ASROCK Z790 Z790 PG LIGHTNING, 4 X DDR5, HDMI, EDP, 4 M.2, 4 SATA

Product Information

Meanwhile, its count of seven Type-A USB ports on the rear I/O panel are enough for most people’s needs, and six of them are USB 3 or faster. You even get a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port here too. Sadly, the Type-C front panel header is limited to USB 3 specifications and there’s no Wi-Fi, but all of the M.2 ports support PCI-E 4 and you get four SATA 6Gbps ports as well as 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet. USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (Rear), 1 USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear), 1 USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C (Front), 9 USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (5 Rear, 4 Front), 3 USB 2.0 (1 Rear, 2 Front) On the bottom of the board, starting on the left side, we spy the dated Realtek ALC897 audio codec. There’s an audio separation line, but you can forget about third-party DACs and Amps at this price point. The ALC897 is a budget codec, so discerning listeners, even content creators this is intended for, might be disappointed and want to use a superior external audio solution.

Starting in the upper-left corner of the board, we get a better look at the large, purple-and-white VRM heatsink and the graffiti-style appearance. The VRM heatsinks have a lot of mass and a fair amount of surface area, so they should do a decent job on the MOSFETs below, but we’ll see how well that pans out in or testing below. Just above the left VRM heatsink are two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the CPU. 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. Intel® UHD Graphics Built-in Visuals and the VGA outputs can be supported only with processors which are GPU integrated.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. 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.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right.