Today, we’ll be taking a look at the MSI Z790 Project Zero. It’s one of the most unique motherboards available on the market. It features all the power connectors and pin headers on the reverse side of the motherboard.
This provides a much cleaner and neater look, and allows you to fully display the motherboard, liquid cooler, and graphics card in all its grandeur.
It utilizes the Intel Z790 chipset and supports all the latest 14th Gen, 13th Gen and the 12th Gen processors on the LGA 1700 socket.
The motherboard features a 6-layer, 2 oz Copper PCB and a 14+1+1 Duet Rail Power System, giving you maximum performance, superb reliability and rock solid stability.
There are 4 x DDR5 DIMM slots supporting memory speeds of up to DDR5-7200+ OC. Storage options include 6 SATA ports and 4 x PCIE Gen4 M.2 slots for your SSDs. Expansion includes 1 x PCIE 5.0 x16 slot for next-gen graphics card, 1 x PCIE 4.0 x1 slot and 2 x PCIE 3.0 x16 slot.
For connectivity, it features the Intel 2.5 Gigabit LAN and WiFi 7 with Bluetooth 5.4 support. You also get a total of 16 USB ports (7 external and 9 internal) and 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (Type-C) at 20Gbps.
Other features include the Realtek ALC897 Codec 7.1-Channel High Performance Audio (with Audio Boost), M.2 Shield Frozr, 7W/mK Thermal Pad & Additional Choke Pad, and Heavy Plated VRM Heatsinks.
This motherboard will look great in any dual-chamber cases featuring a panoramic window. Connecting all the cables is super easy, especially with all the connectors on the reverse side of the motherboard.
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 up to 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 MSI for providing the review sample. This is a snippet from what MSI has to say about themselves on their website:
As a world leading gaming brand, MSI is the most trusted name in gaming and eSports. We’ve dedicated countless hours and numerous resources to the eSports community to support the world’s most aspiring gamers and leverage their gaming expertise to optimize our product design. MSI has integrated all gamers’ coveted functions into its gaming rigs, eliminating the tedious trial and error by themselves and pushing the performance beyond limits. The determination to surpass past achievements has made MSI a ‘True Gaming’ brand throughout the industry!
Adding to its unanimous acclaim in the gaming field is MSI’s reputation as a trailblazer and top brand in digital content creation. Built around MSI’s decade-long pioneering tech in gaming, the Content Creation Series packs stunning color accuracy, long-lasting battery life, high fidelity audio and excellent performance into an ultra-portable, stylish chassis for photographers, graphic designers, 3D animators, video editors and other professionals around the world.
Amazingly portable and powerful, the MSI Business & Productivity Series packs unprecedented performance, enterprise-grade security and outstand battery life into its clean-cut, modern chassis to compliment the extraordinary tastes of business professionals.
MSI’s customer-centric mindset steers the direction of its R&D resource deployment and makes the globally acclaimed MSI Gaming Series, Content Creation Series and AIoT solutions possible. Ranked highest on gamers’ wish lists, the Gaming Series features top-notch laptops, graphics cards, monitors, motherboards, desktops and gaming gear. The Content Creation Series is specifically tailored for digital content creators. Recognized for its aesthetic design and performance, the Content Creation Series is now a market leader in its field. Moreover, MSI pioneers critical developments in AI, enterprise computing and IoT. Cloud servers, customizable Industrial PCs, smart robotic appliances, and vehicle infotainment and telematics systems are MSI’s fields of expertise where the most comprehensive AIoT solutions are built.
The motherboard requires a chassis that’s compatible with MSI’s Project Zero. For a complete list of compatible cases, please visit MSI’s website. For our system build, we’ll be using the Corsair iCUE LINK 3500X RGB Mid-Tower chassis.
We’ll be testing the MSI Z790 Project Zero with an Intel Core i9-14900K processor, along with 32GB of DDR5-7200, Lexar NM800 PCIE Gen4 SSD, and a GeForce RTX 4080 Super graphics card. It should perform in line with other Z790 motherboards we’ve tested in the past, so let’s see it goes …
OK, let’s not waste any more time and start by taking a look at the specifications and features in our next page.
You can buy the MSI Z790 Project Zero motherboard for around USD $275 ($399 CAD) from Amazon – https://amzn.to/46ncyIu
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