Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 that supports Intel’s 12th and 13th generation processors is equipped with 10+1+1 phase 105A power supply and can be used with I7. 2 x DDR5 DIMMs slots support 7000+(OC) MT/ s 64GB DDR5 memory, the most important thing is to add a total of three M2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD installation positions, and two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports on the rear, which can be said to be just right for additional expansion hubs for ITX PCs !
ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 Motherboard Specifications:
Dimensions: Mini-ITX 17 x 17cm
Processor support: Intel 12th / 13th Core i9/ i7/ i5/ i3, Pentium, Celeron
Processor pin: LGA1700
CPU power supply phase: 10+1+1 phase 105A SPS
Chipset: Intel Z790
BIOS：256Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS
Memory: 2x DDR5 DIMM, maximum capacity 64GB, DDR5 non-ECC 7000+(OC) MT/s
Memory certification: Intel XMP 3.0 (Extreme Memory Profile), AMD EXPO (EXTended Profiles for Overclocking)
Display output: HDMI 2.1, DP 1.4, 2x Intel Thunderbolt 4
Expansion slot: 1x PCIe 5.0 x16
Storage slots: 3x SATA3 6Gb/s, Hyper M2_1 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4, Hyper M2_2 2280 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s & PCIe Gen4 x4, Hyper M2_3 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4
Network: Killer E3100X (2.5Gb)
Wireless: 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E 2×2 (Killer 1675x), Bluetooth 5.3
Audio: Realtek ALC4082 7.1 channel
USB ports (front expansion): 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (supports two front USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports), 1x USB 2.0 (supports two front USB 2.0 ports)
USB ports (rear I/O): 2x USB4 Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, 6x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
RGB：1x ARGB 5v 3-Pin、1x RGB 12v 4-Pin
FAN：1x 4-Pin CPU Fan (1A-12W)、1x 4-Pin CPU/PUMP(2A-24W)、1x 4-Pin Chassis (1A-12W)
ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 motherboard unboxing
Intel’s upgrade strategy on this wave of 700 series motherboard chipsets is very unified, cutting half of PCIe 3.0 channels to increase the number of PCIe 4.0 channels, so when various brands launch Z790/B760 motherboard models, most of them can be compared with Z690 models. There are not many differences, but what is the difference between the Mini-ITX motherboard with more limited space and the Z690 model?
Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 is equipped with 10+1+ phase Dr. MOS power supply, and supports SPS (Smart Power Stage) technology, which can set and control the power supply more accurately and bring stronger overclocking performance. The rear I/O provides two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a total of three M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 expansion slots, PCIe 5.0 x16 metal graphics card slots and other specifications, so that this small motherboard has the potential for expansion. Great use of space.
∆ Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 belongs to ASRock’s Phantom Gaming series.
∆ There are product features and paper specifications on the back of the box.
Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 is the size of a Mini-ITX small motherboard. The size of 17 x 17cm is very suitable for installing a mini host, whether it is placed in the living room TV cabinet to play movies as an audio-visual player, or to live in A small e-sports PC is installed in the school dormitory, which does not take up space and can be taken home directly during long vacations. It is much more convenient for flexibility in different usage scenarios.
The mainboard itself does not have RGB lamp beads or light strips, so there is no lighting effect when it is powered on, except for the heat dissipation armor and heat conduction on the processor VRM power supply block and the first M.2 SSD installation position In addition, there is also a ㄇ-shaped heat sink on the PCB on the back of the mainboard with a heat conduction pad to help the chip components to dissipate heat.
∆ Mini-ITX’s Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 is very suitable for assembling Mini PC.
∆ There is also a ㄇ-shaped heat sink on the back with a thermal pad to help the VRM power supply back block dissipate heat.
The Z790 motherboard supports Intel’s 12th/13th generation Core i9/ i7/ i5/ i3, Pentium, and Celeron processors with LGA1700 pins, but the Z690 chipset can also support the 12th/13th generation processors, so it depends on the player If you want to buy the latest Z790, you should wait for the Z690 special price to pick up a bargain and install it.
∆ LGA 1700 processor mounting pins and VRM power block heat sink.
Next, let’s take a look at the various expansion slots of Z790 PG-ITX/TB4. The 8-Pin processor ATX_12V power supply slot is used in the upper left corner of the motherboard.
∆ ATX_12V single 8-Pin processor power supply socket on the upper left corner of the motherboard.
The gray ADDR_LED1 (5V-3Pin ARGB) slot and three fan 4-Pin power supply slots are set on the upper right corner of the motherboard. The slots can provide 1A (12W), 2A (24W), and 1A (12W) power supply respectively.
If there are players using integrated water cooling, it is recommended to install the water cooling PUMP in the CPU_FAN2/WP slot first, this slot will automatically run the PUMP in the water cooling at full speed, and the slot will also automatically detect the device PWM/DC power supply mode and switch automatically.
∆ ARGB and three 4-Pin power supply sockets, it is recommended to read the manual before installation to make it clearer.
Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 is equipped with dual-slot DDR5 DIMMs memory slots, supports DDR5 non-ECC, un-buffered memory installation, advertises that it can overclock to 7000+(OC) MT/s, but it still needs to be supported by memory QVL The list is the main one, which can be expanded up to 64GB, and the maximum capacity of a single memory stick is 32GB. It also supports Intel XMP 3.0 (Extreme Memory Profile) and AMD EXPO (EXTended Profiles for Overclocking) memory one-key overclocking technology certification.
At the same time, because DDR5 memory has a unique electronic structure, ASRock has specially provided a protection circuit for the DDR5 slot, so as to eliminate the risk of damage caused by installing or removing memory when the power is not turned off.
∆ Dual-slot DDR5 DIMM memory socket with single buckle, supports up to 64GB memory capacity expansion.
The right side of the mainboard is equipped with Post status checker, CMOS data clear button, mainboard 24-Pin power supply slot, 12V 4-Pin RGB, front system I/O slot, a USB 3.2 Gen1 slot (supports two front Built-in USB 3.2 Gen1 port), three SATA3 6Gb/s, buzzer slot, one front Type-C USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20Gb/s) slot.
∆ View of slots on the right side, one of the SATA and buzzer slots is hidden next to the memory slot.
∆ Post status checker can quickly check the motherboard self-check status.
∆ HD_AUDIO (left) and USB 2.0 (right) slots are set on the graphics card slot.
The only PCIe 5.0 x16 slot of Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 is directly connected through the processor channel. In order to cope with the increasingly heavy independent graphics card, ASRock specially adopts a metal reinforced SMT slot, so that the graphics card can be inserted directly. Better physical strength to prolong socket life.
∆ PCIe 5.0 x16 graphics card metal slot.
The Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 has a total of three Hyper M2 PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD expansion slots. Compared with the Z690 model, there is one more expansion installation position. The three M Eey slots all support PCIe Gen4x4 (64Gb/s) 2280 size SSDs Installation, the M.2_1 slot on the front of the motherboard is directly connected to the channel through the processor, and is equipped with a heat sink sandwiched between the upper and lower sides to help dissipate heat.
The other two expansion slots are located on the back of the motherboard, and are installed vertically and horizontally. The horizontal M2_2 slot not only supports PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD, but also supports early M.2 SATA SSD installation.
∆ The Hyper M2_1 socket directly connected to the CPU supports 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 SSD installation.
∆ Hyper M2_3 (vertical mounting position) and Hyper M2_2 (horizontal mounting position) are set on the back of the motherboard.
∆ The Hyper M2_1 socket is used with a heat sink and a thermal pad, and the small anti-drop screw is more convenient to install.
The flexible I/O baffle on the rear of the motherboard can be fine-tuned, so it has better installation compatibility with the case. The rear I/O interface provides HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, six USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (10 Gb/s), RJ-45 2.5G LAN wired network port, two USB4 Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports (40 Gbps), Wifi 6E antenna port, optical SPDIF digital audio output, Line Out Jack, Microphone Input Jack .
The rear I/O has been upgraded from four USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A and one USB 3.2 Gen1 of the Z690 to six USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, and an additional Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port has been added, but also removed The BIOS Flashback button is removed, and the CMOS data clear button is moved to the side of the memory slot.
The transmission speed of these two Thunderbolt 4 interfaces can reach 40Gbps, and a 4K display or an 8K display can be connected through a dedicated cable. At the same time, these two interfaces support PD 3.0 [email protected] (27W) / [email protected] (15W) fast charge function.
∆ A list of the rear I/O interface, which provides two Thunderbolt 4 interfaces for additional hub expansion or image output.
Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 power supply material/ 10+1+1 phase 105A SPS power supply
After looking at the expansion slots of the motherboard, we will show you the power supply materials and various small components under this motherboard. Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 has 10+1+1 phase 105A SPS Dr. MOS power supply, of which 10 phases are responsible for CPU Vcore (processor operating voltage), 1 phase is responsible for SOC (internal display), and the last phase is responsible for VCC AUX.
∆ Overview of mainboard PCB, equipped with 10+1+1 phase 105A SPS Dr.MOS power supply.
∆ PCB back side.
∆ Ten-phase RAA22010540 105A SPS, one-phase Renesas ISL99360 60A SPS.
∆ VCC AUX phase is Vishay SIC450 40A microBuck chip.
∆ PWM controller is RENESAS RAA229131.
∆ REALTEK 5452E is a Type-C power supply control chip (Power Delivery Controller).
∆ Killer E3100X 2.5G network chip.
∆ Intel JHL8540 Thunderbolt 4 controller.
∆ Realtek ALC4082 audio codec.
∆ Nuvoton NCT6686D (Super I/O) environmental control chip, on the right is the Z790 chipset.
∆ Various heat sinks on the motherboard, the M.2 SSD heat sink on the front also acts as a heat sink for the Z790 chipset.
∆ A heat pipe is embedded in the heat sink of the VRM power supply block, and it is equipped with a 3cm small fan to help dissipate heat.
Motherboard accessories include two velcro cable ties, two SATA cables, M.2 SSD fixing screws, PG keycaps and postcards, stickers, thermal paste for M.2 SSD, and WiFi antenna group.
∆ List of accessories contents.
∆ The angle of the Wifi antenna module cannot be adjusted, and it is fixed on the case or desktop by the adhesive foam at the bottom.
BIOS settings and various function menus
After the motherboard has passed the self-certification process, press F2 to enter the EZ MODE of the BIOS. Players can set basic functions in EZ MODE, such as XMP configuration files, boot order of hard disks, fan curve adjustment and so on.
∆ EZ MODE has basic functions that can be adjusted, and also includes hardware information monitoring.
Press F6 in the EZ MODE easy mode to switch to the advanced mode to adjust more detailed motherboard settings.
∆ Basic information can be viewed in the main menu of advanced mode, including BIOS version and processor information.
∆ Overclocking tools page.
∆ CPU settings can be adjusted for overclocking of the processor.
∆ Load XMP settings in memory settings to enable XMP 3.0 one-key overclocking function.
∆ Memory Information You can view the XMP and EXPO related setting files of the memory.
∆ Voltage parameter setting.
∆ Advanced menu.
∆ Advanced menu/CPU settings.
∆ Chipset settings.
∆ Thunderbolt related settings.
∆ Tool related options.
∆ Polychrome RGB in the BIOS can set the lighting effect of the RGB slot.
∆ Hardware monitoring function.
∆ The Fan tastic option at the bottom can synchronize the operation modes of all fan slots at once.
∆ Boot hard drive sequence.
Auto Driver Installer Driver Download/ PolyChrome RGB Software
In the past, after assembling a new machine, it was necessary to download various software and drivers one by one to make the desktop machine run normally and play its due performance. ASRock has launched the Auto Driver Installer function very intimately. After booting for the first time and entering the system desktop, an update prompt will pop up.
Users can update and download all the required drivers at one time through the Auto Driver Installer software, which reduces the troublesome process of searching and downloading one by one. Users can check which drivers they want to update. After the download and update is completed, Auto Driver Installer The software removes itself and does not persist in system storage.
∆ After entering the system for the first time, the Auto Driver Installer notification prompt will pop up.
∆ You can check which drivers you want to download.
Although the Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 itself has no lighting effects, players can connect other RGB fans and other devices through each of the 5V ARGB/ 12V RGB slots to light up their desktops. PolyChrome RGB software is used to control And set the lighting effects of the RGB and ARGB slots.
∆ ASRock PolyChrome RGB lighting control software.
∆ Can be synchronized with other gaming peripherals.
ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 motherboard performance test
This motherboard performance test uses ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 with Intel’s 13th generation i7-13700K processor with 8 P-Cores and 8 E-Cores totaling 16 cores and 24 threads. The memory is Using Micron Crucial DDR5 5600MT/s UDIMM 16GBx2 dual-channel memory kit, during the process of building a test platform for testing, except for opening the XMP 3.0 profile of the memory, the rest are using the default mode.
testing platform
Processor: Intel Core i7-13700K
Radiator: VALKYRIE C360-RGB
Motherboard: ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4
Memory: Micron Crucial DDR5 5600MT/s UDIMM 16GBx2
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition
Operating System: Windows 11 Home Edition 21H2
Power supply: SilverStone HELA 850R Platinum
First of all, CPU-Z checks the hardware information of this test platform. The processor Intel Core i7-13700K is code-named Raptor Lake, Intel-7 10nm process, 8 P-Core+8 E-Core cores, a total of 16 cores and 24 execution threads , the main board uses ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 to support PCI-E 5.0 channel, the memory uses DDR5 5600MT/s dual-channel capacity with a total capacity of 32GB, and ran the CPU-Z built-in test Version 17.01.64 at the same time, and the CPU single thread obtained 880.4 points, multi-threading is 12727.3 points.
∆ CPU-Z information overview and Version 17.01.64 built-in test results.
Then there are the common processor benchmarking software CINEBENCH R20 and R23, which are often used to evaluate the 3D rendering and drawing performance of the processor itself. This software is developed by MAXON based on Cinema 4D.
In the Release 20 version, the i7-13700K achieved multi-core 11326pts and single-core 808pts in the test, while the new version of R23 achieved multi-core 30867pts and single-core 2122pts.
∆ CINEBENCH Release 20。
∆ CINEBENCH R23。
AIDA64 memory and cache test This time, DDR5 5600MT/s 16GBx2 dual-channel memory was used to test the XMP 3.0 configuration file. The read speed was 86328 MB/s, the write speed was 77329 MB/s, and the copy speed was 77594 MB. /s, while the delay is 77.6 ns.
∆ AIDA64 memory and cache test.
3D Mark CPU Profile This test will test the performance of MAX, 16, 8, 4, 2, and 1 threads respectively, and the performance above 16 threads is more used for 3D rendering or professional audio-visual work. Currently, the mainstream Most of the DX12 game performance can refer to the scores of 8 threads, and the scores of 4 and 2 threads are related to the old games developed with DX9.
The i7-13700K’s maximum thread score is 12922 points, while the 8 threads and 4 threads that mainstream gamers can use for reference are 8549 and 4519 points respectively.
∆ 3D Mark CPU Profile。
In addition, the author also used 3D Mark Fire Strike and 3D Mark Time Spy, which are commonly used in game performance simulation tests, with NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti graphics card for testing. In Fire Strike, which simulates 1080p quality DX11 situational game simulation tests, 45759 In the Time Spy simulation test of DX12 situational game simulation with 1440p quality, a CPU score of 20542 was obtained.
∆ 3D Mark Fire Strike。
∆ 3D Mark Time Spy。
V-Ray 5 Benchmark has three different test scenarios, and the V-Ray project is tested for processor rendering performance. The i7-13700K test platform scored 20902 points in the test.
∆ V-Ray 5 Benchmark。
CrossMark has a total of 25 items, including work simulation load tests such as productivity, creative content work, and system responsiveness. The following three scores have different scoring standards and usage scenarios. Productivity includes file editing, spreadsheets, For web browsing, the second item of creativity (Creativity) includes photo editing, photo organization, and video editing, and the last item of response (Responsiveness) includes situations such as opening files, file response speed, and multitasking.
In the CrossMark test, it scored 2554 points overall, 2354 points in productivity, 2757 points in creativity, and 2591 points in response.
∆ CrossMark daily use scene test items.
PCMark 10 also simulates the test situation to obtain the overall performance of the computer. Commonly used basic function items include application startup, web browsing and video conferencing tests. The productivity item simulates the writing of documents and spreadsheets. The last item is the image Content creation includes professional tests such as photo editing, video editing, and rendering.
In this test, the commonly used basic functions have 10608 points, 12054 points for productivity, and 18942 points for video content creation.
∆ PCMark 10 test.
ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 Summary
In the Z790 chipset product line, ASRock has updated the Mini ITX size Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 small motherboard, 10+1+1 105A power supply with a 3cm VRM fan and heat pipe. This test uses an i7 13700K It can also provide sufficient power supply performance
The rear I/O of Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 exaggeratedly provides two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, which can provide users with more expansion options on ITX hosts with limited expansion space, which is very It is a small upgrade that meets the needs of use rather than a half-baked one. In addition, USB Type-A is upgraded to six USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, both in terms of quantity and transmission speed.
In addition to the improvement of USB, the expansion upgrade also adds an M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD expansion position on the back of the motherboard. The entire motherboard provides a total of three M.2 SSD slots for expansion. Z790 PG-ITX /TB4 is priced at NT$12,450, which is only 560 yuan lower than the price of the previous generation Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 in the channel. Unless the Z690 sold in the channel has a super discount, I recommend buying the new Z790 PG- ITX/TB4, has dual Thunderbolt 4, isn’t it good?
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