It’s not that surprising to see NZXT make a new Z490 motherboard, given that we’ve seen them tackle this design twice already. I am a little surprised they didn’t have this board ready sooner, but with the way the world turns these days, I’m sure they had enough hurdles to tackle. However, while we thought their innovative design was amazing, it was often let down by some missing features and a terrible BIOS. However, ECS used to make their boards, and now while they look similar, the boards are made by ASRock now, which could be the shot in the arm this motherboard series needed. Somehow, this has also allowed NZXT to drop the price, making it more competitive in an already very busy market sector.
NZXT N7 Z490 Motherboard
It’s pretty well equipped, offering just enough features for your typical PC build. However, we’re a little unsure why it only has Gen 3.0 PCIe, not Gen 4.0, so it’s not quite future proof for some upcoming Intel CPUs. However, beyond that, there’s the usual mixture of USB headers, a pair of M.2 mounts, addressable and 4-pin RGB headers, etc. However, what’s interesting is that the board its self has no RGB at all. The board sticks firmly to its monochrome armour for aesthetics, and I’m OK with that, RGB is easy to come by these days, RGB-free boards aren’t, and white designs are rare now too, so NZXT has a huge advantage on the aesthetics front.
Features
- One PCI-Express 3.0 x16/ Three x1 slots
- 2 x M.2 Drive slots
- Four SATA 6 Gpbs ports
- 2 x 10 Gbps USB 3.1 ports/4 x 5 Gbps USB 3.1 ports
- HDMI port (no surprise there)
- Intel 802.11ax + Bluetooth 5 networking
For in-depth specifications, please visit the official NZXT N7 Z490 Motherboard Motherboard product page here.
