Review on ASUS Prime Z590-A LGA 1200 ATX Motherboard (Intel 11th/10th Gen, 14+2 DrMOS Power Stages, 3X M.2, Intel 2.5 Gb LAN, USB 3.2 Front Panel Type-C, Thunderbolt 4, Aura Sync RGB Lighting) by Anthony Watkins

, I wanted to build a new PC and didn't want to spend money on a ROG motherboard. I have owned five other ASUS motherboards (also from other brands) and I really appreciate the care, support and effort ASUS puts into their line of motherboards. I chose this one because the price was right and it had all the features I was looking for. The motherboard itself has a nice layout. With all peripherals and cables connected, nothing feels too tight. I really like that the connectors for most attachments are located around the perimeter of the board. Yes, some of them are in the middle, but on a board this size with the number of ports it offers, it's inevitable. The back wall is very nicely finished. I use a lot of peripherals (see attached pictures). My computer case is In-Win D-Frame. The wires are sticking out at an odd angle because the back of the motherboard is facing up (see attached pictures). Since the rear panel layout is well thought out, routing wires and cables around the case is not a problem. Some additional things I like about this board: - USB-C connections. Many of my devices are USB-C only, so a nice touch - Comes with 2 heatsinks for M.2 drives (I have 2 Samsung 970 EVO Plus) - Has three 3-pin aRGB connectors around the perimeter of the board, not inside center - Lots of fan headers (although I'm using iCue Commander Pro) - No LAN issues (Ubiquiti hardware and CAT6a cables in my house) and high data rates - CPU overclocking (i7-10700k) was fine, no issues (see attached image of CPU-Z) I would like to see an M.2-e slot on this board. This would allow the installation of an M.2 WiFi card. I knew it wasn't on this board, so it didn't really matter and didn't result in a loss of stars in the leaderboard. However, the Prime Z590M-Plus comes with one, so installing an M.2-e slot on the Prime Z590-A shouldn't have been difficult. One issue that has frustrated me is overclocking my RAM. Initially, I chose two Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4 4000 (PC4-3200) C16 1.35V modules. Initially I installed them in slots 1 and 3 which resulted in no overclocking. I even tried manually adjusting the timings and voltages in the BIOS, but no overclocking. Of course, this RAM is not on the qualified vendors list, but there are similar types from Corsair. I've bought two other types of Corsair RAM from a qualified vendors list, but still no overclocking. I ended up putting the RAM (the originals I bought) into memory slots 2 and 4 on the motherboard. As if by magic, overclocking finally worked. I'm not sure if this is intentional for this board or a defect, but others should be aware. I returned the slower RAM and kept the original, faster pair. This experience resulted in a 1 star downgrade for me. Despite this, the RAM and processor overclocking has been stable for more than a month. During that time, I ran several stress tests to improve my CPU overclocking. This created a small bump. Right now, the CPU clock is hovering around 4.9 GHz, although that may be due to the CPU cooler I'm using rather than the hardware combination. If I had better cooling I could increase this frequency a bit. Overall I am happy with this motherboard. I enjoy playing games at 144Hz refresh rate at 1080p and this machine works well. I also do a lot of video editing (Adobe Premier Pro) for work and the performance is great too.