board is solid.  $400 seems about right at this point for anything decent.  

Price aside, why are ps/2 ports of all things making a comeback? I think I'm a bit out of the loop there.

Chabbert
Price aside, why are ps/2 ports of all things making a comeback? I think I'm a bit out of the loop there.

No idea, some say a PS/2 mouse has better polling or something, but you don't see one on the Gigabyte motherboard that's every bit as good if not better then the EVGA FTW motherboard and cost $110 less.
 

kalsim
My understanding is the PS/2 port is for extreme overclocking/benching via Windows XP.

I like you, you're funny.

Nike_7688
I had written up a comparison of similar boards earlier this year. I don't think this one was out or priced there at the time of launch. I wonder if they dropped their price after limited z590 interest. Also, the launch articles I found list the Ultra as a mini-ITX motherboard. Not sure what happened there as that looks specifically made to undercut this evga board lol. It is less PCB layers, but most of the other specs look the same.

That's the issue, the EVGA FTW is a mid tier motherboard and EVGA is asking a top tier price for it. I'm struggling with how the EVGA Z590 FTW WIFI motherboard commands a $429.99 price tag?

kram36

rblaes_99
board is solid.  $400 seems about right at this point for anything decent.  

Nah, other boards with way more features for less.
 
https://www.microcenter.com/product/634816/Z590_AORUS_ULTRA_Intel_LGA_1200_ATX_Motherboard

ROFL. That's an open box price.

kram36

Nike_7688
I had written up a comparison of similar boards earlier this year. I don't think this one was out or priced there at the time of launch. I wonder if they dropped their price after limited z590 interest. Also, the launch articles I found list the Ultra as a mini-ITX motherboard. Not sure what happened there as that looks specifically made to undercut this evga board lol. It is less PCB layers, but most of the other specs look the same.

That's the issue, the EVGA FTW is a mid tier motherboard and EVGA is asking a top tier price for it. I'm struggling with how the EVGA Z590 FTW WIFI motherboard commands a $429.99 price tag?

The above sums up my thoughts perfectly. 

RogueMaster

kram36

rblaes_99
board is solid.  $400 seems about right at this point for anything decent.  

Nah, other boards with way more features for less.
 
https://www.microcenter.com/product/634816/Z590_AORUS_ULTRA_Intel_LGA_1200_ATX_Motherboard

ROFL. That's an open box price.

I don't know what you're seeing at your store, but at my store, there are no open box offerings for this board.
 

 

Nike_7688

kram36

Nike_7688
I had written up a comparison of similar boards earlier this year. I don't think this one was out or priced there at the time of launch. I wonder if they dropped their price after limited z590 interest. Also, the launch articles I found list the Ultra as a mini-ITX motherboard. Not sure what happened there as that looks specifically made to undercut this evga board lol. It is less PCB layers, but most of the other specs look the same.

That's the issue, the EVGA FTW is a mid tier motherboard and EVGA is asking a top tier price for it. I'm struggling with how the EVGA Z590 FTW WIFI motherboard commands a $429.99 price tag?

I had trouble getting the link to work on mobile earlier, sorry. Here's the post. All the boards with similar specs were running about the same price or more. It looks like some of the Newegg sellers have dropped pricing a little since then on the MSI and Gigabyte boards, but you'll notice the analogous ROG board is still $480. I thought they'd come in around $399 on launch. Compared to the others, it seemed like it would be the best launch price for them. I was off by $30, but looking at all the other boards between $400-$500, it seems like they're more competitive than most.

I don't care about ASUS, they over price everything they sell. Matter of fact I swore off ever buying an ASUS product ever again after how bad their X99 motherboards were.
 
EVGA is about to see the same from me if they don't address the terrible performance of their 3080 Ti XC3 video cards.

rblaes_99
that's probably what's really going on kram.  your (legit) frustrations with your 3080ti are tainting your entire perspective on the whole brand.  Evga will make it right.  eventually.  

What's really going on? I want to build a Z590 system and I usually buy EVGA motherboards, but I'm struggling with how the EVGA Z590 FTW WIFI motherboard commands a $429.99 price tag? It's a $329.99 motherboard at most.
 
Intel is suppose to have the Alder Lake processors out by the end of the year, maybe I'll just wait for those to come out.

Looking at them closer, a lot of the specs are the same. A big murky one is that the FTW specs sort of claim one more power phase (ish? 17 vs 16+1? not sure how those are different).
 
Some notable Differences:
The FTW has the NU Audio circuit for the front panel audio, which is supposedly very high quality. I haven't seen comparisons so I don't know how different they are. The Ultra doesn't have the FTW's BIOS reset button on the back panel (which I've used, btw). FTW has BT 5.2 vs. Ultra's BT 5.1 (differences). FTW has dual bios, Ultra does not. FTW's PCI-e slots are set up for SLI bridge use, Ultra is not (not sure who's still using that, but there are a few on the forums and the latest BIOS enabled it). The FTW has two more PCB layers. That doesn't make it automatically better, but if the layers were put to good use, it could mean more stable operation, better power delivery, better cooling, and a physically more stable board. None of that is guaranteed by adding 2 more layers, but it is possible. It also makes the unpopulated board more expensive for EVGA to buy, which I would like to assume was done for a specific reason.
 
At the end of the day, buy what you want. the FTW is a great board with some expensive features and high build-quality. If you like the looks of that Gigabyte board and like all the features, what's stopping you? I've looked at the machining quality of the heatsinks and the assembly quality of my motherboard and I'm quite happy with it. Looking at pictures of the Gigabyte board, they've used cheaper parts for everything (save for maybe the I/O shroud...that's the only part of the FTW I don't think looks great but aesthetics are always up to the individual looking at it; I don't really like the Aurus ones either). The parts quality impacts cost, but does it actually impact performance to the point where you, personally, care? I don't think any of us are going to convince you one way or the other.

kram36

rblaes_99
that's probably what's really going on kram.  your (legit) frustrations with your 3080ti are tainting your entire perspective on the whole brand.  Evga will make it right.  eventually.  

What's really going on? I want to build a Z590 system and I usually buy EVGA motherboards, but I'm struggling with how the EVGA Z590 FTW WIFI motherboard commands a $429.99 price tag? It's a $329.99 motherboard at most.
 
Intel is suppose to have the Alder Lake processors out by the end of the year, maybe I'll just wait for those to come out.

Z690/DDR5/Alderlake has my interest.  I wonder if it will actually be available this year.  I would have held off on the 590 but with the silicone supply and chip shortage deal i figured it would be a paper launch.  

kram36

Chabbert
Price aside, why are ps/2 ports of all things making a comeback? I think I'm a bit out of the loop there.

No idea, some say a PS/2 mouse has better polling or something, but you don't see one on the Gigabyte motherboard that's every bit as good if not better then the EVGA FTW motherboard and cost $110 less.
 

kalsim
My understanding is the PS/2 port is for extreme overclocking/benching via Windows XP.

I like you, you're funny.

You must think I was joking about it.

kalsim

kram36

Chabbert
Price aside, why are ps/2 ports of all things making a comeback? I think I'm a bit out of the loop there.

No idea, some say a PS/2 mouse has better polling or something, but you don't see one on the Gigabyte motherboard that's every bit as good if not better then the EVGA FTW motherboard and cost $110 less.
 

kalsim
My understanding is the PS/2 port is for extreme overclocking/benching via Windows XP.

I like you, you're funny.

You must think I was joking about it.

Who is overclocking and bench marking Windows XP on the Z590 FTW motherboard?

what did you get Kram?  I saw microcenter had the 11900k on sale plus the combo discount with a new mobo.  I may take a trip to the Cleveland microcenter today.  

I think it is on par with the Asus Maximus VIII Hero and that board is $485. The 4 giant yellow eyesores are preventing me from buying EVGA boards atm.

I think price in general for everything is skewed.