INTRODUCTION

   The 14th generation of CPUs by Intel may not be that far away but their 13th generation is still one of their most popular to date something which became abundantly clear in my recent giveaway. Yes, Intel's Z790 chipset does lack PCIe 5.0 support for storage media (Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs) which is why many people i know are holding out until the unveiling of their next motherboard chipset but that aside the Z790 is still a very powerful and feature-rich platform. Colorful may not be one of the most well-established motherboard manufacturers in the market today and so chances are they will not be the first name to come to mind when talking about the Z790 chipset but their CVN Z790D5 Gaming Frozen V20 looks like it can hold its own and that's what today's review is all about.

   Established in 1995, Colorful is a brand with a 20+ year history. It is a comprehensive company that holds the largest share in the Chinese graphics card market, integrating independent development, production, and sales. Also, it is a strategic partner of NVIDIA, AMD, and INTEL in China. By now, Colorful covers product line of motherboards, graphics cards, all-in-one PC, memory & SSD, industrial server, computer case, power supply, Hi-Fi player, industrial integration solution and services with over 24 years of experience delivering quality products garnering a brilliant reputation amongst its customers.

   Just like the BIOSTAR Z790A-Silver motherboard i reviewed roughly a week ago the CVN Z790D5 Gaming Frozen V20 by Colorful is also a rather affordable model based on the Intel Z790 chipset (compatible with Intel's 12/13th generation LGA1700 CPUs) and available in a white, gray and copper color theme (black and copper color also seems to be available in some areas). Still, it does feature an 18-phase (16+1+1 55A) digital VRM, fully supports DDR5 RAM (up to 192GB clocked at 7000MHz and above) and comes with a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot (EMI shielded and reinforced). It also packs a total of four PCIe 4.0 Gen4 M.2 sockets, 6 native SATA 6Gb/s ports (support RAID 0/1/5/10), moisture proof PCB, single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (EMI shielded and reinforced), two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots, two 5V ARGB ports, two 12VB RGB ports, BIOS update button, Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE Ethernet port (0/100/1000/2500 Mb/s), Intel AX201 Dual-Band WiFi 6/BT 5.2 wireless adapter and the Realtek ALC1220 7.1 onboard sound card. Finally in terms of available connectivity the Colorful CVN Z790D5 Gaming Frozen V20 comes ready with a single DP v1.2 port, single HDMI v2.0 port, 4 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports (1 extra via internal header), USB 3.2 Gen2 port, USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port (1 extra via internal header), 2.5GbE RJ45 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports (2 extra available via internal headers) and the Realtek ALC1220 High Definition Audio onboard audio ports. So, is the Colorful CVN Z790D5 Gaming Frozen V20 good enough to be your next motherboard? Let's find out.