WEBVTT 00:00:00.060 --> 00:00:06.000 every motherboard with a z490 chipset 00:00:03.780 --> 00:00:13.440 has one thing in common Intel Intel into wait a minute what in 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:17.580 the heck is this thing it it says z490 00:00:13.440 --> 00:00:19.560 but there it is obviously an AMD CPU 00:00:17.580 --> 00:00:23.340 socket where did this thing come from Reddit obviously 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:28.980 don't you read the video title but more importantly what is it why did they make 00:00:26.279 --> 00:00:33.719 it why ultimately didn't they make more of them and how does this compare to the 00:00:31.260 --> 00:00:38.399 AMD motherboards we know and love these three m.2 slots tell us that the story 00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:43.379 might have something to do with PCIe Lanes but from what we've been able to 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:45.239 glean this entire chipset was canceled 00:00:43.379 --> 00:00:48.960 before it could be released is this the competitor that could have 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:53.460 been did we miss out on something amazing well it turns out that for an 00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:57.120 engineering experiment it's surprisingly functional so we're going to be taking 00:00:54.840 --> 00:01:01.079 it for a spin with close attention to all the Curious little details 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:06.420 after you pay close attention to these details from our sponsor Mexico whether 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:09.900 you're in need of a webcam or accessory for your VR device Mexico has a great 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:14.180 selection of products to choose from learn more about them at the link down 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:14.180 below 00:01:21.020 --> 00:01:27.360 this strange motherboard first appeared on Reddit a year and a half ago but has 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:33.060 otherwise completely flown under the radar that is until now which is kind of 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:39.840 wild because as skeptical as I was this is no hoax this is an AMD CPU socket and 00:01:37.140 --> 00:01:44.820 it is on a motherboard with a z490 chipset just not the kind of z490 00:01:42.299 --> 00:01:49.740 chipset that you might think now we have seen motherboards in the past with 00:01:46.500 --> 00:01:51.899 support for both Intel and AMD CPUs most 00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:57.000 recently from ECS using a daughter board but if you look carefully at that 00:01:54.180 --> 00:02:03.299 product the chipset is actually on that secondary board that's because both AMD 00:01:59.939 --> 00:02:06.000 and Intel use proprietary protocols and 00:02:03.299 --> 00:02:09.380 no modern motherboard chipset is capable of communicating with CPUs from both 00:02:08.220 --> 00:02:16.560 vendors so no this is not an AMD socket 00:02:13.940 --> 00:02:21.660 frankensteined onto an Intel chipset board but rather just another case of 00:02:18.959 --> 00:02:25.440 AMD ripping off Intel's naming scheme to make it seem like they're a generation 00:02:22.920 --> 00:02:30.420 ahead but that doesn't mean that it's boring let's jump in and see how close 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:34.200 this thing was to being ready one thing we can tell immediately between the 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:37.920 particular shade of orange they use and the lettering for the silk screen not to 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:42.300 mention the fact that it says Gigabyte right on it is that this board was 00:02:39.660 --> 00:02:46.680 originally from Gigabyte and while it might be missing some of the Cosmetics 00:02:43.739 --> 00:02:52.800 we can also tell that it was based on the x470 aorus gaming 7 because between 00:02:49.980 --> 00:02:57.599 the layout and features and from looking at the pixels you can tell they've got a 00:02:55.260 --> 00:03:01.980 lot in common for our CPU given that this is in the same family as the rest 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:07.379 of AMD's 400 series motherboards I think it is possible well probable that first 00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:13.680 and second gen ryzen chips like this 2700x will work but even though x470 00:03:11.700 --> 00:03:19.080 boards like this one's cousin can be updated to support third and up to 5th 00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:23.159 gen well there are no BIOS updates available for engineering samples so 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:27.720 third gen and up would be basically impossible as for RAM we'll be going 00:03:25.440 --> 00:03:32.580 with these g-skill flarex sticks rated for 3200 Mega transfers per second 2000 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:37.200 series chips could do better and did benefit from faster but this was kind of 00:03:35.099 --> 00:03:42.659 the bang for the buck speed at the time that I would expect any motherboard to 00:03:39.659 --> 00:03:43.980 support fairly easily 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:47.519 finally it's it's a Time bringing us to the most 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:53.700 obvious advantage of this chipset compared to x470 an extra m.2 slot okay 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:58.019 I'm leaving out some important details here it's not quite as simple as 00:03:55.580 --> 00:04:03.360 slapping on an extra slot and calling it a day you actually need the PCI Express 00:04:00.480 --> 00:04:10.019 Lanes to support that slot and this board's x470 cousin is clearly already 00:04:06.420 --> 00:04:13.980 maxing out this platform's 32 Lanes so 00:04:10.019 --> 00:04:18.359 then how does this one have more ah 00:04:13.980 --> 00:04:20.100 the secret is under this heatsink with 00:04:18.359 --> 00:04:27.240 it removed we'll find a couple of things first is the AMD chipset itself this 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:32.340 looks pretty darn similar to an x470 chipset and honestly probably uses the 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:36.060 exact same silicon it wouldn't be the first time we saw a manufacturer 00:04:33.900 --> 00:04:39.900 artificially limit the features on a chipset to address different price 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:45.180 points if you remember from our Intel r d Center tour they actually have special 00:04:42.660 --> 00:04:48.900 chipsets for development that they can reconfigure through software to be any 00:04:47.220 --> 00:04:53.100 member of the 12th gen chipset family that they wish so the different codes 00:04:51.419 --> 00:04:58.080 etched in the top are probably the only things that differentiate this from an 00:04:55.560 --> 00:05:06.600 x470 but this a chip from plx yes this seems to 00:05:03.419 --> 00:05:08.520 be the secret sauce of the AMD z490 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:13.440 chipset that enables it to have four extra general purpose gen 3 PCIe Lanes 00:05:10.979 --> 00:05:18.780 it's also a big part of the reason this board and any like it never made it to 00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:24.720 the market more on that later this chip is known as a multiplexer and while plx 00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:29.220 is probably the best known they are just one of the many manufacturers who 00:05:26.699 --> 00:05:35.220 produce them a multiplexer's purpose is to connect multiple PCIe devices 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:38.340 Downstream to the same Lanes originating 00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:41.520 from the CPU or for that matter from the 00:05:38.340 --> 00:05:43.860 AMD chipset now obviously a multiplexer 00:05:41.520 --> 00:05:48.900 can't magically create extra bandwidth And if every single Downstream device 00:05:46.259 --> 00:05:54.000 was running Full Tilt at the same time it would be bottlenecked but that rarely 00:05:51.840 --> 00:05:58.080 happens and these devices were very common back in the mid 2000s in the 00:05:55.979 --> 00:06:03.539 Heyday of SLI so that motherboard manufacturers could squeeze as many 16x 00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:08.220 slots as possible onto a motherboard for three-way and four-way configurations of 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:11.699 course now that multiple gpus aren't really a thing anymore the focus for 00:06:09.840 --> 00:06:17.940 this chipset was on increasing support for NVMe ssds now because I really want 00:06:15.539 --> 00:06:22.500 to load this thing up and see just how close it was to final we're going to be 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:27.900 going high end here with three of these awesome sabrant rocket 4 plus PCIe Gen 4 00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:32.699 drives we're gonna have those and more linked down below oh whoops I've got 00:06:29.880 --> 00:06:35.460 these on wrong evidently we need um hook and loop Fastener to hold down 00:06:34.380 --> 00:06:40.500 this one doesn't have all the mounting hardware all right it's engineering sample don't 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:44.479 worry though that's an older one not a rocket plus other fun quirks once we've 00:06:42.780 --> 00:06:49.740 got the board powered up here we go watch this 00:06:47.880 --> 00:06:54.300 all the RGB on the motherboard lights up in white and then that's the last time 00:06:52.380 --> 00:06:58.020 you're ever going to see it because any control for it appears to have been 00:06:55.680 --> 00:07:01.979 completely removed from the BIOS I mean you don't need no RGB on an engineering 00:06:59.880 --> 00:07:07.440 board do you surprisingly all three of these slots do work but not everything 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:11.759 about the board does even though I haven't personally tested it yet we did 00:07:09.900 --> 00:07:16.800 test it before getting started and there are absolutely some quirks on this board 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:19.020 the bottom PCIe slot for example is 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:23.880 completely dead and so is the onboard networking what's Curious is that the 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:28.440 network chip is detected in Windows but no driver package from Intel that we 00:07:25.919 --> 00:07:33.240 could find would install so it's possible that it's an engineering sample 00:07:30.840 --> 00:07:37.800 as well ryzen 2000 chips didn't have onboard gpus so this is the only way for 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:41.280 us to get a video output speaking of video output we've been outputting some 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:44.699 really great exclusive videos over on flowplane.com how about this one 00:07:43.080 --> 00:07:49.639 showcasing some of the tick tock hacks we tried that you won't find on YouTube 00:07:46.440 --> 00:07:49.639 Big Moment 00:07:50.099 --> 00:07:56.340 to be clear I am expecting it to work it's just that this kind of borderline 00:07:54.240 --> 00:08:00.900 engineering sample stuff if you look at it wrong or blow on it too hard 00:07:57.960 --> 00:08:07.440 sometimes it stops working so nothing's a guarantee hello 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:10.199 yes okay time to see what else works or 00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:16.680 doesn't work as it turns out the USB headers do work the back I O all works 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:21.180 except for Ethernet even the USBC Port so here's one of our steam drives which 00:08:19.080 --> 00:08:25.919 should allow us to game on this completely unreleased motherboard and 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:30.960 everything about this just feels and looks completely normal 2700x8 core 00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:38.459 processor it's turboing as you would expect Gigabyte z490 RS Master chipset AMD 00:08:36.479 --> 00:08:44.760 Promontory I don't remember what their coding was for x470 Promontory means it 00:08:41.339 --> 00:08:47.100 has a Zen 2 ready BIOS that's it wait 00:08:44.760 --> 00:08:50.700 Bixby how does Bixby figure into all this 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:58.320 my arch nemesis returns no these are code names Promontory was used for 00:08:53.760 --> 00:09:01.860 everything from A320 to b550 and Bixby 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:03.660 was used for x570 I think the most 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:08.040 notable thing about all of this is how not notable it is though 00:09:05.640 --> 00:09:12.240 everything is operating exactly as I would expect the interesting thing about 00:09:09.839 --> 00:09:16.260 this run isn't the score but rather how fast the CPU turbos were sitting at 00:09:13.920 --> 00:09:21.480 anywhere between around 3.9 to 4 gigahertz which is 00:09:18.660 --> 00:09:25.860 about what we'd expect our Wi-Fi card is only 2.4 gigahertz so I guess we're 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:30.779 going to be pushing it a little harder even by throwing a network card in this slot 00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:35.180 here and seeing if the whole thing will run together we're off the rails Now 00:09:32.880 --> 00:09:40.200 ladies and gentlemen not in a good place I got him 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:42.120 okay uh I need Shields I need Shields no 00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:45.959 there's an invisible guy behind me but that's not what's important what's 00:09:43.560 --> 00:09:50.160 important is that I'm running at 118 frames per second in Halo infinite 00:09:47.820 --> 00:09:53.339 obviously that's not like the most FPS is ever or anything like that but what 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:57.600 it is is working okay it's a normal 00:09:55.980 --> 00:10:03.120 motherboard which means you're probably wondering a few things first and 00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:05.160 foremost being why AMD chose the Z blank 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:11.160 90 naming convention which is associated exclusively with Intel or well almost 00:10:08.339 --> 00:10:16.160 exclusively and the particularly Savvy among you are probably wondering how it 00:10:13.080 --> 00:10:20.459 is that this z490 project came about 00:10:16.160 --> 00:10:22.800 before Intel's z490 well 00:10:20.459 --> 00:10:27.480 this isn't the first time that AMD has pulled this kind of product naming 00:10:24.540 --> 00:10:32.220 one-upmanship back when Intel's x299 chipset was the King of the Hill AMD 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:39.000 released their competing threadripper platform x 399 seemingly to paint Intel 00:10:36.300 --> 00:10:43.440 into a corner and make it seem like when Intel launched their next gen that they 00:10:41.339 --> 00:10:47.720 were copying AMD when actually they were just following their own established 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:53.300 pattern and AMD room the party but unconventional naming isn't what gets 00:10:50.339 --> 00:10:58.740 the product canceled what does is price those plx chips were seemingly necessary 00:10:56.640 --> 00:11:04.019 for motherboard manufacturers to Market their boards as z490 and they came at a 00:11:02.160 --> 00:11:11.399 heavy price you'd have easily been paying 300 to even 350 dollars for what 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:14.160 an extra Drive how many of you even have 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:19.019 more than one m.2 drive today let alone four plus years ago add to that that 00:11:16.980 --> 00:11:22.140 teams would have needed to do new BIOS engineering and provide law long-term 00:11:21.060 --> 00:11:28.019 support for what would have probably been a low volume product and suddenly 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:30.240 the x470 ARs gaming 7 that this is based 00:11:28.019 --> 00:11:34.440 on looks like a much more compelling value at 240 dollars brand new to be 00:11:33.180 --> 00:11:38.220 honest then I don't think we really missed out on anything here sure there 00:11:36.540 --> 00:11:45.180 are some people out there who would benefit from more PCIe Lanes but 2000 00:11:41.880 --> 00:11:47.519 series and 3000 Series ryzen also had 00:11:45.180 --> 00:11:51.420 threadripper equivalents that I mean by the time you're spending this kind of 00:11:48.839 --> 00:11:55.740 money on a motherboard not only had more PCIe Lanes but also more memory 00:11:53.640 --> 00:12:00.240 bandwidth and the possibility for higher core counts if only AMD had kept their 00:11:58.079 --> 00:12:05.100 promise for platform longevity which you can tell I'm totally over and besides 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:09.300 AMD already had x570 under development to provide more Lanes than the x470 00:12:07.140 --> 00:12:14.940 chipset that it replaced I can see why AMD officially canceled d490 at computex 00:12:11.940 --> 00:12:17.339 in 2018. I mean x570 came out less than 00:12:14.940 --> 00:12:22.800 a year later so all in all rest in peace confusingly named chipset 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:27.240 you died before you could live and were forgotten not long after just like this 00:12:25.079 --> 00:12:31.740 segue to our sponsor thanks to Micro Center for sponsoring today's video new 00:12:29.579 --> 00:12:35.459 year new me more like new year new tech starting your year off right with a tech 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:40.079 upgrade and let Micro Center help you with doing it with a great variety of 00:12:37.680 --> 00:12:44.579 products and even better prices they can be your One-Stop shop for all things 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:49.620 Tech laptops computer components monitors TVs Network equipment you name 00:12:47.100 --> 00:12:53.820 and they have got it let their in-house PC Building team put together a new 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:57.899 custom rig for you that is just as unique as you are with 25 stores across 00:12:56.279 --> 00:13:02.639 the US and their crew of knowledgeable staff they make it easier than ever to 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:05.880 find what you are looking for and if you're having any technical difficulties 00:13:04.380 --> 00:13:09.660 they've got your back with their certified technicians at their knowledge 00:13:07.560 --> 00:13:12.660 bar so what are you waiting for head over to the description box and check 00:13:11.100 --> 00:13:16.200 out Micro Center today for all of your Tech needs thanks for checking out this 00:13:14.579 --> 00:13:21.300 rare motherboard with us I really love it when we get these kinds of engineer examples or prototypes to mess around 00:13:19.260 --> 00:13:25.320 with it can be kind of hit or miss this one was a hit but if you want to see a 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:29.040 Miss check out the video that Alex and I did where we looked at a prototype water 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:31.040 cooled laptop um