MSI PRO Z790-A WiFi ProSeries Motherboard (Supports 12th/13th Gen Intel Processors, LGA 1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, M.2, 2.5Gbps LAN, USB 3.2 Gen2, Wi-Fi 6E, ATX)

Pros:very fast board made a good home for my 13600KF . Boot times are very good.In comparing this to the MSI Z790 Tomahawk Max , that I had to return , it beats it hands downIn fact ANY of the so called " Z790 refresh " boards have no real reason to exist . Case in point Any of those boards that support a NVME 5.0 SSD do do by cutting Your graphics card down from 16x to 8x. So if You use ANY SSD in the M.2 PCIE 5.0 slot Your Graphics card will sufferI see that this Z790 Pro is pretty much Identical in bios options compared to the Z790 Tomahawk . So why pay more ?Fully supports all MY RGB lights and does it well , but no RGB on the board itselfCons:The board I got shipped with full support for 14th Gen CPUs BUT it shipped with a Bios version A.60 which is VERY buggy . In fact MSI took this version down due to problems. Be sure to have Bios version A7.0 . This is the best version according to many posts on the MSI forum . A6.0 will cause the OS to crash .Minor con, The bios boot screen and bios color scheme are all in black and white , no color at all.Oh and finally , No User manual , I had to print My own . MSI cheeped out , and makes You scan a QR code on Your phone. Come on MSI Really ? ( rolleyes)

PRICE: I purchased this board for 209.99 over Black Friday 2023. It wasn’t the cheapest I’ve seen this board, and it wasn’t the cheapest board I could find. I like MSI and Gigabyte boards, but I couldn’t find a Gigabyte of similar quality for a similar price. So I went with this board. In 2017 I paid $165 for a similar quality board, so I’m not going to cry over $40.BUILD: paired it with a 13700kf and 6000mhz RAM, and a gen 5 m.2 boot drive. No issues, everything was plug in play and worked like a charm. There are enough fan headers (I’m using 5) on the board for any normal situation. There is about a 3-5 second delay from the power button being pressed, to the bios splash screen coming up. After that startup is 3 seconds.DRIVER ISSUE: I downloaded the latest drivers for the board from MSI, and after my Windows install I found that I couldn’t connect to the internet. Not sure why the network driver was messed up, but luckily I had a laptop to download the network drivers. After the install the board worked like a charm.AESTHETICS: I find that as I get older, I care less and less about LED’s. The lack there of on this board was a plus, and I honestly really like the matte black and white finish. Some of the gaming MOBO versions have a lot of plastic and look tacky a little too tacky for my taste.FINAL THOUGHTS: I’d recommend this board if you’re looking for a 13700k or higher, plan on having multiple storage drives, and are looking for a productivity/gaming build. Don’t overspend on your MOBO.I strongly dislike needing multiple LED softwares. Every brand has their own version, and they rarely play nice together. MSI has an app center you can download, and control your MOBO, peripherals, and RAM LED’s. I’d much prefer having control in the bios, but it is what it is. I have Corsair LL fans. ICUE doesn’t sync with MSI mystic lighting so you just have to do your best to adjust lighting colors and effects. Again, I am starting to care less about LED’s, but I might enjoy them more if I could control them from one software hub. That’s more of a rant about software, than this MOBO. Other than that the bios is fairly easy to navigate, and the overclocking settings are easy to get to.

I've not really had issues with MSI boards. They are solid, feel solid, have heft and quality in the parts. Not tinsel town like other 'popular' brands.I've slapped an i7 14700k (got a bin before the disaster), some 6400 32gb ram, and a 4080 on this, and its been handling everything I throw at it. Not a single hiccup or glitch. BIOS is typical, has some MSI specifics, but thats fine.Onboard audio is always a joke, on every motherboard, so its really impossible to zing a star on that. Grab a SB-Z like a normal person and you won't suffer.Keep it clean, keep it cool. And it will last you.Best of all: no silly RGB nonsense!

I picked this up while it was on sale back in 2023. It's been a great motherboard for more than a year now.I've paired it with an I5 13600K, RTX 4070 TI Super and let me tell you, it's an absolute beast and the motherboard seals the deal.Here's what I like most:1. Lightning Fast USB C Port2. Built In WIFI and Bluetooth3. The Fast RAM Slots With XMP (Overclock)4. The Design Of The Board Itself5. Heatsink for the SSD / StorageIt was an ease to install inside my NXZT H5 Flow. Didn't really have any issues at all, and it's pretty straight forward if you know your basics.Overall great board, will be purchasing from MSI in the future.

4-3-24: Update, they sent replacement board and had all seals on box and packaged nice. Received the very next day even though it showed 2 day shipping, so that's awesome!! Opened up and looks clean and brand new; board, pins, contents, and packaging. I will update review again once installed and boot. Also noticed the clear film with blue stickers were on it (I didn’t notice these were missing on first board with bent pins until I looked at others reviews).4-2-24: Removed old motherboard, cpu, gpu, aio…only to find bent pins on this MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI. Plastic cover was in place so I suspected no issue, until I opened the latch. Now I have time lost and more having to wait on replacement board to see if it will be the exact same issue. If they make it right, I will change my review. Second issue buying pc parts off Amazon, fun stuff. Still have cpu sealed in box, so if you think people are bending the pins (like I had originally thought reading reviews), you’re wrong.