Review: NZXT N7 Z790

Two NZXT or nothing, that’s how we proposed you the unboxing of the two cards received directly from NZXT France. Indeed, a few days ago, we received a copy of the N7 Z790 and a copy of the N7 B650E. There will be something for everyone with one model based on the Intel Z790 chipset and the second on the AMD B650E chipset.

You will see that the dress code used by NZXT varies very little and that visually, apart from the socket, the cards are almost identical. Let’s start today with the NZXT N7 Z790 motherboard test and see you early next week for the NZXT N7 B650E test.

Thanks to NZXT for making these two samples available. We will probably use one of these two cards to build a step by step configuration with you in the coming weeks. You will just have to choose between the Intel or AMD model.
[nextpage title=”NZTX N7 Z790:”]

The bundle:

A little tour of the NZXT N7 Z790 bundle to see if it benefits from “special accessories”. Overall, we find a bundle reduced to its simplest expression with the two traditional SATA cables, the Wi-Fi antenna, the quick installation guide for the motherboard and two screws for SSD. Is that all? Yes, nothing more but this is a usual thing at NZXT since the brand is content with a very light bundle.

Now when we see its price of $299, we could at least expect a USB key with the various drivers even if they are available directly on the manufacturer’s page.

Architecture:

The NZXT N7 Z790 is architected around Intel’s new Z790 chipset, this motherboard retains the previous generation socket with LGA-1700 since the processor has grown in size since the Rocket Lakes. As a reminder, we reviewed the N7 Z690 version. The Z790 chipset supports PCIe 5.0 offering higher storage performance than the previous generation as well as DDR5 support.

The dimensions of the board are 305 mm x 244 mm, which corresponds to the ATX format. The dominant colors on the PCB are white and black, reinforced by the white steel casing. The design is quite neutral but it is a will of NZXT to take the design code of its case range. As a reminder, two colors are available: white and black. Finally, you should know that the card has no RGB system but several connectors compatible with NZXT components. These are directly implanted on the PCB.

The different heat sinks :

Let’s start the tour of the owner with the radiators, of which there are three!
First of all, the two radiators located on the top of the motherboard and which cover the power supply stage. These two radiators are connected together by a screw, they do not have heat pipes and are in direct contact with the mosfets via a thermal pad. We are here on a completely passive system.

The third heatsink, which covers the chipset, is hidden under the metal cover that covers more than half of the PCB. The area of the metal cover where the heatsink is located is perforated to allow for easier heat removal.

Three M.2 SSD slots:

While we’re on the subject of this fairing, three areas can be removed just by unclipping them to access the three SSD slots. They are held in place by two magnets except for the slot under the socket which will require the use of a Phillips screwdriver.

This NZXT N7 Z790 has three slots to accommodate M.2 SSDs: a 2242/2260/2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4 mode), a 2242/2260/2280/22110 (PCIe 4.0 x4 mode) and finally a 2242/2260/2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4 & SATA mode).

The socket and PCIe :

The space around the socket is pretty clear. Here, only the mounting holes of the LGA-1700 socket are available. This N7 Z790 can accommodate a maximum of four DDR5 memory modules. It supports dual channel memory kits up to 5000 MHz (OC) and for a maximum quantity of 128 GB. We hope to go much higher than 5000 MHz.

There are no less than five PCIe ports. The first is a PCIe 5.0 in 16x. Then there are two PCIe 4.0 x4 and two PCIe 3.0 x1. As we said earlier, there are four NZXT RGB connectors and two ARGB connectors in 5v on the PCB.

[nextpage title=”The PCB and connectors: “]

The tools for clocking:

Let’s start with the elements inserted on the PCB which can be interesting tools for overclockers. Of course, they will be few since this board is not intended for overclocking.

• The power button: allows you to turn on the motherboard.
• The reset button: allows to restart the motherboard in case of failure.
• The CMOS CLR: allows to erase the BIOS parameters in order to return to the default ones.
• The Q LED : 4 LEDs (CPU – DRAM – VGA – BOOT) which allow to diagnose the errors during the boot of the board. If one of them stays on, it means that the corresponding component has a problem.

Connectors :

The rear panel has the following components. First of all the Clear CMOS as well as the antenna holders for the dual band Wi-Fi. The card has an HDMI port, 2 USB 2.0, a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, two USB 3.2 Gen 2, three USB 3.2 Gen 1, a LAN port (RJ45), 1 Optical S/PDIF Out and the various audio outputs. Finally, the audio part is provided by a Realtek ALC1220 chip.

To power all this little world, the card has a 24-pin connector and an 8-pin + 4-pin connector that are located next to the power supply stages.

The PCB:

The PCB design of this NZXT N7 Z790 model is still most likely outsourced by ASRock. We will research for the release of the article which model it refers to. Now, as we have always said, this is a very good choice considering the good reputation of ASRock.

The motherboard is based on a 16 + 1 +2(vcore/vccgt/vccin) power supply. The CPU part consists of 16 phases with a RAA229131 controller with actually 8 phases placed in parallel.

The 16 mosfets are all 60A ISL99360. These are the same mosfets used by ASRock on some of its models like the Steel Legend. The power stage is therefore strong enough to accommodate an Intel Core i9-13900K without any difficulty. This is the one we chose

[nextpage title=”The BIOS:”]

As we said, NZXT has been associated with ASRock since its Z490 model. The brand has a pretty good reputation for its motherboards, which is a great thing for NZXT and we are happy to see this partnership continue over time.

The BIOS will be modeled after the ASRock models and should provide everything needed to get the most out of your processor and memory kit. Personally, I’ve become quite a fan of their BIOS as we’ve been working with NZXT cards for a while now.

First step: flash the BIOS

But first of all, and this is the reflex that you must also have, we flashed the BIOS with the latest version received from NZXT and which is the 2.06. To do this, go to the BIOS by pressing the F6 key to go to the advanced mode which offers access to all the parameters. Then, go to the “Tool” tab and choose “Instant Flash”.

It’s quite well done since you don’t even need to specify where the BIOS is located on your USB key, the BIOS scans the key to find it. It is very efficient since in less than 3 seconds, the BIOS is identified on our USB key. The BIOS informs you that the card will reboot before starting the BIOS flash.

Now that we have the latest version of the BIOS, let’s see what it offers us. Good point for this N7 Z790 which has no problem to work with our DDR5 Teamgroup kit at 7200 MT/s.

A very well organized BIOS!

The BIOS of our NZXT N7 Z790 is sober but very efficient in terms of organization. The different sections are perfectly and easily identifiable.
The ” overclocking ” section that interests us the most is subdivided into several parts, three of which are of particular interest to us: CPU, memory and voltage.

Just below are the different profiles that you can save and load according to your needs. The CPU section will allow you to modify the value of the P-Core and E-Core multiplier.

The section about memory will be very useful when we overclock our memory kit and manually choose timings and subtimings. Finally, the third important part concerns the voltages which will also be adapted according to our overclocking.

The XMP profile of your memory kit :

We can’t say it enough, but the parameters of your memory kit are not set automatically after installing it. If it is the case for your processor, it is not the case for your memory kit and a passage by the BIOS will be compulsory! In the section ” overclocking – DRAM Configuration “, choose ” Load XMP Profile ” and activate profile 1.

Once selected, you will need to save the changes and reboot your motherboard so that the profile is loaded. A return in this section allows us to see that it is well activated.

Without activating the profile, your performance will be impacted in all areas and you will end up with a kit that does not exceed the frequency of 4800 MHz in CL40. It would be a real shame to restrict performance by forgetting to activate the XMP profile. It is in this section that we will come back later in order to overclock our processor and our memory kit.

Ultra complete BIOS for this N7 Z790:

The other tabs of the BIOS will allow you to have access to the management parameters of the processors, the chipset, your SSD and the next one will be at your disposal to flash your BIOS as we have just realized it above. You will also have access to the monitoring part as well as the setting of the different fans connected to your motherboard.

Finally, the last options will be used to define your boot sequence and to save and reboot your motherboard.

Now that we have done a very quick tour of the different sections of the BIOS of this NZXT N7 Z790, it is time to detail our configuration which will serve as a basis for this test.

[nextpage title=”The test configuration:”]

Here are the different components that equip our test platform. For the publication of these tests, I used the latest BIOS received although new versions will certainly be available in the days to come. Asus is very reactive on the update of its BIOS.

We will also propose you in the coming weeks several overclocking guides for your processor but also for your memory kit with this APEX model.

• Motherboard : NZXT N7 Z790 (BIOS 2.06)
• Processor: Intel i9-13900K
• Memory : 32 GB Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34
• Graphics Card: MSI GT 710
• Cooling system : Optimus Foundation + 480 mm EK radiator
• SSD : Western Digital SN850 NVMe SSD M.2
• Power supply : be quiet! Dark Power PRO 12 1500w
• Operating system: Windows 11 64 bits
• Display: ROG PG27UQ

A small tour by CPU-Z to make sure that everything is perfectly in order before starting our tests. We notice that with this version 2.03.0, our i9-13900K is perfectly recognized as well as the DDR5 memory.

Now that our configuration is ready, let’s see if the BIOS is correct for the frequencies of our i9-13900K.

[nextpage title=”The actual frequencies:”]

As with every new processor test, our first idea is to check if the announced frequencies are actually reached. To do this, we will use the Cinebench R23 benchmark. Two cases will be used: a single core bench and a second one in multi core. The idea is to be able to judge the frequency reached and thus, to compare with what was announced by Intel in its slides.

Remember that the Boost frequency in bench is different depending on the processor. Be careful, as Intel points out, when we talk about Max Turbo frequency, it is the maximum frequency that can be reached by one of the processor’s cores executing a single-core workload(mono-thread). This frequency varies according to several factors: the load, the cooling system and therefore the temperature of your processor. This is a notion to keep in mind. Here are the frequencies we should reach on a single core during our run under Cinebench R23.

First step, we leave everything in AUTO in the BIOS except the XMP profile that we load in order to have a frequency of 6000 MT/s in 30-38-38-96 for our memory kit. We don’t make any other changes in the BIOS.

Test with the i9-13900K:

Here we go with the beefiest of the processors, the i9-13900K. As you can see, we opened several windows to check the frequency and the temperature. The options in our BIOS were left in AUTO by default and only the XMP profile of our memory kit was loaded.

In single core, we can see that core #5 reaches a frequency of 5800 MHz which corresponds to what is announced by Intel. We can notice that the temperature of the two cores that are alternating at 5.8 GHz have a temperature of 65 °C.

When the 24 cores of our i9-13900K are requested, we encounter a small concern. If the E-Core frequency is well respected with 4.3 GHz on all the cores, it is not the case for our P-Core. Indeed, only two cores reach 5.5 GHz while the other six are at 5.4 GHz. So we are not on the frequencies expected from Intel.

I must admit that it took me a while to understand the problem, thanks to Vertex. Being so used to having Asus and Gigabyte BIOSes where all limits are unlocked from the start, I forget that this is not always the case. It is in fact the limits imposed by the BIOS that are the explanation of this problem. So we went to the BIOS to make the following modifications in the “overclocking” section. We had to increase the powerlimit to a maximum of 4096.

We save the parameters and direct Cinebench R23 to ensure that the problem is now solved.

We now have a frequency of 5.5 GHz on all cores with temperatures around 88°C for the hottest core. Let’s not forget that we are equipped with a 480mm custom cooling loop. Suffice to say that if you opt for this processor, it will be at least a very powerful AIO of 280/360 mm.

[nextpage title=”CPU overclocking:”]

When you say new platform, you have to adapt to it, but since we are quite close to the Z690 chipset, we shouldn’t have too much difficulty. We will just have to take into account the new specificities of the processors in terms of frequencies.

Protocol:

Before starting, it is necessary to have one or more reference scores with our i9-13900K at stock frequencies , i.e., without having made any modification except having activated the XMP profile. It is also very important to have at hand a sheet that will allow you to note all the tests you will perform as well as the results or failures. Personally, I have hundreds of sheets of my tests on which I sometimes go back to know how the processor behaved on such motherboard or in such test conditions. My own little bible.

For H24 overclocking, it will of course be necessary to take more time to fine-tune the voltage in order to provide it with the minimum necessary, but also to adjust each core independently if you want to take advantage of the maximum performance.

Load-Line Calibration in the BIOS:

As you can see on the BIOS screenshots, the BIOS can be adjusted from Level 1 to Level 5. The idea for us is to keep the voltage as constant as possible, whether at rest (IDLE) or under load (LOAD). It is very important to take into account this element when you want to overclock your processor. Go to the BIOS to make this setting and opt for Level 1 which allows you to maintain the most constant voltage possible when the CPU is under load. By default, it is in Level 4. Now for H24 overclocking and after testing your processor, you can opt for a Level 3 or 4 to keep a certain vdroop. We feel like saying that it’s a matter of taste. Opting for a Level 1 allows you to know exactly how much voltage the processor needs to be stable at a certain frequency.

Overclocking under watercooling in different steps :

As usual, I will start the tests by choosing, via the BIOS, a starting frequency applied on the 8 P-Cores of the i9-13900K. I chose a starting frequency of 5500 MHz with a multiplier of 55, a BCLK of 100, a voltage of 1.30 volt and a Level 1. All other options are in AUTO. I already had the opportunity to test my i9-13900K and it is far from being a war lightning unfortunately.

The idea is then, in the OS, to test the stability on several runs of Cinebench R23 multithread . If it’s stable, I increase the frequency by 100 MHz while checking the stability again. If the benchmark crashes, I increase the voltage by 0.05 volt increments in order to regain a stability allowing to run the benchmark. The objective is to get a “quick” idea of the maximum benchmarkable frequency.

Here is what we obtained for the i9-13900K. As you can see, we were very quickly limited by the temperature and this despite a fairly low voltage. We can push the P-Core to 5700 MHz and the E-Core to 4500 MHz.

Our best score is 42338 in Cinebench R23 but with the hottest core flirting with 94°C. Unfortunately, our sample is not a gold processor and behaved well under LN2. I’m waiting for the 13900KS to arrive in order to try to get my hands on a gold processor. Just a reminder, please take into account our remarks on the previous page about the power limit, otherwise you may be disappointed.

[nextpage title=”Memory overclocking: “]

For memory overclocking, we have of course kept our Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34 kit and its Hynix A-die chips. The idea is to choose the kit that we think has the best overclocking potential. And as you can see, we were not mistaken.

The choice of your DDR5 kit according to the memory chips :

As it was already the case for DDR4, if you want to clock your memory, some brands will benefit from a better potential. Currently, the kits announced by the various brands benefit either from Micron chips or Hynix chips or Samsung chips.

The “key” voltages of DDR5:

For memory overclocking, there are 5 key voltages. These are the voltages that will have an impact on the overclocking and therefore on the frequency rise or the tightening of the timings. These are the CPU System Agent Voltage (SA), the DRAM VVD Voltage, the DRAM VVDQ Voltage, the Memory Controller Voltage and the IVR Transmitter VVDQ Voltage.

Let’s go for the overclocking of this DDR5:

We have to admit that the 8000 MT/s was tempting us, but we had to give it a miss pretty quickly. We know the good IMC of our processor and the potential of our A-die kit. We had to focus on 7600 MT/s even if we can also manage to get to 7800 MT/s but not in a stable way.

The good news is that our scores as well as performance are taking off. Just compare the performance between stock and overclocked scores to get an idea. For a card whose goal is not overclocking, it does quite well.

[nextpage title=”The last word:”]

NZXT continues to offer high performance models with a perfectly identifiable design. What is more similar to an NZXT motherboard than another NZXT motherboard? We have no complaints with this N7 Z790 as it does everything it says it will do. Our i9-13900K works perfectly, after setting the BIOS correctly and our A-die kit is perfectly recognized despite an XMP of 7200 MT/s. This motherboard will be perfect for those who want to build a configuration around NZXT components and will also have the possibility to take advantage of CPU and memory overclocking. As we said, it’s great to see the partnership between NZXT and ASRock continue over time.

NZXT offers this N7 Z790 motherboard, either in white or black version, at a price of $299, which is still 70 euros more than the Z690 version. Most other brands have also increased their prices on this new chipset, but it is still a bit expensive even if this board is unlike any other. It benefits from an atypical design that will please the fans of the brand and NZXT seems to be well on its way to becoming a brand to rely on.

NZXT N7 Z790

We liked:

• A motherboard 100% in the spirit of NZXT
• The atypical design with a destination for modders
• The subcontracting done by ASRock for the PCB and the BIOS
• A very readable BIOS with many options
• The quality of the power supply stage
• See NZXT listening to its community to make its software evolve
• The addition of the physical clear cmos button !
• The very good potential in overclocking for the memory and the processor

We would have liked :

• A bundle with a disk or a key with the drivers/software
• A slightly lower price

NZXT continues its momentum after a very good N7 Z690, the brand continues to be noticed positively. Even if the design will not suit everyone and this is of course not the brand’s objective, by partnering with ASRock, NZXT has made an excellent choice allowing it to offer a card with a very good design and a complete BIOS. You can also afford to go through the overclocking process which was not necessarily the strong point of the N7 Z690 version. Let’s hope to see the cards arrive more quickly when the new Intel chipset is announced. Thanks to NZXT for making this sample available.