What A Way To END Z790 Series - ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 DARK HERO

In this unboxing, we'll deep dive into what makes the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 DARK HERO a standout choice for enthusiasts, gamers, and anyone seeking the ultimate motherboard for their PC build.
You can read our articles here: a2kmedia.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Affiliate disclosure: as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!
ROG MAXIMUS Z790 DARK HERO
Amazon: geni.us/C1hVn
Music from Artlist. Sign up and get 2 extra months for free: geni.us/a2k_artlist
Main Set:
Sit/Stand Ergonomic desk from Everdesk+
Supreme Chair from Ergotune
Our Gear

Main Camera
Amazon geni.us/ew4bW
Zoom lens:
Amazon: geni.us/po8arxf
Lazada: bit.ly/2HGJGnk
Wide angle lens:
Amazon: geni.us/GV1qFYY
Lazada: bit.ly/31Rlmq1
Mic
geni.us/mrkWeym
KZbin Management Tool - Tube Buddy
Sign up for free now! -www.tubebuddy.com/A2K
Follow us on Instagram:
/ a2kpage
Check out A2K blog: www.a2kmedia.net
#z790 #rogdarkhero #z790intelboard
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:19 - Wi-Fi 7
00:41 - 12, 13, 14 Gen Support
01:08 - First Impressions
01:37 - Accessories
02:46 - New Wi-Fi Antena
04:17 - Power Delivery
04:39 - DIMM Slots
05:04 - Power Design
05:22 - Memory Limits
05:43 - PCIe Lanes
07:31 - NVME and SSD Connections
07:52 - PCIe Connection Summary
08:22 - General Connections
09:15 - Back Panel I/O Ports
10:50 - Special Features
13:11 - Outro

[@jonathanvandyke248]

Thank you very much for the video! I have been looking for more indepth details about this board since it was announced. Liked and subscribed :).

[@A2KMedia]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the sub!

[@siyic1891]

Grate video! The most detailed close look to this mb so far! I’m really interested if it can really go up to XMP 8000, then it’s at the same level as Z790 APEX? (not encore)

[@toonnut1]

Brilliantly done thanks

[@noobass123]

It’s actually the first time I’m seeing the Dark Hero in the Intel chipset lineup!

[@Rastin_In_Creation]

hey A2K thx for ur helpful videos . and i have a question . is z790 dark hero better than hero or no ? or those mother boards are the same ?

[@professorgamer2084]

Very Detailed, Thanks, I was about to BUY this one , But I needed a 6 SATA ports and only Maximus Hero has 6 Sata ports, so I will be going with that MB

[@Alex-1776]

I am confused with the lanes. Would I be able to have a GPU, M.2 SSD, 10Gbit PCIE expansion card and a 20GB USB-C PCIE expansion card without any issues?

[@GanJosie]

Sir, how to use those two thunderbolt 4 as a display? Does it only can be use with Gen-K processor?

[@LivelysReport]

The real problem here is, the lack of PCIE lanes from the CPU.. and I find it pathetic with these new CPU's lacking the lanes.. we should not be fighting to get the connectivity we need because of a lack of PCIE lanes available from the CPU.. better to have more lanes available then not enough.. to force such things like a graphics card to use 8 of the 16 available on the graphics card.. I still have my older CPU, an Intel 4930k and it has lots of lanes.. something like 40 PCIE lanes.. 14900k maximum 20 PCIE lanes.. that is pathetic.. 4930k maximum 40 PCIE lanes.. that is SOLID.. what went wrong INTEL? And the 4930kk has 4 memory channels, the 14900k 2 memory channels..

[@user-xl6yo5dr6p]

What is memory channel?

[@PizzlesTechTime]

I'm not understanding why everywhere I looked up said don't worry about pcie Lanes you will have. I switched from threadripper and now I'm stuck at pcie 4.0 on a brand new system. Unless I want to install my nvme in slot 2. For now I have done this

[@rmorenberg]

is there a link you could provide to the manual?

[@Kinotohki]

TY!

[@T4NCUS]

So how can i maintain the x16 lanes for my 4090 while using the m.2 slot above it ? would using a gen 4 m.2 still cut the lanes in half ? I love the look of this board but if i cant use the x16 lanes for my 4090 then do i buy this board ? I've used hero boards before and love the look of them.

[@guruabyss]

Gotta remember that PCIe 5.0 X8 = PCIe 4.0 X16 /32GB/s. By installing the Gen 5 M.2 in the M.2_1 slot and activating Gen 5 in the mobo settings will only gimp your 4090 by 2%. Keep in mind that when a new GPU comes out that will use PCIe 5.0 you will have to remove your M.2 Gen 5 or turn off the gen 5 option in the MoBo thus reducing it's speed down to a Gen 4 but at least now you can run a PCIe 5.0 GPU (please correct me if I'm wrong about that).

[@T4NCUS]

ok awesome 2% isn't bad at all and tbh i don't even mind using gen 4 m.2@@guruabyss

[@Dolbic.]

so in conclusion (because im soon going to buy my parts) if i used SSD on gen5, and added 4090, there are no issues? @@T4NCUS

[@T4NCUS]

@@Dolbic. from what i have heard is the new z790 refresh boards you can not add any m.2 in the gen 5 slot to keep x16 lanes whether it be a gen 5, gen 4, gen 3 it will still take away 8 lanes from the gpu. ( i could be wrong ) but they have added gen4 m.2 slot that is connected by the cpu under the gen 5 slot that will work fine and you can keep your x16 lanes ( again please correct me if i am wrong anyone )

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

On my Z790 extreme x the documentation clearly states if you populated the gen 5 m.2 slot enabled as gen 5 then you get 4 lanes on it, and cut the x16 graphics card pci 5 slot in half to x8. Not sure how you get x16 on both gen 5 on intel chipsets. Please share that document. I physically tested this and with bifurcation on it cut my graphics card to x8. I ended up using 4 pci 4 m.2 slots at RAID 0 giving me 15k read/write up from 12k using a single gen 5 m.2 nvme. Then I didn’t use my gen 5 m.2 slot and kept x16 on my 4070. Works great. Note: all graphic cards currently can’t take advantage of x16 anyway so using both gen 5 slots and cutting the graphics card down to x8 still works fine.

[@HuntSD]

Hello, so I have a Gen 5 Crucial 2TB SSD (with a heatsink) and a Gen 4 4TB 990 Pro SSD from Samsung arriving today, I use this motherboard and was wondering on where I should properly place them so I dont potentially lose performance on my 4090?

[@cemsengul16]

Just don't plug it in the first NVME slot that is below the CPU. Sadly I made your same mistake. I am running my Gen 5 Crucial at Gen 4 speeds so my 4090 runs at full PCI bandwidth. We both purchased a Gen 5 drive for more money just to run them at gen 4 speeds since we went the Intel route.

[@ezimm81]

I was thinking about picking this board up but question regarding m.2. Gen 5 drive is a waste for me so if i get say a 990 pro for a boot drive that would go into the 2nd m.2 drive thats still connected to the cpu socket but is only a gen 4 slot and can still get the gpu at x16? Id then put a storage drive on one of the chipset slots or do you think its better to just get one big ssd and put it onto the cpu m.2 slot. I dont know if people still think its better to have a boot drive and seperate storage anymore or just use a big drive

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

Yes you will get x16 on the gpu. Even though graphics cards don’t use more than x8 currently. I did a raid 0 on 4 nvme ssds pci 4 on my gigabyte extreme x I get 15k read write much higher than a single gen 5 m.2. And I free up my cpu m.2 gen 5 slot giving my card x16. Works great.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

If it only has 20 PCIe lanes, then it is Cripple Ware. 300 to 400 watts of power just to play a game. That is more than the rest of my household.

[@nanomage]

Well, if one actually reads the latest bifurcation document from ASUS one learns that the Z790 refresh motherboards now supports one Gen 5 PCIE m.2 in slot 1 and will still maintain x16 for the graphics card in the first PCIE card slot. If you do this the second cpu bound m.2 slot and the second PCIE card slot will not have any lanes and will thus be non-functional. Given the above configuration this limits your maximum m.2 drives to 4, 1 cpu and 3 chipset connected, leaving slot 2 empty.) Also, if you absolutely have to have a card in the second slot you will again limit both to x8/x8 and again make m.2 slot 2 non-functional, at this stage one has to wonder why they ever assigned two m.2 slots to the CPU lanes to begin with given the common sharing limitations.

[@SneakyScally]

Hey, where did you read this?

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

On my Z790 extreme x the documentation clearly states if you populated the gen 5 m.2 slot enabled as gen 5 then you get 4 lanes on it, and cut the x16 graphics card pci 5 slot in half to x8. Not sure how you get x16 on both gen 5 on intel chipsets. Please share that document. I physically tested this and with bifurcation on it cut my graphics card to x8. I ended up using 4 pci 4 m.2 slots at RAID 0 giving me 15k read/write up from 12k using a single gen 5 m.2 nvme. Then I didn’t use my gen 5 m.2 slot and kept x16 on my 4070. Works great. Note: all graphic cards currently can’t take advantage of x16 anyway so using both gen 5 slots and cutting the graphics card down to x8 still works fine.

[@soumikff7636]

Is it compatible with Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB ?

[@AndreiHristow]

Can someone please explain to me the difference in the battery brand? Where does this difference come from and what is it due to? According to the manufacturer, the battery is KTS, but apparently not only

[@iipyro6202]

Do I need to hookup the 8pin pci cable beside the 24pin connector?

[@Ed3Nfr]

Thank you for the video. So it's a downgrade for the nvme lanes compared to the old z790 hero ? I have 2 nvme and a 4090. So I'll be not able to get the 100% performance with this board ? Thank you.

[@A2KMedia]

no worries, and no - its exactly the same. You can have two nvme connected one pcie gen 4 to CPU m.2 drive and one to chipset, just need to make sure to check the block diagram which port to use.

[@Ed3Nfr]

@@A2KMedia thank you for your answer. So if I plug the 4090 and two nvme on the pcie 4.0 my GPU will still have the X16 ? Am I correct ? Thank you 😊

[@A2KMedia]

yep, just ensure to plug it in after checking the ports to ensure you use the right ones

[@MaryJane-ly9ez]

I am buying this motherboard and i will be pairing it with a 7900xtx and a 12600k can’t wait to get everything set up

[@SamB-rk9qb]

Better use amd cpu , the card will benefit a lot from the resize bar Get 5800x3d or 7800x3d

[@MaryJane-ly9ez]

@@SamB-rk9qb True I changed my mind on the 12600k and will just wait on the 14th 14600k when it releases. Besides i am going for a creator/Gaming build and i wanted the intel cores for video production/blender work.

[@A2KMedia]

resize bar is supported on both platforms so not a problem

[@SamB-rk9qb]

@@A2KMedia thanks , then mb

[@gabrielbonham8142]

is this motherboard gen 14 acompatible ?

[@bobbyross7700]

Can someone help explain the m.2 thing to me. If I have a 3080, wd black 1tb sn850x and a Samsung 970 EVO SSD 1TB will I be ok? Also where would be best to place on motherboard?

[@gaming-masters-news]

WoW, Its Great Job You Did, For GCC Gamers Where to Buy ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 DARK HERO Motherboard in Dubai, UAE ?

[@TrayBent]

Hello how are you sir , I have a question about M.2 slots on this bored, I actually own this Dark Hero board and if I’m going to run a 4080 graphics card , I want to install 3 - 4 M.2 ssd . Mostly for extra storage is it a certain slots I should install the ssd slots besides in the GEn 5 slot up to ?

[@felixbro7652]

No the slots don’t matter. I’ve heard that the best thing to do is put your best SSD in the m.2-1 slot as it should always default through that, but I’m not sure on the validity of that. Just Stick em in and it’ll work

[@nexus268]

I’m thinking to buy this mother board along side the i9-14900K when the new RTX 50 graphic cards come out

[@PizzlesTechTime]

Yeah just don't get a pcie 5.0 nvme like I did. No I'm trying to choose what I need more

[@sinamon_stick_8079]

That’s funny because I just purchased this mobo with the same cpu you mentioned.

[@Filmmaker809]

So i take it supports 13th gen and 14th gen CPU's? So, if I am doing a new build with a i9 13900k and I have x3 NVME's can I use all those NVME's and the 4070ti at x16? I'm wondering if I should just buy the current Asus Rog Z790 Hero? Not sure if Dark Hero is better as it only has 4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports compared to 6 SATA ports on the original hero!

[@A2KMedia]

you can build the system as described in either one of the boards. I personally prefer this one for the look, but you probably could get better deal on the standard hero

[@Filmmaker809]

Thanks man. Love your videos! :)@@A2KMedia

[@ArianeQube]

Looking to build my gaming rig around the 14900K and I am looking for this board. Any idea when it will be available to buy?

[@A2KMedia]

looks like in next few weeks

[@ArianeQube]

@@A2KMedia Hi, and thanks for the video and the reply. One short question, I did not really understand your argument regarding the PCIe lanes. If I want to connect a 4090 and 2 nvme ssds (gen 4) , how can I connect them so the 4090 takes the maximum amount of lanes?

[@rmorenberg]

slots 2 , 3, 4 should be at nvme 4.0 speeds without compromising the graphics @16x@@ArianeQube

[@marcusoliger3639]

I'm looking to possibly purchase this board to replace my current z790 Asus Tuf board. I have a 4070, a i5 13600kf, and 4-1tb m.2 nvme drives. 2 are Crucial P3, one is a Seagate, and the final is a WD. I believe they're all gen 4s. Would I be fine to put the GPU in the top x16 slot and the drives in the slots below? I am worried bout bottlenecking. This was my first build, so im not sure what to look for.

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

On my Z790 extreme x the documentation clearly states if you populated the gen 5 m.2 slot enabled as gen 5 then you get 4 lanes on it, and cut the x16 graphics card pci 5 slot in half to x8. Not sure how you get x16 on both gen 5 on intel chipsets. Please share that document. I physically tested this and with bifurcation on it cut my graphics card to x8. I ended up using 4 pci 4 m.2 slots at RAID 0 giving me 15k read/write up from 12k using a single gen 5 m.2 nvme. Then I didn’t use my gen 5 m.2 slot and kept x16 on my 4070. Works great. Note: all graphic cards currently can’t take advantage of x16 anyway so using both gen 5 slots and cutting the graphics card down to x8 still works fine.

[@rmorenberg]

good video. any idea when it will be released?

[@A2KMedia]

Thanks! it should be out in coming weeks

[@rohancrawford2967]

In USA you can buy it now. Next week for most places at a guess

[@rmorenberg]

I just ordered it from asus usa@@rohancrawford2967

[@DJK827]

Ok so if someone could please help me I’m very confused with this I am on the verge of purchasing a very high end custom desktop from origin it would be my first one as I’m used to just buying mid grade laptops to play on. Anyways I was looking to get this mobo because it looked like the best but with a 4090 and gen 5 dominator ram and also gen 5 memory ssd if I’m not mistaken what it’s actually called. would this all be able to work together or is it going to be limited in power like how I’m seeing in these other comments on here? If some one could please help me out I’m new to all this I’d gladly appreciate it

[@fahim454]

14th gen will be using LGA 1700!

[@216edwin]

I wouldn't call it again 14 more like a refresh of 13

[@ademerdogan4790]

So ı have rtx 4090 and gen5 ssd in first slot. I get 8 lanes for gpu ?

[@NODongYo_withBRT]

12th, 13th, 14th are LGA 1700s.

[@kaanaslan_tr]

I'm trying to decide a motherboard to buy. I have 3 options but I don't know which one to get. Gigabyte Aorus Master X, MSI Ace Max, and this Maximus Dark Hero.

[@m-vendor]

Ace max or Dark hero if you have money. If not just get Master x. Not a big difference. Difference is that Asus and msi have better audio 😊.

[@kaanaslan_tr]

Thank you. I noticed the audio chip too. Also Gigabyte has 10gbit Lan port but is lacking of Thunderbolt ports. But I'm not sure I'll ever need both those features in a gaming PC :) Thank you. I don't have the ACE out yet in my country but I can get both the Master X or the Asus Dark Hero. @@m-vendor

[@Andrei_Hristow]

What would you recommend as a gpu and ssd configuration? ssd gen 5 and limited x8 performance or best ssd 4 generation and full potential of x16 slot g2 ?

[@A2KMedia]

I would go with standard gen 4 ssd as you won't see any difference yet and its way cheaper.

[@Andrei_Hristow]

@@A2KMedia I completely agree. In fact, if you look at the Samsung Magican and change to the performance mode, you'll be amazed

[@msaucedo7836]

I'm not overclocking but I can afford to buy it anyway because I like what it offers.

[@A2KMedia]

that is fair! would you mind sharing what those are? also what will you do on the pc?

[@drwhatley]

For me, not so much for what it offers but the aesthetics of it. I absolutely detest the "dot matrix" lighting style of the z690's, which was probably a result of lcd panels being hard to come by during COVID. For me, wifi 7 is a big selling point. Also looking at Gigabyte Aorus Master X.

[@msaucedo7836]

​@@A2KMediaFinally got the motherboard delivered. It's my first pc build so I will slowly get into over clocking and if temperatures because an issue I will watercool the system. Motherboard: Maximus Z790 Dark Hero GPU: ROG Strix RTX 4090oc CPU: i9-1390ks Storage: WD_Black SN850x RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64Gb Fans: 11x Uni Fans P28 Peerless Assassin 120se Case: Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO XL Monitor: ROG Swift PG27UQR PSU: MSI MEG Ai1300p

[@SuperMarioMC_rl]

Thanks for making this vid. The only thing i am not sure about is if i want to use a 4090 with a PCIe 5.0 NVME and another one with 4.0 would that work at the maximum speed?

[@A2KMedia]

That could have issues with bandwith. unfortinately we currently don't have pcie gen 5 drive to test in this set-up.

[@alpinestars-wm8rv]

Love this board! Definitely on my list for my upcoming build. It seems however I’m not alone in not understanding all this PCIE lane nonsense, lol. How would the following scenario play out? Gen5 M.2_1 slot empty, 4090 in GPU PCIE slot, then let’s say 3X Gen4 M.2’s (990 Pro) in bottom the slots? Any help on this would be appreciated!

[@CodeFisher]

@@alpinestars-wm8rvhave you found any information about this particular issue? I want to do the same and if I get the full speed out of the system

[@alpinestars-wm8rv]

@@CodeFisher not yet my man.. but in any case I’ve decided to get the Z790 Apex Encore instead, for better DDR5 high speed memory support.

[@guruabyss]

If I install the following: 1) Intel Core i9-13900KS 2) Kingston Technology Kingston Fury Beast RGB Black 128GB (4x32GB) 5600MT/s 3) Crucial T700 2TB Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD - Up to 12,400 MB/s (Installed into the M.2_1 slot) 4) WD_BLACK 4TB SN850X (X2 - Raid 1, installed into the M.2_2 and M.2_3 slots) 5) ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX™ 4090 OG OC Edition (because of the M.2_1 slot being used by a Gen 5 SSD, the PCIe 5.0 goes from X16 to X8). 6) ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero (I'm assuming the Dark Hero refresh wouldn't be worth it since I'm using a large mem kit). Besides the 2% hit to the 4090 performance will take because of the M.2_1 slot, is there any other downside to the hardware combo above where I'll run into issues?

[@johnnymetonymic]

I'd rather go with higher speeds than GB's on your RAM but other than that, it's a very solid build. Be careful with cooling. I just returned a be quiet case and my 420mm radiator because I couldn't find a case that fit the radiator and my ATX (dark hero) board for under $500. I ended up stuffing everything in my old case for now. I wanted all 140 fans but no one supports it.

[@alejandrososa3472]

Hey do you have to connect the second power connector to the dark hero? the one underneath the mainconectoer 6 way connector because I don't have it in and my cpu turns up without end in battlefield 2042 temperature fluctuations of 70 - 95 degrees with the game

[@cds5067]

Are you sure the 2 are correlated?

[@PizzlesTechTime]

Because the internet has such conflicting information I ended up buying a pcie 5.0 nvme I am setting up this build for the hopes of getting a 4090. Right now I have a 3080 will I be limited if I am only using 8 lanes?

[@anast2324]

Yes of course

[@PizzlesTechTime]

@@anast2324 I'm definitely hearing conflicting info. I heard even on a 4090 8X isn't losing much. Idk though. So far my 3080 is running perfectly. I really wanted to upgrade to 7900 XTX or 4090

[@VC-bz1ej]

Confused about the PCIE bottleneck If you were to use a Gen5 SSD on _1slot, a 4080 and a capture card(does this even matter?) Would there be performance lost? And would a capture card take away lanes too?

[@williammwangi4439]

Following

[@nicolo7598]

Yes, as far as I understand the Gen 5 m.2 uses the same PCIe lanes as the graphics card. That means you either use both together, and have the graphics card run at PCIe Gen 4 bandwidth, or you must put the Gen 5 m.2 in a Gen 4 slot. Adding a capture card alone will be fine if it's working at 4x PCIe and NONE of the m.2 slots are filled. To be very honest I think tech companies are really taking the piss with the current pricing of realistically old tech.

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

On my Z790 extreme x the documentation clearly states if you populated the gen 5 m.2 slot enabled as gen 5 then you get 4 lanes on it, and cut the x16 graphics card pci 5 slot in half to x8. Not sure how you get x16 on both gen 5 on intel chipsets. Please share that document. I physically tested this and with bifurcation on it cut my graphics card to x8. I ended up using 4 pci 4 m.2 slots at RAID 0 giving me 15k read/write up from 12k using a single gen 5 m.2 nvme. Then I didn’t use my gen 5 m.2 slot and kept x16 on my 4070. Works great. Note: all graphic cards currently can’t take advantage of x16 anyway so using both gen 5 slots and cutting the graphics card down to x8 still works fine. And with this motherboard and g skill 8200 ram I get 8000 m/t stable on 48gb 2 sticks. Using a core i9 14900k. Non integrated graphics. Loving this setup.

[@napoficial7123]

Will wait cause there will be new thingies at the end of 2024

[@tomquimby8669]

For me the only sensible way to use the Z790 boards is to go gen 4 m.2 and gen 5 16 gpu so save money and go gigabyte Elite x

[@Dolbic.]

I did not understood what he said about PCI gen 5, im not sure where is the complications if there are no GPUs in the market that support PCI gen 5 and all are still at Gen 4.

[@tomquimby8669]

@@Dolbic. It seems that if you put an m.2 PCI-e anything in the first PCI-e5 position the GPU socket reverts to x8 not x16. so to get x16 for your GPU you have to use one of the other M.2 pci-e 4 slots that come off the chipset. With the elite x motherboards the first M.2 position is gen 4 and the gpu gets the full x16

[@Dolbic.]

I see, so ill just buy a gen4 NVME like Samsung 990 pro, thanks for the tip!@@tomquimby8669

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

The only reason to leave the gen 5 m.2 slot alone is in case the new graphics cards go x16. Right now x8 is fine. No loss. I just did a raid 0 on 4 m.2 nvme with the 4 gen 4 slots and get 15k read write. Much higher than a single gen 5 m.2. And I keep my graphics card slot ready for x16. Funny thing is I built my son an amd 7950x3d and his supports and has 3 gen 5 m.2 slots and 2 gen 4. Amd chipsets have way more lanes available.

[@martinfodor2848]

Nice video, but also the mem OC marketing it’s a scam. This board are not capable of 8000MT:s. Barely I could achieve 7600 (very hard to achieve) stable. I have one of this and also an APEX OG. It’s a day and night between both. The hero doesn’t worth if you want it for some kind of OC. Instead I suggest to buy any Strix model and save some bucks. If you want a creator board, you’ll find a better portion. The apex OG or Encore is undoubtedly the best for men oc, despite the 14900 in average has a worst IMC in comparison with the KS. All this mobo refresh and even CPU don’t worth it.

[@wayne4575]

I've watched the video twice and I'm still confused. I'm first time builder, but I went top of the line, from what I can gather from this I should put my rtx 4090 in the top pcie gen 5 slot, but where should I put my 2 nvme drives that I got then. Also, if I'm not going to be using that top slot or other various m.2 slots, should I still remove the plastic thingies before operating the motherboard?

[@A2KMedia]

hey, just skip top slot and use slot 2 and 3. And no need to remove plastic as long as you don't have drive in there.

[@wayne4575]

thank you!@@A2KMedia

[@ArjyaDas2006]

One problem - can i use a gen 5 nvme ssd and an rtx 4090 without losing any performance in either?

[@ademerdogan4790]

Same question. This guy make me confuse.

[@ArjyaDas2006]

​@@ademerdogan4790 alright, so i researched a bit about this and yes, if you run in the above mentioned configuration, the RTX 4090 will run on pcie 4.0 x 8 instead of 4.0 x 16. However the performance loss is about 2-5%. So not that much of a bottleneck, in gaming only maybe a single digit fps difference in 4k.

[@toxic7689]

Question why can’t I connect to any network have it connected thru Ethernet but nothing is working

[@toxic7689]

Do I have to have the WiFi 7 antenna connected ?

[@itsSpiiCe]

so if i want maximum performance from my gpu im better off getting a gen 4 ssd like the 990 pro?

[@88Cougars2015]

did you get an answer?

[@itsSpiiCe]

@@88Cougars2015 no i didn’t

[@TheCashman007]

So, don't use the 1st m.2 slot ?

[@BlGGESTBROTHER]

it doesn't matter. Even if it throttles your gpu to x8 lanes you won't notice a difference.

[@TheCashman007]

okay ,Thank you for the info !@@BlGGESTBROTHER

[@EliasMelendez-pt4cc]

should i go with the Dark hero or Aorus Extreme-x if someone could help me pick and see which is better please help

[@cds5067]

Go xeon or go work more

[@cemsengul16]

Just built a new rig with this motherboard and can't boot with two G Skill Trident Z5 RGB ram sticks. I know the ram works because I used it in another computer. If I only insert one stick of ram I can boot into Windows or Bios. Can someone help me out? I am not trying to run 8000 mhz, I even have XMP disabled but can't POST if both sticks are in.

[@A2KMedia]

hey, ensure to update bios to latest and start with 1 stick first

[@guruabyss]

So all that's different from the Hero is Faster ram OCing and WiFi7?

[@69Heroic]

You can use next gen cpu which you won’t be able to in the hero

[@Rashimotosan]

​​​@@69HeroicYou can use 14th gen in the older boards. It's the same lga 1700 socket. And the highest end 14th gen matches a 13900 KS anyway which I have and works fine in a z790 hero. Asus just won't market it that way because they want everyone to buy the new boards.

[@guruabyss]

@@69Heroic How so? It's still LGA 1700 and everything on the Mobo is the same minus faster ram and WiFi 7.

[@alialbeloshi5425]

Wen need bios update for evga z790 kingpin to support 14th gen intel

[@Decki777]

It is much better to buy ASRock z790 taichi lite because it has better features for mid range price if you want best ddr5 support it's better to buy new Gigabyte z790 X series boards they can run over 8000mhz ddr5 stable

[@user-fy4bs3xt2p]

Hahaha what? Asrock is garbage and doesn't come close to the quality of this board. Maximus has always been rated the top of the line boards hands down. Do some research

[@agrailag]

@@user-fy4bs3xt2p what taichi doesn't have, that you call its "garbage"? For half price of this, it looks really nice

[@jonathanvandyke248]

Any word on the release date for this board?

[@A2KMedia]

We don't know at the moment but it should be announced soon

[@Veronicax1990]

they put it in Newegg will released at: 2023/10/9 which mean after 2 days at Monday :)

[@Rashimotosan]

Newegg has them for preorder now with a release day of 10/9

[@jonathanvandyke248]

Thank you very much for the info!

[@Rashimotosan]

May i suggest putting the word "Asus" in the title and keywords of your video? I found this video looking for actual presale of boards but i was at work so wanted to wait till I got home to watch it. Typing in Asus z790 dark hero doesn't pull your video up. I had to specifically type Rog in first and not many people will type in "Rog z790 motherboard." Considering you're the only one with hands on it outside of a convention from a couple months ago, you could really up your views this way.

[@A2KMedia]

Thank you for your suggestion. We have now updated the title. Sometimes algorithm just doesn't want to show relevant search results even when the keywords match. But let's hope it will understand the relevance better now. Thank you once again!

[@Rashimotosan]

​@@A2KMediathank you for the review! I saw this board was up on presale at newegg yesterday and was trying to find info to see if I wanted to bite the bullet. I decided to from this video.

[@A2KMedia]

Cool! are you getting it in the end? :)

[@Rashimotosan]

​​@@A2KMediaI am! Pre-ordered it from Newegg last night. It's coming out Monday supposedly. I had a regular z790 hero that died on me early and Asus sent me a refurbished board through RMA in terrible condition. I have a 4090/ 13900KS and supposedly this board will have an AI overclocking feature so hoping the small bump in performance makes this thing work a bit better with my components. Also the more blacked-out theme works for my PC which is Darth Vader-themed lol FYI I think the Asus thing worked. I was just searching to see if anything else popped up in Google and now your video populates up top for this board. Thanks again for the review!

[@Rashimotosan]

Actually I had the feature name wrong. It was "differential sensing" but either way hope it works better lol

[@mark-ze4en]

i WANT TO USE THIS BOARD FOR AUDIO PRODUCTION ,, WAS WONDERING IF THE dARK hERO CAN BE VOLTAGE CONTOLLED AND SET TO THE MOST STABLE SETTING FOR THE I7-14700K?

[@rmorenberg]

can I use the first m.2 slot with a pcie gen 4 and still get x16 on my video card?

[@A2KMedia]

No, you should use m.2_2 slot for that, then it will work well

[@rmorenberg]

thats what I thought . thank you for the clarification. I went to the website and could not find a link to the user manual@@A2KMedia

[@Rashimotosan]

​@@rmorenbergthey haven't released a manual.likely with the product.

[@rmorenberg]

I did order the MB from ASUS and they don't even have a support link on the webpage for drivers or bios either. tracking says my MB will be delivered Monday. I am waiting for the CPU as I want a 14700K. I did order dominator titanium ram. I am taking my 4090 for this build from an older system I have.@@Rashimotosan

[@RealStuntPanda]

Man, $545 for the top of the line, soon to be extinct, 1700 socket motherboards. I've spent a LOT of money on motherboards in the past, I think the most was almost $1,000. I have no idea where that motherboard is since it was obsolete two years later.

[@AdamOutlaw87]

Good points... i must say in the pc world everything is outdated two weeks after you buy it and there is no end to the madness of being a pc guy its all just 1 big money hellhole

[@ZackSNetwork]

@@AdamOutlaw87You guys are both wrong as hell. PC hardware does not come out every 2 weeks. Try every year or 2. Even then that doesn’t make older hardware obsolete and useless. PC’s are beyond more affordable than in the past.

[@AdamOutlaw87]

@@ZackSNetwork there is a new motherboard constantly and new fans and new radiators and cases along with new cpu's so what are you talking about other then GPU's im confused how im wrong

[@harryhanz1690]

@adam45899 Are you buying a new cpu, motherboard and/or GPU every few weeks or months, or do you keep your setup going for a few years before moving up?

[@AdamOutlaw87]

@@harryhanz1690 i build pc's daily and its why i see so many new pc components coming out frequently

[@zaselimgamingvideos6881]

Can i use 4xgen4 m.2 drives with rtx 4090 100% performance and sata expansion card (for 2xSSDs and 7 HDDs) on the 2nd pci-e slot on this board or rog strix z790 e-gaming II? I already have rtx 4090 and I will be upgrading to i9 14900k in couple of months and I am looking at Dark Hero, E-Gaming 2 and MSI MEG Z790 ACE MAX. I wanted to use 5 m.2 drives which is the reason i am looking at the boards with 5 m.2 slots but i can live with not using the top (gen5) m.2 slot as long as i can at least use the other 4 slots and my sata expansion card for other 9 drives (2 sata ssds and 7 hdds) without loing performance on my rtx 4090. I mean what is the point of having 4 to 5 m.2 slots when you can't use them without losing gpu performance.

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

On my Z790 extreme x with core i9 14900k the documentation clearly states if you populated the gen 5 m.2 slot enabled as gen 5 then you get 4 lanes on it, and cut the x16 graphics card pci 5 slot in half to x8. I physically tested this and with bifurcation on it cut my graphics card to x8. I ended up using 4 pci 4 m.2 slots at RAID 0 giving me 15k read/write up from 12k using a single gen 5 m.2 nvme. Then I didn’t use my gen 5 m.2 slot and kept x16 on my 4070. Works great. Note: all graphic cards currently can’t take advantage of x16 anyway so using both gen 5 slots and cutting the graphics card down to x8 still works fine.

[@PizzlesTechTime]

​@@MichaelBrownPlusI'm in a similar situation but I don't even have a 4090. I have a 3080 do you think I should go nvme 5.0 on the SSD and see if my performance is limited? I just built the PC yesterday and I haven't installed Windows yet. I started to install it but I noticed an orange light blinking on the board. So I'm going to do some testing after work today

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

@@PizzlesTechTimeyes for sure there’s a video out there I saw last night that tested 4090 performance on pci 3, 4, and 5. And it was incredible to see even a small single digit performance drop even going down to pci 3. Running at x16 is similar to pci 4 at x8. Regardless use that first CPU lane if you have a pci 5 nvme and if you have a pci 4 nvme you can still run it in the first CPU lane at gen 5 it will just run at gen 4 speeds. At x4. And the 3080 will run at x8. Which is native for that card. So you won’t lose anything worth caring about. Being closer to the CPU improves latency. I would rather have faster m2 latency than losing 3 FPS. But again you won’t lose anything on the graphics card they are natively running at x8 anyway. Now maybe the next gen could run at gen 5 speeds and in that case I wouldn’t use that first gen 5 CPU pci lane. So go for it. Either throw the m2 in the first slot and just use x8 for graphics. You won’t lose a thing. Also what’s your bios post code? That will tell you a lot about why it’s not posting. Happy to help!

[@MichaelBrownPlus]

@@PizzlesTechTimeon my sons amd 7950x3d I got him a crucial T700 gen 5 nvme and running at gen 5 pci-e he’s getting 12,500mb/sec read write which is smoking for a single m.2. Got him the 2TB for $299. They aren’t cheap but they are fast. It took 4 1TB 8k read write nvme m.2 drives in RAID 0 on gen 4 pci-e to get me to 15k mb/sec read write. So one single gen 5 m.2 is fast. But they get hot. So make sure if you do get one get a good heat sink. Good luck !

[@splindizzle5413]

Did anyone manage to install this board in a case ? I`m trying to do so in Lian Li O11D Evo and the screw holes just dont align. The IO cannot be pushed any further

[@johnnymetonymic]

It's an ATX. If your case only supports E-ATX, it won't fit.

[@AndaDayEternity]

"8000 it is possible this is the board to do it" bro did you even test the 8000? Maybe the 1% of those boards can even get close to 8000 lol.

[@zuzu8790]

Добрый день! Кто может подсказать. Если я поставлю на ней 4090 в Pcie 5. И поставлю 2 диска Crucial T700 Gen5, первый в слот M.2 pcie 5, а второй в слот M.2 pcie 4. Упадет ли производительность видеокарты? (Процессор i9-14900k)

[@LBH91]

From what I've heard you can I only run one of those at a time so choose the pcie gen 5 crucial t700 there the best then buy g skill ddr5 48gb 7200 mts it's the sweet spot and when you set it all up make sure you enable the xmp 3.0 right when you start everything up and your board will be running at 7200mts oc everything else higher you have to manually insert the voltage numbers it will be the best high end outthere good luck glory to the heroes Slava ukraine

[@andysmith2258]

no motherboard with 4 dimm slots will do that speed so dont be telling people they can because they will be greatly let down

[@guruabyss]

If you have a PCIe Gen 4 GPU you won't be gimped if you have a Gen 5 M.2. Remember Gen 5 PCIe at 8 lanes is Gen 4 at 16 lanes.

[@A2KMedia]

That is not exactly right. You would be correct if GPU had PCIE gen 5. But since they only use PCIE gen 4, then you would end up with only 88 lanes at Gen4 which will be bottleneck for cards above 4060 or 4070. If you use 4080 or 4090 you will most likely be missing considerable amount of perfomance.

[@guruabyss]

@@A2KMedia So bottomline if you have a 4090 DONT install the Gen 5 M.2. Well that's a bummer because I was hoping I could add a 4090 + a Gen 5 M.2.Looks like I'll be returning the Gen 5 M.2 =-/

[@A2KMedia]

Based on the specs, that seems to be the problem here. To be fair gen 5 nvme makes no sense yet, there are not many games that utilise high speed drives so benefit is not significant. on a frip side if you really want it, then amd can support it. even two of them :)

[@nhbjhbbhbhgvb]

If I am not mistaken installing ANY ssd into the top nvme slot on this board will reduce your gpu lanes. Most people say it is not a significant performance loss and there is a lot of debate over this but it seems like the best option is to just use the bottom 2 nvme slots and leave the top one open to ensure you’re getting maximum 4090 performance.

[@A2KMedia]

yep that is exactly right

[@antong3987]

Intel Ark for 14000ks - PCI Express Configurations ‡ Up to 1x16+4, 2x8+4\ You obviously don't understand how PCIE bifurcation works and is implemented - - verified with actual testing.

[@blastingweevil2968]

for me wifi is the worst thing ever invented it is such a huge security weakness never will i use it i do not even use wireless controllers on consoles.. lol

[@anonymous4gent]

I cant take a motherboard seriously if you cant play CS Go on its screen.

[@antong3987]

Gen 5 GPU's at 8 lanes instead of 16 isn't materially significant. Down voted!

[@maxim4104]

Who the hell uses wifi?? Especially if you use the board for gaming, which I think most people do, then only LAN is an option. This is the first thing mentioned in every video😪

[@exotikification]

Asus ROG are not ashamed about themselves to sell that at this price. Basically less performance and quality than a Z390 designare or Gigabyte Aorus Master... no Jumbo frames, no Dp In, no audio FKP2, no 3:1 demux, no USB DAC, no phases doublers ? but 400$ more. This MB does no more no less than the regular ones so Don't be fooled : between PCI-E 3.0 and PCI-E 5.0 how many fps you gained ? 1 ? 3 ? please save your money...

[@Elioenai_Mota]

Whatever tool

[@markmcmillan6254]

You're paying a $200 premium just for looks. Look, I have a Ferrari and you don't. Burning excess cash shouldn't be a hobby.

[@youryella]

Copy and pasted from another video. Get a life

[@frankd.b.9233]

The 1800 Intel will be for sale within 7 months, why spend $800, effort wasted

[@privuspriv]

wast of money for m.2 pcie 5.0 x1 only ,instead of at least two ,this doesn't deserve such high amount of money. f asus