ASUS ROG Strix Z490-F Gaming upgrades

Released 2020 · on sale

No soldered memory and no soldered CPU — all memory and the processor are socketed/upgradable. Minor: early Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE revisions had link-drop issues; worth checking on used boards.

Upgrade guide → What fits, step by step, and official documents.

4× DDR4 DIMM, up to 128 GB (4× 32 GB): 4 × DDR4 DIMM · up to 128 GB total · 4800 MT/s
2× M.2 Key M (2242–22110) + 6× SATA 6 Gb/s: 2 × SSD M.2 2242 / M.2 2260 / M.2 2280 / M.2 22110 (NVMe / SATA)
LGA 1200 — 10th Gen Intel Core (Comet Lake): LGA1200 · Ryzen 3000

Slot map

Schematic of the upgradeable slots (not to scale). Check the owner's manual for their exact positions.

4× DDR4 DIMM, up to 128 GB (4× 32 GB) 4 × DDR4 DIMM · up to 128 GB total · 4800 MT/s

DDR4 non-ECC unbuffered UDIMM only (288-pin); ECC/registered/server DIMMs and SO-DIMMs won't work. 32 GB per stick, 128 GB max. Anything above DDR4-2666/2933 is XMP/OC. Matched pairs strongly recommended; mixed-size channels run part single-channel. ASUS spec page claims 4800 O.C. but the manual/product page cap at 4600 O.C. — check the QVL. RAM speed also capped by CPU's native limit (2666 on i5/i3).

No compatible offers right now.

2× M.2 Key M (2242–22110) + 6× SATA 6 Gb/s 2 × SSD M.2 2242 / M.2 2260 / M.2 2280 / M.2 22110 (NVMe / SATA)

M.2_1 supports PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe or SATA; M.2_2 is NVMe-only (SATA M.2 drives won't work there). Both accept 22110 (110 mm) drives and board heatsinks are included. Sharing: M.2_1 in SATA mode disables SATA port 2; populating M.2_2 disables SATA ports 5-6 — max 4-5 of 6 SATA ports usable. RAID 0/1/5/10 (SATA) via Intel RST. No drive bays (case-dependent). No documented per-drive capacity limit.

No compatible offers right now.

LGA 1200 — 10th Gen Intel Core (Comet Lake) LGA1200 · Ryzen 3000

Socketed LGA 1200 with Z490 chipset. ASUS sources confirm 10th Gen Core (Comet Lake), Pentium Gold and Celeron only; 11th Gen (Rocket Lake) support is common on Z490 via BIOS update but is NOT confirmed in the sources — verify the ASUS CPU QVL before buying. A BIOS update may require a 10th Gen chip to boot first. No official TDP cap (125 W K-series chips listed). LGA 1200 is end-of-line; no path to LGA 1700 CPUs.

No compatible offers right now.