New 2023 ASUS Z790 Motherboard Line-up - 14th Gen Ready

Intel is launching their brand new generation of processors and as always when we get new CPUs we also get a range of new motherboards to choose from now the 14th generation of processors is a refresh of the previous generation so if you already own a 1700 socket motherboard you don't really need a new one but you also need to remember that new motherboards also get some new features and they improve every single year so they still might be very interesting to some of you so today I'm going to talk about these six new z79 motherboards from Asus and since I cannot really talk about the 14 gen performance just yet I'm just going to focus on the overall feature sets that these Asus motherboards have to offer and we're going to see what's new uh what sets them apart from each other and basically just figure out which motherboard makes the most sense to you let's begin since this is a refresh generation of processors the chipset on all of these motherboards is the same as last year year the z790 so just like you can reuse a previous generation motherboard for these new CPUs uh you can also use these new motherboards for the last two generations of processors if you want to but it also kind of means that chipset wise we're not really getting anything new at all Now intel is making a push for Wi-Fi 7 while on the old motherboards the standard was 6 and 6E but other than that it is mostly the same as before which doesn't also mean that the boards themselves haven't improved it just means that it is now up to the motherboard manufacturers to build something that is more interesting than the pure chipset features so let's see what Asus put together here as I said before I have six different models right here and I'm going to start with the most basic one uh which is the tough gaming z790 Pro Wi-Fi and then I'm going to work my way down the stack because just like with previous lineups Brands always try to balance an increase in price with an increase in features now the tough lineup has come a very long way since it made its first appearance on the market uh together with the prime models the tough models are supposed to be the entrylevel boards for the z790 chipset but as you can see here uh this is already more high-end than a lot of high-end motherboards from a few years ago in terms of features you get four m.2 slots but only three of them have heat sinks you get seven fan headers uh three addressable RGB headers uh two internal USB 2 headers One USB 3 header and a 20 gbit type-c header for the front panel of your case that should also support fast charging the io Shield is integrated as you would expect and you get eight USB ports total including a single 20 gbit one and three 10 gbit ones you also get a 2.5 GB Lan and Wi-Fi 6E with the new antenna system system that just kind of clicks on instead of having to screw it on like it was before now lower-end boards sometimes cheap out on the audio uh but the tough here has a completely decent s1220a audio chip and it includes an optical out as well what you're missing on the tough board are some of the more Enthusiast features like a hex display and physical buttons and while the primary PCI slot for your GPU is Gen 5 and ready for whatever the next generation will be the SSD slots are not uh Gen 5 ssds don't really make sense for most users just yet but it is something to keep in mind uh you also don't get any RGB on the board itself so if you were making a nice blackout build uh this motherboard will fit very well what you do get is some of the nicer quality of life features that were added to the higher-end models in previous generations of R motherboards but now they're available in all of the models from this this lineup so you do get the Q release button to easily remove your graphics card you get AI overclocking in the Bios and you get little latches on your m.2 SSD slot so you don't need to use those tiny little screws now I kind of do wish they also made the heat sinks too less like gigabyte did on some of their models in this generation because right now Asus does save you from using some of those tiny screws but you still need a small screwdriver to be able to remove the heat sinks but you know there is just a minor thing that I would like to see improved on the vrm side you get 16 60 amp power stages for the CPU cores with large metal heat sinks on top of them now realistically that should already be more than enough uh even for an I9 with a bit of an overclock but if you plan to do some extreme overclocking I would wait to see some proper vrm testing before doing that on this motherboard still I think tough gaming is a very well-rounded board as long as you don't need those Enthusiast features or maybe more connections than this board has to offer so for a typical high-end gaming rig it should be more than enough now The Next Step Up would be the r STS lineup and I have both the z790 a Wi-Fi 2 and the z790 Wi-Fi 2 and even though they sound very similar they actually have pretty different feature sets the z790 a is the firstep up from the tough gaming board and the most obvious change is the color scheme now I really like the white and black theme and this board also gets some RGB to go with that the STX a builds from the same feature set we got with the tough model but it adds several extras so here you get five m.2 SSD slots instead of four uh all of them are covered with heat sinks and you get eight fan headers instead of seven on the rear I/O you get four extra USB 2 ports coming up to a total of 12 plus you get the option to flash your bios without a CPU or memory even though I guess you'll probably never need to use that feature because the 15th gen will probably require completely new motherboards anyway we also get Wi-Fi 7 and I really like the fact that on the white motherboard they added a white antenna that also has white cabl so if your whole build is wide the antenna will fit perfectly next to it the power delivery gets a slight upgrade from the tough motherboard as well and it goes to 1670 amp power stages for the VC cor uh the only features that you're missing on this STS a board are the hex display physical buttons and just like with the tough gaming the M2 slots are all Gen 4 so you don't get Gen 5 SSD support either now next we have the z790 STS 2 which is another really impressive looking motherboard and here we finally start seeing some some of those hobby features that the previous models were missing it again takes the basis of the model before it and just starts adding some features to add a bit more value so this one does have a hex display and it does come with physical buttons which a lot of people really care about including myself and it has five m.2 slots but this time around one of them is actually Gen 5 the z790 does add another USB 3 header which is great for cases with four usb3 ports on the front and it adds another internal USB 2 header as well for a total of three which is actually more than de models above half uh that makes this board particularly interesting if you have a lot of accessories that require these headers uh like all-in-one coolers for example or additional RGB Hardware the rear I/O is improved as well you still get 12 USB ports total but now all of them are at least 10 GB with one of them being 20 GB and of course the power delivery gets another upgrade uh 18 110 amp power stages is way more than you will ever realistically need and you will be frying your CPU before your vrm get anywhere near hot next in line is the dark hero and this is probably the nicest looking all black z790 board on the market every time a new hero board comes out they somehow manag to make it look just a bit better than last year now tradition Al the herob boards have been the go-to options for anyone looking for a real Enthusiast motherboard uh but like I said before that position is under a lot of pressure right now the STX C is already offering a lot of those Enthusiast features and it comes with Overkill VMS so the hero or the dark hero here really needs to find an angle to try and offer some other form of value uh going even more overkill on the power delivery for example doesn't add that much more so so this has 20 slightly higher quality 90 AMP power stages just for DV core which is again more than you will ever need so the three main things that you do get are a proper back plate which does help if you're handling your motherboard a lot like uh reviewers or like overclockers do you do get a selection of extra headers for custom water loops and the rear I/O now includes two Thunderbolt connections for 40 GB external devices now that's not really Ed ful for most users but if you do want Thunderbolt it is actually a very rare feature but where previous boards basically just added features on top of the last one uh the dark hero takes a few steps back from the stxs e in some way so the third internal USB 2 header is gone and the 20 gbit USB port on the back is gone as well and Thunderbolt ports will double as a 10 GB USB even though they can technically do 40 if you have an external Thunderbolt SSD D the dark hero is way faster but with a 20 GB USB external SSD uh only the front panel connector will support its full speed so the dark Heroes target audience is really shifting more from uh allaround PC Hardware fan to people who just want Thunderbolt or plan to do custom water cooling builds and if you do want to go that way and you also want a white build then you can go for the Asus R Maximus z790 formula now almost every part of this motherboard is exactly the same as the dark hero uh the PCB and most of the parts look the same and most of the connections are exactly the same there are a couple of changes but they're all very minor so the formula has 20 slightly higher rated power stages 105 amps versus 90 but as I said before the dark hero was already an Overkill the rear I/O has a 5 GB ethernet connection instead of 2.5 and the formula adds a little 2in OLED screen right above the GPU which is kind of cute but other than that it is a white version of the dark hero with the addition of that water block on the top of the vrms now in the past Asus worked with EK on those uh but I don't see EK branding anymore so I guess they decided to go their own way instead the next board is the Rog Maxima z790 Apex Encore and this one doesn't really fit with the rest of the stack because this is a hardcore overclocking board with an even more extreme power delivery setup a two dim setup for even higher memory overclocks and lots of little overclocking features like switches and voltage measuring points for anyone who wants to just go above and beyond trying to beat those overclocking records plus you also get a separate fan bracket with a fan for your memory I mean you can use it as a daily driver ites does get five SSD slots and a good amount of USB ports on the back for regular use but just remember that this doesn't have any power delivery for the igpu uh if you for some reason planned on using that so you cannot use the igpu on CPUs that come with one and if you use Intel quick sync for video editing uh that won't work either so realistically if you're not into extreme overclocking this board doesn't really make sense for you now While most of these boards do look great in terms of what they offer they're also very expensive uh Street pricing might end up looking a bit better eventually uh but today at launch only the tough gaming board will be less than 400 or dolls and that is just a lot of money for a motherboard and way more than what we used to pay for high-end boards a few years ago but there's this little thing called inflation and to be fair you're also getting a much better product with this lower end uh tough to today than we did with higher end boards before and as much as I don't really like these prices H it was already the same with these z690 and previous z790 motherboards as well as competing motherboards on the AMD side so if you want a cheaper motherboard you will have to look at cheaper chipsets uh like the b660 or the b760 for example so overall unless you need some specific features for your personal use like a ton of USB ports uh more than four nvme ssds or Gen 5 SSD support uh there really isn't a reason to spend more than uh what the tough gaming costs even for I9 builds uh it might be the lowest model in this stack but it really is a solid all-around motherboard and I really don't think most of you will be missing out on anything relevant if you go for the tough gaming if you do want a board that just offers everything in terms of features uh and it has all the bells and whistles to use as a hobby board the RG stxs e stands out to me the most and it is basically what the hero used to be it gets you the hex display a physical buttons extra SSD slots Gen 5 SSD support and more internal headers to handle every high-end build and whatever future upgrades you want to add it is expensive but it has pretty much everything and it does offer better value than the boards that are positioned above it so in my opinion high-end boards like the dark hero and the formula are very very nice if you uh do want to go for something Niche like custom Loop or you really need that Thunderbolt support or if you just really like them and you happen to have a ton of money to spare and I know that that's also a big reason why some people buy these fancier motherboards which is completely fine but if you're trying to keep it a bit more reasonable then the STX e is probably what you want to aim for anyway anyway that is all I had for today but before I go let's hear it from the sponsor of this video this video is brought to you by sionic and their brand new vertex power supplies these fully modular power supplies are extremely efficient and very quiet due to their fan design and their hybrid fan mode that stops the fans completely under 40% load they come with a variety of connections for any kind of systems you have in mind including the new 12volt high power cable for the latest RTX graphics cards and as a little bonus you get a cozy 10year long warranty check them out using the links in the description below thank you all for watching and please do let me know in the comments down below if you have any questions about these motherboards and if you're interested in other brands I will be going over some of the competition in the next few days as well as the new CPUs that will launch tomorrow so U make sure you click that subscribe button to never miss my future uploads bye all and I will see you in the next one bye [Music]

Channel: Techtesters

Views: 70,184

Keywords: z790 motherboard, z790 motherboards, asus z790, rog z790, asus z790 motherboard, rog z790 motherboard, z790, asus motherboard, rog motherboard, socket 1700 motherboards, z790 asus, z790 rog, 14900k motherboard, 13900k motherbord, 14700k motherboard, 13700k motherboard, best z790 motherboard, best socket 1700 motherboard, ddr5 motherboard, rog maximus z790 dark hero, rog maximus z790 formula, rog strix z790-e, rog strix z790-a, tuf gaming z790-pro, z790 apex encore

Id: Q_29SQ3PfLI

Length: 16min 10sec (970 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 16 2023