The ASRock X570 Aqua: A $1000 Ryzen Halo Motherboard Reviewed

ASRock X570 Aqua Conclusion

The ASRock X570 Aqua ($999) is a very interesting motherboard for a few different reasons; some that are eye-opening, and some not so much. Touching on what is likely to be the biggest consideration when looking to the Aqua for a users brand new Ryzen 3000 system is the price. The X570 Aqua has a beefy price tag of $999 which puts it as the most expensive X570 motherboard currently in production, or not in production with just 999 units available in retail channels. Exclusivity comes at a price and the ASRock X570 Aqua is certainly one of the most exclusive motherboard models in recent times. Users will have to use custom liquid cooling to use this beautiful, but the equally jaw-droppingly expensive model out of the box, which adds extra cost in of itself.

For the money, ASRock has gone all out on the stylings as the Aqua is covered from head to toe in aluminium. Central to the design is a full-cover nickel-plated copper monoblock which doesn't just cool the CPU, but the boards 14-phase power delivery and X570 chipset too. While the X570 chipset temperatures even with a modest heatsink aren't likely to cause thermal issues, we've seen users lean heavily on power delivery marketing and in our thermal performance testing, the monoblock does provide very fruitful cooling to this area. One design improvement ASRock should have considered before pushing the Aqua to retail shelves would have been to include RGB LEDs in the main window of the monoblock around the CPU. The RGB LEDs pop well at the bottom of the monoblock, so having some RGB laden uniformity would have been nice to see.

To feel the full benefits of the monoblock on the CPU, the Ryzen 9 series (3950X, 3900X) processors are more likely to see the thermal benefit with the two core laden CCDs spread evenly rather than the single CCD Ryzen 7 series (3700X, 3800X). Compared to another model with a similar spec power delivery, the differences were extraordinary which shows the true thermal benefits of water-cooled power deliveries. Unfortunately, it's unlikely to make much of a difference as none of the designs tested so far have come close to the operating limits, but in the case of the Aqua, it's keeping things cool while looking even cooler.

Underneath the alluring aluminium on the surface is a high-quality feature set with an Intel JHL7540 dual port Thunderbolt 3 controller which adds two 40 Gbps Type-C ports on the rear panel, and two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs which act as a passthrough to the Thunderbolt 3 for video. Another inclusion is the Aquantia AQC107 10 G Ethernet controller which is assisted by a standard Intel I211-AT Gigabit controller, and the X570 Aqua also benefits from Intel's AX200 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface with added BT 5.0 connectivity. The rear panel drops any other USB 3.1 G2 outside of what the Thunderbolt 3 controller brings, and instead opts for six USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports. A total of two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots sit underneath two well-fitting heatsinks, with the board also featuring eight SATA ports; four are controlled by the chipset and the other four by a pair of PCIe 2.0 ASMedia controllers which might seem odd, but PCIe 2.0 is the reason the Aqua is able to add so much to the feature set. The same goes for the three PCIe 2.0 x1 slots which are sandwiched in between the three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which run at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/x4.

ASRock X570 Aqua system with AMD Ryzen 3950X, ASRock RX 5700 XT Taichi X 8G OC+ and full Corsair Hydro X water cooling loop

The performance of the ASRock X570 Aqua for the majority is competitive with pretty quick POST times considering the controller set included onboard. Power consumption was good, although users looking for a power-conscious option will need to factor in the extra power drawn by the water cooling equipment, most notable the pump. To note, our Corsair XD5 pump and reservoir combo pulled nearly 31 W on its own from the wall. In our computational tests, everything seemed in line with what was expected, and especially in line with the performance of our other ASRock X570 model, the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3. The overclocking performance was also decent with good VDroop compensation across our results, and power consumption also seemed competitive with other models we've tested too. Unfortunately the Eco mode within the firmware didn't seem to work with us and our Ryzen 3700X processor which was disappointing, but hopefully, if it is a widespread issue, it will be ironed out with future firmware updates.

For the pricey sum of $999, the price tag makes it hard to compare it to other models on the X570 chipset, but eagle-eyed users might have spotted that the ASRock X570 Aqua and the ASRock X570 Creator share near-identical feature sets, with the latter costing nearly half the price. This is true, and from the feature set it looks like ASRock's X570 Aqua and the X570 Creator are the same board, but minus the monoblock and aluminium covering. With that in mind, for the features alone, it makes the ASRock X570 Aqua look crazily expensive, but when things are put into perspective, users are paying for the cooling performance of the monoblock, the unique styling of all the aluminium, and more importantly, its exclusivity due to just 999 units being made available to the public through retail channels.

Making a Splash

The ASRock X570 Aqua is a special motherboard, and one of the most beautiful looking ever to grace the test bench, but all of this aluminium, the copper monoblock, and exclusivity come at a price. Whether that price is enough to put off the average consumer remains to be seen, but the ASRock X570 Aqua is a true halo product deserves all of the adulations it was created for; it's not the everyman board, but a stunning collector's piece that'll almost certainly benefit a high end AM4 CPU.