Z790 motherboard and ram for 13600K?

[Melodist]

Which motherboard would you recommend for running an Intel 13600k?

 

So far, these have been my personal choices:

 

- ASUS Prime Z790-A WIFI

- Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite AX

- MSI Tomahawk Z790 Wifi

 

I'm completely in the dark with DDR5 though, no idea what to get, what about these? G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6400 DIMM CL32-39-39-102

 

I gravitate towards the Gigabyte though I'm unsure of that GPU lock on the Gigabyte, looks it could conflict with a GPU backplate?

[RONOTHAN##]

12 minutes ago, Melodist said:

- ASUS Prime Z790-A WIFI

- Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite AX

- MSI Tomahawk Z790 Wifi

The Prime is the worst board of the bunch, though they're all decent enough. I'd probably go for the Elite, just because the feature set of that board works best for me (I like a ton of USB and the safe boot button is really handy), but the Tomahawk has its reasons to get. 

 

13 minutes ago, Melodist said:

I gravitate towards the Gigabyte though I'm unsure of that GPU lock on the Gigabyte, looks it could conflict with a GPU backplate?

What card are you using? I've used one of the boards with the similar mechanism (B650 Aorus Elite AX), and it didn't conflict whatsoever with the 7900 XTX Red Devil I used. I'd say it's pretty unlikely you'd get in a situation where it would conflict. 

 

14 minutes ago, Melodist said:

I'm completely in the dark with DDR5 though, no idea what to get, what about these? G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6400 DIMM CL32-39-39-102

Assuming that's the 2x16GB or 2x24GB kit, it should be fine. If it's the 2x32GB or 2x48GB kit, it might be a bit too hard on your IMC depending on how lucky you are. That kit isn't anything special, I wouldn't go for it over a say a TeamGroup or Kingston kit in the same speed bin if the price is lower, but I wouldn't avoid it either. 

[Melodist]

30 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The Prime is the worst board of the bunch, though they're all decent enough. I'd probably go for the Elite, just because the feature set of that board works best for me (I like a ton of USB and the safe boot button is really handy), but the Tomahawk has its reasons to get. 

I thought so about the Prime. What about the Tomahawk? Any advantages over the Elite? Yeah I'll skip the Prime A.

 

Don't know whether it's worth it to spend the 100 extra for the Aero G motherboard by Gigabyte, comes with 4 x gen M.2 and 1 x Gen 5 compared to 4 x gen 4 on the Elite.

 

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z790-AERO-G-rev-10#kf

 

30 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

What card are you using? I've used one of the boards with the similar mechanism (B650 Aorus Elite AX), and it didn't conflict whatsoever with the 7900 XTX Red Devil I used. I'd say it's pretty unlikely you'd get in a situation where it would conflict. 

Gainward 3070 Ti, will transition from my 9900K PC.

 

What's your current motherboard?

30 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Assuming that's the 2x16GB or 2x24GB kit, it should be fine. If it's the 2x32GB or 2x48GB kit, it might be a bit too hard on your IMC depending on how lucky you are. That kit isn't anything special, I wouldn't go for it over a say a TeamGroup or Kingston kit in the same speed bin if the price is lower, but I wouldn't avoid it either. 

Can you explain to me please why it would be hard on the IMC?

 

So same timings different brand?

 

I'm mainly using the PC for Avid's Pro Tools and Gaming.

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Don't know whether it's worth it to spend the 100 extra for the Aero G motherboard by Gigabyte, comes with 4 x gen M.2 and 1 x Gen 5 compared to 4 x gen 4 on the Elite.

I wouldn't due to the way they get the Gen 5 M.2 slot. In order to have one on Z790, you need to reduce the primary x16 slot down to just x8. That doesn't make a huge difference to performance, but it is measurably worse for no real benefit outside of some storage benchmarks. 

 

6 minutes ago, Melodist said:

What about the Tomahawk? Any advantages over the Elite?

Solid board, it's got an extra SATA port and a few extra fan headers at the expense of a few USB ports. In practice they're going to be basically identical and you should more shop based on looks and who's BIOS you prefer (personally I prefer Gigabyte's, but both are definitely usable). 

 

9 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Gainward 3070 Ti, will transition from my 9900K PC.

That should fit just fine, from what I can tell from photos that card has a thinner backplate than the Red Devil XTX I used with that same PCIe lever. 

 

10 minutes ago, Melodist said:

What's your current motherboard?

Z690 Unify-X. The board I mentioned with the Gigabyte tall PCIe release was the B650 Aorus Elite AX. 

 

11 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Can you explain to me please why it would be hard on the IMC?

Sure. The 2x16GB and 2x24GB kits are single rank, while the 2x32GB and 2x48GB kits are dual rank. As a general rule, more ranks is more difficult for the IMC to run at high speeds, and thus the lower capacity kits are capable of higher speeds than the higher capacity kits. 

 

13 minutes ago, Melodist said:

So same timings different brand?

Yeah, basically anything in that same speed bin (6400 CL32) will be practically identical. With DDR5 brand really doesn't matter all that much, most everything mildly fast will be using the same exact SK Hynix based memory ICs, the PCB doesn't seem to make a huge difference (the green PCB sticks clock just as well as the ones from G.Skill), and the PMIC with most higher speed kits should be Richtek across the board at this point. If you can save a bit of money by going with someone else, I would. 

[Melodist]

7 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I wouldn't due to the way they get the Gen 5 M.2 slot. In order to have one on Z790, you need to reduce the primary x16 slot down to just x8. That doesn't make a huge difference to performance, but it is measurably worse for no real benefit outside of some storage benchmarks. 

 

Solid board, it's got an extra SATA port and a few extra fan headers at the expense of a few USB ports. In practice they're going to be basically identical and you should more shop based on looks and who's BIOS you prefer (personally I prefer Gigabyte's, but both are definitely usable). 

 

That should fit just fine, from what I can tell from photos that card has a thinner backplate than the Red Devil XTX I used with that same PCIe lever. 

 

Z690 Unify-X. The board I mentioned with the Gigabyte tall PCIe release was the B650 Aorus Elite AX. 

 

Sure. The 2x16GB and 2x24GB kits are single rank, while the 2x32GB and 2x48GB kits are dual rank. As a general rule, more ranks is more difficult for the IMC to run at high speeds, and thus the lower capacity kits are capable of higher speeds than the higher capacity kits. 

 

Yeah, basically anything in that same speed bin (6400 CL32) will be practically identical. With DDR5 brand really doesn't matter all that much, most everything mildly fast will be using the same exact SK Hynix based memory ICs, the PCB doesn't seem to make a huge difference (the green PCB sticks clock just as well as the ones from G.Skill), and the PMIC with most higher speed kits should be Richtek across the board at this point. If you can save a bit of money by going with someone else, I would. 

So I can install all 4 x NVMe slots without losing any bandwidth from other ports? Except 2 x SATA I saw which is fine.

 

Would installing their Thunderbolt 4 expansion card disable something?

 

 

Which ram config would you recommend that I can later on still upgrade.

 

Or generally any specific combinations?

 

Here is the shop I'll usually shop from:

 

https://www.mindfactory.de/Hardware/Arbeitsspeicher+(RAM)/DDR5+Module.html

 

Will my Z790 also be compatible with the 14th Gen?

 

Thanks so much for helping me out, immensely appreciated!

[RONOTHAN##]

4 minutes ago, Melodist said:

So I can install all 4 x NVMe slots without losing any bandwidth from other ports?

Yeah, you should. 

 

5 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Would installing their Thunderbolt 4 expansion card disable something?

It shouldn't 

 

6 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Will my Z790 also be compatible with the 14th Gen?

It should, most Z690/Z790 boards already have a BIOS out that supports it. 

 

8 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Which ram config would you recommend that I can later on still upgrade.

 

Or generally any specific combinations?

 

Here is the shop I'll usually shop from:

 

https://www.mindfactory.de/Hardware/Arbeitsspeicher+(RAM)/DDR5+Module.html

It really depends on the capacity you need, though generally I'd recommend getting the cheapest kit in these speed bins:

2x16GB and 2x24GB: 6400 CL32

2x32GB and 2x48GB: 6000 CL30/32

 

Both should work just fine, plus they should all clock pretty high if you want to attempt memory overclocking in the future. 

These should be the kits that I'd get for each of these:

2x16GB non-RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/32GB-Patriot-VIPER-VENOM-DDR5-6400-DIMM-CL32-Dual-Kit_1483365.html

2x16GB RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/32GB--2x-16GB--G-Skill-Trident-Z5-RGB-schwarz-DDR5-6400-DIMM-CL32-39-39_1442695.html

2x32GB non-RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/64GB-G-Skill-Ripjaws-S5-schwarz-DDR5-6000-DIMM-CL30-Dual-Kit_1474165.html

2x32GB RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/64GB-G-Skill-Trident-Z5-RGB-silber-DDR5-6000-DIMM-CL30-Dual-Kit_1465672.html

 

As for 2x24GB and 2x48GB, they don't have any kits I'd recommend in stock, so unless you're willing to look somewhere else I'd probably avoid them. 

[Melodist]

34 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yeah, you should. 

 

It shouldn't 

 

It should, most Z690/Z790 boards already have a BIOS out that supports it. 

 

It really depends on the capacity you need, though generally I'd recommend getting the cheapest kit in these speed bins:

2x16GB and 2x24GB: 6400 CL32

2x32GB and 2x48GB: 6000 CL30/32

 

Both should work just fine, plus they should all clock pretty high if you want to attempt memory overclocking in the future. 

These should be the kits that I'd get for each of these:

2x16GB non-RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/32GB-Patriot-VIPER-VENOM-DDR5-6400-DIMM-CL32-Dual-Kit_1483365.html

2x16GB RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/32GB--2x-16GB--G-Skill-Trident-Z5-RGB-schwarz-DDR5-6400-DIMM-CL32-39-39_1442695.html

2x32GB non-RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/64GB-G-Skill-Ripjaws-S5-schwarz-DDR5-6000-DIMM-CL30-Dual-Kit_1474165.html

2x32GB RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/64GB-G-Skill-Trident-Z5-RGB-silber-DDR5-6000-DIMM-CL30-Dual-Kit_1465672.html

 

As for 2x24GB and 2x48GB, they don't have any kits I'd recommend in stock, so unless you're willing to look somewhere else I'd probably avoid them. 

So, given that z690 motherboards come with 14th gen CPU support, should I maybe go instead for a z690 motherboard? What would be the advantage for me with a Z790 motherboard?

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, Melodist said:

So, given that z690 motherboards come with 14th gen CPU support, should I maybe go instead for a z690 motherboard? What would be the advantage for me with a Z790 motherboard?

They technically have a bit more connectivity options (some of the Gen 3 lanes on Z690 are Gen 4 lanes on Z790) and you don't have to worry about a BIOS update. Otherwise sticking with Z690 isn't a bad idea. My go-to board recommendation has been the Z690 Carbon/Force as for whatever reason it's been on a ton of sales in most markets, and it's a very feature rich board for the price (Germany doesn't seem to have those sales though). I'm personally on Z690 with a 13th gen CPU, and I don't really have many complaints about it other than BIOS updates for things like 2x24GB support being a bit slower than the Z790 boards. 

 

For the most part though, the price of the Z790 board is the same/within $10 of the Z690 board, and at that point you might as well just get the Z790 board as for the most part it will be a little better. 

[Melodist]

20 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

They technically have a bit more connectivity options (some of the Gen 3 lanes on Z690 are Gen 4 lanes on Z790) and you don't have to worry about a BIOS update. Otherwise sticking with Z690 isn't a bad idea. My go-to board recommendation has been the Z690 Carbon/Force as for whatever reason it's been on a ton of sales in most markets, and it's a very feature rich board for the price (Germany doesn't seem to have those sales though). I'm personally on Z690 with a 13th gen CPU, and I don't really have many complaints about it other than BIOS updates for things like 2x24GB support being a bit slower than the Z790 boards. 

 

For the most part though, the price of the Z790 board is the same/within $10 of the Z690 board, and at that point you might as well just get the Z790 board as for the most part it will be a little better. 

So you think the Z790 Aorus Elite AX is a reliable choice?

 

Anything else below 300?

 

Thinking about the Tomahawk though, would be 30 bucks more for me. I think the Tomahawk has also more USB ports and cmos buttons?

[RONOTHAN##]

17 minutes ago, Melodist said:

So you think the Z790 Aorus Elite AX is a reliable choice?

Yeah, it is at the top of my list of boards I'd get if I was shopping where you were. 

 

17 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Anything else below 300?

There's a few others like the Gaming X AX, Z790-A Pro, and Z790 UD AC that I'd consider if you want to save a buck, but at the same time I wouldn't really want to run a 14900K on any of those boards. If your plan was to upgrade in the future to one of those very high current draw CPUs. 

 

It might be worth waiting for the new Z790 boards to release for 14th gen though, they should be a fair bit better than their current options in memory support and VRM quality for the price. 

[Melodist]

28 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yeah, it is at the top of my list of boards I'd get if I was shopping where you were. 

 

There's a few others like the Gaming X AX, Z790-A Pro, and Z790 UD AC that I'd consider if you want to save a buck, but at the same time I wouldn't really want to run a 14900K on any of those boards. If your plan was to upgrade in the future to one of those very high current draw CPUs. 

 

It might be worth waiting for the new Z790 boards to release for 14th gen though, they should be a fair bit better than their current options in memory support and VRM quality for the price. 

Yeah but they are probably be 100 bucks higher in price I'd assume, at least. If I'd upgrade, I'd probably rather go for the 14700K anyways, which the Elite AX should handle fine right?

 

I noticed though that the MSI has a lot more USB ports at the back than the Gigabyte, especially USB 3.2 Gen 2.

[RONOTHAN##]

27 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Yeah but they are probably be 100 bucks higher in price I'd assume, at least. If I'd upgrade, I'd probably rather go for the 14700K anyways, which the Elite AX should handle fine right?

The Elite AX should be fine with that. 

 

28 minutes ago, Melodist said:

I noticed though that the MSI has a lot more USB ports at the back than the Gigabyte, especially USB 3.2 Gen 2.

Yeah, it has more higher speed USB ports. If you just care about the raw Type A count like I do (most of my devices plugged into the back of my system are peripherals and other things things that don't need super high speeds), the Elite is still the better option, but if you need more speed the Tomahawk would be the better pick. 

[Ebony Falcon]

I went with the tomahawk based off people like Buildzoid saying the Msi pro a board was solid board for the price, the tomahawk just had a few more features, vrm is well cooled, phc chip is wel cooled, llc works very well, it’s just been a solid board for me, I can’t advise on the others as I haven’t used them but Msi get a thumbs up from me 

[Melodist]

They currently give 100 cashback on steam for buying an MSI motherboard

 

Man, should I get the Elite or the Tomahawk.

 

Which of the motherboards runs stabler and is better for future proofing (14th Gen), the Elite or Tomahawk?

[Ebony Falcon]

I went with the tomahawk based off people like Buildzoid saying the Msi pro a board was solid board for the price, the tomahawk just had a few more features, vrm is well cooled, phc chip is wel cooled, llc works very well, it’s just been a solid board for me, I can’t advise on the others as I haven’t used them but Msi get a thumbs up from me 

[Melodist]

4 hours ago, Ebony Falcon said:

I went with the tomahawk based off people like Buildzoid saying the Msi pro a board was solid board for the price, the tomahawk just had a few more features, vrm is well cooled, phc chip is wel cooled, llc works very well, it’s just been a solid board for me, I can’t advise on the others as I haven’t used them but Msi get a thumbs up from me 

Has anyone tested either VRM capabilities and temps? Somewhere a video or articles online?

 

How are the temps using the M.2 heatsinks with NVMe 4 drives, especially the top one?

 

Does the top one allow for a custom one as well? Would there be enough space?

[Ebony Falcon]

57 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Has anyone tested either VRM capabilities and temps? Somewhere a video or articles online?

 

How are the temps using the M.2 heatsinks with NVMe 4 drives, especially the top one?

 

Does the top one allow for a custom one as well? Would there be enough space?

Nighting went over 55c on the mobo pulling 195w overclocked on a 3 hour stress for me, but my case is a 4000d air flow with fans at 1400rpm in a 20c room so there’s plenty cooling it 

[Melodist]

Is there any of the Strix motherboards en par with the Gigabyte?

[Melodist]

21 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The Elite AX should be fine with that. 

 

Yeah, it has more higher speed USB ports. If you just care about the raw Type A count like I do (most of my devices plugged into the back of my system are peripherals and other things things that don't need super high speeds), the Elite is still the better option, but if you need more speed the Tomahawk would be the better pick. 

Don't hit me man but I got the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite. But your input really helped me to sift through the mountains of information! 10 fold appreciate, the most of love right at you

 

I got the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite for 370 actually which is only 100 bucks more and I get literally everything I wanted without spending 500+.

 

I hope I didn't make a bad choice lol.

[RONOTHAN##]

4 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Don't hit me man but I got the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite. But your input really helped me to sift through the mountains of information! 10 fold appreciate, the most of love right at you

 

I got the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite for 370 actually which is only 100 bucks more and I get literally everything I wanted without spending 500+.

 

I hope I didn't make a bad choice lol.

That is a solid choice, it's a little expensive but it's a very good motherboard. 

[Melodist]

27 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

That is a solid choice, it's a little expensive but it's a very good motherboard. 

To be honest, I was planning to get a TB4 card and an external sound card, and that would've been way more expensive than paying 370 for the board.

 

Asus Strix for example at 370 will get you nothing.

 

Was a good choice I think so too, it also seems to be new and already made for 14th Gen because it says next Gen ready!? It launched on the 13th of July and that was after manufacturers prepared BIOS' for the next Gen update.

 

 

Actually I looked at the motherboard you own and that would've been 30 bucks more expensive for me

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Actually I looked at the motherboard you own and that would've been 30 bucks more expensive for me

Yeah, just because I own the Unify-X doesn't mean I'd recommend it. My thoughts on it are complicated to say the least, and while I would buy it again I also bought it used for a really good price (same as what a Z790 Elite AX would have cost me) and wouldn't have paid the full price for it, especially now. 

[Melodist]

You know the funny thing is that I got stuck, not happy with what money gets me for Z790 and looked at some Z690 boards (even though I wanted something 14th compatible, are Z690 that as well?) including yours (Z690 Unify X), while watching Men in Black 3 and hearing

 

"My granddaddy always said: "If you got a problem you can't solve, it helps to get out of your head." Pie. It's good."

 

So I did that, had cake, checked out ASRock for no reason and found the motherboard I wanted to whole time for a good price lol.

[Melodist]

On 9/16/2023 at 4:12 AM, RONOTHAN## said:

RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/32GB-Patriot-VIPER-VENOM-DDR5-6400-DIMM-CL32-Dual-Kit_1483365.html

2x16GB RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/32GB--2x-16GB--G-Skill-Trident-Z5-RGB-schwarz-DDR5-6400-DIMM-CL32-39-39_1442695.html

2x32GB non-RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/64GB-G-Skill-Ripjaws-S5-schwarz-DDR5-6000-DIMM-CL30-Dual-Kit_1474165.html

2x32GB RGB: https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/64GB-G-Skill-Trident-Z5-RGB-silber-DDR5-6000-DIMM-CL30-Dual-Kit_1465672.html

 

As for 2x24GB and 2x48GB, they don't have any kits I'd recommend in stock, so unless you're willing to look somewhere else I'd probably avoid them. 

Which 48 Kit would you recommend? 

 

Also, would you go for the 6000 or 6400? Difference, benefits and downsides between them?

[RONOTHAN##]

2 hours ago, Melodist said:

even though I wanted something 14th compatible, are Z690 that as well?

Yeah, Z690 is compatible. The Unify-X I've got does already have a 14th gen compatible BIOS released, though admittedly it isn't great (the same thing happened with 13th gen though, where it took 2-3 months for it to actually get a usable BIOS revision). 

 

2 hours ago, Melodist said:

 

So I did that, had cake, checked out ASRock for no reason and found the motherboard I wanted to whole time for a good price lol.

They do make some great boards, my favorite board I've ever used is an ASRock board (Z170 OC Formula) and their B550/X570 and AM5 lineups are pretty spectacular, I'm just not the biggest fan of their LGA 1700 boards as they tend to be a bit on the expensive side for what you get. If you got a good deal on the Taichi Lite though, it should be perfectly fine. 

 

12 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Which 48 Kit would you recommend? 

 

I'd want one of the Hynix based kit, so something 6400 CL32 and higher speed with similar timings. This would be the cheapest kit that supports this speed (also this is the kit in my main system right now)

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/RV4Zxr/gskill-ripjaws-s5-48-gb-2-x-24-gb-ddr5-6400-cl32-memory-f5-6400j3239f24gx2-rs5k

 

14 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Also, would you go for the 6000 or 6400? Difference, benefits and downsides between them?

I'd go for 6400 with a single rank setup like you're going for, 6000 if you were aiming for more memory. Generally the main difference is the 6400 kits are a little harder on the memory controller, and with dual rank memory the bad CPUs will run into issues. Generally though if they're both CL30/32, they're going to be the exact same memory kit and you can set the clock speed and timings of one to the clock speed and timings of the other, so just getting whatever is cheapest isn't a bad idea.