Colorful iGame Z790D5 Vulcan W V20
2024Type
MotherboardPrice
$499.99 USColorful iGame Z790D5 Vulcan W V20 - Unboxing & Close Up Inspection
The Colorful iGame Z790D5 VULCAN W V20 motherboard comes in a large cardboard package. The front is themed in black/silver which sticks to the Vulcan design language. The packaging has a very premium feeling to it which we will detail below.
The backside of the package lists the specifications and special features of the motherboard such as the 19+1+1 Phase DrMos Solution, iGame Design Armor, RGB Light Customization, strong IO & connectivity features and a lot more.
The unboxing experience is very nice with the inside tray lifting as you open the front two covers. The motherboard itself is held beneath two pieces of foam to prevent it from damage during shipping.
Inside the package is another box that contains the accessories and is located right below the box holder for the board itself. You get several cables, M.2 screws, Thermistors, a WIFI antenna colored in white and you also get a nice iGame screw kit.
With all the accessories done, it's time to put that box aside and take the motherboard out of its package.
The Colorful iGame Z790D5 VULCAN W V20 is a massive E-ATX motherboard that measures 305 x 277mm. The motherboard has a very futuristic tone and stands out on its own. Colorful also offers the same board in a black variant which also looks phenomenal.
The motherboard features the iGame Vulcan Thermal Armor design which offers full coverage and you can note that almost the entirety of the motherboard except the CPU socket and the memory slots are hidden beneath either heatsinks or plastic shrouds.
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. For its iGame series, you don't need to upgrade your BIOS as a prerequisite to installing a 14th-generation CPU as it already comes with the latest one out of the factory.
Next to the socket are four DDR5 DIMM slots that can support up to 192 GB of dual-channel (24/48 GB modules) memory.
These slots are rated to support XMP profiles up to 7800 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. Each slot is also combined with a reinforced design to make sure signal integrity remains good while keeping the slots durable for long-term usage. The full QVL list can be found here. While 7800 MT/s is listed, the actual QVL lists up to 7600 MT/s speeds.
The iGame Z790D5 VULCAN W V20 features a 19+1+1 (VCore/ VccGT/VccAUX) phase digital power delivery that utilizes the Renesas 229131 PWM controller and Renesas RAA22010540 (105A) stages for the VCore.
The Vcc GT MOSFET (DRPS) uses the Renesas ILS99360 (60A) chip.
The VRMs receive ample cooling from the Vulcan Thermal Armor heatsinks which feature an integrated thermal heatpipe to transfer heat across the two large blocks.
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.
Getting a closer look at the VRM heatsinks reveals an aluminum fin design on both heatsinks. Each heatsink has thermal pads located underneath for efficient transfer of heat. The motherboard also makes use of an 8-layer server-grade PCB and leverages Polymer capacitors.
The Vulcan Thermal Armor includes a protective backplate and a heatsink design that is enhanced for thermal efficiency. You can see the various heatsink fins, the thermal padding and the heatpipe in the heatsink teardown below:
Expansion slots include three PCI Express x16 (1 x Gen 5.0 x16/8 / 1x Gen 4.0 x4 / 1x Gen 4.0x4) and four M.2 slots.
- 1×PCIe 5.0 x16 slot (supports x16 mode or x8/x8 mode)
- 1×PCIe x16 slot (supporting PCIe 4.0 x4 specification)
- 1×PCIe 4.0 x4 slot
- (When the M.2_1 slot is using an M.2 hard drive, the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot will run at x8 mode)
The motherboard utilizes a full metallic slot and the last two PCIe connectors are hidden beneath a plastic cover which is easy to remove and connect back to the motherboard. It makes for a very neat design when the additional slots are not being utilized.
We will get to the main M.2 slot in a bit but the rest of the three slots feature a one-piece vulcan M.2 thermal armor which not only improves the looks of the motherboard but comes with single sided thermal pads and can support up to 2280 form factor storage devices. All three of these M.2 slots are rated at Gen4 x4 speeds.
Moving over to the primary M.2 slot, here we see the use of a large "Infinite Boundary" heatsink which adopts an aluminum-fin design. It has a white cover which features a magnetic connection and is super easy to remove and connect. This large heatsink is great for cooling Gen5 M.2 SSDs which it supports. Do note that the large heatsink might become an issue when connecting an air cooler since it takes up a large amount of space leading to clearance issues on certain CPU heatsinks.
- 4 M.2 slots and 6 SATA 6Gb/s hard disk interfaces, Support the creation of RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 disk arrays using SATA or M.2 NVMe hard disk devices (SATA_ 5 and SATA_ 6-interface does not support RAID disk arrays)
- M.2_1 slot: support 2242/2260/2280/22110 M 2 SSD (PCIe 5.0 x4, CPU channel)
- M.2_2 slot: support 2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SSD (PCIe 4.0 x4, PCH channel)
- M.2_3 slot: support 2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SSD (PCIe 4.0 x4, PCH channel)
- M.2_4 slot: support 2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SSD (PCIe 4.0 x4/SATA, PCH channel)
- (When the M.2_1 slot is using an M.2 hard drive, the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot will run at x8 mode)
The Z790 PCH is housed beneath a large heatsink with the Vulcan "X" logo etched over it which lights up with RGB.
The motherboard offers three RGB accent zones. First is the I/O cover which has the "Vulcan" logo, the second is the PCH which has the "iGame" and "X" logo and there's also a side-mounted RGB LED array which runs beneath the 24-pin ATX connector.
Storage options include four SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support 4 different storage devices at once. There are also 3 USB 3.2 front panel connectors (1 x Gen 2x2 + 2 x Gen 1). 2 USB 2.0 front panel connectors are also included.
Colorful uses a 7.1 CH HD audio design with the latest Realtek ALC1220 CODEC.
Colorful has a massive amount of fan headers which include 2 CPU fans, 4 system fans, and 3 and 3 cooling pumps while RGB support includes 3 5V 3-pin ARGB headers and a single 12V 4-pin RGB header. There are also some nice diagnostic features such as BCLK (+/-) adjustment buttons, LN2 / Slow Mode switches, Safe Boot Button, Demo Mode, and RGB Mode switches and the best part is that the 24-pin ATX connector along with the 6-pin header for PD is right-angled, making for neat cable management.
The full list of connectors on the motherboard is listed as follows.
- 2×USB 2.0 pins can expand 4 USB 2.0 Type-A interfaces
- 2×USB 3.2 Gen 1 pin can expand 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A interfaces
- 1×USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C slot can expand 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C interface (support PD3.0 @60W)
- 2×CPU fan pins
- 4×System fan pins
- 2×Water cooling pump pin
- 3×5V 3-pin ARGB pins
- 1×12V 4-pin RGB pin
- 1×Front audio pin
- 1×Front panel pin
- 1×BIOS burner pin
Colorful is using Intel's WiFi 6E "BE200" Module to power wireless connectivity and Bluetooth 5.3. In terms of Ethernet, there are two LAN ports with one powered by the 5GbE RTL8126 controller and the other powered by the 2.5 GbE RTL8125BG controller.
The motherboard comes with the following I/O connectors:
- 4×USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A interfaces
- 2×USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A interfaces
- 2×USB4 Type-C interfaces (Supports video output, up to 4K 60Hz resolution)
- 1×DP 1.4 interface, Supports up to 8K 60Hz resolution
- 1×HDMI 2.0 interface, Supports up to 4K 60Hz resolution
- 1×2.5G network interface
- 1×5G network interface
- 5×Audio interfaces
- 1×S/PDIF audio interface
- 2×Wi-Fi 7 antenna interfaces
- 1×BIOS update button
- 1×CMOS clearing key
Contents
You can find additional information about our hardware review process and ethics policy here.
