The Box and Packaging
Inside the box, you’ll find a user manual, an ASRock badge, a 3-pin ARGB extension cable, 2 x WiFi antennas, 1 x Thermal probe, 1 x M.2 screws and a pair of SATA cables.
The ASRock Z790 PG Lightning WiFi Motherboard
Right away, you’ll notice that there are fewer heatsinks than usual. Less heatsinks means less cost, and this makes the motherboard more affordable. The main heatsinks are on the VRM/Mosfets, the Hyper M.2 PCIE Gen4 slot and the Z790 chipset.
On the back of the motherboard, you’ll find 1 x eDP port which allow users to connect the optional ASRock 13.3” LCD Side Panel kit.
A Closer Look
The motherboard comes a unique heatsink for the Hyper M.2 PCIE Gen4 slot. It features a quick release latch for easy mounting of your SSDs, which I really like.
On the top left-hand corner of the board, you’ll find 2 x 8-pin PCIE power connectors, which is needed to power the board, and it also gives you extra stability.
For storage, it has 6 x SATA3 ports, 3 x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4) slots for your SSDs, but sadly no Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen5) slot.
And for connectivity, it’s powered by Intel’s Killer 2.5G LAN and comes with WiFi 6E + Bluetooth via the M.2 Socket (Key E – occupied).
If you love RGB, then this motherboard got you covered. You’ll find 2 x 3-pin ARGB (5V) headers located on the middle right of the motherboard. It’s an usual location making is slightly difficult to arrange those RGB cables. There’s also another 1 x 3-pin ARGB (5V) header, as well as 1 x 4-pin RGB (12V) towards the bottom middle of the board.
For expansion, you get 1 x PCIE 5.0 x16 slot (with Surface-Mount Tech), 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, and 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot.
And finally, you also get all of ASRock’ unique features such as the auto driver installer, Dr. MOS, 8-layer PCB, and the Realtek 7.1 HD Nahimic audio and Polychrome RGB.
On the rear I/O panel, there’s 2 x Antenna ports (for WiFi 7), 1 x HDMI Port, 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse connector, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s), 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port, 4 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A Ports , 1 x 2.5 GbE LAN Port, and an array of HD Audio Jacks: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone.
