Conclusion
To be clear, this isn’t a board you buy for setting overclocking records or anything like that. This is a budget-friendly offering that happens to add an aesthetic flair to the design to be shown off in a somewhat transparent system chassis. Typically, the most visually appealing motherboards are the most expensive. NZXT addresses this by offering something with attention paid to looks at a more budget-friendly price point. This allows someone to create a showpiece if they wanted to and save a little money doing it.
Aesthetics are subjective, so I won’t get too far into the weeds on whether or not NZXT succeeded on that front. People have purchased Pontiac Aztec’s in the past of their own free will, so it wouldn’t matter if I thought the motherboard was ugly or not. The NZXT N7 Z490 does come in black and white, and while I prefer the former, we chose the white one because it was easier to show off on camera. You can also buy this motherboard without the plastic cladding and in the past, NZXT did offer at least one plastic shroud on its Z390 offering which was blue in color, rather than white or black. It’s possible NZXT may do this in the future.
For modders, the shroud provides an easy canvas for modding. However, RGB fans will be somewhat upset that the NZXT N7 Z490 lacks any real RGB lighting of its own. Perhaps this is a missed opportunity, but it does have the necessary headers to control a wide range of RGB studded products.
The Dressing
Overall, I liked the NZXT N7 Z490. It’s a budget board that would honestly blend into the background with so many options out there, but NZXT’s attention to aesthetics (good or bad) makes it leave a lasting impression. Again, while the looks are subjective the N7 Z490 at least has a niche it can fulfill which is smart on the part of a company that’s not known for making motherboards.
When you pull the cladding off, you can see a pretty basic motherboard, but importantly, you can see that the plastic shroud was designed to allow air to flow as much as possible in the absence of active cooling. Our test NVMe drives ran right at 55-61c, which isn’t amazing but not bad considering they had no heat sinks or any active air flow over them. Additionally, the motherboard temperature sensors never reported anything excessive or even on the high side as far as temps went. Therefore, NZXT did a good job of dressing up the motherboard without there being a big catch to doing so.
Final Points
The real question comes down to whether or not we can recommend this offering to anyone? Our testing was problem-free and the NZXT N7 Z490 provides a solid offering in a reasonably priced package. I think the NZXT N7 Z490 is worth a look if you are in the market for a budget-oriented Z490 motherboard. At the time of this writing, the NZXT N7 Z490 can be had on Amazon for around $229.99, which isn’t bad. Additionally, if you like its aesthetic qualities I think you can buy it, confident in the fact that you are getting looks and reliability.
Discussion
