EVGA Launches Z490 Dark K|NGP|N Edition: Built for Overclockers
by Gavin Bonshor on September 8, 2020 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- EVGA
- Overclocking
- K|NGP|N
- Z490
- LGA1200
- Vince Lucido
- Z490 Dark
One of the biggest names on the extreme overclocking scene is Vince 'K|NGP|N' Lucido, who is highly regarded as one of the best sub-zero overclockers. He is a longtime employee of EVGA, and collaborates exclusively with its hardware team to develop unique overclocking-centric hardware. The latest collaboration is the EVGA Z490 Dark K|NGP|N - a limited edition motherboard with an 18-phase power delivery designed for overclocking. There is also more conventional features such as two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, eight SATA ports, U.2 port, with a 2.5 G Ethernet controller and Wi-Fi 6.
One of the most interesting elements on the EVGA Z490 Dark is its unconventional desktop design, with just two memory slots mounted horizontally across the top, just above the transposed LGA1200 socket. The 90-degree angle is usually done for airflow reasons with specific chassis in mind, and only two memory slots assists in memory-latency driven workloads.
The memory slots are qualified up to 64 GB of DDR4-5000, although for this board it wouldn't be a surprise to see overclockers push speeds further. The socket is also better angled for easier mounting of the large copper pots that sub-zero overclockers use with liquid nitrogen. Overclocking features for this sort of board usually extend to driving extra power, sometimes even external voltage control, as well as monitoring tools for accurate thermal and voltage measurements.
Vince 'K|NGP|N' Lucido personally signs the packaging of each limited edition Z490 Dark
For storage there is a pair of PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, with a single U.2 port and eight SATA ports with six of these supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, while an ASMedia SATA controller powers the other two ports. Three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots operate at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/+4, with a secondary half-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot.
The top right-hand corner features two 2-digit LED panels that monitor CPU voltage and temperature, with a power and reset button also added. Focusing on networking, the Z490 Dark is using a pair of Intel-based Ethernet controllers, one I225-V 2.5 GbE and one I219-V Gigabit, with an Intel AX201 providing both Wi-Fi 6 and BT 5.1 device support. The audio codec looks 'amped' as well.
The limited-edition EVGA Z490 Dark K|NGP|N model is currently available for $600 direct from EVGA, with a limit of two per household. This is $100 more expensive than the standard EVGA Z490 Dark model ($500), although the K|NGP|N variant is likely to use perhaps better binned components to ensure extreme overclocking consistency. Both models come with a 3-year manufacturer warranty.
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Source: EVGA
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Holliday75 - Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - link
No SF connector for my old IBM keyboard. Pass.Quantumz0d - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
It's just a waiting game for me. The DDR4 platform is fully matured now and by 2022 it's EOL. As DDR5 will hit soon. This board is great esp for the OCers and also solid BIOS, plus it can run Win7 OS without issues just like Z390. I think even Z590 will be same. However that's where things get nasty, Z590 is also having Chipset Limit at 3.0 PCIe but the number of PCIe lanes are being updated for the RKL to gain parity with X570.But the biggest elephant in the room is Ryzen 4000 / Vermeer / Zen 3. CCD having unified L3 and 8C advantage like 3300X got, it will net a good boost, adding the N7P (EUV) and the IPC improvements, the CML is dead for sure 10900K reign on gaming is going to end from what I'm seeing on how Ryzen progressed so far, big time with 3000 series, 3600/3300X to note.
Once Ryzen 4000 and X670 hits the market, I hope they have ASMedia SATA controllers and USB so that Win7 can be installed onto them, one final HW to make Win7 run for a long time for all the best games of past decade (X570 also can do it, Win7 so do X470) it will be great for DIY.
lilkwarrior - Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - link
Windows 7 is EOL. Why on earth would you run that and lose out on massive perf gains of Windows 10?lilkwarrior - Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - link
DX12 & Vulkan both run best w/ WDDM 2.0 which is Windows 10. That will not change. With DX12 Ultimate & DirectStorage in mind, there is zero chance you'll be better off w/ WIndows 7 rather than Windows 10 for gaming.That said high-end motherboards are for prosumers in which Windows 7 is a non-starter for both perf & security reasons.
Quantumz0d - Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - link
I know that, I want to get a stable Win7 installation on a latest HW so that I can play all past decade of games as already mentioned. WDDM is horrible aaS as a service garbage, Win10 2004 has new WDDM and with every Windows release they shove more bloatware and spyware trash into the OS, and making the OS uglier every time.I know I can bypass it with DISM and other, I already have a clean ISO, the point is WIn7 is still supported by AMPERE and latest CDPR CB2077 supports Win7. DX12 support for Win7 exists, probably not in a full feature level 12_2 state but it supports. And x86 OS doesn't just die like that, it dies because M$ wants to chastitize all consumers to it's as a service bullshit and software crippling. Killing USB 3.0 drivers, NVMe drivers, SATA controller drivers etc.
The fact is X570 and Ryzen 3000 and Z490, with Intel 10th gen both boards and HW can support that OS through other means of PCIe expansion cards and etc.
PeachNCream - Thursday, September 10, 2020 - link
Suggestion - Buy hardware that is/was supported under Windows 7.Spunjji - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
You can play "all the last decade of games" on Windows 10, though.Windows 7 died because it's 11 years old and no company wants to continue providing security updates for 11-year-old software that nobody's paying for. Microsoft have been trying to avoid a repeat of the debacle where all the Luddites tried to stay on Windows XP forever.
PeachNCream - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
The tech industry never ceases to surprise me with how companies can continue to market products with progressively stupider and more childish marketing. It's like an eternal race to produce the most absurd sludge at the very bottom of the barrel.diehardmacfan - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
Sorry, what about this is stupid marketing?Cullinaire - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - link
waaah here's a product marketed at another demographic other than mine which is all that matters, waaah