INTRODUCTION

   My very first 30386 system back in the early 90's had a genuine Intel CPU inside and aside the Cx486S by Cyrix back in 1994 and the 4086 DX4-120 and Athlon XP CPUs by AMD which i got in 1996 & 2000 respectively every other system I’ve ever owned had an Intel CPU inside. It's no secret really that most of the time Intel has done better compared to AMD (at least in the consumer market) but aside CPU and memory performance there's always been one more thing I’ve considered to be extremely important when building a new system, motherboard quality and features. This is actually something I’ve pointed out numerous times in past reviews and yes, even though since the X570 series chipsets AMD partners have introduced some impressive models (with X670E models being the latest) there are some Intel based motherboards which seem to be one step ahead. The latest Z790 DARK K|NGP|N Motherboard combines all of EVGA's knowledge to date and judging by my past experience with their products it should prove to also be one such model.

   Based on the philosophy of intelligent innovation, market knowledge, and the real time operation, EVGA continues to identify the need in the market place and providing the solution to that need. By offering product differentiation and other customer focused programs, EVGA is a clear leader in all categories: etail, retail, distribution, and system builders. With headquarters in Brea, CA, EVGA's global coverage includes EVGA GmbH in Munich, EVGA LATAM in Miami, and EVGA Hong Kong. For further information online about EVGA, visit https://www.evga.com.

   The Z790 DARK K|NGP|N motherboard by EVGA sports a 21-phase digital VRM, is compatible with Intel's 12/13th generation LGA1700 CPUs (for Z790 reviews I’ll be using the Intel Core i9-13900k) and just like its predecessor it fully supports DDR5 RAM (up to 64GB clocked at 8000MHz and above) and PCIe 5.0 cards (two EMI shielded and reinforced x16/8 full length slots). Unfortunately for reasons i can't figure out Intel didn't build their Z790 chipset around the PCIe 5.0 standard from the ground up and so Gen5 SSDs are not really supported by such motherboards (at least not without cutting your graphics card host bandwidth in half - some Intel partners have done so) and so because of that the Z790 DARK K|NGP|N sports a total of three PCIe 4.0 Gen4 M.2 sockets. Other features include a 14-layer PCB for increased durability and performance, 100% copper heatsink with twin fans for the VRM, full backplate, single PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, six native Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports (support RAID 0/1/5/10), two ASMedia (ASM1061) SATA 6.0Gb/s ports, 4 ARGB headers, right angled ports for both power and SATA, Marvel 10GbE Ethernet port, Intel i226-V 2.5G Ethernet port, Intel AX211 dual band Wi-Fi 6E/BT v5.2 module and the Realtek ALC1220 7.1 onboard sound card. DARK motherboards by EVGA are aimed towards enthusiasts and overclockers so once again this model is equipped with numerous features to accommodate such users including a multi-function indicator, power and reset buttons, clear CMOS buttons (internal/external), safeboot button (boots directly into the BIOS without changing your settings - handy if your system will not boot), PCIe disable switches (allow the end user to disable PCIe slots for troubleshooting), CPU slow-mode switch (can be used to change the CPU ratio on-the-fly to minimum), BIOS update button (external) and dedicated USB 2.0 port, triple-bios selection switch and a Probelt connector. As for available connectivity EVGA has added a PS/2 port, two USB 2.0 ports (internal headers), three USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports (2 rear and 1 via internal header), 5 USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports (rear), USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port (internal header), USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port (rear), Marvel 10GbE RJ45 port, Intel i226V 2.5 GbE (10/100/1000/2500) RJ45 port and the Realtek ALC1220 High Definition Audio onboard audio ports. So, time to see what the latest addition in the ever growing DARK family of motherboards by EVGA is capable of.