Looking for a good Z790 DDR5 Motherboard (ATX)

Gessler555 · August 14, 2023

For a while I've been looking at the MSI Z790 Tomahawk WiFi, which seems like a good all-round board at a (somewhat) reasonable price. But lately I found out it doesn't have Dual BIOS (surprising as my MSI Z97 Gaming 7 from 8 years ago had it!), so I'm wondering if there are better options out there at that price point or even slightly higher? For what it's worth, I live in India and the DDR5 Tomahawk costs about 33,500 Rupees. It won't translate directly into USD/CAD as the import duties etc are different, but there you have it.

The features I'm looking for:

DDR5
Z790 (I'm getting a i5-13600K and am not ruling out overclocking down the line)
Minimum 4 x USB 3.0 or better on the rear I/O
Clear CMOS button & BIOS Flashback button on the rear I/O
Dual BIOS (preferred, but can do without if it's something motherboard makers are simply no longer offering)
Some form of EZDebug LEDs
A power-on button on the board (preferred, but not mandatory)

I don't care much for RGB lighting, addressable fan headers & stuff like that. I don't mind them but lacking those features is not a deal breaker for me.

So, any good alternatives for the Tomahawk?

RONOTHAN## · August 14, 2023

56 minutes ago, Gessler555 said:

But lately I found out it doesn't have Dual BIOS

The cheapest boards that have dual BIOS are in the $400+ US range, and there's only maybe 20 boards total at most that have it on LGA 1700 (even less if you only look at Z790 boards) [EDIT: Just checked, it is 20 boards, these plus the ASRock Z690 Aqua and Aqua OC]. It is a really nice feature that should be more standard than it is, but motherboard manufacturers figure that BIOS Flashback is good enough for most situations where dual BIOS helps (I wouldn't say they're wrong, but there are still some situations where you want to use dual BIOS instead of BIOS Flashback). It's to the point that if you just want dual BIOS it's legitimately cheaper a lot of the time to just buy a second board to switch between. If you can find a deal on any of those boards, go for them as they are all pretty spectacular motherboards, but it's pretty rare to find them at a price that makes sense instead of something a bit more reasonable.

As for alternatives to the Tomahawk, I'd have to check pricing to see which ones are priced accordingly, but my usual go-tos are the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite and MSI Z690 Carbon/Force (same board, different color scheme) if you're willing to do BIOS Flashback. There are some other boards that are good, but those are in the US at least the ones that are generally the best value for LGA 1700 mid-high end.

Edited August 14, 2023 by RONOTHAN##

Mayday793 · August 14, 2023

This is the motherboard im currently using:
Z790 UD AC w/ DDR5-7600: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z790-UD-AC-rev-10#kf
Its missing Clear Cmos and Duel BIOS(but has BIOS flashback) and internal power on button. features but its a lot cheaper than most others, i got it for 285 CAD in march. its more like 250CAD now (like 200 USD).
It's a cheaper option for you if you dont really mind the extra features!