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. With a stethoscope in one hand and a gadget in the other, I’m both a doctor and a PC tech expert, dedicated to pursuing both my passions at the same time.
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 Intel Core Ultra 5 245K offers decent performance at a considerable price range. It is equipped with the latest architecture and has great power efficiency. Moreover, it delivers satisfactory performance in multi-core tasks and handles everyday applications smoothly. However, its gaming performance, while adequate, doesn’t quite match up to competitors in the same price range. Therefore, users seeking balanced productivity can consider this an option. However, gamers should look elsewhere for better performance in highly demanding games.
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the new gaming champ, outclassing AMD's own Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU in our gaming charts. With its improved 3D V-cache design, combined with the Zen 5 architecture, the CPU improves gaming and productivity performance while becoming more efficient than its predecessor.
The MSI MAG Z890 Tomahawk WiFi is a $299 motherboard packed with the latest I/O and EZ-DIY features. It has a fairly basic (almost) all-black design with silver accents and yellow-green colors to represent the board's branding. For VRMs, the board's 16+1+1+1 (16A 90A duet stages for the board), which is enough for Intel's 15th gen chips, even if you want to overclock a bit.
The MSI MPG Z890 Carbon WiFi is a power-packed board with a feature set covering everything you could possibly think of. Its power-phase design is a 20+1+1+1 with 20x 110A SPS powering the VCore, leaving plenty of overclocking room for any Arrow Lake chip. The design is excellent, with 2 RGB zones, but the branding goes a bit overboard.
The MSI MEG Z890 ACE motherboard is a powerhouse for those who want the best features without worrying about cost. Built for Intel’s latest Core Ultra processors, it supports high-speed DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0, and offers a generous range of M.2 and USB ports. With an impressive VRM and heatsink setup, this board is optimized for overclocking and handled both gaming and synthetic tests with top scores.
The MSI MEG Z890 UNIFY-X is a $599 flagship motherboard from MSI which is aimed at overclocking enthusiasts and high-end PC gamers. The motherboard manages to please both with its solid 20+2+1+1 phase power delivery system and sleek aesthetics that blend nicely with the focus on sheer performance and on providing functionality coupled with ample option of storage, blazing fast WiFi-7, BT 5.4, and connectivity ports at the rear and on the front.
The MSI MPG Z890 Edge Ti WiFi is a $369 gaming-focused board, and it certainly covers everything a gamer might need. That includes a great gaming-focused design with RGB and solid performance with a 16-phase 90A SPS design for CPU power.
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.
