NZXT N7 Z490 Black (Intel 1200)

Mit dem heute offiziell vorgestellten NZXT N7 Z490 haben wir uns entschieden, zur Abwechslung mal einen Video-Test zu machen. Gerade optisch macht dieses LGA1200-Mainboard einiges her und im Vergleich zum Vorgängermodell ist NZXT dieses Mal ein sehr gutes Produkt gelungen. Vom PCB ist auch dieses Mal nur sehr wenig zu sehen, denn NZXT hat ein massives Metall-Cover vorgesehen, was den Großteil des ATX-Mainboards verdeckt.

How much you'll love the NZXT N7 Z490 depends largely upon how invested you are in NZXT as a brand. If we step away from the NZXT side of things and look at the N7 as purely a Z490 motherboard, then the dominating factor is the price point, and the compromises that have had to be made to achieve such an affordable setup. There aren't many USB ports around the back, just one Type-A and Type-C front panel connector - although there are many USB 2.0 front panel headers - and just four SATA ports. Four might seem more than enough for most people with one OS drive and one data drive, but the price and capacity of SSD drives has respectively fallen and grown so far that we know we're not the only people with a motley collection of drives.

It's quite late into the Z490 product cycle but NZXT has gone with an October launch for its latest N7 model. Whether this is just an internal cycle, or it allows more time for the development of its N7 series, only NZXT knows this. The NZXT N7 Z490 is geared towards the mid-range, and on paper, it seems quite reasonable for a sub $250 board with Wi-Fi 6, 2.5 GbE, and dual PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, but it's not the board we expected in our testing.

It’s taken them three generations of motherboards to become something I think enthusiasts will take seriously, but NZXT has finally done it. The board isn’t perfect, but honestly, few products really are, and that can all be very subjective too. I think it could do with a few more USB ports on the back and Gen4 PCI, albeit it may end up costing more, so there has to be some give and take.