NZXT produces some of the most beautiful motherboards on the market, if you prefer a metal white or black cover that hides most of the printed circuit board. The latest N7 Z590 continues that tradition.

As its model name suggests, the N7 Z590 is based on Intel's flagship Z590 chipset (aka Rocket Lake) for its 11th generation Core desktop processors, including the Core i9 11900K.

Under these sleek covers is a 6-layer PCB and 12+2 DrMOS power phase design. More layers means more traces or better trace separation, which helps reduce electromagnetic interference. 6-layer PCBs are like the middle range in the grand scheme of things, with some cheaper boards using 4 layers, while more expensive ones use 8 or even 10 layers There are even some with 8 or 10 layers.

For power phase design, higher numbers are generally better (the first number indicates VRM phases for the CPU, the second number indicates VRM phases for other components), as they provide cleaner power. This helps stability, especially during overclocking.

The N7 Z590 can be equipped with up to 128 GB of DDR4-4600 memory. For storage, the N7 Z590 features four SATA 6Gbps ports and two M.2 slots for gumstick-sized SSDs. One of these slots supports PCI Express 4.0 (unless you have a Comet Lake processor, in which case it drops to PCIe 3.0), allowing you to take full advantage of PCIe 4.0 SSDs.

Rear I/O consists of:

Connectivity is expandable via several onboard headers. There are also headers for connecting an all-in-one liquid cooler and RGB lighting. For wireless connectivity, the board supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1.

While we have not had a hands-on with the N7 Z590, we reviewed the N7 Z490 and were generally impressed with its performance, features, and pricing; ASRock actually manufactures NZXT motherboards (and can therefore maintain competitive pricing), and we expect the Z 590 as well.

That said, the N7 Z590 is priced a bit higher; NZXT sells it for $280, compared to $230 for the N7 Z490 (Intel) and N7 B550 (AMD). As with the other models, you can choose a white or black cover. Also, if you want to see the PCB, remove the cover.