CONCLUSION

    Having reviewed the X670E Taichi motherboard by ASRock it’s become clear to me that they’ve improved vastly compared to many years ago when I last did reviews from them and well, the same applies for the PG Z790I Lightning WiFi model. It may be tiny, but it actually delivers very good performance and is packed with plenty of features, certainly more than enough for a mini-ITX build. Yes, I would have liked to see the refreshed Z790 chipset used (WiFi7 support) but I really have no performance complaints from this particular model, and yes that also includes its WiFi 6E connectivity. Also having both DP and HDMI outputs for CPUs with internal graphics is a great feature for people with more than 1 monitor. Now I did have some issues with the 48GB 8000MHz CL36 kit by Kingston (XMP 1) but it was quickly resolved by using the Intel MEI flash option from the BIOS.

    With a current retail price set at USD279.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at 305.83Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Phantom Gaming Z790I Lightning WiFi motherboard by ASRock is priced well. Yes, it’s not the fastest Z790 based motherboard out there but if you’re looking for a tiny model that delivers on everything from performance to features you will not be disappointed which is also why it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Good OC Potential (16 Phase Digital VRM / Sufficient Cooling)
- Reinforced & EMI Shielded PCIe 5.0
- 2 DIMM Slots (Supports RAM Up To 8600MHz+)
- Two M.2 PCIe 4.0 Sockets
- DP v1.4 & HDMI v2.1 Video Outputs
- 2.5GbE Port
- WiFi 6E / Bluetooth v5.3
- Available BIOS Settings

CONS

- Not Based On The Refreshed Z790 Chipset