ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme (Intel 1700)

You could use this for gaming, but why bother when an ASUS ROG STRIX Gaming is a fraction of the price and gives you a higher frame rate? This motherboard is built for usage levels that we didn’t even test it to. Dual PCIe 5.0 slots mean you can add dual workstation GPUs for some seriously punchy rendering performance. Or you could add PCIe 5.0 RAID cards with a plethora of the latest NVMe drives for gigabits per second storage options. That’s what the EXTREME is for.

We're a little amazed at how good the 13900K and 13600K perform. And a good processoe needs a good motherboard. Of course, the Extreme has it all, but starting at USD 999, the product is limited to only some wealthy people. That's an entirely different discussion though, as we need to test the hardware, performance and features. And in that regard, the Extreme has it all. Name something relevant for the platform, and it's there, from WIFI6e to 10 GigE jacks. The VRM design is more than you could ever wish or need, and the looks are just unique with a Live Dash and that wonderful-looking Matrix. The DNA of PCIe gen 4.0 and 5.0 breathes through the platform, offering you five NVMe M2 SSDs based on a blend of these connections, all heatsink cooled. The platform will also support the very fastest memories (think 7200 MHz - we just received a kit and will soon look at that also); more on that in a separate article though. Hardware wise this puppy is excellent; we had no stability issues, the WIFI6 on the 5 GHz band is blazing fast, the 2.5/10 GigE LAN jacks perform well, 105 A Power Stages and loads of connectivity in the form of M2, SATA and USB ad thunderbolt, yeah it's called extreme for a good reason. It is reasonable to assume that this motherboard is not intended for casual gamers or users but rather for well-off computer enthusiasts with an oversized spending pocket. This is not a realistic solution for a budget-conscious crowd. However each market has its niche crowd, and the Maximus Extreme falls precisely into that category. So as a chunk of hardware it's fantastic but value for money wise there will be far better deals available. In this respect, the motherboard will no doubt outperform the competition. This is the ideal product for people who live and breathe the ASUS ROG DNA and desire only that, the best.