For the average PC builder, motherboards are not always the most exciting prospect. Nothing is really, really noteworthy like the lineup of Z590 motherboards for Intel Rocket Lake CPUs, which were just announced yesterday.

Read more about the Intel Rocket Lake announcement here. But in the following article, we pick out the flagship motherboards that are doing their best to catch your eye.

It's the ROG Maximus XIII Extreme Glacial, and it comes with an EK water block that cools the CPU, VRMs, M.2 drives, and chipset. This is truly a huge motherboard, and the RGB is equally generous.

Then there is ASRock's Z590 Taichi. This motherboard is one of the more understated flagships; it looks beautiful enough in full RGB color. However, like several other products in the ASRock Z590 lineup, this motherboard comes with its own flash novelty that is expected to rock PC builders. This is the built-in GPU scaffolding known as the ASRock Graphics Card Holder.

This optional rigging helps stabilize the GPU from the back of the card, preventing today's massive units from putting all their weight on the meager PCIe ports.

Additionally, MSI is back with an all-new GODLIKE motherboard, really pushing the boat out with the Z590 design. With no more floor space, MSI has upped the ante: the GODLIKE is covered from head to toe in shielding, heatsinks, and RGB lighting; the GODLIKE will be available on January 27, and is sure to be an expensive motherboard.

Intel promises a 19% instruction per clock (IPC) improvement over existing 10th generation Comet Lake chips with its latest Rocket Lake CPUs. Early benchmark numbers suggest that single-core performance is paying dividends, with the Core i9 11900K and Core i7 11700K leading in the gaming arena for now.

Gigabyte has perhaps one of the most modest Z590 flagships on the market, but even the Aorus XTREME is not entirely without generous "thermal response armor," or metal plating as it is known in the industry. But it's a fairly unobtrusive and sleek design, and it's my favorite in this product line.

These motherboards are all decked out in a simple format, but their white, clean-cut aesthetic is sure to attract a few people.

All of the above support PCIe 4.0 with Intel's latest 11th generation chips, allowing Intel fans to take advantage of the wave of PCIe 4.0 SSDs currently flooding the market.

However, while some of these motherboards appear to be close to launch, Intel is not expected to bring Rocket Lake to store shelves until March. Don't forget that motherboards with the H570, B560, and H510 chipsets will also be available in the near future.