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Part of me is screaming at myself to buy this because of how cool it is, but the other part of me realizes that $300 for a power board that will make zero performance difference makes no sense when the rest of my build isn't a no compromises/spare no expense rig. It's a super cool idea though, I hope they catch on. I can't say I like the rubber grommets in any case's cable management holes and this eliminates the need for them. -
I have to say, I'm super unimpressed by the NZXT N7 B550 (rant incoming)
SpoilerThe board itself looks good and it seems perfectly fine stability-wise so far, but everything else is just kind of bad. Personally I'm not a huge fan of AsRock's UEFI UI, but it's usable and most users don't spend a ton of time in the menus so that's justifiable. That being said, NZXT CAM is a steaming pile as far as software goes. It's a system resource hog, the fan curve that I set is so unresponsive that my CPU can be at the target temperature for well over 10 seconds and the fans don't speed up (could be to prevent unwanted noise on temperature spikes so I guess it could make sense), there's no way to control my RAM LEDs (despite them being motherboard-addressable and supported by all 4 big motherboard manufacturers) and having to create custom profile for everything from fan curves to RGB lighting is cumbersome.
And there are so many little things I could nitpick at too. Like why does a $250 board not include integrated M.2 heatsinks (especially on a board that is so looks-driven)? Hell, mine didn't even come with two M.2 screws for the dual slots. Also, seriously? The second M.2 slot is only x2 or SATA? There are boards that are less than half the price that do this better. It's funny though, having not been in the market for a new motherboard has made me ignorant to how expensive they've gotten. I was looking for something around (preferably under) $250 with my only requirement being no MSI. The ASUS TUF and PRIME boards seem like great boards but they look kind of bare. The ProArt B550-Creator is a very pretty board but TB4 is a bit overkill for me and it's just outside of my budget. The B550 AORUS Master seems fantastic but I'm not a fan of Gigabyte's software utilities.
Okay, rant over. Looks like I'm returning this one. I'm going to give the ROG Strix B550-A a try since it fits my machine's color scheme and I've always liked ASUS boards, I wouldn't have minded spending a bit more but if it works, I'll have saved myself $90.