ASRock Z790 LiveMixer

Right here’s one thing you don’t see day-after-day. A purple themed motherboard! Like it or detest it, the Asrock Z790 LiveMixer is actually consideration grabbing. Aside from a handful of restricted version or custom-made boards, I battle to think about a motherboard design that’s as distinctive as that of the Z790 LiveMixer. However does it provide greater than a (messy) coat of paint?

Although appears to be like are normally manner down the listing on the subject of motherboard examine packing containers, with this one, it is on the prime of the listing. You’d purchase it since you love the look. At $259 / £280 / AU$549, the board within reason priced, but it surely’s not entry stage. ASRock has a number of cheaper Z790 motherboards, after which there’s the upcoming launch of B760 boards too, so the LiveMixer has to supply greater than only a distinctive aesthetic.

Z790 could be thought-about an evolution of Z690. They typically function higher energy supply to assist Intel’s thirteenth Gen CPUs, they usually’re extra more likely to assist quicker reminiscence speeds. Although the reminiscence controller is on the CPU itself, Z790 boards function second-generation electrical designs, and the ideas and tips board makers discovered over the previous 18 months or so have been integrated into Z790 designs.

Other than that, the Z790 options an elevated PCIe 4.0 lane rely and assist for an extra USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 20Gbps port. This implies Z790 boards are capable of assist as much as 5 M.2 drives, or alternatively, motherboard producers can use the additional lanes for prime bandwidth controllers. Some boards embody Thunderbolt 4, USB4 or 10G LAN.

With that in thoughts, is the ASRock Z790 LiveMixer worthy of your hard-earned {dollars}?

It is okay, I am not going to say the appears to be like of the Z790 LiveMixer for a short time now. The board comes with 5 M.2 slots. The first PCIe 5.0 slot is cooled by a chunky purple heatsink (dammit, I couldn’t even go two sentences with out utilizing the phrase ‘purple’).  Truly, there are usually not one however two opposing main M.2 slots, one in all which helps PCIe 5.0 and the opposite PCIe 4.0. This lets you use one or the opposite whereas nonetheless making use of the first heatsink and permitting the principle PCIe slot to run at PCIe 5.0 x16 in the event you want it to. Good!

Two of the remaining three M.2 slots are cooled by one other (purple!) heatsink whereas the central one is uncooled. There are 4 SATA ports on your legacy drives.

The board comes with slightly splash of onboard RGB situated adjoining to the SATA ports. In order for you RGB to go together with your purple motherboard, you get one RGB header and three ARGB ones. The board comes with a complete of seven fan/pump headers, so you may deck out a system with numerous cooling with out being compelled to resort to exterior controllers.

The opposite attention-grabbing function is the inclusion of an embedded DisplayPort header. That is a rarity on a shopper motherboard. It is there to be used with ASRock’s facet panel 13.3-in IPS monitor. It is an attention-grabbing idea, and definitely appreciated by some customers, nonetheless it looks as if it required a largely pointless engineering effort and price that would have gone in the direction of Wi-Fi, which is actually a notable omission from the Z790 LiveMixer.

In an period of overpowered VRM designs, the Z790 LiveMixer is a little more grounded. That is to not say it’s going to battle. It nonetheless packs in 14+1+1 phases with 60a phases. Not everybody must shove 1500W by way of their CPU. It ran my Core i9 13900K take a look at CPU and not using a hitch. The heatsinks are fairly chunky, and had no situation dealing with the 13900K, remaining heat, however not sizzling to the contact. Meaning it gained’t break a sweat with another twelfth or thirteenth gen CPU you care to make use of with it.

With a reputation like LiveMixer, my first thought was that this was going to be some type of audio optimized board, however sadly, the board solely consists of fundamental ALC897 audio. Maybe ASRock assumes that patrons of this board will make use of the Extremely USB energy port, which goals to ship secure USB connection to units like exterior DACs.

The rear I/O is superb, although with the aforementioned obtrusive omission of Wi-Fi, which is unforgivable actually on a 2022/23 period board costing over $250. There’s an e-key slot for including one, however a USB dongle could be simply as efficient, leaving us questioning why ASRock would hassle to even embody it. 2.5G Realtek LAN is current as are DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 ports.

The board is full of USB ports, nonetheless, with 14 on the rear panel alone. There are inner headers for a single 3.2 Gen 2×2 port and as much as 4 Gen 1 and 4 2.0 ports. That is a lotta USB ports.

System Efficiency

Gaming Efficiency

As is nearly at all times the case, until there is a main downside, most boards with the identical CPU and chipset will carry out very equally to 1 one other, more often than not inside a margin of error, and that is once more the case right here.

A Z790 board with a 13900K and 32GB of DDR5 makes for the heart of a cracking gaming system, seemingly irrespective of the producer.

I’ve nearly deserted CPU overclocking as a degree of differentiation between boards. Even with a 360mm AIO, it isn’t onerous to run a Core i9 13900K as much as 100°C, which is far simpler to do and can stress a contemporary motherboard’s VRM. 

Reminiscence overclocking is a greater measuring stick. The LiveMixer was capable of run a set of G.Ability Trident Z5 at DDR5-6800 and it might probably presumably do extra however doing so requires IMC voltages past secure 24/7 ranges, no less than for this explicit 13900K pattern. A hypothetical Z790 Aqua is perhaps enlightening in that space, albeit at 5 occasions the value.

Total, the LiveMixer feels a bit extra polished than what I noticed with pre-release ASRock Z790 motherboards and BIOS.  That further couple of months appears to have paid off. Although admittedly I have never had time to actually delve into trivia of the BIOS, the excessive stage stuff works properly. It was a quick booting board too. 

The ASRock Z790 LiveMixer is among the extra uncommon boards I’ve examined. It isn’t simply the colour, which is a love or detest it affair. Get off the fence, Chris… I do not prefer it, although it is the paint drops and graffiti half I do not like. I do truly just like the purple itself. 

The inclusion of the eDP port is extremely uncommon but it surely additionally appears to have come at a value, with ASRock selecting a funds audio resolution and omitting Wi-Fi fully. However, if you would like a board with a great deal of USB ports, a versatile M.2 implementation and possibly most significantly, you’re keen on the design, it’s going to serve you properly.

The competitors on this value vary is hard although, and it’ll actually get more durable as soon as the higher B760 boards arrive to go up towards the LiveMixer. ASRock’s personal cheaper Z790 boards are properly value a glance, together with the Z790 Professional RS and PG Riptide. However, admittedly, they are not purple.

A pc motherboard is primarily about perform over kind. Whereas I perceive there’s a marketplace for such a look-heavy board, I really feel the omission of Wi-Fi and a budget audio resolution would steer me in the direction of another choice. That is to not say it is a poor product. Should you use LAN and a sound card or DAC, then by all means seize a Z790 LiveMixer. You understand it will be a speaking level for anybody trying into your case!