Motherboards

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review

FAST / MYSETERIOUS / UNBEATABLE

Under the Hood

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review 1 ASRock, Intel, ITX, Mini-ITX, Phantom Gaming, SFF, Small Form Factor, Thunderbolt

Getting all the covers off is quite an involved process, and given that you have to peel the cover plate off of its double-sided tape covered home to even get started, we don’t recommend doing this yourself.

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review 2 ASRock, Intel, ITX, Mini-ITX, Phantom Gaming, SFF, Small Form Factor, Thunderbolt

With all of that out of the way, we can start to get a look at the board. There is quite a pile of fan wiring for the actively cooled VRM heatsinks but it all goes back to one header.

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review 3 ASRock, Intel, ITX, Mini-ITX, Phantom Gaming, SFF, Small Form Factor, Thunderbolt

The CPU socket is driven from a 9-phase VRM set up in what appears to be a 6+2+1 setup for Vcore, VCCIO, and VCCSA.

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review 4 ASRock, Intel, ITX, Mini-ITX, Phantom Gaming, SFF, Small Form Factor, Thunderbolt

The VRM is controlled from an Intersil ISL69269 PWM controller.

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review 5 ASRock, Intel, ITX, Mini-ITX, Phantom Gaming, SFF, Small Form Factor, Thunderbolt

The power stages themselves are 90A rated Digi-power Intersil ISL99390 smart power stages.

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review 6 ASRock, Intel, ITX, Mini-ITX, Phantom Gaming, SFF, Small Form Factor, Thunderbolt

Back near the I/O is Intel’s T803A900 Titan Ridge Thunderbolt controller. This controller is capable of supporting dual Thunderbolt 3 ports, but ASRock only puts one to use here.

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review 7 ASRock, Intel, ITX, Mini-ITX, Phantom Gaming, SFF, Small Form Factor, Thunderbolt

Realtek’s Dragon RTL8125BG 2.5Gb LAN controller is their first single-chip 2.5GBE controller.

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Review 8 ASRock, Intel, ITX, Mini-ITX, Phantom Gaming, SFF, Small Form Factor, Thunderbolt

A single memory phase is provided by a Texas Instruments 53355dqp 30A Synchronous Buck Converter.

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