Today, we will be taking a look at the ASRock Z790 PG Riptide WiFi motherboard. It uses Intel’s Z790 chipset and supports all of the latest Intel Core Processors on the LGA1700 socket. These include the latest 14th gen, the previous 13th gen & older 12th Gen processors.
It’s aimed and targeted at the mainstream user who’s after an affordable Z790 motherboard without compromising on performance.
It features a pretty decent 16+1+1 VRM design with SPS for Vcore+GT, and an 8 layer PCB, Dr.MOS and hi-density power connnectors.
It supports Intel XMP 3.0 profiles, and can run higher DDR5 memory speeds of up to DDR5-7600+ OC.
For storage, it has 6 x SATA3 ports, 3 x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4) slots for your SSDs, but sadly no Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen5) slot. However, it does comes one M.2 heatsink that features a quick release latch for easy mounting of your SSDs.
For expansion, it comes with 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for your graphics card, 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, and 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot.
And for connectivity, it’s powered by Intel’s Killer E3100G 2.5G LAN and comes with WiFi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3 via the M.2 Socket (Key E – occupied).
The motherboard also comes with 1 x eDP port which allow users to connect the optional ASRock 13.3” LCD Side Panel kit.
And finally, the motherboard comes with 7.1 HD nahimic audio, D.MOS, and of course ASRock’s POLYCHROME RGB for great ligting effects.
Intel Z790 Chipset
The 13th Gen Intel® Core™ desktop processors, when paired with the Z790 chipset, deliver the breakthrough performance and features that gamers, creators, and professionals need to work at their best. Optimized for overclocking1 and precision tuning when paired with an unlocked processor, the Z790 chipset empowers you with the control and confidence to choose the best performance and thermal characteristics for the task at hand. Harness the processing power, responsiveness, and connectivity of up to 38 high-speed I/O lanes—including 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes, 8 PCIe 3.0 lanes, and 5 USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20G) ports—as well as Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+) to take your gaming, content creation, and productivity to the next level.
The Z790 chipset allows a total 20 usable PCIE 4.0 lanes, with upto a maximum memory capacity of 128GB. It’s also capable of up to 10 x USB 3.2 Gen1 5Gbps, 10 x USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps and up to 5 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 20Gbps.
I would like to thank ASRock for providing the review sample. This is a snippet from what ASRock has to say about themselves on their website:
ASRock Inc. is established in 2002, specialized in the field of motherboards. ASRock strives to build up its own brand. With the 3C design concept, “Creativity, Consideration, Cost-effectiveness”, the company explores the limit of motherboards manufacturing while paying attention on the eco issue at the same time, developing products with the consideration of eco-friendly concept.
ASRock has been growing fast and become world third largest motherboard brand with headquarter in Taipei, Taiwan and branches in Europe and the USA. The young and vibrant company targets from mainstream to enthusiast MB segments for different kinds of users, owning reputation around the world market with its reliability and proficiency.
We’ll be testing this motherboard using Intel’s latest 14th Gen Core i9-14900K processor, along with some nice DDR5-7200 ram and a Radeon RX 7900 XTX to see how it peforms.
If everything checks out, then this motherboard could be a very good option for users who’s after an affordable Z790 motherboard with a decent amount of features.
OK, let’s continue and start by taking a look at the specifications and features in our next page.
You can buy the original ASRock Z790 PG Lightning motherboard for around USD $200 from Amazon – https://amzn.to/3u8PXAw
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