CONCLUSION

   When I reached out to BIOSTAR roughly 2 months ago I naturally requested the Z790 Valkyrie model (it’s their flagship model after all) but since due to low availability they couldn’t offer it I moved to the Z790A-SILVER. Now, the Z790A-SILVER is a budget-friendly model so it does lack certain features like WiFi/Bluetooth, larger heatsinks (why not active cooling as well) and a second PCIe 5.0 slot. Even so however I was surprised to see that I could push the Intel Core-i9 13900K to the same clocks as I did with the EVGA Z790 DARK. Granted, I did use slightly more voltage (1.38V instead of 1.35V – again both CPUZ and SILVER Lightning indicated higher numbers) but the end result was the same and so I could actually directly compare these two motherboards (still I don’t recommend such an OC, not for 24/7 use). Not to my surprise the much more expensive Z790 DARK did better in almost all tests but for casual users and gamers spending 3+ times more will obviously be too much (on the other hand cost will probably not concern professionals and enthusiasts).

   Availability is probably the main drawback of the BIOSTAR Z790A-SILVER since I wasn’t able to track it down inside the USA, at least not on any of the online stores I regularly check. It is however available inside the EU for 256.75Euros (Amazon.de) and so it’s priced relatively well (I do think there’s room to go even lower however). Long story short the BIOSTAR Z790A-SILVER is an affordable motherboard that does very well overall (for its price) and even though it does lack certain features it’s still a solid choice for consumers on a budget and for that it gets highly recommended.

PROS

- Good OC Potential (17 Phase Digital VRM)
- Reinforced & EMI Shielded PCIe 5.0
- Three M.2 PCIe 4.0 Sockets
- DP v1.2 & HDMI v2.1 Video Outputs
- 2.5GbE Port
- Available BIOS Settings

CONS

- No WiFi/Bluetooth
- Cooling System (Could Be Better)
- Current Availability