Hi! I’m Usman Saleem, with 8+ years of PC hardware expertise and a Google IT Support Specialization certificate, specializing in in-depth tech analysis and reviews. As a final year MBBS medical student, I blend medical and technical knowledge on my path to becoming a doctor.
Position at Tech4Gamers
At Tech4Gamers, I’m the PC Hardware Specialist, primarily contributing to the “Best-Ofs” section. I provide thoughtful buying advice based on thorough testing and personal expertise. I also review hardware products and games to keep things fresh.
Tech Journey
From childhood, I’ve been immersed in gaming and PC hardware. Starting with a Pentium 2 PC, each named PC, from ZEUS to APOLLO, symbolizes a chapter in my journey. My true passion lies in the beating heart of the gaming industry – PC hardware.
The MSI Pro Z890-A WiFi is one of MSI's affordable Z890 boards, but it offers enough performance and features to please most. We get a beautiful minimalistic design with its white heatsinks and black PCB. It has a 16+1+1+1 phase design with 16x 90A SPS for the CPU and supports DDR5 memory as fast as 9200 MT/s.
The ASRock Z890 Steel Legend WiFi shows outstanding price-to-performance, making it one of the best budget Z890 boards out there. It offers a fairly capable 18+1+1+1+1 VRM solution, DDR5 support up to 9466 MT/s, WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and dual Thunderbolt 4 ports.
The ASRock Z890 Nova WiFi is just another ASRock board that impressed us with its value. At $349, it's got a power 20+1+2+1+1 power phase design (110A VCore for SPS) with excellent VRM cooling on top. It powers the best I/O you can get right now, including Thunderbolt 4, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4.
It has been quite a busy week, with the latest Z890 motherboards being tested back-to-back. In this review, I will be taking a look at the ASRock Z890 Taichi...
The MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi is a motherboard costing $299, making it one of the pricier boards so far. For that, it offers reasonably capable VRMs, a minimalist black theme without RGB, a ton of EZ-DIY features to make life easier, and good overall performance. The EZ-DIY features are the highlight for us, but we feel the price tag is still a bit too high, especially given the board's shared connectivity complications.
My team and I have winded up our in-house testing of different Z790 motherboards to round up the best motherboards for i7-14700K based on my performance, design, cooling, and overall value.
The ASRock X870 Steel Legend looks great, is priced fairly, and has enough connectivity for most users. It features a 14+2+1 VRM setup (80A SPS for VCore + SOC), which means you can comfortably run even the most demanding Ryzen CPUs on it.
The ASRock X870E Taichi Lite is a $399 powerhouse with a VRM setup (24+2+1, 110A SPS for VCore and SoC) that can compete with enthusiast-class boards. That's not its only attraction; the board has a fascinating design, multiple handy features, and excellent connectivity options, with USB4 and WiFi 7 being the icing on the cake. Circling back to the price, this is a great option among X870E boards.
The MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi is a high-end motherboard with impressive features, a capable VRM setup, and I/O that should be enough for most users. You get the latest USB4 ports, dual PCIe 5.0 M.2, WiFi 7, and impressive memory support up to DDR5-8400 (OC). It’s a nice-looking board with enough RGB bling for most, but it comes at a staggering $499 price tag. While expensive, it’s competitive enough for the features on offer.
