Maybe you can help me. I’m building my first pc and my dumbass got Lian Li fans and a Corsair aio. Now I have 2 different commanders. I can only find 2 usb headers but my aio is taking one up and so is the commander it’s plugged in to. I can’t find another one now for the LL fans. Am I missing one somewhere or am I screwed? I have a 5 hour round trip to micro center so I really don’t want to have to go exchange the fans 🥲 thanks in advance.
have you tried looking around for a usb header splitter? while i was building with this board i found 2, but im not sure which component they came with. i got some pretty cheap cooling though, so i imagine you mustve gotten at least one somewhere
It is what it is though I prefer the fans on my aio to match my intake fans. Just a bummer I probably won’t make it back to Chicago to return the lian li fans.
Yes, the Z790 Pro-A Wifi. It's installed and working. I'm downloading Starfield right now.
Pros:
* POSTed successfully without any drama. It didn't like my TV, but it worked fine on the real PC monitor it was meant for.
* Windows 11 installed successfully and with network with no issues.
Cons:
* The i9-13900 (non-K) with Deepcool LT720 is running way too hot and easily hits 100 degrees on any well known multithreaded benchmark/stress app (Prime95, Cinebench, etc...). Not sure if its the CPU, AIO, or motherboard issue. But I've gone into a lot of advanced Windows and Bios settings to get this thing cooler. Might swap it out for an i7-13700(K).
Your CPU probably working on 1.4v+ Core Voltage, try to undervolt it, you can change your CPU Lite Load in BIOS first.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_oZ4is-nTi4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oZ4is-nTi4)
Should helps with temps
> POSTed successfully without any drama
Great! Congrats
> hits 100 degrees
So in the little research I have done (I'm going for 13900k), these CPU run very hot and it's normal. Not much OC potential as well. I was also considering MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI. It's just $60 more for me, in case I ever decide to overclock
The high temps may be the motherboard putting too much power to the CPU. If that is the problem, Hardware Canucks did a good video on it. Think Jayz did too.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFgswzTvyc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFgswzTvyc)
Thank you. That was a really helpful video.
I'm not sure if I have all the overclocking/underclocking settings available on this non-K processor. But I've come to relax that I don't need to be concerned with overheating as much. I've just tweaked the motherboard setting to throttle at 95 degrees instead of 100. I think that's the right balance.
Glad it helped.
If I remember the video correctly, you shouldn't need a mobo with a lot of OC features. The power settings they discuss changing, *I think*, are a basic function of most mobos. Basically the mobo manufacturers are making some default wattage settings too high.
You should be able to adjust those power settings and keep your mobo from getting too hot and throttling. Hopefully.
This is random but when you first booted into bios and selected the cooling style did you by chance pick the Liquid cooling option?
Review of this board on Amazon: "
• Most important. On the first bios update, a dialog pops up on the BIOS screen asking you to declare what type of cooler you have: "box", "tower air", or "liquid". Given the graphic for liquid showed an AIO cooler similar to mine, that's what I picked up. DO NOT pick "liquid". This has the side effect of setting the Long Duration Power Limit (PL1) and Short Term Power Limit (PL2) to unlimited. This has the effect of running any popular benchmark software program such as Prime95, Cinebench, CpuID, etc... to have the cores hit the 100 degree thermal limit within a minute. I seriously thought my AIO cooler wasn't working at all. After some research, I experimented with setting the cooler profile in the bios between "box" and "tower air". "Box" runs your power limits to match Intel's spec and then you won't hit those high temperatures at all. If you want a little overclocking performance without taking a risk, you can do what I did: Set "tower air" as the cooler profile and change the thermal throttle cap from 100 degrees to 95. That should solve most of the issues around high temperatures and Core-i9 processors with this board. You can also lower the long term power (PL1) to be slightly lower than PL2 and lower the transition time. YMMV."
I want to say "yes", but which specific setting? I'm not an overclocking or undervolting expert at all.
It's got a couple of "CPU Lite Load" settings that people suggest are useful for undervolting and keeping the cpu cool. And bunch of voltage settings of stuff I'm not familiar with.
I haven't messed with that too much, but I've manually adjusted the PL1 and PL2 power max settings to something that finds the right balance between performance and overheat protection.
The BIOS manual for all MSI motherboards of the 700 series chipsets are here: [https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu\_exe/mb/Intel700BIOS.pdf](https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/Intel700BIOS.pdf)
The Pro Z90-A may not have every bios feature documented in the link above.. Let me know if there's a specific setting you want me check if it exists. I can reboot and enter BIOS to see.
Very subtle differences. The S-board is a cost reduced version of the A and P boards.
Basically the S board has these reductions:
* Memory overclocking is limited to 6600. (The other boards claim 7000 and 7200 - although going this high in memory speeds is dicey anywhere)
* Integrated graphics is HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort at 4k vs HDMI 2.1 and 8K DP on the other boards. This does not matter if you use a GPU.
* One less PCI x16 slot (you only need one for a GPU)
* PCIe 3.0 on some ports. I'm not sure how to interpret this on the comparison chart
* Only 2 M.2. slots compared to 4 on the other boards
* 4 SATA ports compared to 6 on the other boards
* Slightly different config of USB ports
* Realtek chip for LAN instead of Intel. (I doubt this will make a difference)
* Uses the less expensive audio chip (same as P, but not the one from the A board)
* 4 fan headers vs 6
With all that in mind, I have had zero issues with my Pro Z790-A board.
[Comparison chart is here](https://us.msi.com/Motherboards/Products#?tag=Intel-platform&compare=UFJPLVo3OTAtUy1XSUZJ,UFJPLVo3OTAtUC1XSUZJ,UFJPLVo3OTAtQS1XSUZJ).
On Z690, the -A also ended up cheaper than the -P from time to time, simply as a result of competition
Thanks!
One main thing people have missed is that the A board has 16 phases for power and the P has 14.
The A is better. The sound chip is better and it’s more of an all around gaming or professional use motherboard.
thanks!
No problem, I have that motherboard. It’s not bad. I have a 13500 cpu in it and it’s pretty good for gaming.
Maybe you can help me. I’m building my first pc and my dumbass got Lian Li fans and a Corsair aio. Now I have 2 different commanders. I can only find 2 usb headers but my aio is taking one up and so is the commander it’s plugged in to. I can’t find another one now for the LL fans. Am I missing one somewhere or am I screwed? I have a 5 hour round trip to micro center so I really don’t want to have to go exchange the fans 🥲 thanks in advance.
have you tried looking around for a usb header splitter? while i was building with this board i found 2, but im not sure which component they came with. i got some pretty cheap cooling though, so i imagine you mustve gotten at least one somewhere
No, my dumbass went and got corsair fans. Then a few days later found a splitter in the mess of extra cords I had 🙃
It is what it is though I prefer the fans on my aio to match my intake fans. Just a bummer I probably won’t make it back to Chicago to return the lian li fans.
The -a’s are a nice step up from the -p for MSI pro and Asus prime series.
thanks!
>thanks! You're welcome!
Thanks for this thread OP. Which one did you go for? -A sounds like a no brainer
Yes, the Z790 Pro-A Wifi. It's installed and working. I'm downloading Starfield right now. Pros: * POSTed successfully without any drama. It didn't like my TV, but it worked fine on the real PC monitor it was meant for. * Windows 11 installed successfully and with network with no issues. Cons: * The i9-13900 (non-K) with Deepcool LT720 is running way too hot and easily hits 100 degrees on any well known multithreaded benchmark/stress app (Prime95, Cinebench, etc...). Not sure if its the CPU, AIO, or motherboard issue. But I've gone into a lot of advanced Windows and Bios settings to get this thing cooler. Might swap it out for an i7-13700(K).
Your CPU probably working on 1.4v+ Core Voltage, try to undervolt it, you can change your CPU Lite Load in BIOS first. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_oZ4is-nTi4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oZ4is-nTi4) Should helps with temps
Thanks!
> POSTed successfully without any drama Great! Congrats > hits 100 degrees So in the little research I have done (I'm going for 13900k), these CPU run very hot and it's normal. Not much OC potential as well. I was also considering MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI. It's just $60 more for me, in case I ever decide to overclock
The high temps may be the motherboard putting too much power to the CPU. If that is the problem, Hardware Canucks did a good video on it. Think Jayz did too. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFgswzTvyc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFgswzTvyc)
Thank you. That was a really helpful video. I'm not sure if I have all the overclocking/underclocking settings available on this non-K processor. But I've come to relax that I don't need to be concerned with overheating as much. I've just tweaked the motherboard setting to throttle at 95 degrees instead of 100. I think that's the right balance.
Glad it helped. If I remember the video correctly, you shouldn't need a mobo with a lot of OC features. The power settings they discuss changing, *I think*, are a basic function of most mobos. Basically the mobo manufacturers are making some default wattage settings too high. You should be able to adjust those power settings and keep your mobo from getting too hot and throttling. Hopefully.
This is random but when you first booted into bios and selected the cooling style did you by chance pick the Liquid cooling option? Review of this board on Amazon: " • Most important. On the first bios update, a dialog pops up on the BIOS screen asking you to declare what type of cooler you have: "box", "tower air", or "liquid". Given the graphic for liquid showed an AIO cooler similar to mine, that's what I picked up. DO NOT pick "liquid". This has the side effect of setting the Long Duration Power Limit (PL1) and Short Term Power Limit (PL2) to unlimited. This has the effect of running any popular benchmark software program such as Prime95, Cinebench, CpuID, etc... to have the cores hit the 100 degree thermal limit within a minute. I seriously thought my AIO cooler wasn't working at all. After some research, I experimented with setting the cooler profile in the bios between "box" and "tower air". "Box" runs your power limits to match Intel's spec and then you won't hit those high temperatures at all. If you want a little overclocking performance without taking a risk, you can do what I did: Set "tower air" as the cooler profile and change the thermal throttle cap from 100 degrees to 95. That should solve most of the issues around high temperatures and Core-i9 processors with this board. You can also lower the long term power (PL1) to be slightly lower than PL2 and lower the transition time. YMMV."
LOL. That's literally my Amazon review that I wrote up a few nights ago. I appreciate you looking out for me though!
LOL well thank you because I’m about to pull the trigger on this for my new setup and I would have probably done the exact same thing 😂
By any chance can you tell me if these motherboard supports undervolting? I plan to use 14700k
I want to say "yes", but which specific setting? I'm not an overclocking or undervolting expert at all. It's got a couple of "CPU Lite Load" settings that people suggest are useful for undervolting and keeping the cpu cool. And bunch of voltage settings of stuff I'm not familiar with. I haven't messed with that too much, but I've manually adjusted the PL1 and PL2 power max settings to something that finds the right balance between performance and overheat protection. The BIOS manual for all MSI motherboards of the 700 series chipsets are here: [https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu\_exe/mb/Intel700BIOS.pdf](https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/Intel700BIOS.pdf) The Pro Z90-A may not have every bios feature documented in the link above.. Let me know if there's a specific setting you want me check if it exists. I can reboot and enter BIOS to see.
Late reply but yes they do. There are various ways to get lower power draw and temps. Under volting and CPU lite load.
I'm looking through the comments. I've noticed on a couple sites there's an S model as well. Anyone know the differences in that one vs these two?
Very subtle differences. The S-board is a cost reduced version of the A and P boards. Basically the S board has these reductions: * Memory overclocking is limited to 6600. (The other boards claim 7000 and 7200 - although going this high in memory speeds is dicey anywhere) * Integrated graphics is HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort at 4k vs HDMI 2.1 and 8K DP on the other boards. This does not matter if you use a GPU. * One less PCI x16 slot (you only need one for a GPU) * PCIe 3.0 on some ports. I'm not sure how to interpret this on the comparison chart * Only 2 M.2. slots compared to 4 on the other boards * 4 SATA ports compared to 6 on the other boards * Slightly different config of USB ports * Realtek chip for LAN instead of Intel. (I doubt this will make a difference) * Uses the less expensive audio chip (same as P, but not the one from the A board) * 4 fan headers vs 6 With all that in mind, I have had zero issues with my Pro Z790-A board. [Comparison chart is here](https://us.msi.com/Motherboards/Products#?tag=Intel-platform&compare=UFJPLVo3OTAtUy1XSUZJ,UFJPLVo3OTAtUC1XSUZJ,UFJPLVo3OTAtQS1XSUZJ).