It’s clear to us from spending considerable time with MASTER that we have a rather special Intel Z590 motherboard in our hands. This new solution is simply a great all-rounder and comes highly recommended by us.
Taking things purely on the aesthetics, we have a soft spot for MASTER – it adopts a sleek design and looks splendid. Many board partners slap oversized heatsinks on their motherboards but bigger doesn’t always mean better – the VRM/chipset heatsinks could confirm this truth. MASTER has lower profile, slim heatsinks which don’t overpower the physical design and yet offer superior thermals than rival offerings.
MASTER delivers a strong feature-set which covers all but one area – there are no Thunderbolt 4 ports. We’d have liked to see such a feature on a high-end solution like this. Regardless of this, we still get a generous selection of USB 3.2, M.2 storage support and DDR4 compatibility up to 5400MHz. For those wanting more than the average slice of features, MASTER supplies voltage checkpoints, LED debug, onboard power/reset buttons and a dual BIOS switch. There is no denying that this is a well-designed motherboard which caters for tech enthusiasts.
In our performance tests we discovered that MASTER offers solid performance and does so while maintaining low power consumption (compared to the competition). Our Intel Core i9-11900K has a maximum all-core overclock of 5GHz and MASTER achieve this with just 1.32v – the lowest voltage from any Z590 thus far. MASTER also enabled us to boot into Windows at 5.3GHz, we just couldn’t sustain stability.
If you’re considering MASTER, you’ll need deep pockets, this board is available at $410 USD | £410 GBP | AUD $699. While this isn’t the most expensive Z590 motherboard, it is getting well on its way towards the upper-end.
If you’re on the hunt for a high-performance Intel Z590 motherboard with oodles of features and great overclocking ability – MASTER should be on that short-list!
Pros
+ Sleek, eye-catching aesthetics
+ Subtle RGB lighting
+ An excellent performer
+ Consumes less power than competition
+ Excellent at overclocking
+ Includes a large selection of USB 3.2 ports
+ Up to 9 fan headers
+ Features two PCIe 4.0 X16 slots
+ Benefits from a protective backplate
+ Offers three M.2 slots
+ Includes additional features – voltage checkpoints, debug, dual bios
Cons
- No Thunderbolt 4 ports
- Expensive!
+ Sleek, eye-catching aesthetics
+ Subtle RGB lighting
+ An excellent performer
+ Consumes less power than competition
+ Excellent at overclocking
+ Includes a large selection of USB 3.2 ports
+ Up to 9 fan headers
+ Features two PCIe 4.0 X16 slots
+ Benefits from a protective backplate
+ Offers three M.2 slots
+ Includes additional features – voltage checkpoints, debug, dual bios
Cons
- No Thunderbolt 4 ports
- Expensive!
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
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