MSI showcases Z590 Pro 12VO motherboard

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MSI demonstrated the Z590 Pro 12VO motherboard in the latest MSI Insider program. Just like its name, it uses Intel’s latest ATX12VO specification. Although this specification was launched last year, it has used this specification for motherboards and power supplies so far. There are very few, and it is not very popular in the DIY market, but the OEM complete machine has followed up.

Intel’s ATX12VO specification only requires the power supply to supply 12V voltage, removing the 5V and 3.3V power supply, which helps to improve the conversion efficiency of the power supply, and the power supply interface is also reduced, from 24pin to 10pin, which can theoretically improve the compactness of the system.

However, this is not friendly to the motherboard manufacturer, because the 12V to 5V and 3.3V conversion work that was originally in charge of the power supply has become the responsibility of the motherboard. Moreover, the power supply of the SATA device has to be done by the motherboard, and the SATA power supply output port corresponding to the number of SATA ports needs to be made.

Although the motherboard power supply port has been reduced from 24pin to 10pin, there are a few more 4pin SATA power supply ports, which basically does not reduce the occupied area, and it also has to make room for the voltage conversion circuit, which further squeezes the space on the motherboard. After reading the design of MSI’s Z590 Pro 12VO, I kind of understand why motherboard manufacturers don’t want to follow up with ATX12VO.

However, ATX12VO can effectively improve conversion efficiency. MSI took the prototype Z590 Pro WiFi of Z590 Pro 12VO for comparison in the show, and both use the same processor, memory, and SSD, and the WiFi module on the motherboard has also been taken away. The overall power consumption of the Z590 Pro WiFi platform is 42W on standby, while the average package power consumption of the CPU is 17W. The standby power consumption of the Z590 Pro 12VO platform is 38W, and the power consumption of the CPU Package is 14W. The power consumption has been reduced by 10% and 18% respectively. It can be seen that the energy-saving effect is quite obvious.
There are rumors that Intel is vigorously promoting ATX12VO, making it the specification for the next generation of Alder Lake-S processors, so we may see more motherboards with 10pin power ports on LGA1700 motherboards.

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