

Switches are such fun...

16x0x0x
8x8x0x
8x4x4x

That's my X570 TaiChi.

Also assuming Intel gets PCIe 4 sorted out for the next chip, this board has PCIe 4.0 support as well.



Difference is you aren't crippling the primary slot if you stick anything else into that second slot you aren't dropping from 16x to 8x.

So it's just a different approach. Asrock put a lot of money into different areas and just left out the SLI support.

I bet the VRM cooler works a lot better without the stupid shrouding.

The Shrouding really isn't too bad. The heatpipe will carry any excess heat from the shrouded side over to the finned section. You would definitely get better temps without it, but this is a case where the improved looks are worth the small performance hit. As long as the package as a whole can keep up, I wouldn't worry much.

 

[LTUGamer]

So basicly there are are lot of plastic covers with "fancy" RGB lighting. To fit those lights motherboard radiators were downsized. Also they were put those covers on the most hot place of motherboard and hot air is closed under that plastic cover. To remove that hot air from VRM they put bunch of small fans which need to spin fast to create at least some airflow...

So in conclusion we have very noisy motherboard (3 pcs small fans will be clearly audible) and much "cool looking" plastic with RGB lighting. Shame

 

[bogami]

Phantom Gaming is the name intended to be a game, and here ASROK has stepped back. The main and biggest disadvantage is the lack of support for SLI, which belongs to every game-oriented matherboard. The rest are fairly standard on today's cheap baseboards and this one doesn't even fit the $ 200 class. The processor will require better power due to higher operating frequencies and the need for more powerful VRM is noticeable on all new models. The fact that the fans are present speaks volumes about the low quality because the efficiency is so poor that strong cooling will be required. It does not deserve to mention this product ,apricots to reward !

 

[Black Haru]

So basicly there are are lot of plastic covers with "fancy" RGB lighting. To fit those lights motherboard radiators were downsized. Also they were put those covers on the most hot place of motherboard and hot air is closed under that plastic cover. To remove that hot air from VRM they put bunch of small fans which need to spin fast to create at least some airflow...

So in conclusion we have very noisy motherboard (3 pcs small fans will be clearly audible) and much "cool looking" plastic with RGB lighting. Shame

Phantom Gaming is the name intended to be a game, and here ASROK has stepped back. The main and biggest disadvantage is the lack of support for SLI, which belongs to every game-oriented matherboard. The rest are fairly standard on today's cheap baseboards and this one doesn't even fit the $ 200 class. The processor will require better power due to higher operating frequencies and the need for more powerful VRM is noticeable on all new models. The fact that the fans are present speaks volumes about the low quality because the efficiency is so poor that strong cooling will be required. It does not deserve to mention this product ,apricots to reward !

I think jugements like these are premature. Let's wait and see what our temperature testing has to say.

 

[Caring1]

In my opinion the Phantom Gaming line is the basic gaming range.
Adding a fancy Italian term to it won't make it any better, nor will shrouds and lights.
I'm still waiting to see if they release an O.C. version.

 

[LTUGamer]

I think jugements like these are premature. Let's wait and see what our temperature testing has to say.

Temperatures are not the case, ofcourse they will be good enough. There are three fans and they will be audible for sure. Actually for daily system overclocking huge passive radiator is more than enough.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

I think it's time that whole "red and black" "gamer aesthetic" needs to be thrown into the dustbin of history once and for all. It's like this board takes its design cues from 2013 (the epitome of this is the Asus X99 Rampage V (not the revision, the first gen where the whole thing is black and red).

I'm a specs first type of person, but I just can't ignore the red accents... I just think the design cues are "14 year old gamer from 2013". I just feel like most people would prefer their motherboards to be neutral colored.

I think it's time that whole "red and black" "gamer aesthetic" needs to be thrown into the dustbin of history once and for all. It's like this board takes its design cues from 2013 (the epitome of this is the Asus X99 Rampage V (not the revision, the first gen where the whole thing is black and red).

I'm a specs first type of person, but I just can't ignore the red accents... I just think the design cues are "14 year old gamer from 2013". I just feel like most people would prefer their motherboards to be neutral colored.

 

[Kapone33]

Temperatures are not the case, ofcourse they will be good enough. There are three fans and they will be audible for sure. Actually for daily system overclocking huge passive radiator is more than enough.

I can't wait to see the power draw from a 5+ GHZ all core OC.

 

[Condelio]

The shroud is there for hiding purposes, for many people if you don't see a tiny fan (like x570 boards) it's because there is no fan

Switches are such fun...

16x0x0x
8x8x0x
8x4x4x

That's my X570 TaiChi.

Also assuming Intel gets PCIe 4 sorted out for the next chip, this board has PCIe 4.0 support as well.



Difference is you aren't crippling the primary slot if you stick anything else into that second slot you aren't dropping from 16x to 8x.

So it's just a different approach. Asrock put a lot of money into different areas and just left out the SLI support.

I bet the VRM cooler works a lot better without the stupid shrouding.

 

[Ruru]

Phantom Gaming is the name intended to be a game, and here ASROK has stepped back. The main and biggest disadvantage is the lack of support for SLI, which belongs to every game-oriented matherboard.

I don't agree here, there's hella lot "gaming" motherboards with "only" Crossfire support. And it's 2020, support multi-GPU is pretty damn marginal in games these days and I doubt that everyone runs 3DMark all day long.. AMD didn't drop CF support from Navi without a reason.

 

[gamefoo21]

The shroud is there for hiding purposes, for many people if you don't see a tiny fan (like x570 boards) it's because there is no fan

Form > Function

I will be more than surprised if you strip those air flow killing cosmetic pieces and you don't get both a cooler VRM and it will be quieter at the same time.

Also lots of X570 boards proudly display their unshrouded chipset fan.

 

[Logoffon]

Integrated Graphics:

No

Wasn't it supposed to be CPU-dependent, as it does have HDMI and DP outputs?

 

[Ruru]

Integrated Graphics:

No

Wasn't it supposed to be CPU-dependent, as it does have HDMI and DP outputs?

That's how it should be, only the F-SKUs doesn't have IGPU enabled.

 

[Black Haru]

Integrated Graphics:

No

Wasn't it supposed to be CPU-dependent, as it does have HDMI and DP outputs?

Fixed, good catch.

 

[WeeRab]

600w power delivery, AND 3 cooling fans for a 125w tdp chip?
WTF?

 

[gamefoo21]

600w power delivery, AND 3 cooling fans for a 125w tdp chip?
WTF?

Considering how warm the X570 TaiChi VRM gets when I was pulling just 180W sustained through it...

I mean even under water cooling those Vishsay dumb stages still pushed up to 50'C after an hour or so, and that's with some very expensive Fujipoly thermal pads.

So if high end Zen 3 is looking to pull 200w or close to it... I can understand it.

Also AMD's TDP numbers are even more dubious than Intel. A 3950x is only 125w with a Wraith Prism in a 20'C room... You strap a good cooler to it and it'll gleefully pull 200w stock until it heat soaks your cooling which may never happen on a custom loop. The joy of TDP that's directly tied to your cooler.