Please reccomend a Z790 Motherboard

C

Chihlidog

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
1,183
I'm a little pissed at ASUS but I've always loved their boards. My daily is an ancient Maximus Hero. I'm looking to get a good board without spending 500 bucks. The Hero is now obnoxiously expensive and I'm just not spending that much.

MSI boards are, sorry, ugly unless I'm looking in the above 400 dollar range.

I've read lots of bad stuff about Gigabyte, both quality and bios issues.

Just put a rig together for my kid with a 5600x, used an ASrock B650 and was pretty impressed for the price but A) I don't want to use a low end board on my main rig and b) their high end stuff seems to all have the black and silver camo-esque pattern that I despise.

So....all that said I'm open to advice from H'ers. You guys know your stuff.

For context the rest of the rig will be:

NZXT H9 Flow
Lian Li Galahad 360
i7 13700k
7800xt (maybe a 7900xt depending on how much I can get the wife to approve))
32 gigs of DDR5 (GSkill Trident)

I'm not ashamed to admit I'm going for the bling and putting in all Lian Li SL infinity RGBs so I need the motherboard to have ample RGB support.

Really appreciate input on this. I'm currently looking at the Z790-F ROG strix but its a little more than I'd like to spend on it and, again, I'm pretty pissed at ASUS for the shady way they handled the melting CPU fiasco and their consistently bad customer service.
 
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Honestly its hard to recommend Z790 at all, with Z690 being $100 cheaper for most boards and almost identical other than some PCI-E lanes dedicated to USB 3.2. But you have your requirements, and looking good is certainly a valid one.

Lets run down the list:

Asus - I wouldn't buy one of their boards with someone elses money at this point. Too many bad experiences for multiple generations in a row, too expensive for what you get. Its an IQ tax basically. Plus their RGB control is terrible, they integrated Aura Sync into Armory Crate which is some of the worst software I have ever used.

Gigabyte - I'd rather sit on a cactus. I currently own a Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX and the ethernet port died after 6 weeks of use, the gigabyte app you have to run to have RGB control is absolutely terrible. Not quite as bad as Asus but it forgets your settings a LOT so -12/10 for those guys. Plus they have spelling errors in their software and manual, and it just screams "not taking it seriously". I used to think of Gigabyte as an icon of reliability but I've had nothing but trouble with them in the last 2-3 years.

MSI - I really liked my MSI Z690-A Pro, it ran my 13900K great and their Mystic Light software is super easy, plus you only have to run it once and the board remembers your RGB setting at power on, no need to load the app. I understand you think their boards are ugly though so I won't go into it. If I had to recommend one I would take a Z690 Carbon or Z790 Tomahawk all day for $249 or whatever it is now.

ASRock - These guys are super solid, my recommendation is something like the Z790 Steel Legend but you don't like the look of that one. I have 3 ASRock boards at home now and they all work GREAT. Even the basic budget B450M Pro 4 AM4 board that cost $79 is extremely reliable and can do things like overclocking ram way outside what a board of that price should do.

EVGA/NZXT - I have no experience, and I would not gamble on them.

I'm kind of stumped, any actual good boards are too ugly or too cheap so you may as well just open up the wallet and get the Hero lol
 
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LigTasm said:
Honestly its hard to recommend Z790 at all, with Z690 being $100 cheaper for most boards and almost identical other than some PCI-E lanes dedicated to USB 3.2. But you have your requirements, and looking good is certainly a valid one.

Lets run down the list:

Asus - I wouldn't buy one of their boards with someone elses money at this point. Too many bad experiences for multiple generations in a row, too expensive for what you get. Its an IQ tax basically. Plus their RGB control is terrible, they integrated Aura Sync into Armory Crate which is some of the worst software I have ever used.

Gigabyte - I'd rather sit on a cactus. I currently own a Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX and the ethernet port died after 6 weeks of use, the gigabyte app you have to run to have RGB control is absolutely terrible. Not quite as bad as Asus but it forgets your settings a LOT so -12/10 for those guys. Plus they have spelling errors in their software and manual, and it just screams "not taking it seriously". I used to think of Gigabyte as an icon of reliability but I've had nothing but trouble with them in the last 2-3 years.

MSI - I really liked my MSI Z690-A Pro, it ran my 13900K great and their Mystic Light software is super easy, plus you only have to run it once and the board remembers your RGB setting at power on, no need to load the app. I understand you think their boards are ugly though so I won't go into it. If I had to recommend one I would take a Z690 Carbon or Z790 Tomahawk all day for $249 or whatever it is now.

ASRock - These guys are super solid, my recommendation is something like the Z790 Steel Legend but you don't like the look of that one. I have 3 ASRock boards at home now and they all work GREAT. Even the basic budget B450M Pro 4 AM4 board that cost $79 is extremely reliable and can do things like overclocking ram way outside what a board of that price should do.

EVGA/NZXT - I have no experience, and I would not gamble on them.

I'm kind of stumped, any actual good boards are too ugly or too cheap so you may as well just open up the wallet and get the Hero lol
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I really appreciate you taking the time to share your input. The entire reason for Z790 is because I dont have a spare LGA1700 cpu. So if happen to get a Z690 board without an updated bios already I dont want to be screwed. I've never built a rig having to be concerned about current bios support. So long as the socket was correct, I could count on it working. Seems enthusiast parts are in a weird transition period at the moment on both team red and team blue.

I'll dig into my options for an MSI Z690. I really appreciate it!!
 
Chihlidog said:
So if happen to get a Z690 board without an updated bios already I dont want to be screwed
Click to expand...

That hasn't been a major concern for midrange+ boards from either vendor for probably at least 4-5 years now. The vast majority of performance-oriented boards come with built-in CPU-less BIOS flashing contros, in the form of a designated USB port for a properly formatted drive + BIOS file, and a dedicated button + status LED on either rear IO or on the board itself to initiate and monitor the flashing process.
 
Chihlidog said:
I really appreciate you taking the time to share your input. The entire reason for Z790 is because I dont have a spare LGA1700 cpu. So if happen to get a Z690 board without an updated bios already I dont want to be screwed. I've never built a rig having to be concerned about current bios support. So long as the socket was correct, I could count on it working. Seems enthusiast parts are in a weird transition period at the moment on both team red and team blue.

I'll dig into my options for an MSI Z690. I really appreciate it!!
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate a little more on what your aesthetic would be? Are you liking the blacked out look of the Asus boards? Realistically, Z790 from $150-450 is all the same thing. At this point it may be wise to wait and see what the 14th gen stuff brings as its supposed to drop in a few days.
 
LigTasm said:
Can you elaborate a little more on what your aesthetic would be? Are you liking the blacked out look of the Asus boards? Realistically, Z790 from $150-450 is all the same thing. At this point it may be wise to wait and see what the 14th gen stuff brings as its supposed to drop in a few days.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's a good point. Might see price drops on some existing boards, and I think pretty much all motherboard manufacturers are going to release new Z790 boards alongside the Raptor Lake Refresh. Supposed to come out on October 17.

If you absolutely need one now I do like the Taichi Lite like chameleoneel suggested.
 
LigTasm said:
Can you elaborate a little more on what your aesthetic would be? Are you liking the blacked out look of the Asus boards? Realistically, Z790 from $150-450 is all the same thing. At this point it may be wise to wait and see what the 14th gen stuff brings as its supposed to drop in a few days.
Click to expand...
Yes, blacked out with some subtle RGB or none at all. Sleek. Honesty at the end of the day I will barely see the motherboard so I'm being too uptight about it. But one of the Tomahawk boards I was looking at had yellow trim which I felt was ugly (one of the Asus boards has orange, too which I also don't like). And a lot more of the PCB seems to be exposed which, to me, looks unfinished.

I LOVE the look of the NZXT N7 boards where the PCB is mostly covered. It just looks cleaner. But I'm not going to choose a board only based on aesthetic so the feedback in this thread is invaluable.

Sounds like I'm being a bit of a dumbass by not looking at Z690 and I really appreciate everyone's input!
 
Also...I do like having an LED debug display which seems basically impossible to find on any mid range board for Z790 but seems to be attainable on 690.
 
Chihlidog said:
Also...I do like having an LED debug display which seems basically impossible to find on any mid range board for Z790 but seems to be attainable on 690.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my $120 ASRock B550 board has onboard power and reset, plus a diagnostic code readout. Its crazy that these $300-500 boards don't have it, they're also stripping out the audio jacks as some only have two 3.5mm ports.

If you love the Asus look, you can get the Z690 Hero for $250 right now, theres also the MSI Z690 Carbon at the same price. In the $350 range I would get the ASRock Z790 Tachi Lite light some others have said in this thread, those are extremely good boards. The Asus Z790-F is alright, but you're paying like $50 Asus tax for nothing extra, but if you really like the look of it, its on sale for $299.
 
LigTasm said:
Honestly its hard to recommend Z790 at all, with Z690 being $100 cheaper for most boards and almost identical other than some PCI-E lanes dedicated to USB 3.2. But you have your requirements, and looking good is certainly a valid one.
Click to expand...

One very important difference between Z790 and Z690 is their ability to clock memory. With Z690, getting past DDR5 5600MHz can be a pain in the ass. 6000MHz is doable but its a struggle. With Z790, speeds beyond DDR5 7000MHz are possible.

LigTasm said:
Lets run down the list:

Asus - I wouldn't buy one of their boards with someone elses money at this point. Too many bad experiences for multiple generations in a row, too expensive for what you get. Its an IQ tax basically. Plus their RGB control is terrible, they integrated Aura Sync into Armory Crate which is some of the worst software I have ever used.

Gigabyte - I'd rather sit on a cactus. I currently own a Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX and the ethernet port died after 6 weeks of use, the gigabyte app you have to run to have RGB control is absolutely terrible. Not quite as bad as Asus but it forgets your settings a LOT so -12/10 for those guys. Plus they have spelling errors in their software and manual, and it just screams "not taking it seriously". I used to think of Gigabyte as an icon of reliability but I've had nothing but trouble with them in the last 2-3 years.

MSI - I really liked my MSI Z690-A Pro, it ran my 13900K great and their Mystic Light software is super easy, plus you only have to run it once and the board remembers your RGB setting at power on, no need to load the app. I understand you think their boards are ugly though so I won't go into it. If I had to recommend one I would take a Z690 Carbon or Z790 Tomahawk all day for $249 or whatever it is now.

ASRock - These guys are super solid, my recommendation is something like the Z790 Steel Legend but you don't like the look of that one. I have 3 ASRock boards at home now and they all work GREAT. Even the basic budget B450M Pro 4 AM4 board that cost $79 is extremely reliable and can do things like overclocking ram way outside what a board of that price should do.

EVGA/NZXT - I have no experience, and I would not gamble on them.

I'm kind of stumped, any actual good boards are too ugly or too cheap so you may as well just open up the wallet and get the Hero lol
Click to expand...

I've had good and bad experiences with every brand out there and many more that no longer exist. The fact is, everyone's bundled software sucks to varying degrees. Every brand has crappy RGB control. It's not just the motherboard makers, but an industry wide problem. Microsoft is even looking to integrate RGB control at some point to combat this. I've had trouble with MSI motherboards retaining their RGB settings as I have with ASUS and everyone else. I don't think this is primarily a motherboard issue but comes down to having more than one RGB control software on the system. On the test bench I don't have problems but in actual systems where they'll have iCUE, RGB software for memory or some other RGB control software for some other piece of hardware its always problematic.

As for EVGA, they are barely in the motherboard business anymore. They are usually late to market with their products and have only one or two models to choose from at any one time. People rave about them online but I haven't had any on the test bench in years. I can't speak to that but I will say I've had mixed experiences with their boards over the years. NZXT doesn't make motherboards. Their boards are typically rebranded ASRock motherboards with some plastic cladding on them to make them look fancy. They work fine.
 
Dan_D said:
One very important difference between Z790 and Z690 is their ability to clock memory. With Z690, getting past DDR5 5600MHz can be a pain in the ass. 6000MHz is doable but its a struggle. With Z790, speeds beyond DDR5 7000MHz are possible.
Click to expand...

DDR5 is a crapshoot to begin with. My Z690-A from MSI would do 7200 with no problem, the Z790 I have right now won't even POST with a 6800 kit on XMP. If you're shooting for the moon with DDR5 you're buying an ITX board to keep the signal integrity up. Way too many variables to worry about, so I assume most people are looking at like 6000-6400 which should be fine on most boards. The extra ram speed is nice, but is it $100+ nice? Depends on who has the wallet I guess.
 
LigTasm said:
Yeah, my $120 ASRock B550 board has onboard power and reset, plus a diagnostic code readout. Its crazy that these $300-500 boards don't have it, they're also stripping out the audio jacks as some only have two 3.5mm ports.

If you love the Asus look, you can get the Z690 Hero for $250 right now, theres also the MSI Z690 Carbon at the same price. In the $350 range I would get the ASRock Z790 Tachi Lite light some others have said in this thread, those are extremely good boards. The Asus Z790-F is alright, but you're paying like $50 Asus tax for nothing extra, but if you really like the look of it, its on sale for $299.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking the Z690 carbon. MSI seems to be the way to go at the moment and it has everything I'm looking for. I really appreciate it!
 
LigTasm said:
DDR5 is a crapshoot to begin with. My Z690-A from MSI would do 7200 with no problem, the Z790 I have right now won't even POST with a 6800 kit on XMP. If you're shooting for the moon with DDR5 you're buying an ITX board to keep the signal integrity up. Way too many variables to worry about, so I assume most people are looking at like 6000-6400 which should be fine on most boards. The extra ram speed is nice, but is it $100+ nice? Depends on who has the wallet I guess.
Click to expand...

I tested a lot of Z690 DDR5 boards that wouldn't do DDR5 6000MHz reliably. Every Z790 and B760 board I've tested or worked with will do that and more. I'm sure there are combinations of Z690 boards that do well and some Z790 boards that might clock RAM badly under certain circumstances but overall, the newer boards are better about clocking memory higher. Whether or not that's worth $100 more is certainly debatable, but it was a difference ignored in your response post and I thought I would point that out.
 
Dan_D said:
One very important difference between Z790 and Z690 is their ability to clock memory. With Z690, getting past DDR5 5600MHz can be a pain in the ass. 6000MHz is doable but its a struggle. With Z790, speeds beyond DDR5 7000MHz are possible.



I've had good and bad experiences with every brand out there and many more that no longer exist. The fact is, everyone's bundled software sucks to varying degrees. Every brand has crappy RGB control. It's not just the motherboard makers, but an industry wide problem. Microsoft is even looking to integrate RGB control at some point to combat this. I've had trouble with MSI motherboards retaining their RGB settings as I have with ASUS and everyone else. I don't think this is primarily a motherboard issue but comes down to having more than one RGB control software on the system. On the test bench I don't have problems but in actual systems where they'll have iCUE, RGB software for memory or some other RGB control software for some other piece of hardware its always problematic.

As for EVGA, they are barely in the motherboard business anymore. They are usually late to market with their products and have only one or two models to choose from at any one time. People rave about them online but I haven't had any on the test bench in years. I can't speak to that but I will say I've had mixed experiences with their boards over the years. NZXT doesn't make motherboards. Their boards are typically rebranded ASRock motherboards with some plastic cladding on them to make them look fancy. They work fine.
Click to expand...
Really appreciate you taking the time!! Thanks!
 
Z790 Aorus Master is so good I bought 2 of them. Check it out it's a sweet board I'm in love with it.
 
I've got a NZXT N7 Z790 board in black if you're interested. Comes with Thermal Grizzly contact frame installed. I just switched to Aorus Z790 Master cause the NXZT couldn't run my DDR5 7800 ram at XMP settings. I was to lazy to tweak voltage settings to make it work at 7800 but it ran it with no problems at 7200.
 
Dan_D said:
I tested a lot of Z690 DDR5 boards that wouldn't do DDR5 6000MHz reliably. Every Z790 and B760 board I've tested or worked with will do that and more. I'm sure there are combinations of Z690 boards that do well and some Z790 boards that might clock RAM badly under certain circumstances but overall, the newer boards are better about clocking memory higher. Whether or not that's worth $100 more is certainly debatable, but it was a difference ignored in your response post and I thought I would point that out.
Click to expand...
Im going for a B760-I. Hoping nothing goes wrong. Last Asus MB I had the wifi chip went bad and three times RMA did nothing. They couldnt figure it out. I ended up buying a new chip and it fixed the problem.
 
Kerby1280 said:
I've got a NZXT N7 Z790 board in black if you're interested. Comes with Thermal Grizzly contact frame installed. I just switched to Aorus Z790 Master cause the NXZT couldn't run my DDR5 7800 ram at XMP settings. I was to lazy to tweak voltage settings to make it work at 7800 but it ran it with no problems at 7200.
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Sorry. Just saw this. I appreciate it, I think I'm going with a Z690 carbon.
 
Mad Maxx said:
I switched to a Z790 Aorus Pro X a few weeks ago. I would've preferred it in black but, that aside, I'm very impressed. It's my first non-Asus board in over 12 years.
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Wow sweet ass board bro. I bet that thing will hit 8000 RAM a lot easier even 8266 with the right RAM and CPU. Congrats 🤤
To be honest I've always liked Gigabyte boards. They always release tons of BIOS updates. I've never had any problems with Gigabyte plus they have a headquarters here in Cali where I can manually take an RMA if needed.
 
Mad Maxx said:
I switched to a Z790 Aorus Pro X a few weeks ago. I would've preferred it in black but, that aside, I'm very impressed. It's my first non-Asus board in over 12 years.
Click to expand...
I've been thinking about this board as well. Though my Asus Z690 Maximus Formula has been rock solid for me and it's hard for me to justify replacing it right now.
 
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Maybe something special?

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-model-13-3-side-panel-kit/p/N82E16813998037

compatible with

H610M-ITX/eDP
B660M-ITX/eDP
B650E PG-ITX WiFi
Z790 Steel Legend WiFi - https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=Z790+Steel+Legend+WiFi
Z790 LiveMixer - https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162098
Z790 Pro RS WiFi
Z790 Pro RS
Z790 Pro RS/D4
Z790 PG Lightning
Z790 PG Lightning/D4
Z790M-ITX WiFi
B650E PG-ITX WiFi

I almost bought a combo myself since it will stay, in its own way, interesting long after even lunar lake.

This idea lives rent-free in my head for a while now.

I think december is the time to kick it out of there and put it in my case so that i have peace of mind again ;)
 
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New kit porn. Plug and play XMP 8000 CL38, with a 13900k! The board has 2 DIMM slots, I can confirm it's foolproof :). Have a 14900k inbound to see if I can push higher CPU + mem overclocks.

20231030_125422_HDR.jpg
 
I should have read the OP because I just saw the <$500 budget. This Apex Encore was $650, but it did run the 8000MT/s sticks at XMP right out of the box. I'm not really experienced with memory overclocking so I wanted something that just worked. From the research I did, the 2 DIMM boards are better suited than the traditional 4 slot solutions. This DDR5 kit wasn't even on the QVL and it booted and passed Memtest just fine. (y)
 
Haha thanks, it's what the [H] forum is all about! Flexing our e-peens and posting pics of cool product boxes! :ROFLMAO:
 
Carlyle2020 said:
Maybe something special?

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-model-13-3-side-panel-kit/p/N82E16813998037

compatible with

H610M-ITX/eDP
B660M-ITX/eDP
B650E PG-ITX WiFi
Z790 Steel Legend WiFi - https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=Z790+Steel+Legend+WiFi
Z790 LiveMixer - https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162098
Z790 Pro RS WiFi
Z790 Pro RS
Z790 Pro RS/D4
Z790 PG Lightning
Z790 PG Lightning/D4
Z790M-ITX WiFi
B650E PG-ITX WiFi

I almost bought a combo myself since it will stay, in its own way, interesting long after even lunar lake.

This idea lives rent-free in my head for a while now.

I think december is the time to kick it out of there and put it in my case so that i have peace of mind again ;)
Click to expand...


Yeah, the idea is finally out of my system :D

20231204_193814.jpg

Next step is making the screen see-through.

Which possibly means breaking a screen or two before i have mastered it.:cry:
 
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