MSI’s Next-Gen Z790 Motherboards Get An Official Teaser Ahead of Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake Launch
September and October are going to be insane months if we consider all the hardware launches & announcements that are taking place. We have AMD’s Ryzen 7000 & AM5 platform, we have Intel’s 13th Gen and 700-series platform, we have NVIDIA’s next-gen GeForce RTX unveil & there are also several new component launches comprising new DDR5 memory kits, new coolers, ATX 3.0 PSUs & Gen 5.0 SSDs. The next few months are definitely going to be great for PC builders all around the globe. Last month, MSI teased its AM5 motherboards for the AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs. This month, the company is teasing the next-gen Z790 motherboards for Intel’s 13th Gen Desktop CPUs. MSI is posting a teaser image showcasing its MPG class motherboards starting with Z490, Z590, Z690 and leading up to the next generation which is labeled as “Z???”. We all know that this is the Z790 motherboard that has been in the talks for a long time now. Intel has confirmed that the new Z790 motherboards will stick with the existing LGA 1700/1800 socket & support both 12th Gen Alder Lake and 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs. MSI and the rest of the board makers have already rolled out their respective Z690 BIOS to support 13th Gen CPUs on their 600-series motherboards. The specific motherboard is the MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi which has always been the sweet-spot mainstream product. We tried to make the image more useful and found out that the board features at least 22 power phases which is an increase from the 20 phases on the Z690 iteration. The motherboard has a 4-slot DDR5 DIMM design and carries 6 SATA III ports for storage. The board has a single PCIe Gen 5 x16 connector & a PCIe x16 (Gen 4) plus a PCIe x1 (Gen 4) slot. There seem to be at least five M.2 slots on the board, all five of which should run at Gen 4 speeds since the CPU isn’t offering any direct M.2 lanes unless the board vendors decide to split them with the x16 discrete Gen 5.0 GPU lanes. There are two 8-pin connectors to power the board and get to see a nice variety of heatsinks on the board. This motherboard should cost around the $299-$399 US price range. Intel is expected to introduce its 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs and the 700-series platform including the Z790 motherboards on the 27th of September so stay tuned for more information.
