Biostar Z790-A Silver Motherboard Review – $200 US Mainstream Board

Biostar Z790-A Silver Motherboard - Unboxing & Close Up Inspection

The Biostar Z790-A Silver motherboard comes in a large cardboard package. The front is themed in silver and black. The front gives you a hint of the design language of this motherboard and while it lists down 12th & 13th Gen CPU support, the motherboard has received BIOS updates that allow 14th Gen CPU support too.

The backside of the package lists the specifications and special features of the motherboard such as PCIe 5.0, PCIe M.2 4.0, DDR5, 2.5Guard, Dr.MOS, and a Digital PWM design.

The motherboard itself is packaged in an anti-static wrap and held in a cardboard package which keeps it stable during shipping.

Underneath the motherboard, and container are where you will find a range of accessories that are bundled with the package.

Following is the full list of accessories in the package:

• 4 x SATA Cable
• 1 x I/O Shield
• 1 x DVD Driver
• 1 x User Manual

With all the accessories done, it's time to put that box aside and take the motherboard out of its package.

Biostar has just two motherboards within its Z790 lineup as the company focuses on budget and more mainstream products such as the B760 series. The Valkyrie is the top product while A-Silver serves the budget segment. As such, the design of this specific motherboard may feel a bit lacking but it's still very functional as a Z790 motherboard even if it doesn't have the looks of a Z790 board.

The Biostar Z790-A Silver motherboard comes in a black and silver color layout with a matte black PCB and a dual-tone silver/black heatsink design. The PCB also has hints of silver colors and it is an ATX design.

The board uses the LGA 1700 socket to support Intel Core processors. The socket is compatible with Intel's 14th, 13th & 12th Generation core family. The socket has a protective cover on top of it that points out the exclusivity with Raptor Lake 13th Gen & Alder Lake 12th Gen CPUs, refraining users from running older 11th and 10th generation CPUs as they won't fit in the socket at all and forcing them in the socket is only going to cause permanent damage to your motherboard.

Next to the socket are four DDR5 DIMM slots that can support up to 192 GB of dual-channel memory.

These slots are rated to support XMP profiles up to 7200 MT/s (OC Plus). Each slot is labeled, making it easier to install DIMMs in the proper orientation. DDR5 memory comes with a different latch position so forcing a DDR4 module into a DDR5 slot will cause permanent damage. You can find the full QVL list here.

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The Biostar Z790-A Silver motherboard features a 17-phase digital power delivery that utilizes the 90A SPS power stages (ISL99390) for both the Vcore and VccGT. The main PWM controller is a Renesas RAA 229131 PWM controller

For cooling the VRMs, Biostar has equipped the motherboard with two sets of heatsinks which are very basic with a smaller one covering the top portion and a larger over covering the VRMs on the side and also extending over the I/O ports.

The CPU is supplied power through an 8+8 pin power connector configuration. This will feed the CPU with up to 300 Watts of power. The Intel 14th 13th & 12th Gen Unlocked CPUs are very power-hungry with the maximum turbo power rated at 253W for the Core i9-14900K and more if you are planning to overclock these chips.

Expansion slots include two PCI Express x16 (1 x Gen 5.0 x16 / 1x Gen 4.0 x4 / 1x Gen 3.0x1), two PCIe 3.0 x1 and three M.2 slots.

The top-most PCIe 5.0 x16 slot operates at x16 full-mode or x8/x8 mode. It uses a metallic shielding known as Iron Slot Protection which reinforces the slot to prevent it from bending or strain when using a high-end graphics card.

The Z790-A Silver comes packed with three M.2 slots, all of which are rated at Gen4 x4. There's no lane splitting to enable a Gen5 x4 slot and it makes sense since those drives are aimed at high-end enthusiasts while this motherboard caters towards budget audiences. The topmost M.2 slot is also covered by a heatsink.

CPU:

• 1 x M.2 (M Key) Socket (M2M_CPU) / Supports PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gb/s) - NVMe SSD

Chipset:

• 1 x M.2 (M Key) Socket (M2M_SB1): Supports PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gb/s) - NVMe SSD
• 1 x M.2 (M Key) Socket (M2_SB2): Supports PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gb/s) - NVMe/ AHCI SSD & SATA lll (6Gb/s) SSD

An M.2 WiFi Key-E slot can be found under the M.2 heatsink too. Now while the motherboard does not come with an M.2 WIFI card, Biostar does provide users the extension antennas to attach one though it is situated on the same placement as the top M.2 SSD so attaching a new SSD or WIFI module means that you will need to remove the heatsink. But devices can be held under the same M.2 screw and the M.2 heatsink comes attached with a thermal pad.

The Z790 PCH is housed under a very tiny heatsink with a Biostar label and is attached using two push-and-pull screws.

While there's no LED lighting on the Biostar Z790-A motherboard, it does come with a trio of LED headers that support all the latest RGB Sync software from various brands.

Storage options include six SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support 6 different storage devices at once. There are also 3 USB 3.2 front panel connectors (1 x Gen 2x2 Type-C + 4 x Gen 1). 2 USB 2.0 (4 USB 2.0 ports) front panel connectors are also included.

Biostar uses the Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec to drive the 7.1 channel HD Audio on the board. The audio components are separated on their own PCB segment and support Impedance sensing on the rear-out port.

The DEBUG LED is missing on the motherboard which is a bit of a disappointment, to say the least. I did check up other $200 US options in the Z790 category and this seems to be a thing across all of those models too.

The full list of connectors on the motherboard is listed as follows.

• 6x SATA III Connector (6Gb/s)
• 1x M.2 (E Key) Socket: Supports 2230 type Wi-Fi & Bluetooth module and Intel CNVi
• 2 x USB 2.0 Header (each header supports 2 USB 2.0 ports)
• 1 x USB 3.2 (Gen1) Header (each header supports 2 USB 3.2 (Gen1) ports)
• 1 x USB 3.2 (Gen2) Type C Header.
• 1 x 4-pin Power Connector
• 1 x 8-pin Power Connector
• 1 x 24-pin Power Connector
• 1 x CPU Fan Connector
• 1 x CPU water cooling connector (CPU_OPT)
• 4 x System Fan Connectors
• 1 x Front Panel Header
• 1 x Front Audio Header
• 1 x Internal Stereo Speaker Header
• 1 x Clear CMOS Header
• 1 x COM Port Header
• 1 x TPM Header
• 1 x Thunderbolt Header
• 2 x LED Header (5V)
• 1 x LED Header (12V)
• * M.2 (E key) Wi-Fi card is not provided

Networking on the Biostar Z790-A Silver motherboard includes a single Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE LAN connector.

The motherboard comes with the following I/O connectors:

• 2 x WIFI Antenna Port
• 1 x HDMI Port (HDMI2.1)
• 1 x DP Port (DP1.2)
• 1 x USB 3.2 (Gen2) Type-C Port
• 5 x USB 3.2 (Gen2) Port
• 2 x USB 2.0 port
• 1 x LAN port
• 3 x Audio Jack
• 1 x SMART BIOS UPDATE Button
• 1 x SMART BIOS USB Port

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