The ASRock Z590 OC Formula Review: An Iconic Brand Revival

Conclusion: Too Extreme for Regular Users?

The ASRock Z590 OC Formula is a solid offering. The design is aimed at extreme overclockers, with many of the board's features and design traits focused on offering the best possible performance. This includes the memory, the power delivery, the PCB design, and the firmware options. But what is built for that market has the potential to be worth it for regular users. When it comes to regular performance or pushing thermals, the ASRock Z590 OC Formula does a great job.

Other features of the Z590 OC Formula include a solid networking tripleheader that includes an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE and Intel I219-V Gigabit controller pairing and Intel's latest AX210 Wi-fi 6E CNVi. ASRock also includes plenty of support for PCIe 4.0 devices, including two full-length slots operating at x16 and x8/x8, with one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot for the fastest available NVMe storage. Other PCIe and storage options include one full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, and two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots. Interestingly, the PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot is located next to the memory slots, which frees more area around the CPU socket to mount LN2 pots without any restrictions safely.

Focusing on a stock performance level in our test suite, we felt that the OC Formula was quite power-hungry in our long idle and idle power testing but remained competitive when under full-load. In our non-UEFI POST time and DPC latency, the OC Formula performed respectively. Focusing on our computation and gaming performance, the ASRock was competitive with other models on test.

Looking at 'daily' overclocking performance, we saw excellent levels of VDroop when testing each frequency from 4.7 to 5.3 GHz. We managed to hit 5.3 GHz all-core stable on this board with 1.45 V set on the CPU VCore, but this proved too much for our Corsair 360mm AIO cooler, and we did get some thermal throttling, even though only 92ºC was observed. So if thermal headroom can be made, there seems to be some room to push.

There is also an extensive overclocker's toolkit to play around with, which caters to extreme overclockers. In our power delivery thermal tests, the OC Formula performs very well against other boards - showcasing that if the power delivery itself was to be thermally limited, there's plenty of room at the inn. The active design works well  combined with the 12-layer board and heatsinks here.

. The overall design implementation of the Z590 OC Formula is aesthetically pleasing. Some highlights that we want to mention include a dual BIOS switch on the rear panel is a particular highlight in terms of design implementation and a fully-function OLED display that can display live telemetry data on voltages, temperatures, and fan speed. From previous iterations of the OC Formula series, I have to say I prefer the older vibrant yellow as it pops more and looks unique. However, we can see where ASRock is coming from with the slightly acidic yellow color scheme on the Z590 version.

Final Thoughts: For Overclockers, By Nick Shih

While it's true ANY of the Z590 motherboards can be used under extreme conditions, boards such as the ASRock Z590 OC Formula are designed specifically for that purpose. When it comes to Nick Shih, not only is he a legend of the overclocking game, but he has infused his personal characteristics into the design of the OC Formula, and having spoken to him about this, he is super proud of the new OC-focused products he can bring to the market. While some vendors usually get help from an extreme overclocker to help design OC profiles, the ASRock Z590 OC Formula is personally designed by Nick Shih as lead engineer, and he hasn't just lent his name for the sake of branding.

Nick using Z590 OC Formula and Liquid Nitrogen to run the CPU at -193ºC / -314F

Wrapping up our review of the ASRock Z590 OC Formula, not only is it a formidable and premium board for extreme overclockers to attempt and hopefully break world records on, but it's also functional enough for the everyday user. As always with these sorts of boards, while ehe expensive price tag of $550 is justifiable for extreme overclockers who don't bat an eyelid in paying $1000+ for a pre binned CPU, for the regular user, there are much more cost-effective options on the market. For this money, on Z590, double the memory slots and options like Thunderbolt 4 and 10 G networking are available for the price.

That being said, it looks good, and it's a revival of a unique marque of an iconic band. While perhaps day-to-day overclocking isn't as important as it used to be, sometimes it's fun to notice the rising mist and peak over the fence to see what the overclockers are cooking (or in this case, cooling).