A keen nozzle-head has dramatically sped up their 3D printer using the portable power of a Nintendo Switch. Cocoanix 3D Printing shared a video earlier this week demonstrating the Switch-powered acceleration of their venerable Prusa MK3S. Instead of taking 90 minutes to output the famous standard 3DBenchy tugboat model, the Nvidia-accelerated MK3S took a brisk sub-nine minutes. Should you repurpose your Switch to accelerate your 3D printer? That, of course, depends…

In the video above, Cocoanix boasts about not just the increased performance but quality improvements. Using Klipper instead of Prusa’s custom firmware (originally based on Marlin years ago) delivers modern features like more extensive planning, advanced vibration compensation, and other techniques. As well as getting your output in a fraction of the time, “less ringing and ghosting” will be present in the output, according to Cocoanix.

Klipper is also a champ when it comes to configuration, with a simple and easily editable text file ready for tweaks. More traditional firmware recompilation techniques for the granular control here are thus simply not necessary. Moreover, while the printer’s motion‑control firmware is replaced by Klipper, the user interface is handled through the slick Mainsail/Fluidd web dashboard.

Thanks to the power of the Switch and Klipper, with the Prusa MK3S, the bottleneck stops being processing power or advanced features, and is instead the 3D printer’s hotend and extruder. Running the new Input Shaper, the TechTuber manages to push the MK3S “to its absolute speed limit: 400mm/s at 17,000mm/s² of acceleration.”

Modern 3D printers aren’t so short on horsepower

The touch screen Switch is a great add-on for the Prusa MK3S. However, the MK3S is of a certain vintage now, and while contemporary designs addressing the same market may suffer from similar processing bottlenecks, adding an SBC or Switch to a modern 3D printer may not be so desirable.

Here, instead of motion planning running on the 8-bit microcontroller on the system motherboard, the machine is enhanced by Klipper, farming out all the heavy compute work to the attached handheld console with a quad-core Nvidia SoC.

Users of devices like the MK3S usually employ something like a Raspberry Pi or connect to their laptop to accelerate and advance their 3D printing. The use of the Nintendo here is mostly stylish tech flair – but the integrated touchscreen might be welcomed by some.

Practicalities

A large segment of the Cocoanix video is devoted to showing folks how to install and setup Klipper on a Switch with Ubuntu Linux installed. We are then guided through how to configure and flash the MK3S to complete this project.

To witness the 3DBenchy results, you can skip forward to around 7 minutes 50 seconds in the video, where you see the little tugboat successfully printed in under nine minutes (8 minutes 41 seconds while adhering to SpeedBenchy rules, says Cocoanix).

The result looks a bit rough, but this is primarily due to how the aforementioned hotend and extruder have become the bottleneck. We’d also suggest that cooling and the bed‑slinger Y‑axis are also near their physical limits, as the design stands.

Commodore fans were split earlier this month as an official document revealed the firm planned to prevent tinkerers from loading third-party firmware to the C64 Ultimate computer by locking down such upgrades to the FPGA. The iconic home computer brand has now backed down, reversing the decision but issuing a statement making it clear that users can enjoy “free experimentation, just no free support/replacement for bricked modded units.”

It is evident that the FPGA firmware gatekeeping decision had been a tricky one for the new Commodore. And telegraphing a change “preventing firmware not released by Commodore from being loaded onto the hardware,” split the user base, but we think most comments were on the side of user freedom. As social media and forum discussions heated up on the topic, Commodore published a detailed blog with a point–by-point defense of its new policy.

To be clear, the FPGA firmware flashing blocks were not rolled out yet. The 1.1.0 firmware release simply came with a statement that “A future update may introduce safeguards to help make sure incompatible firmware not released by Commodore does not damage your motherboard.” In the follow-up blog the seminal home computing firm highlighted that it had already seen non-functioning casualties of third-party firmware updates requiring support. This wasn’t sustainable, it reasoned. Servicing “hardware returns and replacements due to actions entirely out of our control” was a step beyond what Commodore was prepared to do.

The new Commodore “values freedom of choice the most.”

The official blog post update from Commodore regarding firmware is pretty clear about the change in policy. “We will not prevent you from installing other firmware on your Commodore 64 Ultimate,” states a key highlighted phrase in the post.

It goes on to say it remains worried about users bricking their C64U machines and then putting in return and replacement requests (under warranty, we guess). However, it admits “that's 'Ultimately' an "us" problem, not a "you" problem.”

In the firmware block policy's place, there will instead be a stern disclaimer. Commodore will insist that “community-installed firmware, patches, or other modifications are used at the owner’s own risk, and Commodore cannot provide free support, free warranty service, or free replacement for units bricked or damaged as a result.” Most retro gaming community and tinkerer folks will probably be pleased with Commodore gracefully bowing to popular pressure on this. It will be interesting to see how the new policy affects the warranty returns process.

The retro community seems sharply divided over a decision by Commodore to lock down firmware access in its C64 Ultimate computer. In a post entitled Why We're Protecting Your Commodore 64 Ultimate FPGA, the iconic retro computing company telegraphs a change “preventing firmware not released by Commodore from being loaded onto the hardware.” This blog post seems to be designed to calm social media and forum commenters' concerns about the C64U breaking the spirit of the vibrant C64 scene, implementing an anti-tinkering change, and making a move that is really about IP control.

The latest firmware, version 1.1.0, was released a few days ago. You can see the announcement in the X post above, and can expand the embed to read some of the comments it has received.

Social media and forum posters started to grumble about the impending firmware locks soon after some users highlighted a section concerning firmware tinkering in the official 1.1.0 release notes. There are some very welcome changes in 1.1.0, including a new Left Arrow key implementation, USB mouse support for “most mice,” and enhancements for LED lighting interactivity – as well as a long list of fixes.

However, some enthusiasts found it. problematic that Commodore wrote that “A future update may introduce safeguards to help make sure incompatible firmware not released by Commodore does not damage your motherboard.”

Commodore and its supporters characterize the change as one safeguarding user hardware while official firmware updates still flow.

“The Commodore 64 Ultimate is not a static product," the blog post reads. There will be new hardware revisions, new components, and new capabilities! This is foundational to our roadmap and, frankly, core to the Commodore 64 Ultimate's value proposition." But then it warns about firmware built for different boards, causing issues on the C64U.

Probably most concerning for Commodore is that it says it has already seen non-functioning casualties of third-party firmware updates requiring support. This isn’t just hypothetical, insists Commodore. No company would find it sustainable to service “hardware returns and replacements due to actions entirely out of our control.”

It also uses the blog to make clear it isn’t intending to stomp on system patches, like the popular SPIFFY. The distinction is that SPIFFY is a community patch for the C64U - improving quality-of-life in many ways, and is not a replacement firmware. “This policy is not aimed at that kind of community-driven ingenuity,” Commodore makes clear.

A so-called ‘walled garden’ is also not on the menu, according to the new Commodore blog. In this section it warns that the C64U is different from the closely related Ultimate64 from the same designer/developer. Specifically, it says that “Our hardware roadmap for the Commodore 64 Ultimate includes board revisions and component changes that Gideon's Ultimate64 firmware has no reason to address, since it's built for his product, not ours.” In other words, as the systems diverge and develop, more and more problems could arise from swapping firmware files.

We don’t know if the Commodore Blog post is going to satisfy the sternest critics and worry worms on the great WWW. Surely it helps explain the thinking behind the upcoming restrictions, but folks will always hate restrictions and others deciding what is best for them.

China has worked for years to further separate its computing progress from the United States and its tech companies. Today heralds a major development to this end, as the Global Computing Consortium has announced the "UBIOS" global standard, a new replacement for UEFI and BIOS. Fast Technology reports that the GCC's new standard is a rebuilding of BIOS firmware from the ground up, bypassing UEFI development entirely.

UBIOS, or "Unified Basic Input/Output System", is a firmware standard to replace BIOS and UEFI, the first and most prolific motherboard firmware architectures, respectively, that bridge the gap between processors and operating systems. The UBIOS standard was drafted by 13 Chinese tech companies, including Huawei, CESI (China Electronics Standardization Institute), Byosoft, and Kunlun Tech. The standard is the first standardized and scalable Chinese domestic firmware, representing a major step forward for Chinese domestic tech development.

BIOS is the motherboard firmware that acts in between CPUs and operating systems like Windows or Linux. BIOS informs the operating system how much RAM the computer has, how many storage devices are installed, the speed of the CPU, and other essential, basic properties. UEFI, or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, has replaced the outdated BIOS in every modern consumer computer for the last several years, supported by a multi-company working group largely dominated by the American x86 CPU developers Intel and AMD.

China and the United States have been involved in a heated trade war over computing for the last several years, prompting China's government to push a major initiative encouraging its citizens and companies to move away from non-domestic computer hardware and software. The famous "Document 79" doctrine directs its people to abandon Western tech by 2027 — an incredibly ambitious goal. The development of the UBIOS standard is a major win for China as it seeks to reach this end.

The GCC and Chinese tech firms reportedly built UBIOS from the original BIOS spec, avoiding iterating on UEFI entirely. The working group claims it chose to avoid the UEFI spec due to the development bloat of UEFI and TianoCore EDK II, the Intel-made reference implementation of UEFI used almost universally among UEFI hardware and software developers.

UBIOS's unique features over UEFI include increased support for chiplets and other heterogeneous computing use-cases, such as multi-CPU motherboards with mismatching CPUs, something UEFI struggles with or does not support. It will also better support non-x86 CPU architectures such as ARM, RISC-V, and LoongArch, the first major Chinese operating system.

UBIOS will be further discussed and revealed by the Global Computing Consortium at the 2025 Global Computing Conference in Shenzhen this November. For a country looking to both bolster its own domestic computing ecosystem and step away from American systems that constrict non-standard hardware implementations, the development of UBIOS may prove to be a major win for China. However, whether UBIOS becomes widely adopted and championed like the open standard RISC-V, or widely abandoned like LoongArch, remains to be seen.

A firmware update for Gigabyte's RGB lighting controller is reportedly causing issues for users, as pointed out by various social media posts online. In a recent case, Charlie (@ghost_motley) on X highlighted a concern with a firmware package for the RGB controller listed on the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master motherboard support page, which added support for Windows Dynamic Lighting.

The firmware update in question is the Gigabyte IT5701/ 5702 RGB lighting controller firmware upgrade package with version 1.0.0.9 dated 24 November, 2024. After installing the update and rebooting, the user noticed that not only was Windows Dynamic Lighting unavailable, but the motherboard’s onboard RGB lighting was completely non-functional. Their PC would shut down normally; however, the CPU fan continued to spin. Re-running the tool made no difference, and the update managed to brick the Q-Flash Plus feature (Gigabyte’s BIOS update utility) from working on the particular motherboard.

A PC enthusiast has used ChatGPT to circumvent the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) features of a used tablet. Thanks to OpenAI’s chatbot (and BIOS programmer hardware), XDA forums member Deskmodder then managed to update the obsolete Android 6.0-powered Panasonic ToughPad FZ-A2 tablet’s UEFI BIOS and install Windows 10 and Linux Mint. It is good to see barriers to the re-use of serviceable old hardware being eradicated.

FRP protection sidestepped

Above, we mentioned that the ruggedized Panasonic tablet was saddled with a rather old version of Android. However, this device was in some ways tamper-proof due to it being locked with Factory Reset Protection (FRP).

FRP is most commonly used in securing Android devices, and means that the original credentials need to be input to reset it. It works as a basic security measure to restrict significant changes to administrators and prevent stolen devices being easily wiped and resold. Second hand devices should be reset by the previous owner/administrator before being passed on, but obviously this doesn’t always happen.

Deskmodder seems to have been aware of the device’s FRP lock, but explains “seeing that it has an Intel CPU (Atom X5 8550) and a traditional x86 UEFI BIOS, I thought I'd try to hack it to run something else.” That’s the spirit.

With ChatGPT and a CH341A flash programmer at hand, the intrepid modder went through the following process:

1. The CH341A was used to dump the Panasonic’s BIOS.
2. The dumped bios was uploaded to ChatGPT with instructions to completely disable SecureBoot and its proprietary keys.
3. The GPT-modified BIOS was flashed back to the device.
4. Fingers were crossed... and it worked!
5. OS wrangling ensues, various compatibility wrinkles are being ironed out.

The system tinkering enthusiast has also shared their original ChatGPT conversation for the BIOS hacking, if you are interested enough in the process.

We note that Deskmodder has moved onto new milestone since their original post where Linux Mint was successfully shoehorned onto the ToughPad. Specifically, they have managed to get “Windows 10 up and running.” Sadly, at the time of writing they are still reporting a handful of driver issues.

Wider implications

Intel partners have started to deploy BIOS patches for Z890 motherboards featuring the 0x114 microcode coupled with the updated CSME 1854v2.2 firmware. The patches serve as the last piece to Intel's Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) performance puzzle, with the newer CSME and BIOS combo promising additional single-digit increases in gaming performance. Interestingly, vendors are pushing the update ahead of Intel's projected timeframe in January, at least if we're talking about the beta releases (via Harukaze and HXL).

For the uninitiated, Team Blue's latest Arrow Lake chips were plagued by several underlying issues that Intel promised it'd fix by December. In a report issued a few days back, Intel reportedly addressed four of the five root causes that held back performance.

As a follow-up, Intel promised further performance enhancements through BIOS firmware updates by January, alluding to the long-anticipated 0x114 microcode. While that specific microcode has been in vogue for some time in the form of beta BIOS releases, Intel says that the final update requires both the updated microcode and a specific CSME Firmware Kit (19.0.0.1854v2.2 or newer), which is now available.

Gigabyte, ASRock, and Asus have started pushing BIOS releases with the 0x114 microcode alongside the updated ME firmware version 1854. Apart from Gigabyte, the updated BIOSes from ASRock and Asus are sourced from unofficial channels such as Overclock.net and the ROG forum, so interested users must exercise caution. Likewise, Gigabyte's offering is also in beta, which likely won't be as stable as the full release whenever it launches.

While Intel has addressed most of its underlying issues with Arrow Lake through Windows 11 updates, driver patches, and newer BIOSes, the final update should yield users a small additional bump in performance. We might see stable BIOS builds with the new 0x114 microcode and updated ME firmware from board partners by early January or even in a couple of days as they iron out the remaining quirks.

Expect more news from Intel at CES, where the Arrow Lake non-K/T/H/HX families are anticipated to be revealed. Likewise, board partners are projected to announce budget-oriented B860 motherboards that'll go hand-in-hand with 65W Arrow Lake chips.

The 0x114 microcode for Intel's Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) processor lineup has surfaced online at Overclock.net. This patch is believed to address the significant performance gaps.

However, forum users report negligible gains in performance. It is important to note that motherboard vendors have yet to officially release this microcode, which is apparent because it is not listed on any partner's support page as of this writing.

Arrow Lake suffers from hefty latency penalties stemming from inherent architectural flaws. Since the memory controller is off-die on the SoC Tile, gaming performance takes a serious hit due to abysmal L3 access cycles. Leaks suggest that Intel's Core Ultra 300 or Panther Lake CPUs might reintegrate the IMC into the CPU Tile. Nonetheless, Intel acknowledged these issues last month and promised a fix by early December through OS-level updates and BIOS patches.

Rumor has it that the upcoming 0x114 microcode is the long-awaited one-stop fix for Arrow Lake, which has leaked online. While we don't recommend flashing microcodes from third-party sources, a few brave souls at Overclock.net did that just for experimentation, and to their dismay, the gains were non-existent. As a user reported, his Core Ultra 9 285K paired with the ASRock Z890 Taichi OCF saw a 6% drop in Cinebench R23 MT scores because of low clock speeds.

Yesterday, Cyberpunk 2077 received a new update that offered up to 33% better performance on Intel's Core Ultra 200S processors. In the same forum, a user linked two benchmarks running a custom scene in Cyberpunk 2077 (1,2) and claimed an additional 3% gain in FPS with a 10% lower power draw - the validity of which we cannot verify.

As motherboard vendors still offer the older 0x113 microcode, let's wait for the official release before jumping to conclusions. The supposedly lackluster gains could be attributed to the limited testing data, or the microcode doesn't offer much. Since we're almost halfway through December - past Intel's deadline - expect a release in the form of a stable or beta BIOS update in a couple of days.

Western Digital finally solved the BSOD problem with its HMB-equipped SSD lineup. The affected users have been urged to update their SSD firmware immediately, straight from the horse's mouth.

Many reports sprung up on the Western Digital community forums about continuous BSODs on updating to the latest Windows 11 24H2 update. The culprit was a misconfigured HMB (Host Memory Buffer) allocation, which was fixable through a minor registry edit. However, since only WD and SanDisk NVMes were the affectees, it appears that there was an underlying problem in the firmware on some models, which are as follows:

If your SSD is on the aforementioned list, then the resolution is that you must update your firmware, which may result in a complete data loss. The process is simple and can be done in just a few minutes. We should also inform users that systems with affected models might be unable to update to the latest version of Windows 11 until the SSD firmware is updated.

How to Update the Firmware on Affected Western Digital / SanDisk SSDs

1. Download and install the Western Digital Dashboard for Windows (macOS is not supported).
2. If you are worried about the potential loss of data in the worst-case scenario, backup your SSD to another drive.
3. In the Western Digital Dashboard, navigate to the "Tools" section to see if any firmware update is available. If so, click on "UPDATE FIRMWARE."
4. Once the update has been finished, you'll be prompted to shut down your system. Once powered on again, the SSD firmware will have been updated.

It is pertinent to mention that the registry fix is still applicable. However, that appears to be a stopgap solution rather than a permanent fix. Admittedly, a large disclaimer stating the risk of losing your data is a jagged pill to swallow. However, this is not a first occurrence, as Samsung users were required to download a new firmware ASAP just last year, or their SSDs were on a certain track to failure, literally.

According to several reports on the web (Reddit, Twitter, etc.), this week's PlayStation 5 firmware update has resulted in severe graphical errors and crashes for several high-profile PS5 and PS4 games being played on Sony's base console hardware. This is the same week as the PS5 Pro's announcement ahead of its November, and two major PS5 timed exclusives making their way to PC has been interesting.

Considering how much the console gaming business model hinges on a plug-and-play gaming experience that "just works," this certainly isn't a good look for Sony. Final Fantasy XVI, one of the aforementioned major PC ports releasing this, is the most reported game suffering from the issue this week.

Still, others include Death Stranding, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Elden Ring, and more, according to user reports. Fortunately, not all base PS5 owners are experiencing this issue— and if you are one of them, we highly recommend you postpone that firmware update if you still can— but those who do bear witness to what may be described as "glitch horror."

So, you may be wondering: what's the cause of this issue, how will it be fixed, and when can we expect that fix? Unfortunately, we don't have answers to any of those questions, but we know the issue has been brought to Square Enix (Final Fantasy devs) and PlayStation's attention via a Tweet. With any luck, we can expect a fix sooner rather than later— consumers paid an effective fee of hundreds of dollars to play these games on this hardware, so it should just work.

However, one can't help but notice that at least this week, it does seem like PC is the best place to play PlayStation 5 games. Sure, you have to wait a year or two for the PC port, but you get support for multiple image upscalers, you get way more graphics, resolution, and FPS options, you get mod support...and you don't have to wait for Sony to fix the problem for you. On PC, a lousy driver update or a harmful component is easily reverted or replaced— not so on the console.

A security vulnerability has been discovered in Crucial's MX500 SSDs, enabling data leakage that could potentially expose sensitive data. A user on the TechPowerUp forums discovered that the MX500 is vulnerable to buffer overflow, which causes this data leakage to occur.

This security vulnerability is dangerous because an attacker can trigger buffer overflow manually through specially crafted ATA packets from the host to the drive controller, as NIST explains. In technical terms, a buffer overflow is a software error that occurs when a program attempts to write more data to a memory buffer than what the buffer can physically hold. This reaction causes the program to overwrite adjacent memory buffers, erasing and replacing existing data with new data.

As Fortinet explains, extra data added to the adjacent memory buffer can hold malicious code that an attacker who put it there intentionally can exploit. Buffer overflow exploits can enable an attacker to gain full control over the machine and/or program they are attacking.

The vulnerability has been recorded as CVE-2024-42642. Crucial has yet to officially announce this vulnerability in its MX500 SSDs, and no one knows which firmware variants are affected. The most optimal case we can assume is that Crucial is working on a firmware update behind closed doors and will announce it once it's complete.

The Crucial MX500 series is an old SSD lineup that debuted in 2018. The lineup currently comprises 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models. The 1TB model can be had for as little as $86, and the 4TB for as little as $269.99. The MX500 series consists entirely of SATA-III 2.5-inch form factor models featuring a maximum sequential read speed of 560MB/s.

MSI has officially released its newest BIOS update with AMD AGESA BIOS PI 1.2.0.1. This update allows users to increase the TDP of their Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X processors from 65W to 105W.

Those with Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X processors and a compatible X670E or B650 MSI motherboard (a complete list is available below) and are interested in the update should go to their motherboard's downloads page to download the new BIOS. If your MSI 600-series motherboard is not listed, an update will arrive in the next few weeks. Once downloaded, users can navigate to the "OC" tab in their BIOS, and the "TDP to 105W" mode will be found under CPU Settings; the boost will not be active by default.

It is important to note that the new update is still characterized as a "Beta version" intended for trial use; it is unknown if product failure that occurs while using the "TDP to 105W" mode will still fall under AMD or MSI warranty as a result of this vague description and its placement under "overclocking" in the BIOS.

MSI advertises a 13% multi-core performance increase when pushing the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X from 65W to 105W. In Cinebench R23, the Ryzen 7 9700X's test results jump from 20,409 points tested at 65W to 23,153 points in 105W mode. Interestingly, these are the same numbers provided in the Twitter leak we reported on earlier this week.

No real-world performance numbers in the official 105W TDP mode have been measured by a non-MSI source that we can verify. So, like all manufacturer benchmark claims, the 13% boost in one benchmark should be taken with a grain of salt rather than as a user test as we previously thought. It also remains to be seen when or whether other motherboard manufacturers will offer the new AGESA update in their BIOS releases.

The Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X struggle under multi-core productivity workloads compared to their peers and their single-core dominance. By all accounts, the 105W TDP mode should provide a much-needed boost in this department. Otherwise, the first two chips released in the Ryzen 9000 series are solid options for those who need the latest CPU releases, and this overclocking feature should help make them more attractive.

We often point out the Raspberry Pi's beautiful relationship with gaming—especially retro gaming. But we never expected retro gaming on the Raspberry Pi to be like this. Maker and developer Guy Dupont is at it again, this time using an RP2040 to play a game of Pong on the firmware of his mouse.

You're not alone if you're wondering how to play a game with mouse firmware. The way Dupont has pulled this off is fascinating and impressive. In a nutshell, it moves the cursor rapidly to generate a "persistence of vision," which is essentially an illusion that makes the cursor appear in multiple locations at once. The RP2040 hosts the game by intercepting the mouse input to the PC.

Dupont programmed a few controls to operate the game, but it also functions like a regular mouse when not used to simulate Pong. The Pong game has a scorekeeping system but doesn't represent the score using numbers. Instead, the cursor will appear closer to the winning side after a point is scored. The cursor will move closer and closer to the winning side as the score increases but rest in the middle of the score when tied.

Dupont was kind enough to share details on how the project goes together and what you can do to recreate it at home. You don't need a special mouse; Dupont is using a generic HP mouse. You'll need an RP2040 board with a second USB port, but if you aren't sure where to start, Dupon recommends an Adafruit Feather RP2040 with a USB Host.

Because he's using the Adafruit Feather RP2040, he programmed it using the TinyUSB Arduino Library. That said, your mileage may vary if you choose to use a different board. The complete source code for the project is available at Github.

One Raspberry Pi enthusiast has been working to take the world record for Geekbench 6 on a Raspberry Pi 5. The goal was to see how fast he could overclock the Raspberry Pi 5’s CPU and complete Geekbench 6 benchmarking. He succeeded through firmware changes, Peltier cooling methods, and blind luck.

Jeff Geerling claims not to be an expert in overclocking, but he may have been the first person ever to push a Raspberry Pi 5 above 3 GHz. On Pi Day in 2024, he took a Raspberry Pi 5 to 3.14 GHz. Getting the tiny CPU to go any faster wasn’t possible at the time because of a voltage limit in the Raspberry Pi firmware.

Since then, new firmware and NUMA emulation patches have unlocked higher frequencies, so Geerling gave it another shot. He detailed his efforts on YouTube, along with warnings that his actions voided the Raspberry Pi’s warranty and also involved getting lucky in the silicon lottery.

Geerling describes the silicon lottery as receiving a perfect golden sample from the wafer die. When silicon wafers are produced, they have hundreds of chips on them, and many have tiny imperfections. When these imperfections are detected, we end up with things like down-binned GPUs.

Geerling identified a golden sample Raspberry Pi 5 in his collection and used it for his testing. Thanks to that amazing luck in the silicon lottery and using custom code to set voltage higher than recommended on the Raspberry Pi 5, the enthusiast could push his tiny little computer to clock speeds of 3.4 GHz.

Through his efforts, Geerling could not only push the Pi’s clock speed higher than ever, but he also achieved decently respectable Geekbench 6 scores. The single-core score in his test reached 1121, while the Raspberry Pi 5 hit a multicore score of 2219. These are not exactly AMD Ryzen 5 7600 scores, but they are still respectable for a computer not much bigger than a deck of playing cards.

There might be a new use if you’ve got an old Power PC-based Power Macintosh. A developer has successfully ported Windows NT 4.0 to the Power Macintosh and published the firmware and other software needed for it to work. Thanks to one skilled developer, that’s changed. On GitHub, contributor Wack0 recently released his maciNtosh project, a repository that includes the ARC firmware and its loader.

While Microsoft did port Windows NT 4.0 to the PowerPC years ago, the Power Macintosh doesn’t use the same firmware needed for Windows NT. The PowerPC version of Windows NT only supported IBM and Motorola systems using PowerPC. Support for the more popular PowerPC computers from Apple never surfaced.

The so-called New World Power Macintosh systems used the MPC106 “Grackle” memory controller and PCI host and either the “Heathrow” or “Paddington” super-I/O chip on the PCI bus. That means if you have one of the following Power Macintosh computers, you can use the repository to install Windows NT 4.0:

• iMac G3 (tray-loading)
• Power Macintosh G3 (blue and white, “Yosemite”)
• Macintosh PowerBook G3 with the bronze keyboard (“Lombard”)
• Power Macintosh G4 PCI (“Yikes!”)

The author says the ARC firmware should also run on Old World systems like the beige Power Macintosh G3 and the Macintosh PowerBook G3 Series (“Wallstreet” and “PDQ.”) However, there isn’t a boot loader yet for those systems.

Wack0 also acknowledges that the project is very experimental, having only tested on Lombard systems. Furthermore, some drivers, such as the Cuda driver, have yet to be tested on real hardware. Also, the loader only supports ATI graphics chipsets, and ATI hardware with a fcode version before 1.69 might pose problems.

Installing Windows NT on your Power Macintosh requires the firmware and loader from the GitHub repository, along with Windows NT 4.0 installation media. Fortunately, a simple Google search makes disc images easy to find. Wack0 provides detailed, step-by-step instructions to get Windows NT up and running.

It is an exciting project, and it makes me wish I still owned the PowerMac G4 I used to have. Of course, don’t expect stability, at least not yet. The author has developed the drivers just enough to run and use NT and notes that there are occasional PMU hard shutdowns when booting.

Gigabyte has begun updating its AM5 motherboards to AGESA firmware 1.2.0.0a, which supports AMD's upcoming Ryzen 9000 series desktop CPUs. Discovered by HXL on X (Twitter), the new Gigabyte BIOS updates sporting AMD's latest AGESA firmware provide new performance optimizations for the new Zen 5 series chips. These new updates come just in time for users to update before AMD's Ryzen 9000 chips arrive.

AGESA 1.2.0.0a is the fourth AGESA firmware update to support AMD's Ryzen 9000 processors. The first was AGESA 1.1.7.0, which rolled out in April with initial support for the Zen 5 chips. Since then, the last few AGESA updates have improved the reliability and performance of the Ryzen 9000 processors before they debut this month.

We aren't sure what's inside the 1.2.0.0a update specifically. Gigabyte specifies that their BIOS updates provide performance optimizations for Ryzen 9000, but that doesn't mean these optimizations directly come from the AGESA microcode update. Regardless, the purpose of new microcode updates is to push new features and support, as well as provide better performance and stability in most cases. So, we can surmise that AGESA 1.2.0.0a does at least one of these things.

Gigabyte is the first board maker so far (that we have seen) to push AGESA 1.2.0.0a bios updates to the public. MSI and ASRock are still on AGESA 1.2.0.0, utilizing beta BIOS updates for their existing AM5 motherboards. Strangely, Asus' newest BIOS updates are still on AGESA 1.1.7.0, meaning the board maker has not updated to any recent AGESA updates, including the older AGESA 1.1.8.0 update and AGESA 1.2.0.0.

Hopefully, MSI, ASRock, and Asus will release AGESA 1.2.0.0a-supported BIOS updates to the public before the Ryzen 9000 series launch. But the good news is that all four major board partners already have Zen 5-supported BIOS ready to be downloaded and installed. So, users will have Zen 5 functionality regardless. We can't confirm if ALL 600 series boards have AGESA 1.1.7.0 or newer ones, but most do.

Ryzen 9000 is the second generation of Ryzen processors using AMD's latest AM5 socket. The new chips come with AMD's Zen 5 CPU architecture, promising 16% better IPC on average than Ryzen 7000. Buyers can take advantage of the new chips with new 800 series chipset motherboards, including X870 or existing AMD 600 series chipset motherboards. The only caveat is that the 600 series boards must be updated to a Zen 5-supported BIOS before users can run them on those boards.

6/11/2024 update: After reaching out to HP about this issue, we've received an official response from the company, included below. The original article continues after the brief statement from HP.

HP is aware of a potential issue with a recently released BIOS update that could impact the HP ProBook x360 435 G7, HP ProBook 445 G7, HP ProBook 455 G7, HP EliteBook 835 G7, HP EliteBook 845 G7, and HP EliteBook 855 G7. We’re continuing to investigate the issue and work closely with impacted customers. Customers who may have experienced this issue should contact HP Support.

On May 26, a user on HP's support forums reported that a forced, automatic BIOS update had bricked their HP ProBook 455 G7 into an unusable state. Subsequently, other users have joined the thread to sound off about experiencing the same issue.

If you've ever updated the BIOS manually on a PC, you may recall that there are usually warnings against making such updates while not charged, not powered on, or running background tasks that may interfere with updating system files. The BIOS is generally understood to be one of the most sensitive components of your system, with unexpected issues likely to result in crashes or even bricked systems like our main example.

This common knowledge regarding BIOS software would, then, seem to make automatic, forced BIOS updates a real issue, even if it weren't breaking anything. Allowing the user to manually install and prepare their systems for a BIOS update is key to preventing issues like this. Some users are pointing out that these auto-updates are so overzealous that they'll even start on a laptop that has just booted with minimal battery power reserves. This seems to be one of the more common causes of upset, as well.

At the time of writing, HP has made no official comment on the matter — and since this battery update was forced on laptops originally released in 2020, this issue has also bricked hardware outside of the warranty window, when previously users could simply send in the laptop for a free repair. Forum users reporting on the issue claim that no help from HP seems to work, only specialist ROM programming hardware seems to have the potential to fix the issue, so far.

Overall, this isn't a very good look for HP, particularly its BIOS update practices. The fragility of BIOS software should have tipped off the powers at be at HP about the lack of foresight in this release model, and now we're seeing it in full force with forced, bugged BIOS updates that kill laptops. A few users also seem to be reporting similar issues with some HP desktops, but HP ProBook 455 G7 laptops seem to be by far the most impacted.

Hopefully, HP will take action to right their wrongs here, soon. Your paying customers deserve better than to get forced updates that break the hardware they paid you for, 2020 laptop or not. This kind of practice certainly won't bring them back to you whenever they decide it's time to buy a new Ultrabook or pro laptop, particularly considering the professional branding and focus.

Following AMD's confirmation last month that it was moving forward with plans to open source its GPU stack after complaints from Tiny Corp, we've finally seen the first significant step via the release of MES documentation on GPUOpen.com. MES stands for Micro Engine Scheduler, which corresponds to how graphics and compute work are scheduled on GPUs—AMD RDNA 3 GPUs, in particular, are specified in this new documentation.

While this is indeed one of the things Tiny Corp asked for, they have already noted on Twitter that they are bypassing the MES in their backend alongside most of the MEC. Tiny Corp, for those unfamiliar, is focused on building powerful AI workstations in a small footprint and lower price than the current top-end of AI hardware.

So, it seems that Tiny Corp's past prodding of AMD was successful but not fast enough to stop them from implementing an MES workaround. Tiny Box's goal to "commoditize the petaflop" with the help of high-performance AMD or Nvidia-powered AI boxes should get a little easier with further open-sourcing of AMD's software and documentation. The MES firmware to go along with this documentation is expected to be released in the coming weeks and is likely only held by legal concerns as it goes open source.

Additional parts of the AMD Radeon software stack are expected to be open-sourced throughout the year, echoing earlier statements from AMD. Tiny Corp previously seemed displeased with AMD's progress so far, but AMD may yet be able to win over Tiny Corp and other prosumers seeking Nvidia alternatives. Raw hardware power dictates that AMD's Tiny Box should be easily on par with Nvidia for much cheaper, but the current status of AMD's software stock prevents that from being true.

Tiny Corp and others hope to push AMD into open-sourcing its software stack to make these software issues easier to diagnose and fix. With any luck, this can be done efficiently enough to start giving Nvidia some real competition in the GPU compute market, especially where AI and similar workloads are concerned.

UPDATE (April 25, 2024): Bambu Lab immediately updated it’s policy on software update support after the community voiced concern that the flagship X1-Carbon would soon be obsolete. The company states that “products will continue to work for their entire lifetime, with the same feature availability.” Expiration dates were extended by two years for bugfixes and feature updates, and a new line was added for “guaranteed security patch updates” extending two years further.  

Bambu Lab recently posted on its company blog that the “first round of product launches” representing the First Generation of the Bambu Lab family is complete. That family of printers includes the X1, P1 and A1 model of machines, all of which have been reviewed by Tom’s Hardware and many of which sit on our list of best 3D printers. Further, the company acknowledges that its firmware infrastructure is still in the early stages of development. 

 The statement seems counter to a recent discovery by Reddit user Updateing_ht, who found an expiration date on Bambu Lab's guarantee of firmware updates. 

So there is only one year left for X1C software updates. I'm choosing my first printer - eyeing for X1C + AMS at first, but this date makes me wonder if I should get an A1 to get started, and upgrade later for more filament support,” wrote Updateing_ht.

The expiration date only appears on the shopping comparison page of Bambu Lab’s website. At the very bottom, a “Guaranteed software update” date is listed. The X1 Carbon series, released in 2022, will expire first on May 31, 2025.

We searched the website and found no other reference to this expiration date. Bambu Lab did not return our request for further information.

It should be noted that firmware updates to any Bambu Lab printer are done automatically through the cloud. When updates are released, the printer’s screen will announce that new firmware is available and give the user the option to download it right away. The firmware is not downloaded from the website and can not be placed on a SD card for offline use.

The company has been notoriously closed source on both its printers and firmware, but in January begrudgingly allowed users to install third party X1 Plus custom software without the need to jailbreak machines. Bambu Lab insists tight control is the only way it can ensure a quality product. Installing X1 Plus can be done at the user’s own risk and will void the 3D printer’s warranty, even if the original Bambu Lab firmware is reinstalled.

“The internet making a mountain out of an anthill,” states YouTuber Clayton Parker, AKA Uncle Jessy.

Parker’s background is in software and technology. He’s seen this kind of behavior before and told Tom’s Hardware that it is usually a sign of a new product development. “A business can only properly support a product for so long. The Bambu lineup is already pretty robust and bug free.”

How long a 3D printer is supported comes down to philosophy. While a company like Prusa Research will support a printer almost indefinitely, new models are rare and infrequent. In twelve years of doing business, Prusa Research has only released three completely new consumer 3D printers: the Original Prusa i3 design (now in its fourth iteration), the Original Prusa Mini, and the Original Prusa XL.

We’ve not seen other 3D printer manufacturers announce an official end to servicing their printers. Instead, they simply fade away. Creality, one of the biggest and oldest Chinese manufacturers of 3D printers, does not list an end date for firmware, but you can no longer find information on their first printer, the CR-7, launched in 2015. You also won’t find their first popular printer, the CR-10, which launched in 2016. However, you can still find firmware for the best-selling seven-year-old Ender-3, last updated in 2022.

AMD has stated that it's on track to release its Micro Engine Scheduler (MES) documentation in late May, followed by source code. Then it will follow through with releases of additional parts of the Radeon stack as open-source. The statement was seemingly made in response to a Tweet/X by Tiny Corp, which has been publicly corresponding with (and often criticizing) AMD on social media for several months.

The discourse between Tiny Corp and AMD has made more than a few headlines in recent months. The former designed and pre-sold its TinyBox AI server, which garnered interest due to its use of relatively affordable AMD Radeon GPUs. However, the firm’s social media and its founder, George Hotz, became quite vocal as it discovered the consumer-grade cards weren’t behaving in a server-grade or enterprise-ready manner.

In brief, Tiny Corp wanted greater / deeper access to AMD hardware, firmware, and driver IP. The company thinks that with sufficient access to the firmware and driver stack, it can make the Tiny Box function as advertised. Despite Tiny Corp being a small company,  AMD engaged, and even Dr Lisa Su joined the conversation in early March. Su said the “team is on it,” back in March, but Tiny Corp remains grumpy about the situation it finds itself in to this day.

“We are working to release Micro-Engine Scheduler (MES) documentation towards end of May and will follow up with published source code for external review and feedback,” noted the official AMD Radeon Twitter/X account in early April. “We have also opened a GitHub tracker, which will have the latest status on fixes and release dates.”

Today, we saw a significant update in documentation and open-sourcing progress at AMD. In a reply to a further barb from Tiny Corp, the red team’s graphics division reiterated the MES documentation statement from earlier in the month. It added, “Additional parts of the Radeon stack to be open-sourced throughout the year,” before directing interested parties to keep an eye on a GitHub repository.

Tiny Corp has already replied to AMD’s statement, characterizing the MES news as “a red herring,” and asking for further parts of the architecture to be open-sourced, with documentation for the hardware scheduler, which it sees as a cause of Tiny Box system deadlocks.

As PC enthusiasts not particularly interested in using servers like the Tiny Box, we are still very interested in any knock-on effects the release of additional Radeon documentation and open-source software could have for us. If bugs are quashed and optimizations are made via entities like Tiny Corp, that should be good for other Radeon users. Moreover, this opening-up initiative could be beneficial to the Linux developers and community seeking to get more from their Radeon hardware.

Asus released a new BIOS that adds a setting aptly named 'Intel Baseline Profile,' which switches from the motherboard's default settings to the ones recommended by Intel. It is in response to a widespread crash and another instability issue with certain games using Unreal Engine 5, precisely when it initiates shaders during the loading screen. With this setting, those with Intel 13th and 14th-generation CPUs should have stable gameplay. Once other vendors do the same, they may permanently address the issue.

Asus put up a separate page linking its respective motherboards with Z790, B760, and H770 chipsets towards the new BIOS for easy reference. The BETA BIOS listing specifies that this profile reverts to Intel's default setting, which involves lowering power limits. As a result, it seems to be addressing this nuisance.

Over the months, users found strange crashes and random BSOD while playing games using Unreal Engine 5, which many eventually narrowed down to the CPU settings used by motherboard vendors. The motherboards from multiple vendors used a very high power limit, allowing the CPU to pull higher power with some safeguards turned off. Many users experienced various issues, including 'Out of memory' issues with VRAM. Upon investigation, the crashes happen when it loads the initial shader compilation during the loading screen.

While this affects CPUs from both generations, many complaints are from users with Core i9-13900K and Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K, and Core i7-13700K. The instability issue plagued games made by developers like Gearbox and Fatshark, which led to many developers recommending downclocking these CPUs. According to our investigation, multiple games crashed over 90% of the time during the shader compiling process despite having stock settings set in their BIOS. It was getting clear that the blame was not on the games or the engine itself.

While there were many plausible explanations for this issue, the cause was the aggressive settings motherboard vendors were using by default. Asus' note about its beta BIOS suggests lowering the power limit and using Intel's settings. If it is that simple, it's simply a matter of time before all motherboard vendors follow suit.

While the fix is appreciated, one would ask about the necessity of having such an aggressive setting enabled out of the box without having the function to revert to Intel's settings should a crash occur. That setting enabled by default to squeeze an extra morsel of performance has no value if it crashes when it shouldn't- or worse. Not all CPUs can easily accommodate such settings; hence, tweaking a 'one-size-fits-all' profile to the extreme is not a good idea.

Regardless, some, if not all, of these CPUs have been recommended for gaming, at times bundled with a motherboard for a good deal. It's also best if respective motherboard vendors flash newly manufactured motherboards with such BIOS that address this problem from day 1.

AI company Tiny Corp. says it is 70% confident that AMD will make some or all of its Radeon GPU firmware open source by the end of next week, according to an X post made earlier today. The somewhat hopeful prediction comes after Tiny Corp and AMD discussed the issues the former has been having with readying its upcoming RX 7900 XTX-powered TinyBox, which is intended to be used for AI work. Should AMD make the firmware open source, it would allow Tiny Corp. and others to fix bugs on their own, and potentially squeeze more performance out of AMD GPUs.

You might be surprised that AMD is embroiled in a controversy over open source; after all, the company's Radeon Open Computer (ROCm) software has been open source since it came out in 2016 and has supported Radeon and Radeon Pro cards for a few months now. However, ROCm is software, and software is just one of the things that GPU performance and behavior hinges on. Firmware can just be as important, but the Micro Engine Scheduler (MES) firmware on AMD GPUs is not open source and is instead developed solely by AMD.

So, when AI startup Tiny Corp. experienced MES-related bugs with RX 7900 XTX cards that were supposed to go into its TinyBox computer, the only solution was for AMD to release a patch. Tiny Corp. (or perhaps its founder George Hotz) made these issues public on its X account yesterday and said, "It upsets me that the MES isn't open source" and said AMD "should immediately stop development of high end ML libraries and fix their basic sh*t [compiler and drivers]."

Given how incendiary Tiny Corp. was (it also floated the idea of switching to Nvidia or Intel GPUs), AMD inevitably noticed the posts, and its CEO Lisa Su publicly stated a solution for the bugs was in the works. A few hours after posting about the buggy firmware, Tiny Corp. announced that it would meet with AMD representatives the next day (today). Tiny Corp. also opened a poll asking X users whether they believed AMD would make the firmware open source; at the time of writing, 52.8% of votes were cast for "no."

After the meeting, Tiny Corp. said it was 70% confident that AMD would at least make the scheduler and memory hierarchy management portions of the firmware open source, which is what the AI startup specifically wants. "We aren't open source purists... But we need the scheduler and the memory hierarchy management to be open. This is what it takes to push the performance of neural networks," the company's X account said.

Should AMD's decision land in that 30% zone, then at a minimum, it could cause Tiny Corp. to abandon the RX 7900 XTX for the TinyBox and choose another vendor, most likely Intel, as Nvidia's GPUs are expensive and even less open source. However, there could be wider repercussions for AMD beyond just losing a single company. Open source is a big selling point of AMD's AI hardware-software ecosystem. If AMD doesn't find a happy medium, it might discourage other companies (especially companies prioritizing open source) from using AMD's platform.

AMD CEO Lisa Su has stepped in to soothe the publicly voiced concerns of George Hotz's AI server startup Tiny Corp. The company has been preparing its new TinyBox server for release but has been experiencing issues with its Radeon RX 7900 XTX-powered systems and is now asking for AMD to open source its GPU firmware. Several Tweets by Tiny Corp expressed frustration with bugs in AMD's AI acceleration toolkit and provocatively tagged rivals like Intel and Nvidia. Lisa Su noticed the commotion and personally assured Tiny Corp. that the “team is on it” to fix the issues, though she didn't explicitly promise to open source the firmware. 

Tiny Corp is a startup that maintains the tinygrad neural network framework. Its new TinyBox servers are designed to offer PetaFLOPS-class performance for AI by using affordable consumer-class GPUs, thus providing big savings over a data center-class kit. These systems leverage the Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs and AMD's open-source stack for GPU compute, ROCm. ROCm support for AMD's consumer GPUs is still somewhat new, having been initiated late last year, but apparently, there are a few bugs to be ironed out with the 7900 XTX's firmware. 

Tiny Corp’s dissatisfaction with its Radeon-based solution appeared to come to a head on Tuesday. The Tiny Box development team was initially happy to say they received updated firmware from AMD. They also congratulated the company for being responsive and making “big strides” on its drivers.

Things soon turned sour, though, as the updates from AMD apparently didn’t iron out all the important wrinkles. A follow-up Tweet on Tuesday again highlighted “serious driver issues” before pleading for open-source firmware. This became a recurring theme with tweets issued late Tuesday/early Wednesday morning. With pre-order customers already lined up and production beginning in earnest, the Tweets became increasingly desperate.

A furious thread of Tweets from the server startup opened with an incendiary blast about bugs, asking AMD to “fix their basic s*t.” Tiny Corp also complained that “we are not AMD’s QA team” before stating that the Radeon RX 7900 XTX driver is unfit for its customers.

It is about now that the person in control of Tiny Corp’s social media accounts started publicly musing about giving up on AMD’s platform and adopting Intel GPUs / software. A septet of Acer BiFrost Arc A770 cards were bought up as alternatives during Tiny Corp’s seemingly live-Tweeted stream of consciousness. Tiny Corp also mentioned Nvidia GeForce GPUs but admitted the Nvidia P2P problem with consumer cards would not be unblocked by the Green team to pacify a server startup.

This is where Lisa Su piped up with a very promising response. “Thanks for the collaboration and feedback. We are all in to get you a good solution,” wrote the iconic AMD leader. “Team is on it.”

Thanks to the unsubtle Tiny Corp, we can also be quite sure we will learn about the company's call with AMD later today, during which it appears the company will ask AMD to open source part of its firmware. 

You can now learn the results of that call in our follow-up article here.

Even the best gaming routers are susceptible to attacks, which means that everyone must be vigilant when to comes to serious security vulnerabilities that materialize. Such is the case with three popular wireless routers from Asus, which are the subject of code execution vulnerability attacks by nefarious parties (first noted by Bleeping Computer). The affected routers are the Asus RT-AX55, RT-AX56U_V2, and RT-AC86U.

According to the Taiwan National Computer Emergency Response Team (TWNCERT), all three routers are exploitable via three separate vulnerabilities. It should be noted that each is described as a "format string vulnerability" and has a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.8. Considering that the CVSS v3.1 scale maxes out at 10.0, these vulnerabilities are listed as "critical" by TWNCERT. 

This is how TWNCERT describes the flaws:

• CVE-2023-39238: Format string vulnerability affecting the  set_iperf3_svr.cgi API module. Remote code execution is possible due to improperly validated input strings.
• CVE-2023-39239: Format string vulnerability relating to general configuration functions of the router that can lead to remote code execution and service interruption.
• CVE-2023-39240: Related to another format string vulnerability, this time with the set_iperf3_cli.cgi API module.

There's good news and bad news regarding these exploits. The bad news is that, if left unpatched, the security flaws leave owners of these Asus routers open for attack. Infiltrating your wireless router is a crucial vector for delivering malware to your connected devices. The good news is that Asus already has patches available to address these flaws.

• RT-AX55 owners need to download firmware 3.0.0.4.386_50460 (or later)
• RT-AX56U_V2 owners need to download firmware 3.0.0.4.386_50460 (or later)
• RT-AC86U owners need to download firmware 3.0.0.4_386_51529 (or later)

You can download your router's firmware using the above links and upload it using the web GUI, or you can go the easier route and have the router update itself.

For most Asus routers, you must log in to your router, navigate to Administration, and click the Firmware Upgrade tab. From there, check for a new firmware update by clicking the "Check" button under Firmware Version. If a new firmware update is available, you can choose to install it. To ensure that your router is always up-to-date, you can always turn on the Auto Firmware Upgrade option.

Mitigations that patch the new Downfall vulnerability in Intel's previous Best CPUs have finally been released. Now, Microsoft has provided a method for turning off the Downfall mitigation for users that require speed over security.

To disable the Downfall mitigation, open an elevated command prompt and type the following: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 33554432 /f. 

Alternatively, you can execute the same command in the Windows Registry by heading to this location: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management, finding the value name FeatureSettingsOverride, finding the value type REG_DWORD, and inputting the hexadecimal code 0x2000000.

For this to work, you again must have the Downfall mitigation installed. Windows 10 and 11 installations must also include Windows updates released on August 22, 2023, or later. The same applies to Windows Server environments with Windows updates dated on or after September 12th, 2023. 

Downfall is a new CPU vulnerability affecting all modern Intel CPUs before its 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs. 11th Gen Rocket Lake, 10th Gen Comet Lake, 9th Gen Coffee Lake Refresh, 8th Gen Coffee Lake, and 7th Gen Kaby Lake CPUs are all affected. The exploit takes advantage of a new transient execution attack, GDS or Gath Data Sampling, that enables attackers to steal sensitive information from a system's most secure environments, including the user kernel, processes, virtual machines, and trusted execution environments.

GDS takes advantage of an architectural vulnerability in Intel's CPUs that reveals internal hardware registers to software, allowing attackers to infer stale data from previously used vector registers. (This is similar to AMD's Zen 1 vulnerability, which utilizes exploitable CPU registers to steal sensitive data.)

According to Microsoft, the new Downfall mitigation is now available with the installation of Intel's Platform Update (IPU) 23.3 microcode update. The update will be rolled out automatically as a motherboard firmware update for OEM systems. For DIY builders, the update will be integrated into a BIOS update for your motherboard that you can install manually. (Unless your motherboard vendor has provided an automated BIOS updating process through 3rd party applications or Windows Update.)

Microsoft did not disclose how significant the CPU performance losses are with the mitigation enabled. However, it is substantial enough that Microsoft allows the mitigation to be disabled on Windows Server environments.

The Asus ProArt X670E-Creator Wi-Fi ($444.99) is aimed at creators of all levels. It comes with dual 40 Gbps USB 4 ports, fast networking capabilities up to 10 GbE, capable power delivery to support the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, four SATA ports, and four M.2 sockets for ultra-fast storage speeds. There’s not much missing on this board, but its >$400 price will be high for consumers who won’t utilize the creator-focused hardware.

The X670E-Creator includes three full-length PCIe slots, four SATA ports, and four M.2 sockets, each sporting M.2 Q-latches (screwless, for easy mounting). The configuration should be enough for users who have already moved most of their storage to M.2. For those with LAN-attached storage, the 10 GbE port allows the fastest access available for home PC hardware. The 40 Gbps ports also double as a video output for any USB4/Thunderbolt-based devices for additional flexibility. If audio is important, the board includes a last-gen flagship-class codec that should offer plenty of fidelity.

Our performance testing went well with this board; our ProArt sample performed as well or better than most of the competition. It excelled in the Procyon Office suite, especially in the Photo and Video editing portion. If you need a break from your busy workday, the ProArt also proved to be a competent gaming machine, too. Overall, this is a well-rounded, well-performing solution with the right feature set for creators.

To see if the board earns a spot on our best motherboards list, we’ll need to fully examine its impressive hardware and performance capabilities. But before we get into all the details, here is a complete list of specs for the ProArt X670E-Creator Wi-Fi, direct from Asus.

Specifications: Asus ProArt X670E-Creator Wi-Fi

Inside the Box

The ProArt X670E-Creator Wi-Fi comes with a set of accessories to help get you going on your build. It even includes a short DisplayPort cable to use with its DP-input functionality and USB 4 ports. Like many boards these days, it doesn’t come with a driver disk, so you’ll have to download them from the Asus website. Below is a complete list of the included accessories:

• (4) SATA 6Gb/s cables
• Wi-Fi antennas
• M.2 Q-Latch
• Rubber spacers for M.2 drives
• M.2 screws
• Asus Control Center Express download
• User guide

Design of the ProArt X670E-Creator Wi-Fi 

The ProArt X670E-Creator Wi-Fi sits on a matte-black PCB, with heatsinks flanking the power delivery and covering the M.2 sockets and chipset. The heatsinks are all black and infused with metallic gold accents, which yields a conservative yet elegant appearance. There’s ProArt branding on the translucent I/O cover and the chipset heatsink, along with the “power up your imagination” tagline for the brand in the middle heatsink/shroud. 

If RGB LEDs are your thing, you’ll have to add your own, as the X670E-Creator doesn’t have any integrated. Any RGB devices you purchase will connect through the RGB and ARGB headers (1x and 3x, respectively) and are controlled through the Armory Crate and the Aura Sync software. The board won’t stand out in your chassis, but many creators aren’t looking for a lot of bling anyway.

In the top left corner, we spy two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the CPU. Here we also get a better look at the gold ProArt branding on the see-through I/O cover. The VRM heatsinks have enough mass and surface area to keep the power delivery bits below running well within specification, even with a flagship-class processor like the Ryzen 9 7950X we use to test.

Moving focus past the socket area, we find four unreinforced memory slots with a single locking mechanism on top. Asus lists support up to 128 GB of DDR5 RAM, with speeds listed to DDR4-6400. We did have issues with our base GSkill kit (it would not work and wasn’t on the QVL list), but the faster Kingston set worked fine. You probably want to stick with the QVL list on this board to ensure compatibility.

Above the RAM slots are the first three (of seven) 4-pin fan headers. Here you’ll find a CPU_FAN, CPU_OPT, and AIO_PUMP. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices. Each header outputs up to 1A/12W, which isn’t a lot. But there are seven total headers, so you shouldn’t have an issue. Control over these devices is handled through the Armory Crate or within the BIOS.

Continuing right, you’ll find a CPU Overvolt jumper that allows you to set a higher CPU voltage for those really pushing the limits. But you’ll want some kind of sub-ambient cooling to utilize that additional headroom, as what it gives you without the increase is enough to overcome a custom water loop with a high-powered processor like our Ryzen 9 7950X.

Round the corner and starting our way down the right edge, the first thing we find is the Q-LED feature that checks key components during the POST process. If it finds an error, the critical component’s LED (either CPU, DRAM, VGA, or Boot) stays lit, identifying the problem area. Next, along the edge, is a 24-pin ATX connector to power the board, along with a supplemental 6-pin PCIe connector to enable 60W charging (PD/QC4+) capability through the front USB Type-C port (otherwise, it’s 27W). Last on this half of the board is the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) connector.

Power delivery on our X670E-Creator is set up in a 16+2 configuration. For Vcore, power comes down from the EPS connector(s) and onto the Digi+ VRM (ASP2206) controller. From there, it heads down to the 16x MPS (Monolithic Power Systems) 70A MOSFETs in a Teamed configuration. The 1,120A available for the processor can handle flagship-class processors like our 16-core/32-thread 7950X. The power delivery won’t hinder performance or any overclocking adventures. You’ll run into cooling issues for the CPU well before the VRMs get in the way.

On the bottom half of the board, hidden under a translucent shroud, is the Realtek ALC S1220A codec. You won’t find any amps or DACs here, but the codec used is a premium option from the last generation. Control over the audio comes from the Realtek software you can download at the Asus website (Microsoft Store these days).

In the middle are three full-length PCIe slots, with the two PCIe 5.0 slots (top) using reinforcement to prevent shearing from heavy video cards. The top slot connects through the CPU and runs up to PCIe 5.0 x16, with the middle slot also sharing CPU bandwidth running up to PCIe 5.0 x8 speeds. Notable on the top slot is the PCIe Q-Release button to unlock the card from the slot with ease. With both slots in use, the top slots break down to PCIe 5.0 x8/x8. The bottom full-length slot connects through the chipset and runs at PCIe 4.0 x2, which should be enough for most add-in cards. 

Mixed in among the PCIe slots are four M.2 sockets. The top two sockets, M.2_1 and M.2 _2, are the PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) sockets that connect through the CPU. M.2_3 and M.2_4 run across the bottom and source their bandwidth through the chipset running at PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) speeds. All M.2 sockets support up to 80mm modules except for the M.2_4, which supports up to 110mm devices. If you’d like to increase speed or add redundancy, the Creator supports RAID0/1/10 modes for NVMe.

Past the chipset heatsink to the right edge are two (of four) horizontally oriented SATA ports. The other two  ports are located across the bottom edge of the board. If you’d like to RAID these drives, the board supports RAID0/1/10 modes here, too.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the typical stuff here, including additional USB, RGB, 4-pin fan headers, and more. Below is a complete list from left to right:

• Front panel audio
• COM port
• 4-pin chassis fan header
• (2) 3-pin ARGB headers
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• (2) SATA ports
• Clear CMOS jumper
• Thermal sensor
• Front Panel

The rear IO on our Creator board, like most others that step up above budget range, comes with the shroud pre-installed to the motherboard. Like the board, the ProArt’s simple black design with gold finds its way to the I/O plate. There are 11 total USB ports, with two USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C (also doubles as the DisplayPort outputs), a 20 Gbps Type-C port, seven 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports, and a single USB 2.0 used for the BIOS Flashback feature. Above that are the 10 GbE and 2.5 GbE LAN ports and the Wi-Fi 6E antenna connections. There’s a DisplayPort INPUT (the USB 4 Type-C ports output) and HDMI output for video. The audio section forgoes the SPDIF/optical and uses three 3.5mm analog plugs. Finally, there’s a small BIOS Flashback button to initiate a BIOS update without a processor.

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Firmware

Asus’ BIOS on the ProArt uses a black background with blue highlights and white/gray writing. Asus starts in an Easy Mode that displays high-level information, including CPU and memory clock speeds, temperatures, fan speeds, storage information, etc. Advanced Mode has several headers across the top that drop down additional options. The BIOS is one of my favorites, as almost everything you need isn’t buried deep within menus, and the options are typically plentiful as they are here. 

Software

Asus’ software suite for the ProArt is similar to others in the lineup but adds the Asus Control Center Express along with the Armory Crate. The latter uses a ProArt-inspired theme. There are several applications for various functions, ranging from RGB lighting control, audio, system monitoring, overclocking, etc. We’ve captured several screenshots of the applications below. Here’s a look at Ai Suite 3, Armoury Crate, Sonic studio and the Realtek Audio application. 

ProArt series boards also offer access to advanced security management functions through Asus Control Center Express. The software allows users to lock USB ports, remotely disable the registry editor on remote devices and provides a software blacklist to prevent using high-risk applications.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. Additionally, we updated to F1 22 in our games suite and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:

Test System Components

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing.

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for either stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

Results from this set of benchmarks show our ProArt board as average to slightly above average across several tests. It did well in the Procyon Office and Photo and Video editing tests. The latter is good for creators. That said, you wouldn’t be able to pick it out of a crowd as too slow or too fast. As usual, performance differences between most boards are quite minimal. 

Timed Applications

In the timed applications, the ProArt did well in the LAME test, anding in second place, and was average in the Corona 1.4 benchmark for ray tracing. Handbrake results also hovered right around average. So far, it’s a performant board across various applications. 

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Ryzen 7000, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21, to the latest version, F1 22. We're keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920 x 1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most differences falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, affecting your gameplay and immersion experience.

Our gaming tests showed that although the ProArt is designed for creators, it was a competent gaming machine out of the box as well. In short, there’s nothing to worry about performance-wise as Asus has the BIOS tuned well, as they should at this point in the life cycle.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same.

Power consumption for the Asus was average among our tested boards. It idled around 81W, with a peak of 274W. This averages out to 178W, which is almost exactly the average among our tested boards.

During our testing, VRM temperatures on the ProArt Creator reached around 50 degrees Celsius at stock and nearly 60 degrees Celsius when overclocked. While warmer than some other boards, the power delivery was easily kept within specification. The board will not get in the way of overclocking adventures, even using our high-power Ryzen 9 7950X processor.

Overclocking

Over the last few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking (at least on the AMD side) while the out-of-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, it means you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Our goal in this section is to increase the load on the VRMs and see if they can handle the additional stress. Overclocking AMD CPUs can be done in several ways (all-core or adjust PBO values). But for simplicity’s sake, we just went with an all-core overclock of 5.4 GHz with 1.30V to increase the power output.

Since our approach is to add power through all cores, we simply raised the CPU multiplier to 54x, manually set the voltage to 1.30V, and adjusted LLC to minimize vdroop. On the memory side, AMD states the sweet spot is around DDR5-6000, so we used the Kingston Fury kit, set the AMD EXPO profile and checked for stability.

After setting the CPU multiplier, Vcore and adjusting LLC to mitigate vdroop (minimal in the first place), off we went onto a stable, overclocked system throughout our stress test.

On the memory side, we had a bit of work to do. First, our GSkill kit that we’ve used on AMD boards since launch doesn’t work on this board. For base/performance testing, we used the Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 kit with manually adjusted speed and primary timings to gather the data. The kit isn’t on the QVL list, so that’s not surprising. But still, this is the first board they won’t work with our main ki out of the box.

That out of the way, we set the Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 kit, enabled EXPO, and things were stable. Just be sure to get a kit off the approved list if you want to ensure compatibility. That’s good advice for any board, really.

Bottom Line

If you’re a creator looking to get the latest and greatest connectivity for your workflows out of a motherboard, the Asus ProArt X670E-Creator Wi-Fi is THE option in the upper-midrange space. Priced just under $450, It’s one of the least-expensive optionis with USB 4 (40 Gbps) support and the DisplayPort input. There’s also plenty of fast storage, with two PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) sockets and two others running at PCIe 4.0 x4. There’s plenty of USB connectivity on the rear IO and front panel options to connect your peripherals. The board is also one of – if not the – least expensive Ryzen 7000 board with a native 10 GbE port for even snappier transfers over a LAN.

That said, it’s not all fairy tales and unicorns. If your storage consists of more than four SATA devices, you must add an expansion card to the bottom PCIe slot or look elsewhere. There is a level of simple elegance to the black-on-gold aesthetic. However, those who want a centerpiece to show off in their build will need to add RGBs or other bling to stand out.

As far as competition, anything designed for creators seems to be on the less expensive side (ASRock X670E Pro RS at $280, for example) and doesn’t add too much in the way of helpful hardware (such as USB 4, DP passthrough functionality, and 10 GbE). But you won’t find that on any board for that price either. If you compare at this board’s price point, things get a bit more interesting. ASRock’s X670E Taichi ($499.99) is the closest competitor hardware-wise, missing only the 10 GbE. MSI’s X670E Carbon WI-Fi ($479.99) is also in the ballpark but missing native USB 4 and 10 GbE. 

Ultimately, if you’re a creator (or any type of user) requiring many USB ports, the fastest ethernet available, and USB 4 with video pass-through, the ProArt X670E-Creator Wi-Fi is one of the only options under $500. The rest are flagship-class motherboards that fetch a significant premium. Less expensive options are available, but you’ll sacrifice quite a bit in terms of features. While it isn’t the best-looking motherboard at the price point, the ProArt X670E-Creator does offer a wide-ranging feature set that creatives can utilize, at a fair price.

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Western Digital is facing a class action lawsuit regarding SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD failures and subsequent losses of user data. The class action group is looking for in excess of $5,000,000 plus interest, fees, and costs, the Register reports. California resident Nathan Krum, is named as the plaintiff. 

In May stories popped up about SanDisk Extreme Portable SSDs suffering from sudden failures. A multitude of customers were highlighting data loss problems stemming from their use of this particular family of external SSDs on social media and SanDisk forums. The most common sign that something had gone wrong, and that your SSD had been affected by the data loss issue, was when plugging in you received a message stating "The disk you attached was not readable by this computer." By May, WD / SanDisk admitted it was aware of issues with its external SSDs and promised a firmware update was on the way "soon."

WD seemed to limit its scope of admission regarding the failed drives. In previous reports,  we noted that the storage giant intended to provide firmware updates for the 4TB SanDisk Extreme and / or Extreme Pro portable SSDs (SDSSDE61-4T00 and SDSSDE81-4T00 respectively). However, we saw plenty of comments from people with one of these drives in another capacity (they are available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB, too), struggling with the same sudden data loss issues. There was no mention of refunds being made available.

The lack of refunds, or mention of fixes other capacity drives, might be what pushed the plaintiff to instigate legal action. Krum says he bought a SanDisk Extreme Pro 2TB model for $179.99 on or about May 19, 2023 from Amazon.com. After the drive failed and the lost data Krum had saved upon it, he says he spent money on data recovery services, and to purchase a replacement external hard drive. Of course, dealing with such issues also requires a substantial amount of personal time and energy. Making matters worse, Krum says he "cannot return it [the SSD] for a full refund," and he "can no longer trust using the drive and thus it is worthless to him."

It's not a good look, as the SanDisk Extreme Pro 2TB is advertised as being "reliable enough to take on any adventure," and "a rugged, dependable storage solution," targeting photographers, videographers, and other creative professionals and hobbyists. Moreover, despite WD's statements about data safety, the plaintiff asserts that there was a known "latent defect in manufacturing and/or design." As well as the misleading advertising complaint, the plaintiff is alleging breach of contract and violation of consumer protection law.

The class action document published by the United States District Court For The Northern District Of California, San Jose Division, also contains some information about the experiences of SanDisk Extreme (Pro) customers since our May report. It states that the firmware updates designed to fix / prevent data loss issues were "unreliable," and that replacement drives sent to customers were "reported to suffer from the same defect."

According to the filing, class members are "All persons in the United States who purchased a SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD portable solid-state hard drive, including the SanDisk Extreme Pro, Extreme Portable, Extreme Pro Portable, and WD MyPassport SSD models, at retail since at least January 2023." There are a few exclusions, such as WD / SanDisk employees and resellers. It is estimated that there will be "tens if not hundreds of thousands of individuals," included.

WD's help pages continue to maintain that the firmware updates released fix a problem where drives "unexpectedly disconnect from a computer." It states that the firmware issue has now been addressed by manufacturing and currently shipping products aren't affected (see FAQ section of linked page).

Elegoo has entered the race for speed with a much faster version of their popular Neptune 3 Pro, The Neptune 4. It has improved speed thanks to a hidden install of Klipper firmware, plus everything that made the Neptune 3 Pro our favorite 3D printer for beginners. 

Currently priced at $259, the Neptune 4 is quite a bargain in the field of fast printing. However, the way Elegoo chose to integrate Klipper is confounding. It's hidden in the background, granting the user speed while making its other perks difficult to access. The hands-off approach might work fine for complete beginners, but if you want to poke under the hood you’ll have to find a long enough Ethernet cable to reach your router or take a leap of faith on finding a compatible WiFi dongle. 

There’s still a lot to love about the Neptune 4. It arrives 90% pre-assembled, making it a quick build. It has dual Z axis, a grippy direct drive that handles TPU like a champ, a high flow nozzle rated to 300 degrees, a giant cooling fan and an easy to navigate touch screen. It even has an LED light on the gantry. 

Leveling has taken a step backwards. Though it’s still very good, it’s adopted a more tedious manual + auto leveling system. It’s not too surprising that Elegoo didn’t include an accelerometer for tuning input shaping, but there’s no visible way to hook one up either. A beginner won’t see this as a failing, as the factory settings are really quite good. However, this is the kind of feature a more seasoned maker will sorely miss.

Specifications: Elegoo Neptune 4

Elegoo Neptune 4: Included in the Box

The Neptune 4 comes with everything you need to get your printer set up. You get tools to build and maintain the printer, side cutters, a plastic scraper, 2 spare nozzles, and a USB stick. There’s also a small sample of white PLA to print your first model. 

The USB stick has a very helpful short video on assembling the printer. You also get a PDF copy of the manual, a copy of Elegoo Cura and a sample model in both pre-sliced .gcode and .stl format.

Design of the Elegoo Neptune 4

The Neptune 4 looks exactly like the Neptune 3…with the addition of a huge cooling fan bolted to the back of the X gantry. The gray aluminum with white detailing and “Create the Future” motto is still fairly distinctive from any other brand on the market.

There are few improvements over the third iteration – the fans now spin on ball bearings and leveling can tap 121 points. The dual-gear direct drive is lighter weight with a bigger gear: a 5.2 to 1 ratio rather than 3 to 1. The hotend also boasts a copper-titanium all-metal throat for more efficient heating.

The giant cooling fan on the gantry is made up of four 4020 ball bearing fans. It’s pointed right below the nozzle and does a good job of cooling the just printed layer extremely fast. If you don’t need to print at supersonic speeds, you can switch off the bonus fan. It’s also fairly loud, but I’ve yet to find a high speed printer that wasn’t loud.

In case you’re not familiar with the Neptune 3 Pro, this one shares the same dual Z axis with a synchronizing belt at the top. The large removable touchpad with a magnetic base is the same, as is that curly landline style cord. Personally, I never take the touchpad off, but if you’ve got a problem with glare I can see it coming in handy.

What’s more intriguing than the screen is what’s on it. It looks very much like the Neptune 3 Pro, a printer with traditional Marlin firmware, not Klipper. I’ve reviewed several printers running Klipper and the best ones have adopted KlipperScreen, which gives you more features. It seems that Elegoo decided the best way to run Klipper is to not see it at all.

The Neptune 4 does not come with WiFi, making it tricky to even access Klipper. You can plug your machine directly into your router if you have an Ethernet cable long enough. I only hooked our test unit to the router for a short time because there was no good place to put the printer except the floor. You may be able to find a WiFi dongle that will work, but since Elegoo does not provide one, you’re on your own.

Accessing Klipper through Fluidd is the only way you can send files remotely or tinker with the machine’s settings, like input shaping or acceleration. Fortunately, the factory calibration is pretty decent, which should satisfy Elegoo’s desired beginner audience.

Assembling the Elegoo Neptune 4

The Neptune 4 comes mostly assembled, only needing a few bolts to put the machine together. The upper frame is attached to the base with bolts that come up through the bottom.

The touch screen holder screws into the side and plugs in with a curly RJ11 cord, making it look like an old landline phone. All the electrical connections are labeled – or extremely obvious where they need to go.

Leveling the Elegoo Neptune 4

The Neptune 4 has returned to pairing manual leveling with an inductive auto level probe – a backwards move as the Neptune 3 and 3 Pro use a hard mounted bed. This system is not only more complex, but inferior. I saw the adjustment wheels shake loose and fall off the machine during an afternoon of speed testing. I would highly advise stopping by your local hardware store for some lock nuts to keep your knobs in place.

To start leveling, you’ll press the Level Icon on the main menu then find the Z height adjustment in the center of the screen. It’s not labeled, but it’s the number flanked by up and down arrows. Slide a piece of ordinary paper under the nozzle and tap the arrows until the nozzle just scrapes the paper.

Now press Auxiliary to enter manual leveling mode. Tap the corner icons to move the nozzle to each corner. Place the paper under the nozzle and adjust the knob until it just scrapes the paper. You’ll need to do this several times as adjusting one corner will throw another corner off balance.

Return to the leveling screen and press Auto Leveling. This will perfect your manual leveling efforts. The bed will heat up, and the probe will bob over 36 points on the bed.

Return to the leveling screen and double-check the z height as it may have moved. Use the paper again and repeat the first step.

IMPORTANT: press the save icon in the upper right corner before leaving the leveling menu to save this data into the config file. The printer will use this data before every print and you won’t need to relevel unless you move the printer, or the wheels fall off.

Loading Filament on the Elegoo Neptune 4

The Neptune 4 is a direct drive printer with its extruder and hotend all in one spot. Loading filament takes a few more taps on the screen than previous Neptunes, but the mechanics are the same.

To load filament, tap Prepare on the main menu, then Temperature and select the one of four presets that match your filament. Once the hotend is warmed past 190 degrees, you can insert the filament into the top of the extruder and let the wheels pull the filament through.

To unload or change colors, simply reverse the process.

Preparing Files / Software for Elegoo Neptune 4

The Neptune 4 comes with a copy of Elegoo Cura, which has profiles for all its machines and several materials. It also has the added ability to create a thumbnail of your model to display on the printer. Though Elegoo claims the Neptune 4 has a maximum speed of 500mm/s, the default profile provided is 250mm/s. There is no profile for higher speeds, so you’ll have to experiment with that yourself.

Standard versions of Cura or Prusa Slicer don’t have profiles for the Neptune 4, but you can use the profile for a Neptune 3 and bump up the speed.

Note: The Neptune 4 doesn’t have Klipper “START_PRINT” and “END_PRINT” macros, but rather uses the Marlin start and end codes.

Printing on the Elegoo Neptune 4

You’ll quickly learn that speed isn’t everything, especially when printing filament that is normally glossy. High speed printing wrecks havoc on the finish, often producing surfaces that are flat and dull. If it’s a practical print, you may not care if your part isn’t shiny – but if you’re printing decorative parts you’ll want slower speeds. Fortunately, you can find balance by printing the infill and inner walls at high speed while slowing the outer and top layers for a nicer finish.

Below is a model printed in the same filament, Polymaker Starlight Mercury PLA. The one on the left is dull grey after being printed at 250mm/s. The one on the right retains its purple sparkle and was printed with 250mm/s for the infill and inner walls, but 75mm/s on the outer wall and top/bottom layers.

The other issue with high speed is that many prints are not long enough to reach the manufacturer's claim of 500mm/s. Once you factor in acceleration (capped at 5000mm/s on the Neptune 4) and the need to slow down for corners, you’re doing 250mm/s at best.

Still the Neptune 4 is much faster than the Neptune 3 Pro and similar last-gen bedslingers. The printer achieved a very good 20 minute Speed Benchy. This is the traditional Benchy test print using standards adopted for speed contests. It has 2 walls, 3 top and bottom layers, 10% grid infill, a .25 layer height and .5 layer width. Printed in ordinary gray Inland PLA, this boat is a little rough on the hull, but there’s no ghosting and the overhangs are perfect.

Elegoo sent a spool of Rapid speed PLA+ to try out with this printer. The results are marginally better than our tests with Inland PLA. You don’t want to limit yourself to one kind of filament, so check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for examples of our favorite materials to add to your supply.

The printer is more than capable of producing smooth, quality prints when you slow it down a bit. This X Wing pen holder was printed using the default settings, which uses 250 for the inner parts and 130 for the outer walls and top/bottom layers. The detail is crisp, without any ghosting, but the color is a bit washed out from the speed. Printed in ProtoPasta Wonder Black Rainbow Glitter, Polymaker Starlight Mercury PLA for the stand, and Prusament Galaxy Silver for the engine highlights. Total print time is 3 hours and 9 minutes, using 3 walls, 250mm/s inside parts and 75mm/s outer layers & walls.

The Neptune 4 did a remarkable job with TPU when slowed down to 50mm/s. These bike handle covers may not be the best print to show off the machine’s quality – the pattern did get rougher the farther away it got from the bed. But considering these slender tubes are 157 mm tall and quite squishy I’m amazed they worked at all. These printed in 1 hour and 53 minutes each using Elegoo’s default settings for TPU.

I did several prints in PETG, but this Maker’s Muse Clearance Castle really shows off the Neptune 4’s quality. The castle is a torture test with tight clearances and bridging, which all printed quite well with crisp lines and little stringing. This used Elegoo’s default settings for PETG which slowed the printer to 50mm/s on the outer walls, 80 on the inner walls, but kept a brisk 150 mm/s on the infill. It was able to complete the print in 2 hours and 6 minutes. The Neptune 3 would have taken three hours more, so this is still a significant time savings.

Bottom Line

The Neptune 4 is a confusing little 3D printer. Is it for beginners? Maybe. Is it for fans of Klipper? Not really. It comes with an unrestricted copy of Klipper, a huge plus, but makes it difficult to access without WiFi. You can certainly run a cable to it, but how many people have their router on the same workbench as their 3D printer?

The variables that come with high speed printing make me reluctant to recommend this printer for beginners, who may not understand why their shiny new printer can’t run full tilt at the manufacturer’s claim of 500mm/s. On the other hand, those who have experience with Klipper may feel frustrated that their access is physically restricted by a simple lack of hardware.

Who is it for? With a tantalizing price tag of $259, the Neptune 4 is perfect for makers at the midpoint of their journey. People who understand the ins and outs of Cura settings, but aren’t control freaks and need to tweak every aspect of their Klipper config file, people who are comfortable with “good enough” input shaping and relish the bargain of an affordable fast printer.

I’m still going to recommend the Neptune 3 Pro for absolute beginners, especially with its reduced price of $199.99. If you want a simple-to-use Klipper printer with no restrictions, then check out the Sovol SV07. Priced at $339 it has both the expected WiFi plus a really sweet Klipper Screen that puts all the data at your fingertips. If your budget allows, the $699 Bambu Lab P1S cannot be beat for pure speed, range of filaments and ease of use.

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While Wi-Fi 7 is right around the corner, many are still getting acclimated to Wi-Fi 6E. We’ve already tested several Wi-Fi 6E routers, with the latest coming courtesy of MSI.

MSI’s RadiX AXE6600 is a compelling entry into the wireless gaming router field with its array of six antennas and heavy use of MSI’s Mystic Light to liven things up stylistically. MSI also enhances the RadiX AXE6600 with a 2.5Gbps WAN/LAN port (one of the four remaining 1 Gbps ports can also be used for WAN if you desire). 

Available for a reasonable $256, RadiX AXE6600 delivers good looks, a comprehensive web GUI and performed well in our benchmarking suite. That makes it one of the best gaming routers available and also one of the best routers overall.

Looking at the router, the feature that stands out most is the antenna array, with six poseable elements along its sides and back panel. Each antenna features an LED for syncing with MSI’s Mystic Light. There’s one additional LED located in the MSI logo on top of the router. 

Interestingly, while you can enable Mystic Light from the web interface (or using the smartphone app), you cannot adjust the colors using these methods. Instead, you must install the MSI Center app on a Windows PC to change the RGB settings.

A status panel near the top rear of the router also highlights internet connectivity, power status, and activity from the four gigabit ethernet ports. There are also buttons for Wi-Fi and WPS, along with an “LED Off” button which, understandably, turns off the LEDs on the status panel.

Moving around to the rear of the router, you’ll find a 2.5 GbE WAN port, four GbE LAN ports, a USB 3.0 port, and a power button. There’s also a plethora of vents along the front, sides, and bottom of the RadiX AXE6600 to keep the router cool.

MSI RadiX AXE6600 Wi-Fi 6E Gaming Router Specifications

MSI RadiX AXE6600 Setup

Although you can set up the RadiX AXE6600 using a smartphone, I used the tried-and-true web browser method. After navigating to the http://msirouter.login address, I could log in using the credentials printed on the bottom of the router. Then, I was greeted with a vibrant, easy-to-navigate user interface with large buttons and clear graphics.

Thankfully, the router already had the latest firmware installed. However, updating the firmware is a simple affair. You just must navigate to Advanced → Administration → Firmware Upgrade. You can manually upgrade using a firmware package downloaded directly from MSI or an online tool that automatically checks for new updates and installs the firmware.

When you first login to the router, you’re greeted with the Dashboard, which presents information on hardware resources consumed and currently-connected devices. You’ll also find presets to change the router's QoS (Quality of Service) settings. The four that most users will likely enable at some point include AI Auto, Gaming, Streaming, and WFH.

There’s also a dedicated Game Center subsection where you can enable Game Boost mode. If you select the Traditional QoS mode, you’re also given the option to prioritize MSI devices. Game Center is also where you’ll find controls to enable the Mystic Light function.

Like most Wi-Fi 6E routers, the RadiX AXE6600 ships with three wireless bands enabled (2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz), each with its own SSID. In this case, the router defaulted to MSI_2G_FE, MSI_5G_FE, and MSI_6G_FE as the SSIDs, but you will want to set your own.

However, the RadiX AXE6600 can also use Smart Connect, which sets a single SSID for the router. Whether your device maxes out at Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E, it will connect to the router using the same SSID, with the client choosing the appropriate band automatically. However, keep in mind that Smart Connect can often diminish network performance.

The Radix AXE6600 offers basic parental controls, including the ability to filter for Adult content, gambling, violence, drugs/firearms, malicious content and games. Each is individually selectable, and you can specify the MAC address to which the settings apply.

MSI RadiX AXE6600 Performance

We conducted multiple tests in a single-family, two-story home with a 500 Mbps connection, using a laptop with an AMD RZ616 160 MHz network adapter as the client. Another PC, attached via Ethernet, functioned as the server to receive traffic. We used iPerf to test throughput and ping to test latency. Four sets of tests were conducted on the 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz and 6-GHz bands:

Near uncongested:  Testing laptop approximately 6 feet away from the router, no substantial traffic being carried across other devices

Far uncongested: Testing laptop approximately 25 feet away from the router, no substantial traffic being carried across other devices

Near congested: Testing laptop approximately 6 feet away from the router with videos streaming on four devices throughout the house

Far congested: Testing laptop approximately 25 feet away from the router with videos streaming on four devices throughout the house

The RadiX AXE6600 put up solid numbers on the 6-GHz band, as witnessed by our iPerf test scores. The RadiX AXE6600 can hit a theoretical 4,804 Mbps on the 6-GHz channel, but real-world iPerf numbers for every router we’ve tested are in the 150 to 550 Mbps range. 

The RadiX AXE6600 managed 532 Mbps in the 6-foot iPerf test, which still far surpassed that of the next-closest competitor, the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE300. The results weren’t nearly as impressive 25 feet away, where the RadiX AXE6600 managed just 283 Mbps. Congested performance at 6-GHz was also strong, reaching 500 Mbps at 6 feet. However, that performance dropped at 25 feet, dropping to just under 200 Mbps, putting it well behind the other Wi-Fi 6E competition.

We witnessed a similar Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde performance at 5-GHz, with the 6-foot numbers coming in at a healthy 486 Mbps, well over 100 Mbps faster than the next-closest competitor. The tables turned at 25 feet, with the RadiX AXE6600 coming in at just 149 Mbps, below the average performance of the other assembled routers. With congested traffic, the RadiX AXE6600 pulled up last place at 6 feet and 25 feet.

At 2.4-GHz, the RadiX AXE6600 had some of the weakest throughput numbers of any router we tested. However, it still had very low latency and its speeds were more than good enough for the kinds of devices most people would have on a 2.4-GHz band (smart home devices, old tablets, etc). 

The 2.4-GHz uncongested iPerf numbers reached 128 Mbps at 6 feet and 44.5 Mbps at 25 feet, both of which are quite low. The router slipped into last place among its competitors on the 2.4-GHz band when the network was congested, managing just 73.6 Mbps at 6 feet compared to 101.2 Mbps for the nearest competitor and 151.4 Mbps for the first-place Asus RT-AXE7800.

One thing that was consistent through all the tests, however, was the ping. Across 6-GHz, 5-GHz and 2.4-GHz channels with congested or uncongested traffic, the RadiX AXE6600 maintained speedy pings of 1 to 4 ms. Latency matters more than throughput when you’re playing games because most of the game data is actually on your PC, but your movements and commands need to reach the server quickly.

Bottom Line

The MSI RadiX AXE6600 offers strong performance on the 6-GHz band, a wealth of features, and striking looks at an attractive price point. On the other hand, 5-GHz performance was inconsistent, and 2.4-GHz performance put it at the back of the pack compared to other assembled Wi-Fi 6E routers. The RadiX AXE6600 has an MSRP of $349.99; however, retailers like Amazon offer the RadiX AXE6600 with a $90 discount, taking it to just $256 shipped.

If you have Wi-Fi 6E devices on your network, the RadiX AXE6600 is by far the best-performing router that we’ve tested. The numbers that the router was able to consistently deliver on the 6-GHz band far outpaced the competition at 6 feet and were in the same ballpark at 25 feet. 5-GHz performance was a bit more sporadic (although it took a considerable lead in the 6-foot iPerf test). 2.4-GHz performance, while on the lower side, is more than adequate for the older, slower devices that typically use that band.

We also can’t ignore that MSI has crafted an easy-to-use UI for configuration changes. There are plenty of presets for those that want AI to take over for QoS, or you can get down in the weeds and make granular adjustments on your own. And for those that aren’t enamored with the flashiness of the Mystic Light, it can be turned off.

If you don’t have any Wi-Fi 6E devices on your network or don’t plan on enlisting any soon, there are plenty of cheaper Wi-Fi 6 routers out there to consider, including the budget-minded Asus RT-AX1800S. But if you want blazing-fast Wi-Fi 6E performance, the RadiX AXE6600 is tough to beat.

A new security vulnerability, called Downfall, was revealed today by Intel and the researcher who discovered it, Daniel Moghimi. The new attack uses Gather Data Sampling to steal data and other sensitive information from other users on a computer with Intel processors from 2015 through 2019 ranging from sixth gen Skylake through eleventh gen Rocket Lake and Tiger Lake.

Intel has posted about the vulnerability in a security advisory, INTEL-SA-00828, and has reserved CVE-2022-40982.

Moghami, a senior research scientist at Google (and formerly of the University of California San Diego posted details on downfall.page.

"The vulnerability is caused by memory optimization features in Intel processors that unintentionally reveal internal hardware registers to software," Moghami wrote. "This allows untrusted software to access data stored by other programs, which should not be normally be accessible. I discovered that the Gather instruction, meant to speed up accessing scattered data in memory, leaks the content of the internal vector register file during speculative execution."

On the page, Moghami shows demos stealing 128-bit and 256-bit AES keys from other users, as well as spying on typed characters and taking data from the Linux kernel. He suggests that even if you don't own an Intel powered-device, Intel's dominance in the server market means that everyone on the internet is affected, and that "in cloud computing environments, a malicious customer could exploit the Downfall vulnerability to steal data and credentials from other customers who share the same cloud computer."

Intel is releasing microcode for its affected chips. The company "recommends that users of affected Intel Processors update to the latest version firmware provided by the system manufacturer that addresses these issues." If you're not using Intel SGX, a hardware-based memory encryption technology from Intel, you can load it from the operating system.

In a statement to Tom's Hardware, Intel wrote: "The security researcher, working within the controlled conditions of a research environment, demonstrated the GDS issue which relies on software using Gather instructions. While this attack would be very complex to pull off outside of such controlled conditions, affected platforms have an available mitigation via a microcode update. Recent Intel processors, including Alder Lake, Raptor Lake and Sapphire Rapids, are not affected. Many customers, after reviewing Intel's risk assessment guidance, may determine to disable the mitigation via switches made available through Windows and Linux operating systems as well as VMMs. In public cloud environments, customers should check with their provider on the feasibility of these switches.”

The overhead, per Moghami and Intel, could be as high as 50% depending on if a workload uses Gather. Notably, Intel will have an "opt-out mechanism" in the microcode that allows the mitigation for Downfall to be disabled in order to "avoid the performance impact on certain vectorization-heavy workloads."

The researcher recommends against opting out: "This is a bad idea. Even if your workload does not use vector instructions, modern CPUs rely on vector registers to optimize common operations, such as copying memory and switching register content, which leaks data to untrusted code exploiting Gather."

Moghami will present Downfall at the BlackHat USA conference on August 9 and USENIX Security Symposium on August 11. His technical paper can be found here.

Newer Intel chips, like 12th Gen Alder Lake, 13th Gen Raptor Lake, and Sapphire Rapids server chips aren't affected. 

Updated August 9 with comment from Intel.

Intrepid Steam Deck modder Balázs Triszka has shared news of an impressive feat of handheld device enhancement. In a recent Tweet/X by Triszka (h/t Overclock3D), we see that they managed to boost the Valve-made x86 PC gaming portable to 32 GB of RAM. That’s double the RAM quota this SteamOS handheld is factory configured with.

Upgrading the RAM on a Steam Deck is definitely not for everyone. Unlike your desktop, and many laptops, the RAM in these devices is soldered directly to the system PCB, like on a graphics card. These RAM chips will be attached with a plethora of tiny solder balls (ball grid array, BGA) to the mainboard of the Steam Deck. You'll need a one of the best hot air rework stations to make this possible.

Sometimes memory module replacement, for repair or expansion, is hindered by glue under the BGA chip. However, Triszka confirmed that Valve hasn’t done this. To double the memory quota of the Steam Deck, the modder simply switched the existing RAM chips for similar ones with double the capacity / density.

Triszka shows the flux-strewn aftermath of his de/soldering of the system’s RAM chips. A bath of isopropyl alcohol will soon have this mod looking factory fresh. This high-temperature molten metal surgery was just the beginning of the demonstrably effective mod. Very often hardware needs a firmware modification to enable this kind of upgrade, and this is true of the Steam Deck memory doubling mod. However, the satisfying conclusion is that this mod works, and you can see evidence of the system reporting an available 32 GB of RAM, below.

The Steam Deck is one of the most popular of the new wave of PC gaming handhelds, which is understandable given that it invigorated the segment with a uniquely compelling software / hardware combo in 2022. One of the good things about a leading and popular device is that it attracts the most developer attention.

We have already documented the arrival of a multitude of upgrades and mods like: an enhanced screen replacement, liquid cooling, a transparent shell, and we have tested lots of SSD upgrades. But be warned, RAM upgrades like Triszka are far from trivial, with soldering equipment and skills required in abundance. Modders also need a strong disposition and steady hands.

The creator of the Linux OS, Linus Torvalds, vented his frustration with AMD's fTPM implementation (h/t Phoronix). Tersely characterizing the AMD fTPM as "crud," the outspoken Finnish developer appeared to suggest the best thing to do with this motherboard flash-based TPM solution would be to disable it, at least as far as using it for hardware random number generation is concerned. Torvalds noted that the CPU RDRAND instruction for the same task doesn't cause stuttering, so it could be used instead.

We have previously covered news of AMD's fTPM (firmware trusted platform module) implementation causing stuttering in Windows apps and games, and the official purported fix/workaround. Please carefully heed AMD's warning about the workaround of switching an active system from fTPM to dTPM. However, it seems like AMD's BIOS patches haven't managed to iron out all the fTPM stuttering behavior on Windows or Linux.

We wrote our last article about AMD fTPM-induced stuttering on Windows in March 2022. However, subsequently launched AMD CPUs and platforms appear to have inherited the same or similar issues. People with the newest AM5 systems in 2023 are still complaining about stuttering, though without further investigation, we can't be sure whether there is some other root cause. System stuttering can be a huge problem when working with media files since it can interrupt video conferencing and infuriate gamers (among other things).

Circling back to the Linux creator's diatribe concerning AMD's fTPM, he began with his conclusion: "Let's just disable the stupid fTPM HWRND thing," was his opening assertion. Various reasons were put forward to this end, but the crux of the issue seems to be that the fixes we have seen and reported upon "apparently didn't turn out to be true."

In a further lengthy comment on the state of the AMD fTPM, Torvalds appeared to throw shade at motherboard BIOS coders before putting forward a key observation about the CPU-based RDRAND vs. the fTPM-based HWRND. "So RDRAND (and RDSEED in particular) can be rather slow, but I think we're talking hundreds of CPU cycles (maybe low thousands)," wrote Torvalds. "Nothing like the stuttering reports we've seen from fTPM."

It would be interesting to hear from readers with AMD CPU-based systems about whether the official fixes or workarounds helped or the extent of any stuttering issues still present (Windows & Linux users).

We previously reviewed the Z790 Taichi and found it loaded to gills with high-end specifications. And if you have the Carrara version, you get a truly unique marbled look that sets it apart from the competition.But while the current $479.99 price of that board is good among flagship-class competition, it’s still not cheap. What if you can have your cake and eat it too? This is where the Z790 (and B650E) Taichi “Lite” comes into play. While the premium appearance is gone, the impressive hardware list remains intact, while the price drops $100.

Priced at $379.99, the Z790 Taichi Lite sits squarely in the upper mid-range price bracket of the current motherboard spectrum. For the money, you get dual Thunderboard 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports, an abundant number of storage options, including PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket and eight total SATA ports, a flagship-class audio solution with a DAC, Killer-based networking, and power delivery fit for sub-ambient overclocking.

The biggest change is in the appearance – gone are the stylish heatsinks and the signature cog look the Taichi series is known for. While the cog theme remains, what was once 3D and made from metal, these familiar shapes are stenciled on the heatsinks and PCB instead. The board doesn’t look bad with the mostly black theme. It’s just not the same compared to the original. But that’s also the point – to bring one of the more impressive sets of specifications with unlocked performance, but at a lower cost to the consumer.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see if costume change helps the Taichi Lite find its way onto our Best Motherboards list. Before we get into our testing and board details, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock.

Specifications: ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite

Inside the Box of the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite 

Inside the retail box, along with the motherboard, is a small trove of accessories. ASRock includes the basics to get you started (and a bit more than the full-flavor Taichi), but not much more. Below is the full list.

• User Manual
• Four SATA cables
• Wireless Dingle USB bracket
• ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz antenna
• Four Screws for M.2 Sockets

Design of the Taichi Lite

Taking the Z790 Taichi Lite’s look at face value, the matte-black 8-layer E-ATX PCB with oversized black heatsinks doesn’t look bad. It just doesn’t give off the same premium vibes the original does with its 3D design and RGB implementation. Instead of heatsinks and shrouds covering the PCB, more is exposed, giving way to strips of heatsinks for the M.2 sockets compared to the full coverage the non-lite version has. RGB lighting has also changed, now hiding only under the bottom M.2 heatsink. It’s still bright, with saturated colors and will easily light up the inside of your chassis. 

Starting in the upper-left corner, we see two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor. We also get a better look at the new design on the VRM heatsinks here. Along with all the dark gray cogs, we see the Taichi branding at the bottom, sa well as deep mitered cutouts to promote airflow and increase surface area. The cog design bleeds into the black socket area, which looks cool with all the other black on the board.

Just past the socket area above the top VRM heatsink are the first two (of eight) 4-pin fan headers. Each supports PWM- and DC-controlled devices and is managed through the BIOS or via ASRock’s A-Tuning software. There’s plenty of power to go around, too, with output ranging from 1A/12W to 3A/36E, depending on the header (check the manual). Overall, there are plenty of headers, even if you want to run custom watercooling.

Just past the socket area are four unreinforced DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides. The four slots support up to 192 GB of DDR5 RAM with speeds listed to DDR5-7200, a slight increase over the original Taichi (DDR5-7000). We didn’t have any issues in our testing up to that limit either, as the system tested stable when overclocked using the Teamgroup DDR5-7200 kit, the fastest in our stable.

In the right corner, we run into the first two (of four total) RGB headers. In this case, it’s two of the three 4-pin ARGB headers. Along the bottom edge, you’ll find others, 3-pin and the third 4-pin headers. Control over these devices and the integrated RGBs is handled through the Polychrome RGB software or inside the BIOS.

Continuing down the right edge, we run into the 24-pin ATX connector to power the motherboard and a horizontally mounted 6-pin PCIe adapter to enable USB PD 3.0 up to 20V@3A (60W). If this plug is not used, it supports the same protocol but has lower power output at 9V@3A (27W) for fast charging. Below that is another fast USB port, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C, for the front panel.

For power delivery, electricity flows from the EPS connector(s) onto a 24-phase Renesas RAA229131 controller. For Vcore, power moves to the 24x 105A Renesas RAA22010540 SPS MOSFETs for a staggering 2,520A available to the processor. The VRMs on the Taichi Lite can handle our Intel Core i9-13900K at stock and while overclocked, even when using sub-ambient cooling methods.

On the bottom half of the board, we find three full-length PCIe slots, five M.2 sockets, and the audio section. Starting out on the left, we spy a fully exposed audio solution based on the flagship Realtek ALC4082 audio codec, supported by an ESS SABRE9218 DAC and red WIMA audio caps. On paper, it’s one of the best integrated audio solutions you’ll find on this platform.

We’ll start with the three PCIe slots in the middle of the board. The top slots (primarilyy for graphics) are reinforced and both source their lanes from the CPU. The top slot runs at PCIe 5.0 x16 when only the top slot is populated or x8/x8 speeds with PCIE_2 occupied. The bottom slot runs at PCIe 4.0 x4, with lanes coming from the chipset. When the bottom slot, PCIE3, is occupied, SATA ports 0-4 will be disabled, so you must carefully populate the board with your hardware. For those considering a multi-GPU setup (who are you?), this configuration supports AMD Crossfire, but NVIDIA SLI is not listed.

If you plan to use one of the latest and greatest PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSD modules, you may want to look into ASRock’s Blazing M.2 Heatsink designed for the job. The M.2 heatsink is much larger than what comes installed on this board, and has active cooling via a small fan in the middle of the fin array. During our testing, we saw significant drops, up to 10 degrees Celsius, which prevented the drive from throttling on longer-running transfers/benchmarks. The difference wasn’t much in our testing environment, but if you want the most out of these hot-running drives, it’s best to use a larger heatsink.

Located around the PCIe slots and under heatsinks are five M.2 sockets. The top socket, M2_1, connects through the CPU and runs PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) speeds, while M2_2 runs at PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) and connects through the processor. These share the same physical location, so you can only run one of these two sockets at a time. Also, when M2_1 is populated, PCIE1 downgrades to x8 mode, and if PCIE2 is occupied, M2_1 will be disabled.

Along the right edge is one of the USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connectors and eight SATA ports. If you’d like to RAID your storage, the boards support RAID0/1/10 modes for NVMe storage and RAID0/1/5/10 modes for the SATA ports. Between all the lane and port sharing, at worst, you’re looking at four M.2 sockets (either 5.0 or 4.0) and four SATA ports available at one time. A more typical configuration, with the bottom slot unoccupied, yields four more SATA ports for a total of eight. Either should be fine for most users.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• Clear CMOS header
• 4-pin ARGB header
• 3-pin RGB header
• Noise sensor
• (2) System Fan headers
• USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• Dr. Debug display
• (2) System Fan headers
• Power/Reset buttons
• Clear CMOS button
• TPM header
• System fan header
• System panel header

The rear IO plate on the Taichi Lite comes preinstalled on the motherboard. It sports a black background with grey cog desings, along with some Taichi branding. There are a total of 12 USB ports scattered across the rear IO. You get two Thunderbolt 4/USB4 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports that double as video outputs, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports (these are the lightning USB ports, yellow, with lower afvertised latency), six USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. Also found here are the Killer Intel 2.5 GbE and Intel GbE ports and Killer Wi-Fi 6E antenna connections for networking. Lastly, the audio stack consists of two analog plugs and the SPDIF output.

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Firmware

Like the other boards, you start in Easy Mode when jumping in the BIOS, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). Advanced mode displays headings across the top, with details below. 

Here you can tweak everything that can be tweaked, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No significant complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.

Software

For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, the A-Tune application that overclocks your system (if applicable), control fans, the Polychrome RGB software, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. We also updated to F1 22 for our games and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. The hardware we used is as follows:

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. The Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default), so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing. 

Across our synthetic tests, the fully unlocked Taichi did well, posting average results. As you’ll see, the Tachi Lite and Taichi Carrara we tested earlier average out to perform similarly, but vary in some tests even though they are both unlocked. The cooler you can keep things, the better this board does out of the box.

Timed Applications

Our timed tests showed similar results, with the LAME, Corona, and both Handbrake tests average as well. Nothing to worry about in these tests either.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platform, we’ve updated F1 21 to F1 22 while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset. As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

The games and 3DMark results were great. Our Z790 Taichi Lite was one of the top-scoring boards in the 3DMark tests and did well in Far Cry: 6, while F1 22 was one of the faster results. There isn’t a significant difference across most boards in our gaming tests, but the Taichi Lite works very well for gaming. 

Overclocking

When overclocking, we aim to increase the power and add stress to the VRMs. We do so by increasing the clock speed and voltage until we’re at the thermal threshold for the processor during stress testing. However, where these CPUs are allowed to run with ‘boost’ speeds, those speeds are closer to the limit than ever before. 

With our Core i9-13900K, the approach was a bit different. We had to lower the voltage from what was recorded during stress tests to overclock our chip. We increased the clock speeds of the “P” and “E” cores by 100 and 200 MHz, respectively, over the turbo boost and limited by our cooling. We ended up with  5.6 GHz P core and 4.5 GHz E core clocks using about 1.34V (from DMM). Temperatures peak at or just under the throttling point with this configuration. And as we’ve noted elsewhere, this is the intended performance for Intel’s flagship CPU. 

Overclocking on the Taichi is as easy as most. We settled around 1.33V (less than stock, note) and still had some throttling, but we completed the 30-minute stress test. On the memory side, all three of our kits, including our Teamgroup DDR5-7200 kit (the board's limit), worked without additional tweaks when we enabled XMP. To ensure compatibility, especially at the edge of listed support, it’s best to stick with the QVL list of expressly supported kits.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption using the 360/480mm AIO setting in the BIOS yields 65W (an average result), while the load peaked at 395W (slightly on the higher side). Between them both, power use is right around average. Nothing to see here.

VRM temperatures on this board get warm, with the hottest set (on top of the socket) peaking around 64 degrees Celsius. While this is warmer than some others we’ve tested due to the board allowing so much power use by default, it’s still well within the operating parameters of the Intersil SPS MOSFETs. As usual, the power delivery won’t get in the way of overclocking with this platform. CPU temperatures will.

Bottom Line

In a market where the cost of motherboards has steeply increased over the last few years, it’s nice to see at least one partner offer something a bit less expensive than the flagship, but that’s still speced to gills. Priced at $379.99, the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite  gets you everything the more expensive Taichi offers, including the incredibly robust power delivery, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, loads of storage options including a PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket and eight SATA ports, premium audio solution, and more. What is missing is the high-end appearance. The 3D cogs and fine finishes on the heatsinks and shrouds give way to simpler heatsinks, a more exposed PCB, and stenciled designs, but it’s still recognizable as a Taichi.

As far as the competition in the sub-$400 space, there’s plenty out there. But put simply, none of the other boards available around that price come close hardware-wise. MSI has the MPG Z790 Edge Wi-Fi ($369.99) and Asus the ROG Strix Z790-A ($379.99). Gigabyte’s lineup bookends our Taichi Lite with the venerable Aorus Master ($489.99) and the Z790 Aero G ($279.99). The only board here that competes with the Taichi Lite hardware-wise is the Aorus Master, and it costs much more. The rest fall short in several ways, including power delivery specs and audio solutions. (The Aorus Master and Asus include a DAC, but only the Taichi Lite has the flagship codec). It boils down to whether you need what the Taichi Lite offers and whether the appearance fits your build theme and budget.

Ultimately, we like what ASRock is doing here. The Z790 Taichi was arguably one of the most well-equipped motherboards, even at $489. Now over $100 less expensive, it’s the most well-equipped board for the price. The biggest drawback of the board is the appearance, and even then, it’s not bad; it just doesn’t have the premium vibe the original Taichi does. If you want some of the best hardware the Z790 platform offers at a more reasonable price and your build doesn’t require flagship-class looks, the Taichi Lite has taken the weight off in all the right places.

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ASRock B650E PG Riptide Wi-Fi is a budget-oriented motherboard ($239.99) that includes a lot of nice features for the price. Sporting a purple-on-black appearance, it fits most build themes and has the bits you’d expect from a mid-range B650E board. You get integrated Wi-Fi 6E and Killer Network-based LAN, PCIe 5.0 slot and M.2 socket, ample SATA storage, a budget audio codec, and plenty of USB ports on the back panel IO.

ASRock’s B650 lineup (at the time of this writing) consists of 13 different motherboards (up from 10 the last time we checked). You’ll find all the standard sizes and wide-ranging prices, with familiar names like the Taichi, PG Riptide, PG Lightning, Pro RS, Livemixer, and our Steel Legend SKU. Prices range from $349.99 (Taichi Carrara) to the ASRock B650M PG Riptide at $169.99. The existing lineup has plenty of options, including Micro ATX and Mini-ITX SKUs. There’s something for everyone in this product stack.

Our PG Riptide review unit did OK in testing and was above average to slightly slower than average across our testing suite – except for gaming, where it was one of the fastest so far. None of the results were significantly out of line. In most instances, you’d need a benchmark or scored test in front of you to notice the difference.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see whether it deserves a spot on our Best Motherboards list. But before we get into our testing and board details, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock’s website. 

Inside the Box of the ASRock B650E PG Riptide

Inside the retail packaging, ASRock gives you two SATA cables, screws/standoffs for M.2, the user manual, and the most useful item, a graphics card holder to support heavy video cards.

Design of the PG Riptide

The PG Riptide targets the budget user who doesn’t want to spend much money to get into AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platform. While it’s not the least expensive of their platforms, B650E offers users a balance between the more expensive (and generally better equipped) X670/X670E motherboards and the true budget chipsets. The PG Riptide sits on a matte-black 8-layer PCB with black heatsinks and purple highlights on the chipset heatsink and above the IO area. The PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket (top) sports the largest heatsink, while a long bar covers the other two M.2 sockets. There’s a lot of motherboard showing, but that’s to be expected at this price point.

Under the chipset heatsink sporting the PG branding are a few RGB LEDs that light up the logo. The LEDs glow nice and bright, and the colors are saturated and true. If you have a beefy video card, it may cover some of the bling, but it still should still provide a nice glow inside your chassis.

Starting on the top half, we spy two sizeable heatsinks with mitered cutouts to keep the VRMs below cool, while hiding the rather unsightly IO area. On top of the left heatsink is the ASRock name and Riptide branding in a darker polished finish (stenciling) versus the sandblasted look below. Inside a purple border is the “PG” (Phantom Gaming) letters, just south of the heatsink. Between the VRM heatsinks is an 8-pin (required) and 4-pin EPS connectors to power the processor.

Moving right, just before the DRAM slots, is the first (of six) 4-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices. CPU_FAN1 outputs up to 1A/12W, while the rest double that to 2A/24W. You control the attached fans or pumps through the BIOS and FanTastic Tuning or the PG-Tune application in Windows. There are enough headers and power for your cooling setup, even if it’s a custom water loop.

Next, we run into four unreinforced DRAM slots with locking functions on the top and bottom. ASRock lists support for up to 128GB of DDR5, with speeds to DDR5-6600+(OC). We didn’t run into any issues with our two kits up to DDR5-6000, and the QVL list has plenty of approved kits reaching higher. Much past the 6400 MHz mark, things become less plug-and-play and more out of the sweet spot anyway. Stick to the QVL list and you should be OK.

Passing another fan header above the DRAM slots, we spy two 3-pin ARGB headers. You’ll find another 3-pin header along the bottom edge, as well as a single 4-pin header. You’ll control these devices through the BIOS version of Polychrome Sync or with the same software in Windows. Both versions of the app offer canned patterns and other options to adjust the integrated and attached RGB LEDs.

Continuing down the edge, we run into the EZ debug LEDs for troubleshooting the POST process. If there’s a problem, one of the LEDs (labeled CPU, Boot, DRAM, or VGA) remains lit, giving you an idea of where the issue may be. Past that is the 24-pin ATX power lead to power the board, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) port, and the fastest USB port onboard, the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C port.

Power delivery consists of 17 total phases, with 14 dedicated to Vcore. Power comes from the EPS connector(s) onto a Renesas RAA229620 PWM controller. After that, it heads onto 14x 60A Intersil ISL99360 SPS MOSFETs. While the 840A total isn’t a lot, it was plenty for our flagship Ryzen 9 7950X processor without issue at stock and while overclocked.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left side, we see a fully exposed audio section. You can see the Realtek ALC897 codec and a few capacitors dedicated to sound. This is a budget codec that would be sufficient for most users; audiophiles will want to install their own sound card or speakers with an external DAC.

In the middle of the board are three PCIe slots and three M.2 sockets. The primary graphics slot is at the top and reinforced to prevent shearing from heavy graphics cards. It sources its lanes from the CPU and is the sole PCIe 5.0 x16 slot. The second full-length slot (bottom) also receives lanes from the CPU and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4. Between them is a small x1 slot attached to the chipset that runs up to PCIe 4.0 x1. If you’re still hanging on to multi-GPU solutions, this board does support Crossfire.

Mixed in among the PCIe slots are three M.2 sockets. The top socket (M2_1) under the larger heatsink is your CPU-connected PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) socket that fits up to 80mm devices. The second M.2 socket (M2_2) connects via the chipset and runs SATA- and PCIe-based modules up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). The last socket (M2_3) also connects through the chipset and runs up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) modules up to 80mm in length. If you’d like to RAID the NVMe storage, the Riptide supports RAID0/1/10 modes. The latter requires an expansion card for support. 

Moving past the RGB-lit chipset heatsink, we run into four SATA ports. The connectors are mounted horizontally (as  is typical), which allows for better cable management. These ports support RAID0/1 if you need more speed or redundancy. You can run all M.2 and SATA storage concurrently without losing bandwidth or access to other ports.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• 5-pin Thunderbolt AIC header
• 4-pin RGB header
• 3-pin ARGB header
• System Fan header
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• System fan header
• Clear CMOS jumper
• Speaker header
• System panel header

The rear IO plate on the B650E SPG Riptide, like many others, comes preinstalled to the motherboard. It sports a black background with white labels on the ports and the PG symbol. There are 10 total USB slots on the rear IO which should be plenty for most users. You get two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C and Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports (these are the Lightning gaming ports using two different controller interfaces), and six USB 2.0 ports. Video outputs consist of one HDMI port. You’ll also find the Wi-Fi antenna connections for the integrated Wi-Fi 6E, a BIOS flashback button, the Realtek Dragon-based 2.5 GbE port, and last but not least, the audio stack consisting of three analog ports.

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Firmware

ASRock’s firmware for B650 keeps the same general format as we saw in the X670E model. The major changes are the updated options/functions for the Zen4-based processors. The PG Riptide uses a black background with red for the PG theme with white text. You start in Easy Mode, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.).

Advanced mode displays headings across the top, with details below. Here you can tweak everything to your heart’s desire, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No significant complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.

Software

For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, and the PG-skinned A-Tune application that overclocks your system, controls fans, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. We also updated to F1 22 for our games and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing.

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default), so the PC idles appropriately. 

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

For our synthetic testing, the B650E PG Riptide was a bit inconsistent and ran around the average or slightly below in most tests. It did well in the Procyon Office suite and the Photo and Video editing portions and overall, there’s nothing to be worried about here.

Timed Applications

For the timed applications, our board was average to just below average in these tests. The LAME test was right around average, while Corona was one of the slower so far. Handbrake testing showed a middling result overall. There’s nothing to worry about here, either, as the results are within an acceptable range.

3D Games and 3DMark 

Starting with the launch of Zen 4, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21 to F1 22, while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

Games are a completely different story compared to the CPU tests previously. Here the PG Riptide did well across the board, showing above-average scores in the 3DMark tests and some of the fastest results we’ve seen in Far Cry: 6. If you’re a gamer, it’s right up there with the best we’ve tested so far.

Overclocking

Over the last few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking (at least on the AMD side) while the out-of-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Our goal in this section is to increase the load on the VRMs and see if they can handle the additional stress. Overclocking AMD CPUs can be done in several ways (all-core or adjust PBO values). But for simplicity’s sake, we just went with an all-core overclock of 5.4 GHz with 1.30V to increase the power output.

Since our approach is to add power through all cores, we simply raised the CPU multiplier to 54x, manually set the voltage to 1.30V, and adjusted LLC to minimize vdroop. AMD states the sweet spot is around DDR5-6000 on the memory side, so we used the Kingston Fury kit, set the AMD EXPO profile, and checked for stability.

Overclocking on the B650E PG Riptide was straightforward, as it is with most boards. We could set our voltage (offset), adjust LLC to mitigate vdroop, and off we went on a 30-minute stable stress test. On the memory side, we dropped our Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 kit into the system, enabled XMP, and tested it without issue (pictured above).

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature-limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption on our B650E PG Riptide Wi-Fi and our Ryzen 9 7950X sat around 59W, one of the lower values. Load wattage peaked at 256W, also lower compared to other results. Combined, this averages out to the second most efficient board we’ve tested among X670 and B650-class motherboards.

VRM temperatures on the B650E PG Riptide ran warmer than most boards during stress testing, but are still well within the MOSEFTs limits. The system peaked at just under 60 degrees Celsius while using stock settings, and broke 60 degrees Celcius when overclocked. The VRM cooling solution works well overall.

Bottom Line

Priced at $239.99, the B650E PG Riptide Wi-Fi is a well-equipped and neutral-themed option in the higher end of the budget AMD space. You get the Riptide’s distinctive black and purple theme with RGBs, a PCIe 5.0 slot and M.2 socket, integrated Wi-Fi 6E and Killer Network-based LAN, ample (though not abundant) storage options, and some of the best performance we’ve seen in gaming. It does use a dated audio codec, and we’d love to see the EZ Latch on the M.2 sockets, even at this budget price point, but these small qualms won’t be a deal-breaker for most.

There is plenty of competition around this price point, with each major board partner offering a B650E board around this price. MSI has the Pro B650-P Wi-Fi ($219.99), Gigabyte a B650 Aorus Elite AX ($219.99), and Asus the TUF Gaming B650-Plus Wi-Fi ($229.99). MSI’s board falls a bit short with M.2 count (two versus three on the rest) but is the only board of this group with six SATA ports and a 20 Gbps Type-C port on the rear IO. The best audio solution of the group sits with the Asus (Realtek ALC1200). Only the ASRock and Gigabyte boards have your back if your build requires integrated RGB lighting. Outside of these differences, it comes down to price and appearance among the combatants.

Ultimately, the B650E PG Riptide is a capable and typically equipped motherboard that fits in with most build themes. Aside from the budget audio codec, it gives you access to all the platform offers. In short, this is one of the more well-rounded and capable solutions in the sub-$250 space. However, the Gigabyte board is similarly equipped and costs $10 less.

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PrusaSlicer is an open-source and free 3D slicing software initially explicitly designed for Prusa 3D printers, but it now includes profiles for other models, including many of the best 3D printers. Even though it can be used with other machines, those using Prusa 3D printers have more advantages as they can access more than 180 tested profiles for popular resins and filaments.

In addition to slicing tools, the software has other tools like G-code viewer that you can use to preview G-code files from other slicers. Below, we break down this slicer's interface and key features.

Installing PrusaSlicer

To begin, visit the official PrusaSlicer website and download the software compatible with your operating system. There is a version for Windows, Mac, and Linux. After downloading, Install and launch it. The next step will be to set up your printer profile by selecting the appropriate printer model and firmware version. To do this, choose Select all standard printers.

You will see several options listed there. After the welcome option, there is Prusa FFF, where you can get the various Prusa printers that use FDM 3D printing technology. Prusa MSLA lists the Prusa machines that utilize stereolithography technology, and they are two: Original Prusa SL1 and Original Prusa SL1 SPEED. 

To add custom printer profiles and firmware, head over to the Custom Printer section, and you will then choose your specific firmware in the Firmware Type section.

You can then specify the bed size, nozzle diameter, and the temperature required to extrude the filament by setting Bed Shape, Print Diameters, and Temperatures, respectively. You can also choose the filament or SLA Materials you will use, and everything will be set. You can then click Finish to see an interface consisting of various sections and tabs. The primary sections include the 3D view where your design will appear after importing. On the top menu, you will find the settings for your 3D printer, filament, and general print settings.

Importing and Positioning Models

To import a 3D model, go to File, then click Import, and you will see several options for importing your designs.

PrusaSlicer supports various file formats such as STL, 3MF, OBJ, AMF, and more. Once imported, you can position, scale, and rotate the model using the manipulation tools found on the left middle section of the workspace. For example, when you click the top option, which is the move tool, you will see points appearing on the design that you can use to move the model around.

You can do the same with other tools like the scale and rotate. Instead of the points on the design, you can also use the Object manipulation section to change your 3D model by adjusting the X, Y, and Z settings, as shown below.

The software also has three modes that you can use to view your design: Simple, Advanced, and Expert, and you can switch between them by going to Configuration and then Mode.

In the simple mode, the interface is straightforward and user-friendly, and it presents a simplified set of options and settings that makes it easier for beginners or users who prefer a more streamlined approach to get started. In advanced mode, the range of settings and options available to users are expanded, and you can have settings for fine-tuning your prints, like adding support structures, infill, and brim. On the other hand, the expert mode has the features for advanced mode, but there are additional ones. It is meant for advanced users who want the highest control and customization level.

Understanding Print Settings in PrusaSlicer

The print settings contain the parameters that define how the design will be sliced and 3D printed. In this section, you can adjust settings like print quality, speed, infill, layer height, etc.

Each of the settings is described below.

• Layers and perimeters: When you click this option, This setting determines the thickness of each printed layer. A smaller layer height results in finer details but increases printing time. You can adjust the layer height, vertical and horizontal shells, and advanced and fuzzy skin settings.
• Print speed: This setting controls the printer's speed during printing. It affects the overall print time and can influence print quality and accuracy.
• Infill: This is where you can control the amount and structure of the material used to fill the internal structure of the print. You can adjust the infill density, pattern, and top and bottom fill patterns in this section.
• Skirt and brim: These settings control the addition of a skirt, which is a thin outline around the model, and a brim, a broader outline for better adhesion to improve bed adhesion and stability.
• Support material:  PrusaSlicer offers two options for support options. That is, an option to add supports when necessary, or you can auto-generate the support materials based on the overhang threshold value.

Filament Settings in PrusaSlicer

When you select this option, a window will launch that you can use to set the following:

• Filament settings: PrusaSlicer allows you to define specific settings for different filaments like color, diameter, density, cost, and spool weight. 
• Temperature: You can adjust the nozzle and bed temperature for 3D printing your design.  It is specific to the type of filament being used and affects print quality and adhesion.
• Cooling: Just below the filament settings, there are cooling settings that regulate the fan speed and airflow during printing. You can choose to keep the fan always on and also have an option to always enable auto cooling.
• Filament overrides: In this option, you can specify the retraction settings of your filament, like the retraction distance.

After the filament settings, you will see Printer settings, where you can adjust the extruder settings.

3D Slicing in PrusaSlicer

Go to File > (Re)Slice Now to slice your designs.

You can then wait a few minutes, and the print settings will open on the right-hand where you can choose the filament to print your designs and even apply the various settings like supports, infill settings, and brim. There is also an option to adjust the position and scale of your 3D model. When you finish, click Export G-code on the bottom-right section of the workspace.

You can then choose where to save your file and save it.

Repairing STL Files

Even though PrusaSlicer is primarily used for 3D slicing, you can also use it to repair STL files. To do this, go to File > Repair STL file.

You can then go to where your corrupted file is stored and click on it. If the issue isn’t severe, you will see a pop-up window showing the file has been repaired.

Previewing G-code Files in PrusaSlicer

PrusaSlicer allows you to import and preview G-code files to visualize and see how the design looks and how it will be 3D printed. To do this, go to File > G-code Preview.

You will see the G-code viewer launching.

You will see your design appearing on the workspace when it finishes launching.

You can use the sliders on the right-hand side and the bottom section to preview the model by moving it up and down.

As we have seen, with PrusaSlicer, you can not only slice your designs and generate the G-code file to send to your 3D printer, but you can also use it to repair corrupted STL files and even preview G-code files and see how they will be 3D printed in real-time. The interface is user-friendly, and you can get started quickly.

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Update 7/24/23 5:40pm PT: Added a statement from Google and also a full list of all impacted processors and the expected dates for patches for each model.

Update 7/24/23 1:30pm PT: AMD has responded with key details and published a security advisory with the expected dates for new firmwares, many of which don't arrive until the end of the year. We have added that information to the original article below. 

Original Article Published 7/24/23 8:45am PT:

Tavis Ormandy, a researcher with Google Information Security, posted today about a new vulnerability he independently found in AMD's Zen 2 processors. The 'Zenbleed' vulnerability spans the entire Zen 2 product stack, including AMD's EPYC data center processors and the Ryzen 3000/4000/5000 CPUs, allowing the theft of protected information from the CPU, such as encryption keys and user logins. The attack does not require physical access to the computer or server and can even be executed via javascript on a webpage.

AMD didn't have an advisory ready at the time of publication, but the company did add the AMD-SB-7008 Bulletin several hours later. AMD has patches ready for its EPYC 7002 'Rome' processors now, but it will not patch its consumer Zen 2 Ryzen 3000, 4000, and some 5000-series chips until November and December of this year. AMD's processors used in the PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam Deck are all also powered by Zen 2 chips, but it remains unclear if those are impacted. We're following up for more details. We have added details further below about mitigation schedules. 

AMD hasn't given specific details of any performance impacts but did issue the following statement to Tom's Hardware: “Any performance impact will vary depending on workload and system configuration. AMD is not aware of any known exploit of the described vulnerability outside the research environment.”

AMD's statement implies there will be some performance impact from the patches, but we'll have to conduct independent benchmarks when the patches arrive for the consumer Ryzen products. In the meantime, we've asked AMD for any ballpark figures it can share.

The Zenbleed vulnerability is filed as CVE-2023-20593 and allows data exfiltration (theft) at a rate of 30kb per core, per second, thus providing adequate throughput to steal sensitive information flowing through the processor. This attack works across all software running on the processor, including virtual machines, sandboxes, containers, and processes. The ability for this attack to read data across virtual machines is particularly threatening for cloud service providers and those who use cloud instances.

The attack can be accomplished via unprivileged arbitrary code execution. Ormandy has posted a security research repository and code for the exploit. The attack works by manipulating the register files to force a mispredicted command (meaning it eploits the speculative execution engine), as described below:

"The bug works like this, first of all you need to trigger something called the XMM Register Merge Optimization2, followed by a register rename and a mispredicted vzeroupper. This all has to happen within a precise window to work.

We now know that basic operations like strlen, memcpy and strcmp will use the vector registers - so we can effectively spy on those operations happening anywhere on the system! It doesn’t matter if they’re happening in other virtual machines, sandboxes, containers, processes, whatever!

This works because the register file is shared by everything on the same physical core. In fact, two hyperthreads even share the same physical register file," says Ormandy.

AMD describes the exploit much more simply, saying, "Under specific microarchitectural circumstances, a register in “Zen 2” CPUs may not be written to 0 correctly. This may cause data from another process and/or thread to be stored in the YMM register, which may allow an attacker to potentially access sensitive information."

Ormandy says the bug can be patched through a software approach for multiple operating systems (e.g., "you can set the chicken bit DE_CFG[9]"), but this might result in a performance penalty. Ormandy says it is highly recommended to get the microcode update, but his post also has examples of software mitigations for other operating systems, too.

Here's a list of the impacted processors, and the schedule for the release of the AGESA versions to OEMs: 

Below, we have a more detailed list with the model number of each impacted chip and the expected data for the new AGESA to arrive. AMD's AGESA is a code foundation upon which the OEMs build BIOS revisions. You will need to update to a BIOS with the above-listed AGESA code, or newer, to patch your system.

“We are aware of the AMD hardware security vulnerability described in CVE-2023-20593, which was discovered by Tavis Ormandy, a Security Researcher at Google, and we have worked with AMD and industry partners closely. We have worked to address the vulnerability across Google platforms.” - Google spokesperson to Tom's Hardware.

Ormandy says he reported the issue to AMD on May 15, 2023. Ormandy also credits his colleagues; "I couldn’t have found it without help from my colleagues, in particular Eduardo Vela Nava and Alexandra Sandulescu. I also had help analyzing the bug from Josh Eads."

Just days after AMD released its new memory-enhancing AGESA 1.0.0.7b update, HiCookie, one of the world's best-known overclockers, has managed to hit over 9000 MHz on one of his DDR5 memory kits operating on a Ryzen 7 7800X3D system. 

This is one of the fastest DDR5 overclocks we've seen to date on any DDR5-supported platform, demonstrating that AM5 has a lot more DDR5 overclocking potential than initially expected. At this rate, we could see 10,000 MHz overclocks in no time — and we might even see Ryzen 7000 systems actively beating Intel's best Alder Lake/Raptor Lake CPUs in memory overclocking for the first time ever.

The overclock was achieved with Gigabyte DDR5-8400 modules on a B650E Aorus Tacyon motherboard with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU. The DDR5 modules were overclocked to 9058 MHz with slightly tighter 54-56-56-126 timings compared to the module's default XMP configuration.

The new AGESA 1.0.0.7b update is arguably the most impactful AMD microcode update we've seen on the AM5 platform to date. The new patch substantially increases memory support (and memory stability, by the looks of it), allowing most Ryzen 7000 CPUs to hit 7000 - 8000 MHz regularly and 6400 MHz in a 1:1 UCLK:MEMCLK ratio, which is optimal for gaming and other latency-sensitive tasks. This is a substantial change from previous patches, where 6000 MHz was the peak most Ryzen 7000 chips could hit stably. Anything beyond 6000 MHz was completely unpredictable.

The new update has a lot of new features that enhance memory stability and boost frequency support, but the primary change that improves higher-frequency DDR5 functionality is a new set of previously-hidden timing parameters that control the Ryzen 7000 memory controller. These settings were hidden from the user in the past — and possibly motherboard manufacturers as well — but now they have opened them up to users and BIOS developers to alleviate any bottlenecks the memory controller might be responsible for.

If overclockers continue to push memory overclocks like this with AMD's new AGESA microcode update, this may be the first real competition we've seen from AMD regarding memory overclocking. Past AMD Ryzen architectures have always had inferior memory overclocking performance, due to the hardware limitations of their memory controllers, compared to Intel. But now it seems like the tables may be turning, and AMD may even have the better-performing memory controller. We'll know this soon enough if memory overclockers start breaking DDR5 frequency world records on AMD hardware.

ASRock’s Z790 Steel Legend is a full-size ATX motherboard supporting Intel’s 12th and 13th-generation processors. With a current (at the time of this writing) price of $229.99, it’s an affordable option in the Z790 space. You get an attractive black-with-silver highlights appearance and integrated RGB lighting. Specs-wise, there are plenty of storage options, including five total M.2 sockets and eight SATA ports, fast networking and integrated Wi-Fi 6E, DDR5 support up to DDR5-7200+(OC), the unique eDP port (for internal displays), and a dated budget audio codec. In all, it’s a solid choice in the budget Z790 space.

Specifications-wise, the Steel Legend compares well against the competition regarding hardware. Starting with power delivery, you get 16 phases dedicated to Vcore along SPS-type MOSFETs that easily handle the additional stress of overclocking, copious amounts of storage including five M.2 sockets (one PCIe 5.0), plenty of USB ports on the rear IO, a PCIe 5.0 slot, and a 20 Gbps Type-C port for the front panel. On the performance front, the Steel Legend was around average, depending on the test, though none of the results were worrisome or out of line.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see if the Steel Legend has what it takes to find its way onto our Best Motherboards list – but ppoiler: it’s a good one! Before we get into our testing and board details, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock. 

Specifications: ASRock Z790 Steel Legend

Inside the Box of the ASRock Z790 Steel Legend

Inside the retail box is a small handful of accessories. ASRock includes the basics as expected from a budget motherboard, but not much more.

• User Manual
• Two SATA cables
• ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz antenna
• Four Screws for M.2 Sockets
• Graphics Card Holder

Design of the Steel Legend 

The Z790 Steel Legend sits on a matte-black, 6-layer PCB with several reinforced slots, silver heatsinks, and black, white, and gray digital camouflage highlights in several areas. Overall, it looks good, but it gives off a budget vibe as there is a lot of PCB showing (not online other similarly priced models). If you’re interested in integrated RGB lighting, the Steel Legend has plenty of them in two spots: the IO area and under the M.2, and chipset heatsinks along the bottom. Control over the lighting is handled through the BIOS or ASRock’s Polychrome Sync Application. The RGB lighting on this board is bright and saturated and will surely bring attention to your system. Again, we like the look, and it looks good in many themed builds, but the design doesn’t scream high-end.

Starting in the upper-left corner, the first thing we see among the heatsinks are the two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor. The silver VRM heatsinks surrounding them stand much taller and have plenty of mass and surface area to keep the power bits below running within spec. The cover over the IO bits has ASRock branding and the Steel Series “S” illuminated from below by RGB LEDs.

Moving past the socket area and to the left of the DRAM slots are the first two (of seven) 4-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices ranging from 1A/12W (CPU_FAN1) to 2A/24W (remainder), so you have enough power to support several devices. Just be sure not to overload them. Control over these headers is handled through the BIOS or the A-Tune application.

To the right of the socket are four reinforced DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides. ASRock lists support up to DDR5-7200+(OC), but your mileage may vary. We had no issues with our three kits, including our fastest, the Teamgroup DDR5-7200 set, which isn’t on the QVL list. ASRock, in general, has done a good job with memory compatibility on this platform, and it doesn’t change with the Steel Legend.

Past the DRAM slots are two more 4-pin fan headers and the first RGB headers, two 3-pin ARGB. Two additional headers are found at the bottom of the board. You get another 3-pin ARGB (three total) below, plus the only 4-pin RGB header. Remember: You control these through the BIOS or the Polychrome Sync app. Continuing down the right edge, we run into the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board, the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C port, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) port, and another 4-pin fan header.

ASRock lists Power delivery on the Steel Legend at 18 total phases, with 16 dedicated to Vcore. Power comes from the 8-pin EPS connector and heads down to the Renesas RAA229131 PWM controller. Next are the 16 60A Intersil ISL99360 SPS MOSFETs dedicated to Vcore, using a Teamed configuration. The 960A available isn’t ground-breaking, but it still handled our Intel Core i9-13900K during testing at stock and while overclocked. Your cooling will get in the way before the power delivery across most boards, so you’re all set.

On the bottom half of the board are three full-length PCIe slots and a whopping five M.2 sockets. Starting on the left edge is a fully exposed audio section with the budget Realtek ALC897 codec visible and four audio capacitors. The codec certainly isn’t the best, but seeing it at this price is common. Another neat add-on in this area (above the audio and M.2 Wi-Fi Key-E socket) is the eDP connector that sits above the audio area. This port you to add displays that support the connector to extend your desktop to a screen inside your case. The ASRock 13.3” side panel kit is a natural fit.

In the middle of the board, we’ll start with the PCIe slots, of which there are three total. The top two slots use reinforcement to mitigate the shearing potential of heavy video cards and said to be effective against  EMI mitigation. The top slot (PCIE1) connects through the CPU and is your primary graphics slot running at PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds. The second slot (PCIE2) connects through the chipset and runs up to PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds. Lastly, the bottom unreinforced slot (PCIE3) also connects through the chipset and runs up to PCIe 3.0 x2 speeds.

Wedged in, around, and between these slots are five M.2 sockets. You can only use four concurrently due to their physical orientation (and wiring). It’s one or the other. M2_1 is the PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) capable socket, while the second runs PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). The other three sockets connect through the chipset and run up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). These all hold up to 80mm modules and support RAID0/1/5 modes for NVMe storage devices. With M2_2 occupied, PCIE1 drops to x8 mode, so you lose a little bandwidth on the primary graphics port, but nothing to worry about unless you’re trying to break overclocking records.

Moving right, we go past the chipset area to the edge that houses four of the eight SATA ports. You can populate all of these ports simultaneously, and all work. The other four ports are found on the bottom edge and mounted vertically. If you want to RAID your SATA drives, the board supports RAID0/1/5/10 modes.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right. 

• Front panel audio
• 3-pin ARGB header
• 4-pin RGB header
• Thunderbolt AIC header
• Clear CMOS jumper
• (2) System Fan headers
• USB 2.0 header
• TPM header
• (4) SATA3 6 Gbps ports
• System panel header

The rear IO plate on the Z790 Steel Legend comes preinstalled on the motherboard, which is still a nice touch at this price (though increasingly common these days). The Steel Legend theme continues here, with a black-and-white background with black labels on the ports. There are 10 USB ports scattered across the rear IO. You get one USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C port, a Type-A 10 Gbps port, and eight other USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports. For video, the Steel Legend sports HDMI and DisplayPorts for those who want to use the integrated graphics on the processor. Last up is the 2.5 GbE port, Wi-Fi connections, and the 5-plug analog plus SPDIF output for the audio stack.

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Firmware

ASRock’s firmware for the Steel Legend is the same as its other Z790 boards. It sports the black, white, and light blue scheme we’re familiar with from other Steel Legend SKUs. Like the other boards, you start in Easy Mode, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). Advanced mode displays headings across the top, with details below. Here you can tweak everything that can be tweaked, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No significant complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.

Software

For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, and the A-Tune application that overclocks your system (if applicable), control fans, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. We also updated to F1 22 for our games and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. The hardware we used is as follows:

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. The Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default), so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

In our synthetic results, the Steel Legend proved to be average or slightly below average depending on the test. Results were on the slow side of average in 7-Zip, POV-Ray, Blender, and, surprisingly, in the Procyon Office tests. No results were low enough to cause a problem, they were generally in the bottom half.

Timed Applications

Our timed tests showed similar results, with the LAME and Corona results slightly slower than our average. In contrast, the Handbrake results were spot on average.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platform, we’ve updated F1 21 to F1 22, while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset. As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

Games and 3DMark results were solid, with our Z790 Steel Legend showing off in 3DMark Timespy, posting the highest score we’ve seen. Far Cry: 6’s frames per second was average, while F1 22 was slightly above average. It’s a competent gamer too! 

Overclocking

When overclocking, we aim to increase the power and add stress to the VRMs. We do so by increasing the clock speed and voltage until we’re at the thermal threshold for the processor during stress testing. However, where these CPUs are allowed to run with ‘boost’ speeds, those speeds are closer to the limit than ever before. 

With our Core i9-13900K, the approach was a bit different. We had to lower the voltage from what was recorded during stress tests to overclock our chip. We increased the clock speeds of the “P” and “E” cores by 100 and 200 MHz, respectively, over the turbo boost and limited by our cooling. We ended up with  5.6 GHz P core and 4.5 GHz E core clocks using about 1.34V (from DMM). Temperatures peak at or just under the throttling point with this configuration. And as we’ve noted elsewhere, this is the intended performance for Intel’s flagship CPU.

Overclocking on the Steel Legend was as straightforward as most. We settled around 1.32V (less than stock, note) and still had some throttling, but we completed the 30-minute stress test. On the memory side, all three of our kits, including our Teamgroup DDR5-7200 kit, worked by enabling XMP without additional tweaks. I’m impressed the board handles the 7200 kit, as it’s not on the QVL. To ensure compatibility on your system, stick to the QVL!

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption using the 360/480mm AIO setting in the BIOS yields 65W (an average result), while the load peaked at 395W (slightly on the higher side). Between them both, power use is right around average. Nothing to see here.

VRM temperatures on this board get a bit warm, with the hottest set (on the left of the socket) peaking around 66 degrees Celsius. While this is warmer than some others we’ve tested, it’s still well within the operating parameters of the Intersil SPS MOSFETs. As usual with this platform, the power delivery won’t get in the way of overclocking. CPU temperatures will.

Bottom Line

The Z790 Steel Legend is a good motherboard for the budget-minded user who wants all of the flexibility of the overclockable platform but doesn’t want to spend a ton of money to get there. Along with its neutral black-on-silver appearance and bright RGB lighting, you get all the platform offers, including a PCIe 5.0 slot and M.2 socket (five total on the latter), eight SATA ports, front-panel 20 Gbps USB Type-C, integrated Wi-Fi 6E, a basic audio codec, the eDP port for an additional monitor, and power delivery capable of handling our flagship-class processor at stock or while overclocked. 

There is some stiff competition around this price point, however. We have Gigabyte’s Z790 Gaming X AX ($229.99), an Asus Prime Z790-P Wi-Fi ($235.99), and the MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk Wi-Fi ($289.99). If you’re looking for a superior audio solution, the MSI has you taken care of using the latest-gen codec; otherwise, they all run on the budget ALC897 codec. Outside of that, the most significant difference between these boards is that the Steel Legend is the only one that comes with a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 socket and eight SATA ports. If you need a lot of storage, the Steel Legend is it, even if you can only run four out of five M.2 slots concurrently.

Around the $230 price, the Steel Legend is one of the most feature-packed Intel Z790 options. Not only do you get a decent neutral appearance with RGBs, but you also get PCIe 5.0 where needed (a slot and an M.2 socket), 10 USB ports on the rear IO, and a 20 Gbps front panel Type-C port, capable power delivery, the unique eDP port, and more. You aren’t going to find another board like this one without spending more, making the Z790 Steel Legend easy to recommend for budget-conscious Z790 shoppers.

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Phoronix reports that Intel engineers are already building SoundWire Linux driver support for its upcoming Lunar Lake CPU architecture. Specifically, this update brings with it initial SoundWire Intel ACE2.x support, which will be part of Lunar Lake's future audio capabilities. Intel is developing this new driver well ahead of schedule, with Lunar Lake expected to arrive in 2024.

According to Phoronix, Linux 6.5 will support SoundWire's new ACE2.x generation IP block, which is probably why Intel's engineers are building the new audio drivers right now. Not to mention the fact that Lunar Lake is just around the corner, and is slated to arrive as early as 2024. We don't know much about this new SoundWire revision, but as with all new audio technologies, expect better audio processing and audio quality compared to current SoundWire revisions.

SoundWire is an interface that was ratified in 2015 to transport audio data to integrated audio devices. Basically, it is an "audio operating system" that governs how data is transported to audio devices inside speakers, phones, laptops, automobiles, and other supported audio sources. According to Phoronix, Intel has supported SoundWire for a long time, which explains its early adoption of the latest SoundWire IP blocks.

This is also not the first Linux audio driver Intel has published for Lunar Lake either. Intel has also been busy adding two more audio drivers to Linux supporting Lunar Lake CPUs, including Sound Open Firmware 2.6 and MIDI 2.0 support.

Lunar Lake will be the successor to Meteor Lake, reportedly bringing back the performance per watt crown to Intel. Lunar Lake will share the same multi-tiled technology as Meteor Lake, sporting a CPU tile, graphics tile, SoC tile, and I/O tile, but will be upgraded to Intel's 18A manufacturing process that will offer 10% better efficiency over Meteor Lake's 20A node.

Originally, Lunar Lake was supposed to launch in 2025, but development has gone so well with the 18A process that Intel accelerated its timetable by a full year to 2024.

Creality’s new flagship 3D printer is an enclosed Core XY speedster that is neither an Ender nor a CR something. Like Cher, Madonna and Bono, this printer only needs one name: K1.

The K1 is being dubbed a Bambu clone due to its similarities to the groundbreaking Bambu Lab X1 Carbon. But it’s not really a clone, even if it shares speed and style points. The K1 uses a Creality Sprite hotend, a Volcano inspired nozzle first seen on the massive CR-M4 and a notched build plate the same size as an Ender 5 S1. It’s also running a limited version of Klipper firmware.

The K1 is retailing at $599, half the price of a Bambu Lab X1 Carbon and $100 cheaper than the open frame P1P. How does it compare? In our testing, the K1 is every bit as fast as the P1P, with a better interface and the ability to avoid unreliable cloud printing by using a USB stick or your private LAN. Its prints were fast, smooth and clean with frictionless joints. This makes it one of the best 3D printers you can buy.  

Specifications: Creality K1

Creality K1: Included in the Box

The Creality K1 comes with everything you need to get your printer set up. You get tools to maintain the printer, side cutters, a plastic scraper, and a USB stick. There’s also a small spool of white Creality Hyper PLA to print your first model. 

You also get a PDF copy of the manual, a copy of Creality Slicer and sample models in both pre-sliced .gcode and .stl format. There’s also a very helpful video to help you operate your machine.

Design of the Creality K1

The Creality K1 is a modern looking, fully enclosed Core XY printer. Though detractors point out its similar appearance to last summer’s groundbreaking Bambu Labs Carbon X1, I’d like to direct your attention to the fully enclosed Sermoon V1 Pro. The K1 may be Creality’s first Core XY, but it’s not its first enclosed machine or its first “bed dropper.”

It has a standard Ender 3 size, with a 220 x 220 mm build plate and 250 mm build height. The plate has notches on the back like the Ender 5 S1, which should make it easy to replace if you don’t like the stock smooth plate which needs a good slathering of glue stick.

The K1 uses a limited variation of Klipper modded by Creality. Though users new to Klipper may not notice the missing functions. For example, users must log into Creality’s cloud service at least once to “bind” the printer to the internet to access WiFi and LAN. You also can not access the console, config files or set the Z offset. Also the camera is limited to one you must purchase directly from Creality. Creality has said that they do support Open Source systems like Klipper and will be releasing a more open version of the operating system at a later date.

I am going to take issue with the nozzle, which is so similar and yet not quite the same as an E3D Volcano. There’s no need to keep inventing new nozzles when reputable 3rd party suppliers already have what you need. 

I did test out a proper Volcano, and the K1’s sensors were able to compensate for the extra tip length. However, if you want to keep it in the family, Creality has stocked their store with hardened steel upgrades. Perhaps they can stick with this size for more machines that need high flow?

I’m not a big fan of the rear mounted spool holder, which requires setting up the printer where it can be spun around in order to access the rack and the filament runout sensor when you need to load materials. I fear this was copied from Bambu’s design, which also has terrible placement. However, in Bambu’s case, a top mounted filament multi spool feeder is a popular add-on – something Creality hasn’t shown interest in offering yet.

The machine has plenty of good points – cooling from both the hotend and the extra cabin fan are excellent and allow for perfect overhangs and smooth prints. The enclosed frame makes printing ABS and ASA very easy. Bed leveling and input shaping are automatic and worry free. There’s no ringing and no need to tune the printer. In fact, the machine is so precise and tightly tuned that print in place hinges and joints are completely frictionless. 

The motion system appears very solid, and is made of ordinary polished metal so there’s little fear of these wearing out. Rubber feet are included, which help dampen vibrations, though it still jiggles like crazy on some fast prints. 

It’s a little loud from all the cooling fans, but I’ve heard worse. 

The screen and menu system is very easy to use. When paired with Creality Slicer, you get wonderful little thumbnails of your prints, which make it easy to select jobs. Furthermore, the K1 is running a form of Klipper and therefore remembers everything it has printed. We took the K1 on the road to a 3D printing festival and I was happy to find all the prints from home stored in its internal memory. 

Speaking of WiFi, that’s just one of three ways you can send files to the K1. It can take files from a USB stick, through WiFi over your home or office LAN and also through the Creality Cloud. I’m not a big fan of the Cloud – it’s overly busy and gamified for my tastes – so it’s good to have options.

Assembling the Creality K1

The Creality K1 is 99% assembled and only needs to be uncrated - yes, uncrated – and unpacked. To protect the glass sides of this printer, Creality is shipping K1’s in a wooden crate with a standard cardboard packing inside. You’ll need to remove all the packing foam, unscrew three screws holding the build plate on, plug in the touch screen and screw on the filament holder.

Leveling the Creality K1

The Creality K1 has a fully auto leveling program that includes input shaping with the help of built-in sensors. Just push the button and the machine does the rest. It will also recheck the level before each print, but you can turn that feature off during slicing if you’re comfortable skipping the step.

Loading Filament on the Creality K1

Loading filament is a little awkward, as Creality chose a back-mounted spool holder. I would have much preferred the side mounted style of their Sermoon V1 Pro. 

The K1 has a reverse Bowden, with a tube that guides the filament from the runout sensor near the spool holder, up the side of the frame and across the top to the extruder. A silver latch on top releases the gear tension so you can push filament into the tool head. Be sure to return the latch to the locked position once the filament is in place. 

Tap the control screen and select Extrude/Retract from the Control menu. Tap Extrude and then he machine will automatically warm up and then pull the filament through the hotend. 

Reverse the process to remove the filament.

Preparing Files / Software for Creality K1

Creality included a copy of Creality Slicer, a newer slicer they’ve been working on. The program is easy-to-use with lots of presets for filaments. It’s arranged a little differently than Cura or PrusaSlicer, but all the same functions are there. 

Creality Print also gives you access to your printer remotely via LAN or Creality Cloud. When you select “device” from the top menu you will see the printer interface. The K1 is using a variation of Klipper that Creality modded, and doesn’t have all the features you would get with a vanilla install. This one is kept simple, and is easy to understand for new users. Klipper veterans will no doubt be hunting for a way to jailbreak the interface and restore its features. 

There are no built-in profiles for Cura or PrusaSlicer at this time.

Printing on the Creality K1

The Creality K1 comes with a small sample spool of Hyper PLA, Creality’s newest high-speed filament, which promises high strength and smooth prints while running at speeds up to 600mm/s. If you want more colors and materials like silks and multicolor filaments, you should check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for suggestions. 

The presliced test Benchy printed in Hyper PLA printed in 25 minutes. It’s smooth and string free, though I question the unnecessary brim.

I wanted to slice up my own Benchy, so I ran it again, this time using “speed benchy” rules: .25 layer height, 2 walls, 3 top & bottom layers, 10% infill. I also turned off combing and z hop, and let her rip using the default speed of 300 mm/s.  I picked out a spool of matte gray PolyTerra PLA, which shows every flaw and layer line on camera, and has no high flow additives. 

The Benchy actually looks better in person – but you can see that the layers are fairly even, the curves are nice and the overhangs are perfect. The only thing missing is the details on the stern signage. This Benchy printed in an impressive 22 minutes and 58 secs. An Ender 3 S1 running at its top speed of 100mm/s would take 55 minutes to print this using similar settings.

I also ran Maker’s Muse Clearance Castle and a Calibration Cat in the sample of Hyper PLA and it turned out clean and near perfect with loose fitting parts. The Cat’s tale was absolutely perfect, a sign of abundant cooling. The castle and cat were both printed at .2 mm layer heights, using default settings. The castle took 1 hour and 5 minutes, while the cat took 13 minutes.

For normal PLA I printed a bust of Spider-Punk from Wekster, at 125%, in Amazon Basics Red PLA. This printed in 7 hours and 46 minutes at 300mm/s, with a .2 mm layer height and no supports. For comparison, an Ender 3 S1 Pro running at its top speed of 100 mm/s and using the exact same setting would take twice as long: 16 hours and 11 minutes. The print is smooth with crisp lines. Some details on the buttons were soft, but a higher resolution print would pick those up.

I tested Inland’s black ABS with a drink holder found on Printables. ABS requires a controlled environment and high temperatures – enclosed printers like the K1 are almost a necessity to make this filament work. The flat parts of the drink holder printed without warping and practically no layers lines with .2mm layers. There was some scarring across the top of the prints which can be corrected with better slicer settings. The screw has a great fit without binding. This took 2 hours and 7 minutes to print with all the pieces laying flat on the bed.

Since ABS printed so well, I also gave it a spool of Polymaker’s glittery Galaxy Blue ASA. This filament is the best of both worlds, with the sparkle normally reserved for PLA and the ABS like strength of ASA. ASA also requires a controlled environment and high temperatures, but is a little less prone to warping. Once again, the K1 impressed me with its ability to print quality at speed with this new vase mode skull by Clockspring. This was printed with a .2 mm layer height, using vase mode and took 2 hours and 32 minutes to print.

I did a quick test of PETG, with a spool of Greengate’s purple recycled PETG. The K1’s profile for PETG worked brilliantly, resulting in a nice smooth flexi octopus with no strings and joints that wiggle freely. This was printed with a .2mm layer height using default setting and took 1 hour and 8 minutes to print.

The only filament to disappoint me was TPU, which is shocking considering that the K1 uses a direct drive. This could be a flaw in the slicer, but the only way I could get it to print was to double the flow rate. The samples below are normal flow rate, 150% flow and 200% flow. These were each printed at 35mm/s with a .2 mm layer height in NinjaTek Cheetah Fire Red. Each cube took 17 minutes to print.

Bottom Line

The Creality K1 is an excellent printer for makers who favor speed and ease of use, but still want to watch their bottom line. It’s another step away from Creality’s reputation as a budget manufacturer, while still being friendly to both beginners and expert makers. 

It’s disappointing that an industry leader like Creality feels the need to rebrand and rework Open Source hardware and software and bring it in house. It would be easier on both their own engineering team and customers to use things like Klipper and Volcano nozzles that already exist. They could still focus on adapting and improving hardware, while gaining trust from the community. 

During testing, the machine showed a few flaws that aren’t surprising with a printer rushed to market. It had a few mysterious jams, and after a weekend of running ABS started to drift out of level, requiring a full factory reset to clear its sensors. Still, the K1 is impressive, and sure to replace a few Ender 3s on workbenches around the world. The only reason to not buy a K1 right now is that the bigger K1 Max is just around the corner and looks even more interesting as it promises a built-in camera and LiDAR sensors.

Currently on sale for $599, the K1 is a bargain compared to the competition. If you’re more interested in getting a fast machine that can also do four color (after an upgrade) but isn’t enclosed (which is useful for ABS), then check out the Bambu Lab P1P, which recently price matched the K1 and is on sale for $599. The Ender 3 S1 Pro is still an amazing machine for $439, and quite speedy when you upgrade it with a Sonic Pad.

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The Gigabyte B760 Aorus Elite AX on our test bench hails from the budget side of Intel’s motherboard tracks. It's priced at $179.99 at Newegg and reasonably priced overall and among its peers. For the money, you get a full-featured device with DDR5 support, three M.2 sockets and four SATA ports, integrated Wi-Fi 6E, and the familiar Aorus black-and-grey appearance that fits most build themes. It’s a capable, performant (in most tests) motherboard at an affordable price.

Gigabyte has a total of an incredible 48 SKUs on the B760 platform. From the high-end Aorus Master to the base Ultra Durable (UD) line, there must be a configuration and price option suitable for almost any user. The sheer number of options confuses even this seasoned reviewer; the average consumer would almost certainly be overwhelmed trying to decide which is best. Perhaps two of each size motherboard would be sufficient.

The B760 Aorus Elite AX’s performance was hit or miss based on our testing. With the first boot, the board asks you to select your cooling, which sets the power limits. The 3x120mm AIO setting removes the Intel power limits, and the processor runs free up to the thermal throttling point, or whatever the Perfdrive limits you to. To that end, many of our heavily multi-threaded tests were a bit limited due to the default Perfdrive setting, but still competitive versus other B760 boards. If you’re looking to use this system for gaming primarily, it excelled in those tests and is one of the faster overall out of the box. 

Priced around $180, the Elite AX is a good value on paper, making it a contender for our best motherboards list if you’re after a budget-conscious Intel option. Before we get into all the details and testing, here is a complete list of the B760 Aorus Elite AX’s specifications direct from Gigabyte. 

Specifications: Gigabyte B760 Aorus Elite AX 

Inside the Box of the Gigabyte B760 Aorus Elite AX

In addition to the motherboard, Gigabyte includes a few accessories designed to get you going without another trip to the store. Being a budget-oriented motherboard, don’t expect a plethora of extras. Below is a list of everything included in the box with the board.

• (2) SATA cables
• Wi-fi Antenna
• (2) M.2 standoff screws
• Q-Connector

Design of the B760 Aorus Elite AX

The B760 Aorus Elite AX is made from a 6-layer PCB with 2x Copper, with a matte black appearance. The heatsinks for the power delivery and the M.2 and chipset area have a brushed aluminum finish, along with Aorus branding in gray. The black-on-gray look is neutral, and it should fit in with most build themes.

If you want RGB LEDs, you’ll have to purchase and add your own as the Elite AX does not come with any integrated into the board. You can connect lights to the onboard headers (two RGB and two ARGB), and download the Gigabyte Control Center software to control them through the RGB Fusion application.

Our tour of the board starts in the upper-left corner, where we run into two EPS connectors (4-pin and 8-pin,  the latter required) to power the processor. Also spotted in the same area are the first (of six) 4-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices, with each able to output 2A/24W. You control these devices through the Gigabyte Control Center software or the BIOS. There are enough headers with plenty of power to connect your fans or water cooling system.

Moving right past the socket area, we next run into four unreinforced DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides. Gigabyte lists support for up to 192GB (4x48GB) and speeds are listed up to DDR5-7600+(OC). The latter is around the median of listed support for the platform. All three of our test kits, up to DDR5-7200, worked without issue by simply enabling the XMP profiles.

Above teh RAM slots are a couple more fan/pump headers and the first two RGB headers, in this case, one 3-pin ARGB and 4-pin RGB. Moving down the right edge, we run into the 24-pin ATX connector that powers the board, as well as front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) and USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C connectors.

Power delivery on the B760 Aorus Elite AX consists of 14 total phases, with 12 dedicated to Vcore. The Parallel configuration sources power from the 8-pin EPS connector, feeding it to the 8+2 channel OnSemi NCP81530 controller and finally onto the 55A OnSemi MOSFETs before it heads to the CPU. The 660A available isn’t a lot, but it’s enough to handle the flagship Intel i9-13900K we test with, without getting in the way.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left, we spy a fully exposed audio section with a few capacitors dedicated solely to sound. The Elite AX, or any board at this price point, doesn’t have a fancy DAC or amplifier, but you can see the fully exposed, budget-oriented Realtek ALC897 chip. While not the latest and greatest, many users will find this acceptable. If not, you can use one of the free PCIe slots (or USB for an external DAC) to add a better solution.

Three PCIe slots and three M.2 sockets are in the middle of the board. Starting with PCIe slots, the top slot, with Ultra Durable Armor and PCIe EZ-Latch, connects through the CPU and runs at a maximum of PCIe 5.0 x16. The bottom slots connect through the chipset and run up to PCIe 3.0 x4.

Mixed in around the PCIe slots are the three M.2 sockets. The top socket hides underneath its own heatsink, connects through the CPU, and runs at PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) speeds, supporting up to 110mm drives. The bottom two sockets share a heatsink, connect through the chipset, and run at PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). Along the right edge of the board are the four SATA ports (supporting RAID0/1/5/10), reset button, and status LEDs that show problems during POST.

Across the bottom of the board are several more exposed headers. The typical connections include additional USB ports, RGB headers, and 4-pin fan headers. Below is a complete list, from left to right:

• Front panel audio
• 3-pin ARGB header
• 4-pin RGB header
• SPI TPM header
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• (3) 4-pin fan/pump headers
• Clear CMOS jumper
• Front Panel

Swinging around back the rear IO, a lot is going on for budget-priced board. There are 10 total USB ports, including a 10 Gbps Type-C port. Part of that count includes four USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) and four USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) Type-A ports. The Wi-Fi 6E antenna connections are on the left, while the 2.5 GbE port is on the right next to the 2-plug plus SPDIF audio stack. The only thing we’d like to see here is a 20 Gbps USB port, though we wouldn’t exactly expect that at this price.

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Firmware

The Aorus-themed black-on-white/orange/yellow firmware is a good contrast and easy to read in both BIOS modes. The Easy Mode presents high-level information about the system, switch the boot sequence, and enables XMP memory profiles. Advanced mode gives you access to all the options you need to tweak the processor and memory. Most major overclocking/tweaking options are on the same page, with some power options in a different section. Otherwise, everything is laid out in a logical order and readily accessible.

Software

On the software side, Gigabyte’s primary tool is the Gigabyte Control Center (GCC). GCC is a one-stop shop for many board-centric functions, including RGB lighting control (RGB Fusion), Fan Control, and performance/overclocking. You can also update and install drivers from within the application too. It’s not as comprehensive as the App Center and some of its applications, but I doubt many will miss those features.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. Additionally, we updated to F1 22 in our games suite and kept Far Cry 6. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. The hardware we used is as follows: 

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

Results from our synthetic benchmarks vary, but overall they were average. Nothing stood out as too slow or fast with Gigabyte’s PerfDrive set to the default (Spec Enhance).

 Timed Applications 

In our timed applications, the B760 Aorus Elite AX was also a tale of each benchmark. LAME results were slightly above average, as was the Handbrake .264 test. However, the x265 test was a bit slower than our average, as was the Corona benchmark time.

 3D Games and 3DMark 

Starting with the launch of Zen 4, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21, to the latest version, F1 22. We're keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920 x 1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most differences falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, affecting your gameplay and immersion experience.

The results in our game tests were some of the best we’ve seen. 3DMark Fire Strike was around average, while Timespy was the highest scoring thus far. In Far Cry and F1 22, its average frames per second matched the highest we’ve seen with the minimum up there as well. Clearly, it’s a competent gamer in this configuration.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same.

Power use on the B760 Aorus Elite averaged out to use the least among this generation we’ve tested so far. The 358W reading at load was one of the lower values, while idle was average or slightly better. Power use isn’t a worry on this system out of the box. However, when you change the Perfdrive settings, things can go up depending on what setting you use.

VRM temperatures were well within order on this motherboard. The processor throttles back considerably at the default settings with this Perfdrive option. Temperatures of the VRMs peak at almost 50 degrees Celsius, which is easily within the specification of the MOSFETs. Since you can’t overclock on this board/platform past turbo, the cooling solution proved to work great for this board. 

Overclocking

The B760 chipset for Intel doesn’t allow users to overclock the processor (although there are rare exceptions), but you can overclock the memory.

That said, all three of our memory kits worked without any tweaking, by enabling the XMP profile. Our base DDR5-5600 kit worked great across testing, and our fastest kit, the Teamgroup DDR5-7200, was stable during our stress test. This board won’t break any memory speed records, but it’s easy to get well past the sweet spot where price and performance meet.

 Bottom Line  

The Gigabyte B760 Aorus Elite AX is designed to be a less expensive way into the latest Intel platform, and it achieves as much. At the time of this writing at Newegg, it was priced at $179.99. For the money, you get the Aorus design theme, capable power delivery, 10 USB ports on the rear IO, three M.2 sockets and four SATA ports, and of course, 2.5 GbE and integrated Wi-Fi 6E. Although you will pay a premium to use DDR5, this board is one of the better values around the price point.

That said, each board partner offers a competitive SKU in this price realm. The least expensive is the ASRock B760 Pro RS ($139.99), followed by our Gigabyte, MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk Wi-Fi ($199.99), and finally, the Asus TUF Gaming B760-Plus Wi-Fi ($209.99). The biggest difference between these boards is looks, price, and USB count. Otherwise, they all have the same budget audio codec, M.2 socket and similar SATA port counts (three or four). Our Gigabyte has the most USB ports on the rear IO, but only the Asus and MSI come with a 20 Gbps port. So it just depends on your needs.

In the end, the $180 ($170 after the rebate card) for this board is a fair price among its competitors. So long as you do not need a 20 Gbps USB port, it’s the best option of the group from our perspective. For the money, you get Gigabyte’s Aorus styling, well-rounded specifications, and a price that doesn’t break the bank. 

If you’re looking to get into the latest Intel processors without spending a ton of money, the B760 Aorus Elite AX should be on the shortlist. Just note that DDR4-based boards tend to cost about $20 less, with DDR4 RAM costing significantly less than DDR5, with little in the way of real-world performance differences between the two. So if you want to build an affordable system with the best performance for your money, a DDR4-based motherboard is still a smart choice, even though DDR5 prices have fallen significantly in recent months.

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Finally on our test bench is a motherboard that doesn’t from one of the four major board partners. Specifically, we’re looking at the Biostar Z790 Valkyrie. This flagship-class SKU offers users the full complement of features from the Z790 platform, including PCIe 5.0 slots, M.2 sockets, and support for Intel’s 12th and 13th Gen processors. Currently found online for over $600, it comes with last-gen flagship-class audio, plenty of storage options and USB ports, and robust power delivery to support the high-end Intel processors. However, it is missing integrated Wi-Fi. Its looks are also basic for the price, but you won’t need to hide it in your chassis.

Biostar’s product stack has just two motherboards for Z790, the Valkyrie we’re reviewing here and the much lower-priced Z790A-Silver. You won’t find any Micro ATX or Mini-ITX boards or other SKUs here. Biostar’s options are simple and straightforward, but not also limited compared to the competition.

Regarding performance, the Z790 was below average with our Intel i9-13900K. Like most other Z790 boards, the Valkyrie lets the processor run free within Intel specifications, but gets hindered by thermal throttling. We saw above-average results in Handbrake, but surprisingly lower results in the Procyon Office tests. For those concerned about gaming, performance was average all around there. If you need more performance, there are options within the BIOS to run with raised limits. Just be sure you have the cooling to support it (and perhaps run a negative offset for Vcore).

This board doesn’t earn a spot on our best motherboards list, but it does present users with another option in the crowded Z790 market. Before we get into our testing and board specifics, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from Biostar’s website.

Specifications: Biostar Z790 Valkyrie

Inside the Box of the Biostar Z790 Valkyrie

Inside the box, along with the motherboard, is a simple accessory stack designed to get you started without an additional trip to the store. Below is a complete list of the included accessories:

• (4) SATA cables
• Driver disk
• User Manual
• Smart connector

Design of the Z790 Valkyrie

The Z790 Valkyrie sits on a matte-black 8-layer PCB, sporting black heatsinks and shrouds with gold accents, plus a brushed aluminum finish covering the unsightly parts of the board. The left VRM bank and chipset heatsinks include the Valkyrie branding, backlit with RGB LEDs. The board doesn’t look bad, but its similarly priced competition does look better and more premium.

Focusing on the top half of the board, we get a better look at the large heatpipe-connected VRM heatsinks and the Valkyrie branding on the IO cover. Like the AMD-based X670E Valkyrie, the VRM heatsinks are loaded with wide-mitered cutouts to increase surface area and performance, and they do a more-than-adequate job keeping the MOSFETs running well within specification. Above the VRM heatsinks are two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the Intel processor.

Moving past the socket, we hit the four reinforced DDR5 DRAM slots, with locking mechanisms on both sides. Biostar lists support up to DDR5-7200, which is low compared to similarly priced options. We didn’t have any trouble with our DDR5-5600 or DD5-6000 kits, but the fastest we had (DDR5-7200) didn’t want to play nice here. However, the sticks are not on the QVL list, and are at the very top of listed support, so I can’t say we expected that to work anyway.

Next to the DRAM slots are the first two (of six) 4-pin fan headers. You can adjust the PWM and DC-controlled devices in the BIOS or through the Aurora software. Biostar documentation doesn’t appear to list the output of these headers on the specs page or in the manual. You can safely assume the headers all have 1A/12W available to them without fear (more would be concerning). Overloading these headers can cause permanent damage to your motherboard.

Past the DRAM slots along the right edge, we find a slew of headers, including all three RGB headers (2x 3-pin ARGB and 1x 4-pin RGB) nicely tucked in this location which helps with cable management. Down the right edge are the power and reset buttons, another 4-pin fan header, and the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board. Below is a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector and a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C connector.

The VRMs on the Z790 Valkyrie are some of the more capable we’ll see on the Z790 platform. For Vcore, there are a total of 20 phases. Power comes from the 8-pin EPS connector(s) onto the Renesas RAA229131 controller. Power then moves to 20x 105A Renesas RAA22010540 SPS MOSFETs. The mind-blowing 2,100A available for Vcore is one of the highest we’ve seen and more than enough to handle the flagship Intel i9-13900K at stock and while overclocked, even when using sub-ambient cooling methods.

On the bottom of the board, starting with the left side, we find a mostly hidden audio area. The only thing visible is four yellow capacitors dedicated to audio use. Hiding under the shroud is the last-generation flagship Realtek ALC1220 codec. While most users are satisfied with this codec, I want to see the latest and greatest on a flagship-class motherboard.

In the middle of the board are three reinforced full-length PCIe slots, poking out between five M.2 sockets, all of which hidden under heatsinks. Starting with the PCIe slots, the top two slots connect through the CPU and run at PCIe 5.0 speeds. The top slot supports up to x16 while the second slot supports a maximum of PCIe 5.0 8x speeds. With both in use, the top slot breaks down to x8 speeds to share the bandwidth with the second slot. The bottom full-length socket connects through the chipset and supports PCIe 4.0 x4 bandwidth. There are plenty of slots and sockets to go around, but there is some lane sharing (more on this below) you need to consider.

Mixed in among slots are five total M.2 sockets. There’s one PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) socket and four PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) sockets, with one of those able to run SATA- and NVMe-based modules. There’s also a Key-E socket available for CNVi-based Wi-Fi cards. Byt don’t let the antenna connections on the back fool you, there’s no Wi-Fi included in the box. 

Again, some lane sharing is inevitable with these sockets, slots, and SATA ports. If you’re using a PCIe-based module on M2M_CPU1 (top socket), the second PCIe slot is disabled, and the primary slot (top) drops to x8, so there’s enough bandwidth to go around. Additionally, if you’re running a SATA-based SSD in M2M_SB3, you’ll lose one SATA port (SATA8). In short, you can run all five M.2 sockets and all eight SATA ports concurrently if you aren’t running a SATA-based M.2 module.

Next, we spy a CLR CMOS button along the right edge to reset the active BIOS. Next to it are eight SATA ports, the BIOS selector switch, and another 4-pin fan header. Across the bottom of the are several exposed headers. You’ll find the typical fare here with USB, audio, and fan headers. Below is a complete list from left to right:

• Front panel audio
• (2) 4-pin System Fan headers
• Thunderbolt AIC header
• COM port
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• Front Panel
• Debug LED
• 4-pin fan header
• TPM header

The rear IO on the Z790 Valkyrie comes pre-installed and attached to the motherboard. It sports a black background with white labeling on the ports, which makes things easy to read. There are eight USB ports total: two Type-C (10 and 20 Gbps ports) and six USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports. On the left are two video outputs (DisplayPort and HDMI), as well as a Smart BIOS update button. Above the USB ports is the Wi-Fi antenna connections, but note the board does not come with Wi-Fi! You must purchase and install your own in the available Key-E slot. On the right is the five-plug analog plus SPDIF audio stack, and laslyt, the 2.5 GbE port.

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Firmware

Biostar’s firmware on the Z790 boards, like the others, doesn’t receive a significant facelift outside of some options exclusive to Intelt’s latest CPU platform. There’s an EZ Mode and your more standard advanced mode with the different sections spanning the top. While it has many of the basics, the overclocking options are limited with regard to memory. If you’re into tweaking every little thing to extract every ounce of performance from your sticks, this isn’t the board that will do it. If you’re more of a set-EXPO/XMP-and-forget-it memory person, this isn’t a concern (assuming your memory is on the QVL list). Overall, we like the BIOS, but in terms of appearance and features, it just isn’t up to the level of its competition.

Software

For software, Biostar has the Aurora suite that combines various functionality in one application. You’ll find audio functionality (volume control - Smart Ear), RGB (Vivid LED DJ), fan control (AI Fan), a hardware monitor, and overclocking functions in the OC/OV section. Everything worked as described. But, overclocking is limited to BCLK adjustment and voltage (no CPU multiplier adjustments). Overall, we like the Aorura application and hope for additional features/functionality to be added in new revisions.

Test System / Comparison Products 

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. Additionally, we updated to F1 22 in our games suite and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows: 

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

Benchmark Settings 

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for either stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

In our synthetic tests, our Z790 Valkyrie was average to below average, depending on the test. In all, it sits between the intel spec and other high-end boards where (at least) the PL1 limit is increased to maintain clocks. Like most boards, ours is plagued with thermal throttling in some tests, affecting the scores. The difference isn’t too significant, but it’s not one of the higher-performing boards we’ve tested.

 Timed Applications 

When looking at our timed applications, the LAME and Corona results were both slower than average. Meanwhile, both Handbrake tests were some of the fastest we’ve seen.

 3D Games and 3DMark 

Starting with the launch of Zen 4, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21, to the latest version, F1 22. We're keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920 x 1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most differences falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, as this affects your gameplay and immersion experience.

Starting with the UL’s 3DMark tests, our board mixed right in with the rest. In games, it was average in F1 2022, and just slightly below average in Far Cry: 6. That said, you wouldn’t notice a difference between this and the fastest results unless you had a frame counter on the screen anyway. It’s a perfectly competent gamer.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same.

Power consumption on the Z790 Valkyrie was just below average, using a bit more power than most of our boards. It averaged 72 Watts at idle and peaked at 402W during the stress-test load before it thermally throttled and used less power (from around 253 to 230W on the CPU itself).

VRM temperatures on the Valkyrie was also well within specification. At stock, temperatures, according to our sensors (the board doesn’t have an internal VRM sensor), were well within the operating parameters of the premium 105A SPS MOSFETs at stock settings and while overclocked. At idle, they sat close to 40 degrees Celsius, while it peaked around 54 degrees Celsius under load. There’s nothing to be concerned with regarding the power delivery or its cooling, as your CPU temperatures limit you before the VRMs get in the way.

Overclocking

When overclocking, we aim to increase the power and add stress to the VRMs. We do so by increasing the clock speed and voltage until we’re at the thermal threshold for the processor during stress testing. However, where these CPUs are allowed to run with ‘boost’ speeds, those speeds are closer to the limit than ever before.

With our Core i9-13900K, the approach was a bit different. We had to lower the voltage from what was recorded during stress tests to overclock our chip. We increased the clock speeds of the “P” and “E” cores by 100 and 200 MHz, respectively, over the turbo boost and limited by our cooling. We ended up with 5.6 GHz P-core and 4.5 GHz E-core clocks using about 1.34V (from DMM). Temperatures peak at or just under the throttling point with this configuration. And as we’ve noted elsewhere, this is the intended performance for Intel’s flagship CPU.

Overclocking our processor proved as easy as most other Z790 boards. We set the Vcore to Override input 1.35V with LLC on Auto, and off we went. There wasn’t any appreciable vdroop, and testing went well. The VRMs stayed well within spec, and we were stable throughout our 30-minute test.

Regarding memory, our 5600 and 6000 kits worked out of the box without issue. Compared to the X670E we looked at a few months ago, this is great news but also expected since this review is several months past the release date, so the platform and BIOS has had time to mature. Overall, we didn’t run into any concerns when overclocking. Still, again, if you aim to run the fastest memory and/or tweak secondary and tertiary memory timings, there are better-equipped options.

Bottom Line

The Biostar Z790 Valkyrie is a well-equipped board in the premium mid-range segment. While it doesn’t include 40 Gbps ports, it’s got everything else the platform offers, including PCIe 5.0 slots and a PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket. Outside of that, it comes with one of the more robust VRMs we’ve seen, even when compared to halo-type boards. You’re limited by cooling far before the power delivery hinders overclocking. Performance was underwhelming across most tests, running slightly slower than average in most, but the board proved to be a capable gaming machine.

Biostar’s MSRP for our board is somewhere around $450. However, you’ll find it online in the US for well over $600, which pushes it into even tougher territory. Around the $500 price point, each partner has an option. There’s the MSI’s MPG Z790 Carbon Wi-Fi ($449.99), Asus’ ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming Wi-Fi ($489.99), Gigabyte has its Z790 Aorus Master ($489.99), and the ASRock Z790 Taichi is $499.99. All of these boards offer robust power delivery, fast memory support, up to five M.2 sockets, and a premium appearance. If you need 40 Gbps ports, the Taichi is the only one of the group with that native functionality. All of the compeitng BIOSes are more refined than Biostar’s as well.

Assuming you can find the Z790 Valkyrie around the $450 MSRP, it’s a valid option in this space. But if it costs more than $500, it’s not worth it. We’ve seen some improvements over time with Biostar, but in order to compete with the major motherboard players and justify a high price, some things need to change. A more modern BIOS layout and better physical appearance (read: one that looks as good versus its direct competitors) are key, as we’re good with the specifications. As it stands, there are better-equipped and arguably more attractive options available at lower prices than what this board is selling for in the US.

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 The MSI MAG B760M Mortar is a Micro ATX board that hails from the budget side of the tracks. People looking into the B760 chipset are limited in features compared to the more expensive Z790 platform with all the bells and whistles, but you can still put together a fast and functional system on a budget. You can’t overclock the processor with most B760 boards (you need a board with a BCLK generator), but you can with memory. Priced at $189.99, you get full 12th and 13th-generation Intel processor support, a PCIe 5.0 slot, two M.2 sockets, integrated Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5 GbE networking, and the budget Realtek audio codec all under $200.

The black-on-silver appearance is a nice contrast, if a bit mundane, but it is par for this type of motherboard. It lacks integrated RGB LEDs (Gigabyte and ASRock comparables do) but does have headers to add your own. While it may not look the part of a high-end motherboard, you get some good features, including one PCIe 5.0 x4 slot, capable power delivery, and a 20 Gbps Type-C port on the rear IO panel. It has what you need to get you up and running, but few extras.

Performance on our B760M Mortar is similar to the other B760-based boards we’ve looked at. Where some of the tested boards limit the power (and therefore performance), our MSI, surprisingly, doesn’t use the Intel limits. Instead, anyceiling is in place due to the board thermally throttling our processor as it runs too hot in some of the heavily multi-threaded and longer-running benchmarks. It does well in gaming and lightly threaded applications, though, with results around the average. If you intend to use this board with a flagship-class processor and push heavily threaded workloads, lowering the voltage is best to prevent the CPU from thermal throttling.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see whether the inexpensive price point makes a spot on our best motherboards list. Before we get into the details, here are the detailed specifications from the MSI website.

Specifications: MSI MAG B760M Mortar Wi-Fi

Inside the Box of the MSI MAG B760M Mortar Wi-Fi

Inside the packaging, MSI includes a couple of accessories to get you started. Since this is from the budget side, you only get the basics.

• Quick Install guide
• SATA Data Cable
• EZ M.2 clip, M.2 screw/standoff
• Wi-Fi antenna
• Cable stickers

Design of the B760M Mortar Wi-Fi

The all-black board with silver heatsinks is built on a 6-layer PCB. The silver heatsinks sport the military theme we’re used to seeing on the Mortar and Tomahawk lines. There’s some branding on the top VRM heatsink and the chipset; otherwise, it’s a simple design. You'll have to look elsewhere if you’re looking for integrated RGB lighting. However, it does have a couple of headers to add your own.

Focusing on the top half of our board, we run into the large VRM heatsink that reaches over and covers the unsightly IO bits. The heatsink is grooved with MSI branding and other black and gray design elements, just like the other heatsinks on the board. Between the VRM heatsink are two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the CPU.

To the right of the socket area, we run into four DRAM slots with a single locking mechanism on top. MSI lists support up to DDR5-7000+(OC) with one DPC (DIMM Per Channel) and about par for the platform. Our DDR5-6000 kit (2x16GB) worked without issue in our testing. The Teamgroup DDR5-7200 kit didn’t want to work, but it’s over what the board says it can do, so that was to be expected. Stick to RAM under the listed spec to ensure compatibility.

Just above the socket on the left is the first 3-pin ARGB header. A second ARGB header and a 4-pin RGB header are on the board's bottom edge. You control the attached RGB devices through the MSI Center Utility and the Mystic Light applet, which worked well in our limited fiddling.

Above the DRAM slots in the right corner are two 4-pin fan headers (six total). Each header supports PWM and DC-type fans/pumps. The CPU_FAN1 and SYS_FAN1-4 headers output up to 2A/24W while the PUMP_FAN1 3A/36W. You can easily piggyback a couple of fans on these headers if needed; just be sure not to overload them. Fan control is handled through the BIOS and also worked well using the preset curves or a custom setting.

Continuing down the edge, the next feature is the EZ-Debug LEDs, where four LEDs (labeled CPU, DRAM, Boot, and VFA) light up during the POST process. If there’s an issue, the LED for the problematic section remains lit, giving you a general idea of where the issue is. Below is a 24-pin ATX header to power the board, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C port, and a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header.

Power delivery on the B760M Mortar can handle our flagship-class processor at stock speeds (remember, this platform doesn’t overclock the processor) without issue. From the 8-pin EPS connector(s), power moves to a Renesas RAA229132 PWM controller and then onto 12x 75A Renesas RAA220075R0 DrMOS MOSFETs dedicated to Vcore. The 900A available to the processor isn’t a lot, but still enough for our Intel Core i9-13900K.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left side, we see the budget Realtek ALC897 codec along with the familiar audio separation line (separates the audio from the rest of the board) and a few dedicated audio caps. Audiophiles will certainly be left wanting better, but many users will find the integrated solution sufficient. If not, there are spare PCIe slots to add your sound card.

Speaking of slots, the B760M comes with two full-length slots and one x1 slot. The top slot is reinforced, attaches through the CPU, and runs up to PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds. The bottom full-length slot connects through the chipset and runs at PCIe 4.0 x4. The small middle slot also connects via the chipset but runs at PCIe 3.0 x1 speeds.

Mixed in among the slots are the two M.2 sockets. The top socket, M.2_1, located under a thin heatsink, connects through the processor and runs at PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) speeds. The second socket, M.2_2 (no heatsink), connects through the chipset and runs at PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds. M.2_2 supports PCIe and SATA-based modules, a nice value-add for users at this price point. Not everyone can afford smoking fast, more expensive, PCIe-based M.2 modules. Both sockets handle up to 80 mm devices. Last, we run into two (of four) SATA3 6 Gbps ports along the right edge. If you want to RAID these, the board supports RAID0/1/5/10 modes through the SATA ports (not listed for M.2).

Across the bottom are several exposed headers. You’ll find additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• 3-pin RGB header
• (2) System Fan headers
• Thunderbolt header
• 4-pin ARGB header
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• (2) SATA3 6 Gbps ports
• TPM header
• System panel

On the preinstalled rear IO, the B760M Ace uses a gray background with black labels on all of the ports. You’ll find the MSI MAG branding back here; otherwise, ports and labels dominate the real estate. There are eight USB ports in total: one 20 Gbps Type-C, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports, and four USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) ports. Video outputs consist of DisplayPort and HDMI ports. The 2.5 GbE port and Wi-Fi antenna connections also take up space along with the 5-plug analog plus SPDIF audio stack.

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Firmware

MSI’s BIOS for the B760M is the same as other Z790 boards we’ve seen before, except it doesn't allow you to overclock the processor. The menus reside on the sides and information up top, a unique look compared to others. For our B760M Mortar, it still has a black background with red highlights and is easy to read. It also has an informative Easy Mode that displays various information about the system and allows for some changes (boot order and XMP enable). Though different than other UEFIs, it is easy to get around; everything has a place, and many frequently used options are readily available, not buried within sub-menus.

Software

MSI has a single utility, MSI Center, that covers quite a bit of functionality. From hardware monitoring to RGB control with Mystic Light, there are many applets within the software and a one-stop shop to download all of their utilities. I wish there were some overclocking options for boards that support it, however. But for those looking to use the Gamebar feature, Super Charger, or any other utilities, you'll find them in the software.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. We also updated our games to include F1 22 and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

Benchmark Settings

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Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

Across our synthetic benchmarks, the B760M Mortar results were hit-or-miss due to the processor thermal throttling. While the power delivery can handle our i9-13900K, running without power limits (default ‘water cooling' setting in the MSI BIOS) makes our processor bang off the limiter, causing slowdowns in heavily threaded applications. A simple negative offset can lower power and allow a CPU like this to stretch its legs. In the end, it was average to slightly below average, but some tests took a significant hit.

Timed Applications

In our timed applications, the B760M Mortar didn’t fare well. It was slower than average in Corona and LAME tests and is currently the slowest result in both Handbrake tests. Again, if you plan to install a high-end processor, you’ll need to get a beefy cooler and tweak the voltage lower to get the most out of it in this type of work.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 4, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21 to F1 22, while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

The B760M Mortar is a competent gaming board. The 3DMark results were average, while the gaming tests showed it could keep up with much more expensive options. There’s nothing to worry about with gaming performance in our tested titles.

Overclocking

The B760 chipset for Intel doesn’t allow users to overclock the processor (although there are rare exceptions), but you can overclock the memory.

Our DDR5-5600 kit worked without issue during the stress testing and benchmarking, as did the faster DDR5-6000 kit we use to push things a bit. Users buying motherboards at this price point aren’t generally buying ultra-fast and expensive RAM in the first place, so we’re quite happy with our results, even at ‘only’ DDR5-6000.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Note we moved to using only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption on the budget B760M was 62 watts, while the load power use peaked at 365W watts. Power use from this board was the least (by average) so far.

VRM temperatures peaked low at just under 50 degrees Celsius. These are so low because the CPU almost immediately starts to throttle because of the high temperatures in the stress test. After an initial several seconds pass, the board slowly lowers power down to prevent thermal throttling of the processor. While the 75A DrMOS MOSFETs aren’t something to brag about, they’ll still handle a high-power processor at stock speeds as this board allows.

Bottom Line

MSI’s MAG B760M Mortar Wi-Fi is an inexpensive option that supports even the flagship-class 12th and 13th-generation Intel processors. For under $190, you get a PCIe 5.0 slot for graphics, two M.2 sockets (both PCIe 4.0, one of which supports SATA-based models), a budget audio solution, and even a fast USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C port on the rear IO. For a budget option, it looks good and has most of what users want in the budget space. Performance was fine in gaming and lightly threaded work, but once pressed, our i9-13900K thermally throttled at default settings.

There is plenty of competition. The least expensive of the bunch, the ASRock B760M PG Riptide ($146.99) we looked at recently, was solid and included integrated RGBs, but missing a PCIe 5.0 slot. Gigabyte’s B760M Aorus Elite AX ($169.99) sets itself apart in looks and mixes in with the other competitors hardware-wise. Last is Asus' TUF Gaming B760M-Plus Wi-Fi D4, that’s priced like our MSI ($189.99). The only thing the Asus has going for it is the lower entry price for DDR4 compared to these DDR5 models (Asus doesn’t have a B760M DDR5 option that I’ve seen).

Ultimately, the MSI MAG B760M Mortar Wi-Fi is the best option among these similar boards. It’s the only one board with a PCIe 5.0 slot with a 20 Gbps USB Type-C port on the rear IO. Power delivery can handle our flagship processor; however, if you plan a high-power processor and push all cores and threads for general use, you’ll want to lower the voltage and/or use top-notch cooling to get the most out of the board. Less expensive options are available, but you’d also lose some features making that move down. If you’re in the market for an inexpensive motherboard for the latest and greatest Intel has to offer and want 20 Gbps ports  and a PCIe 5.0 slot, the B650M Mortar is the option in the sub-$200 market.

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At least two motherboard manufacturers have started to roll out new firmware to accommodate Intel's next-generation processor. The firmware release aligns with the rumored October release for Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh lineup, which will fight for a spot on the list of best CPUs.

ASRock (via momomo_us) deployed a new firmware for the B760M PG Sonic WiFi motherboard yesterday. The changelog expressly confirms "support for next-generation processors." Asus isn't falling behind, either. The company (via HXL) has also released new firmware for the overclocking-eccentric ROG Maximus Z790 Apex motherboard to "improve system stability and compatibility for the next-gen processors."

The cat has been out of the bag for a while now that Intel had planned to refresh the company's 13th Generation Raptor Lake processors, which came out just last year. Since Meteor Lake stays on mobile only, like Tiger Lake, and Arrow Lake isn't allegedly ready until the fourth quarter of 2024, the only viable candidate for a "next-gen processor" would be Raptor Lake Refresh. It makes sense to have an interim lineup to compete with AMD if the next Intel desktop processor doesn't land until late next year.

As with most of Intel's refreshes, better clock speeds are almost a given. The higher clock speeds contribute to higher power consumption, though. Logically, the power consumption falls in function with how aggressively Intel plans to clock Raptor Lake Refresh. Intel's Raptor Lake processors are already great at supporting high-frequency DDR5 memory. However, the chips struggle with DDR5-8000 and above memory. It's plausible that the refreshed processors may have a more capable integrated memory controller (IMC) as memory vendors start pushing out faster memory kits. It's unknown if Intel has made any more improvements under the hood. We won't find out until Raptor Lake Refresh's launch day.

Raptor Lake Refresh utilizes the same formula as the vanilla counterparts. Therefore, a minor firmware update will enable existing Intel 600-and 700-series motherboards to house the new chips. But we can't discard the probability that motherboard brands will likely take the opportunity to release revamped motherboards with more features. Depending on how much Intel has tuned the clock speeds and the power consumption on the upcoming chips, consumers may or may not be able to recycle their cooling solutions.

After over 15 years, Intel has drastically changed how it brands consumer processors. However, leaked information from China claims that we should still see the current branding on Raptor Lake Refresh. The rebranding with the whole "Core Ultra" shenanigans won't be effective until Meteor Lake, that's set for launch in the fourth quarter of this year.

Despite all the chatter and speculation about the Raptor Lake Refresh, we still haven't seen any leaked benchmarks to see what performance improvement awaits consumers. Assuming that Raptor Lake Refresh is ready for October, it shouldn't be long until we start seeing results emerge from the online benchmark databases that vendors and reviewers like to frequent.

The ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 is a Mini-ITX motherboard that’s built on the latest enthusiast Intel chipset, supporting 12th and 13th generation processors. The tiny board is the least expensive of Z790-based ITX options, at $334.99 at the time of this writing. For the money, you get a PCIe 5.0 slot, three M.2 sockets (all PCIe 4.0), flagship-class audio (including a DAC), Killer-based networking, and robust power delivery. It may not look the best visually compared to the others (in our opinion), but the hardware and feature list is impressive for the price.

ASRock’s Z790 lineup hasn’t changed drastically since the chipset’s release, but with a couple recent additions, it now consists of 15 different SKUs. You’ll find all the standard sizes and wide-ranging prices, with familiar names like the Taichi, Steel Legend, Riptide, Pro, and the funky purple LiveMixer SKU. Prices range from $499.99 (Taichi Carrara) to the ASRock Z790M PG Lightning/D4 at $169.99 ($179.99 at launch). The existing lineup has plenty of options, but we’re still waiting for a water-cooled Aqua.

Performance-wise, the PG-ITX/TB4 was average in most tests. None were exceedingly slow, and none led the pack. It did the best in gaming, which was above average across the board. But performance was slightly below average across the Procyon Office tests. As usual, during heavy sustained loads, there’s thermal throttling in some tests with out-of-the-box settings. Out of the box, we set our cooler type in the BIOS to a 360mm AIO, which sets PL1/PL2 equal, so the processor can constantly pull the full boost wattage until it thermally throttles. To get the most out of these high-powered processors, you’ll need to use an offset voltage so the clock speeds can be sustained.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see whether it deserves a spot on our Best Motherboards list. Before we get into our testing and board specifics, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock’s website. 

Specifications: ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4

Inside the Box of the ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4

Inside the retail packaging, below the motherboard, ASRock includes a few accessories to get you started. Along with the motherboard, you get two SATA cables, a Wi-Fi antenna, two thermal pads, and screws for M.2(3) sockets, along with a manual. There isn’t much here, but it’s enough to get you going.

Design of the PG-ITX/TB4

Our little motherboard sits on a 10-layer matte black PCB. The only design elements come from the actively cooled, heatpipe-connected VRM heatsinks and M.2 heatsinks. They sport a matte, brushed aluminum finish with red and black highlights and Phantom Gaming (PG) branding. If you’re interested in RGB lighting in your chassis, you’ll have to add your own to the onboard headers, as the board does not include any natively. In short, this is a decent-looking ITX motherboard, but some may prefer the competition’s appearance.

Starting in the left corner, we see the required 8-pin EPS connector just above the heatpipe connecting the two VRM heatsinks. The left VRM bank has three slots cut out at the top to help get fresh air over the tiny fan hidden below. The fan makes noise when under heavy loads by default, but you can adjust the BIOS to mitigate that potential concern.

Across the top are four headers, one RGB, and three 4-pin fan headers. The RGB header in this location is 3-pin/ARGB. The other, on the right side of the board, is 4-pin/RGB. Control over the attached devices is handled through ASRock’s Polychrome Sync application. All three fan headers are wedged between the DRAM slots and the ARGB header up top, which helps with wire management. All headers support PWM- and DC-controlled devices. CPU_FAN1 and CHA_FAN1 power up to 1A/12W, while the CPU_FAN2/WP outputs up to 2A/24W. That’s not a lot of power to go around on many headers, but it’s an ITX board typically housed in a smaller chassis, so you should require an abundance of fans.

ASRock uses two reinforced DRAM slots, with its sole locking mechanism on top. The specifications state our board supports up to 96GB of DDR5 RAM at speeds up to DDR5-7000, which is plenty for most people, although it’s technically the ‘slowest’ maximum supported RAM speed among the Z790 ITX boards we’ve seen. So if you plan on pushing the RAM (past 7000 MHz), you’ll want to look elsewhere.

Moving down the right edge, we run into the POST status checker. Four tiny LEDs (VGA, DRAM, CPU, Boot) light up during POST, and if there’s a problem in one of those generic areas, the LED of the offending part remains lit, giving users a general idea of where the problem lies. Next are the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board, the 4-pin RGB header, and the system panel header. Continuing down, we find a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header, three SATA ports (supporting RAID0/1/5), and finally, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) header.

Power delivery on the Mini-ITX offering consists of 12 total phases, with 10 dedicated to Vcore. Power comes from the 8-pin EPS connector onto a Renesas RAA229131 20-phase PWM controller. From there, it heads to the 10x 105A Renesas RAA22010540 SPS MOSFETs. The 1050A available for the processor supports the flagship-class Intel i9-13900K, even when overclocked. Your cooling will get in the way before the VRMs do.

We’ll continue our counterclockwise journey at the bottom of the board. Here we run into the only PCIe slot,  a full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot. Above that, under the flat heatsink, is the first of three M.2 sockets (you’ll find the other two on the back of the board). Each socket runs at PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) speeds and supports up to 80mm modules. One of the sockets, M2_2, supports SATA-based devices in addition to PCIe. There’s no lane/bandwidth sharing, and you can run all storage concurrently without penalty.

To the left of the M.2 socket, above the PCIe slot, is a USB 2.0 header and the front panel audio header. Finally, we can see the Realtek ALC4082 codec in the corner and a couple of dedicated audio capacitors. This high-end codec should satisfy most listeners.

The rear IO plate on the Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 comes preinstalled on the motherboard. It has a black and gray background and the PG branding in the corner. The ports are on one side or the other of the available space to make room for ventilation for the VRM fan. DisplayPort and HDMI ports for integrated video are on the left, along with six USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports (blue). The real draw for this board is the pair of Thunderbolt4/USB4 40 Gbps Type-C ports. If you want ultra-fast external connectivity, this board has you covered. But only six Type-A ports back here means some users will feel limited. Above those (also in blue) is the Killer X3100 2.5 GbE port, while to the right of the ventilation are the Wi-Fi 6E antenna connections and 2-plug plus SPDIF audio stack.

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Firmware

ASRock’s firmware for Z790 keeps the same general format as we saw in the Z690 model. The major changes are the updated options/functions for Raptor Lake CPUs. The PG-ITX/TB4’s background follows the PG theme of black and red with white/gray writing. You start in Easy Mode, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). 

Advanced mode displays headings across the top with details below. Here you can tweak everything that can be tweaked, as ASRock includes basically every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.

Software

For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, and the PG-skinned A-Tune application that overclocks your system, controls fans, and more.  There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. We also updated to F1 22 for our games and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. The hardware we used is as follows:

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing.

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for either stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

In our synthetic benchmarks, the Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 had average to or slightly below average results across the board. Like we’ve seen with a lot of these boards, anything that’s a longer-running, multi-threaded benchmark tends to take a hit more than any lightly threaded or single-threaded apps. Intel and the motherboard partners do their best to get everything out of these chips.

Timed Applications

In the LAME and Corona applications, our board was just on the slower side of average in each, mixing in with the larger group of results packed together with similar times. Handbrake testing proved to be average or just faster than average.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platform, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21 to F1 22, while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

The Mini-ITX ASRock board is more than competent in gaming. In the tightly packed 3DMark results, our test board rose toward the top and did so as well when gaming in F1 22 and Far Cry: 6. Again, most of the datasets are close together, and without a frame counter on the screen, we you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them.

Overclocking

When overclocking, we aim to increase the power and add stress to the VRMs. We do so by increasing the clock speed and voltage until we’re at the thermal threshold for the processor during stress testing. However, where these CPUs are allowed to run with ‘boost’ speeds, those speeds are closer to the limit than ever before. 

With our Core i9-13900K, the approach was a bit different. We had to lower the voltage from what was recorded during stress tests to overclock our chip. We increased the clock speeds of the “P” and “E” cores by 100 and 200 MHz, respectively, over the turbo boost and limited by our cooling. We ended up with  5.6 GHz P core and 4.5 GHz E core clocks using about 1.34V (from DMM). Temperatures peak at or just under the throttling point with this configuration. And as we’ve noted elsewhere, this is the intended performance for Intel’s flagship CPU.

Overclocking on the PG-ITX/TB4 took longer to dial in than many others. It didn’t seem to take to setting all cores, so I had to set the turbo to the required clock speeds. I settled around 1.32V (less than stock, note) with some throttling, but managed to run stable throughout the 30-minute stress test. On the memory side, I dropped our Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 kit in the system, enabled XMP, and tested it without issue, as expected. Our DDR5-7200 kit won’t play nice as the board only supports up to DDR5-7000. All of the other comparable Z790 Mini-ITX boards list much higher support, at least on paper.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption on our Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 peaked over the 400W mark (250W+ for the CPU), something typically reserved for only the high-end boards. Idle power use was right around the average, sitting at 63W.

VRM temperatures on this board were warm, especially considering there’s active cooling. According to the internal sensor on the board, temperatures peaked at almost 90 degrees Celsius during our testing (230W stress test load). While that’s fairly hot, the SPS MOSFETs used are goodfor well over 110 degrees Celsius, so there’s some headroom. Make sure you have adequate airflow in your chassis if you plan to run this board under prolonged, heavy workloads.

Bottom Line

ASRock’s premium entry in the Mini-ITX Z790 space offers users nearly off of the bells and whistles. The biggest draw to this board is are the two Thunderbolt/USB4 40 Gbps Type-C ports, which competing options don’t offer (at least near this price range). In fact, this is the least expensive way into integrated TB4/USB4 on a motherboard (the least expensive ATX is the Z790 Taichi at ~$500). Additionally, the board offers Killer-based networking with Wi-Fi 6E, a flagship-class audio codec, and more. Performance was slightly below average across many tests due to the processor throttling because of thermals, but it was otherwise performant in lightly threaded applications and gaming. While its appearance may not stand out (no integrated RGBs) as the best looking, it’s certainly not a turn-off.

Regarding competition, each major board partner has a Mini-ITX Z790-based option in its product stack. Gigabyte has the Z790I Aorus Ultra ($359.99), MSI has its Z790I Edge Wi-Fi ($359.99), and the most expensive option, by far, is Asus’ ROG Strix Z790-I Gaming Wi-Fi ($434.99). Asus is the only option that offers a PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 socket among these boards, and it also has 40 Gbps TB4/USB4 ports like our ASRock. Other differences include the unique audio solution with a built-in DAC, and perhaps the appearance. The MSI comes with four SATA ports and three M.2 sockets, while the Gigabyte falls short in storage with two and two, respectively.

Ultimately, ASRock’s Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 is a handsomely equipped Mini-ITX solution for 12th- and 13th-generation Intel processors. Not only is the price right, but it’s the most well-balanced ITX offering among all board partners at a fair price. If you want everything the platform offers (a PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 socket), you must pay considerably more and get the Asus. If you’re looking for a Mini-ITX motherboard that won't break the bank and still has the features most users want or need, be sure the Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 is on your shortlist.

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In a quick response to the recently uncovered firmware backdoor in over 250 models of Gigabyte motherboards, the company has launched new beta firmware that mitigates the potential security risk. Unfortunately, the list encompasses new and old motherboards from a few years ago, hence Gigabyte's urgent reaction to patching things up. Today, consumers can download the updated firmware for their affected Intel and AMD motherboards at Gigabyte's official website.

Gigabyte didn't provide in-depth details on the new firmware. However, the manufacturer has seemingly implemented stricter security controls during the boot process. According to Gigabyte, the improved security mechanisms will detect and prevent malicious activities during the boot process.

As a quick recap, the updater program resides inside the motherboard's firmware, so it's a sensitive subject. It's not like you can uninstall the program from the Control Panel or delete the process manually. Unless the option is manually disabled inside the firmware, the program automatically copies itself to the operating system and calls home Gigabyte's remote servers to check for new firmware once fully loaded. Wouldn't it be ironic if the updater program pushed the latest firmware to Gigabyte motherboards? The program with the potential vulnerability is also the same one that delivers the fix.

It would appear that Gigabyte has also made some significant changes on the end of the remote servers. For example, the vendor has enhanced the signature verification process for files downloaded from the company's remote servers. In addition, it conducts a more thorough check of the integrity of the files to prevent cyber criminals from inserting their malicious code to infect users' systems with malware.

On the other hand, Gigabyte has enabled standard cryptographic verification of remote server certificates. This should help improve the privilege access limitations. Why Gigabyte didn't previously have this feature activated in the first place is beyond us.

Owners of Intel 700-and 600-series motherboards and AMD 500-and 400-series motherboards will get first dibs on the new firmware. Corresponding firmware updates for Intel 500-and 400-series motherboards and AMD 600-series motherboards will be available on their respective product pages later today. The description of the new firmware reads: "Addresses Download Assistant Vulnerabilities Reported by Eclypsium Research."

Gigabyte wants to assure owners of older motherboards that the company hasn't forgotten about them. The company has prepared new firmware for previously launched motherboards that will be available later today.

Update 06/01/2022 7:00 pm PT: Gigabyte has deployed new firmware that mitigates the firmware backdoors. The firmware updates, which are available at Gigabyte's official website, are online for consumers to download and update their motherboard.

Original Article

Cybersecurity firm Eclypsium has discovered a backdoor in Gigabyte's firmware that puts 271 different motherboards at risk. These include models with Intel and AMD chipsets from the last several years, all the way up to today's Z790 and X670 SKUs. The vulnerability resides in a small updater program that Gigabyte employs to ensure that the motherboard's firmware is always current. Apparently, it's doing so via an unsecured implementation.

Have you ever noticed that after a clean Windows installation, a program pops up offering to download the latest driver or firmware for you? Unfortunately, that little piece of code could provide a backdoor for criminals.

Upon every system restart, a piece of code inside the firmware launches an updater program that connects to the Internet to check and download the latest firmware for the motherboard. Eclypsium assessed that Gigabyte's implementation is unsafe and cybercriminals can use the exploit to install malware on the victim's system. The big problem is that the updater program resides inside the motherboard's firmware, so consumers can't easily remove it.

Gigabyte isn't the only vendor to use this type of program to facilitate firmware updates. Other motherboard manufacturers utilize a similar method, raising the question of whether any of them is safe. For example, Asus' Armoury Crate software functions similarly to Gigabyte's App Center. According to Eclypsium's findings, the Gigabyte's updater program pings three different sites for firmware updates:

• http://mb.download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Swhttp/LiveUpdate4
• https://mb.download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Swhttp/LiveUpdate4
• https://software-nas/Swhttp/LiveUpdate4

Eclypsium assessed that the updater downloads code to the user's system without proper authentication. It doesn't use any cryptographic digital signature verification or other validation methods. As a result, HTTP and HTTPS connections are vulnerable to Machine-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, with the former being more susceptible than the latter. Besides connecting to the Internet, Eclypsium also uncovered that the updater could download firmware updates from a NAS device within the local network. A malicious actor can similarly spoof the NAS and infect the victim with spyware.

The updater is a standard tool among Gigabyte motherboards. Eclypsium has put together an extensive list of the affected models. There are up to 271 motherboards on the list, consisting of both Intel and AMD motherboards. Some models date back to AMD 400-series chipsets. Not even the latest Intel 700-series or AMD 600-series motherboards are safe, though.

Eclypsium has already shared its discoveries with Gigabyte, and the motherboard vendor is working on a solution to address the vulnerability. Ironically, the solution will likely arrive in updated firmware. Meanwhile, Gigabyte motherboard owners can take some measures to safeguard their systems.

Eclypsium recommends users disable the "APP Center Download & Install" feature inside the motherboard's firmware. The option is what initiates the updater. For good measure, users can implement a BIOS-level password to prevent unwanted, malicious activity. Last but not least, users can block the three sites that the updater contacts.

The team at Prusa has released new firmware for its latest 3D printer, the Editor's choice Prusa MK4. The firmware, 5.0.0-alpha1, is still in the alpha stage so only experienced 3D printer enthusiasts should attempt the upgrade as some hiccups are expected. The firmware comes with a few new features that aim to improve print quality by adjusting how the printer behaves throughout the printing process. Prusa asks that users who experiment with the new firmware report any problems to the team at GitHub or through the Prusa forums.

The 5.0.0-alpha1 firmware has quite a bit to get excited about but the major updates come in three new key features. Users can tinker with Input Shaper, Pressure Advance and Precise Stepping. These each have unique performance-changing features that aim to reduce common problems like stringing and ghosting. Input shaper and pressure advance were both touted as main features for the MK4, but were left out when the printer was released.

The first new feature, Input Shaper, is intended to reduce ghosting or ringing. It analyzes the printer for resonance vibrations and attempts to cancel out those vibrations using a filter. It also increases the travel speed as well as acceleration during printing. According to Prusa, this should also help reduce stringing. 

The next feature, Pressure Advance, aims to improve print quality by constantly making adjustments to pressure changes that occur within the nozzle. If the extruder is accelerating, it will extrude additional filament. While decelerating, it will retract the filament. This feature also should help increase the speed of prints.

The last new feature is called Precise Stepping, and it’s necessary to work in tandem with the previous two. It increases the timing precision of the motor steps used by the MK4 while it prints. This helps ensure the Input Shaper and Pressure Advance tools are working with the adequacy they need to implement improvements.

If you want to get a sneak peak at this new firmware, check out the official alpha release over at GitHub. Again, because this is Alpha software, some bugs are to be expected. Whether or not you choose to experiment with the new firmwar is up to you. Just be prepared to share any possible problems with the development team. 

The ASRock B760M PG Riptide is a Micro ATX motherboard that supports the latest Intel 12th and 13th Gen Intel processors. Priced at just over $145, it offers a simple black-on-black appearance, with a blue strip on the VRM and a few RGB LEDs hidden under the right side of the board. You get two M.2 sockets and four SATA ports for storage, Realtek 2.5 GbE networking (Wi-Fi not included), memory support listed up to DDR5-7200+(OC), and a budget Realtek audio codec. Ultimately, it’s a full-featured option in the budget Micro ATX space.

The PG Riptide stacks up well against the competition on the hardware front. At this price and with this budget chipset, there’s not much that can go on these boards except for the basics, as the platform limits the potential for high-speed interfaces. 

To keep the price point low, ASRock uses 12-phase VRMs for Vcore, and instead of using more modern (and costly) SPS MOSFETs, we see an old-school configuration using Hi and Low side ICs instead of combined as we’re used to on more expensive models. This isn’t ideal for high-end processors, but it did allow our Intel Core i9-13900K to run the Intel’s defaults, boosting up to 255W for a short time, then limiting itself to 125W and lower clocks. You won’t find PCIe 5.0 x4 slots, a high-end audio solution, or even 20 Gbps Type-C ports at this bargain basement price, but you can run the latest and greatest processors for the platform and DDR5 memory.

Performance-wise, The B760M PG Riptide is all over the map, as it follows Intel’s specifications. You get a full 255W for the processor, and then it ramps down off the turbo boost, limiting it to 125W. For a motherboard of this class, that’s to be expected, especially due to the paltry VRMs powering the processor. It competes with high-end boards in single-threaded applications or in shorter-running, heavily threaded applications. Gaming performance was above average, and Intel’s limits aren’t getting in the way of gaming. If you plan to drop in a high-end processor and utilize all the cores and threads, you’ll find a ceiling on performance compared to other boards that bypass Intel’s specs. 

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see if the PG Riptide finds its way onto our Best Motherboards list. Before we get into our testing and board details, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock.

Specifications: ASRock B760M PG Riptide

Inside the Box of the ASRock B760M PG Riptide

Inside the retail box, above the motherboard, is a small handful of accessories. ASRock includes a manual, postcard, two SATA cables, screws for the M.2 sockets(2), and a case sticker. There isn’t much here, though the basics are covered.

Design of the B760M PG Riptide

The B760M PG Riptide comes with a matte-black PCB with black slots, sockets, and heatsinks. The only color is a blue/purple strip with some branding on the left VRM heatsink. The board and heatsink have some lines stenciled on, but it's tough to see the design as they are barely lighter than the board itself. If you’re looking for RGB lighting, the Riptide has you covered with two zones with three LEDs each on the right edge, at the top and bottom. The RGBs are bright and the color is saturated, which makes for a nice glow from below the board, lighting up the inside of your chassis. Overall, it’s a good-looking motherboard for the price, but certainly not a showpiece.

In the upper left corner of our budget board, the first thing we see is the 8-pin (required) and 4-pin (optional) EPS connections to power the processor. Next, we get a closer look at the VRM heatsinks. The left heatsink is the larger of the two, reaching out over the rear IO area and covering some of those unsightly Rear IO bits. On top, the Riptide PG Series branding, in that deep blue/purple color, matches the PCB’s design/patterns.

Moving past the socket area, we find four DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides. ASRock lists support up to DDR5-7200, but as always, your mileage may vary depending on the kit used. Your best chance of success in these fast kits is to stick with the QVL list.

Just past the DRAM slots in the upper-right corner are the first two (of four) 4-pin fan/pump headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices. The CPU fan (CPU_FAN1) supports up to 1A/12W and the rest of the headers support 2A/24W. I’d like to see another fan header or two, but you can piggyback a couple of fans on the headers. Just be sure not to overload them as it could damage your board.

Next, we run into two (of four) RGB headers. In this case, there are two 3-pin ARGB headers with an additional ARGB header and a single 4-pin RGB header along the bottom edge. The Polychrome application controls the RGBs and worked well in our limited use syncing with the other products.

Continuing down the right edge, we run into the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C header for the front panel.

Power delivery on our PG Riptide is configured as 14 total phases, with 12 dedicated to Vcore, just like the PG Sonic we recently reviewed (and its twin, the Steel Legend). Power comes from the 8-pin EPS connector and heads down to the Richtek RT3628AE 9-channel PWM controller. Next are the 12 VRMs dedicated to Vcore set up using a Teamed configuration. The VRMs don’t utilize the newer MOSFETs that combine Hi and Low sides, so each phase has two ICs. There isn’t a lot of power available, but it handled our Intel Core i9-13900K following the Intel specs. Not sure I’d let the system run without these limits for long, however. At least not without active cooling on the power delivery.

On the bottom of the board, on the left side, we see the Realtek ALC897 audio codec, four capacitors dedicated to audio, and a visible audio separation line designed to minimize EMI. This isn’t the newest or best audio solution. However, many those prioritizing price over fancy features should find the output sufficient.

In the middle of the board, we see a full-length PCIe slot and an open-ended x1 slot. The top primary slot uses reinforcement to protect against shearing from heavy graphics cards. This slot connects through the CPU and runs at PCIe 4.0 x16, while the bottom x1 slot sources its lanes through the chipset and runs at PCIe 4.0 x1. Just below the top slot is a Key-e M.2 socket that supports 2230 Wi-Fi/BT PCIe modules using the Intel CNVio/CNVio2 protocols. Our board doesn’t come with one, but you can purchase one separately for $25 or less and easily add it if needed.

Moving on to storage, our board has two M.2 sockets. The top socket (M2_1), under the heatsink, connects through the CPU with PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) bandwidth. The other socket (M2_2) on the right edge does not have a heatsink and runs up to the same speed. Each supports up to 80mm devices. Four SATA3 6 Gbps ports round out the storage options, with two located on the right edge and two on the bottom. If you’d like to use RAID, you can do so on the SATA ports (RAID0/1/5/10), but RAID support for the M.2 sockets isn’t listed.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• 4-pin RGB header
• 3-pin ARGB header
• Clear CMOS jumper
• (2) System Fan headers
• Speaker header
• USB 2.0 header
• TPM header
• (2) SATA3 6 Gbps ports
• System panel header

The rear IO plate on the B760M PG Riptide comes preinstalled to the motherboard, which is a nice touch at this price. It sports a black theme with white labels along with Phantom Gaming branding. There’s a total of eight USB ports scattered across the rear IO. You get one USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C port, three USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports, and four USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) ports. For video, the PG Riptide has HDMI and DisplayPorts for those using the integrated graphics on the processor. Last up are the 2.5 GbE port, a PS/2 port for the keyboard and mouse, and three 1/8-inch outputs that comprise the audio stack.

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Firmware

ASRock’s firmware for B760 keeps the same general format as we saw in the Z790 model. The major changes are the updated options/functions for Raptor Lake CPUs. The PG Riptide sports the black and red color scheme of the Phantom Gaming brand. Like the other boards, you start in Easy Mode, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). Advanced mode displays headings across the top with details below. Here you can tweak everything that can be tweaked, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.

Software

For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, and the A-Tune application that overclocks your system (if applicable), controls fans, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to 64-bit Windows 11, with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. Additionally, we updated to F1 22 in our games suite and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. The Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) for this baseline testing, so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

Looking at our synthetic benchmark results, the PG Riptide was all over the place with average to above-average results in the Procyon Suite (including Photo/Video editing) and gaming, to some of the slower we’ve seen in 7-Zip, Cinebench, POV-Ray and Blender. It performs this way as our board follows the Intel boost specs out of the box, whereas others tend to have more headroom. You can get more performance by increasing the PL1 value (and overclocking via BCLK).

Time Applications

All of our timed applications are some of the slowest we’ve recorded (again due to following Intel boost specs). Only the PG Sonic we looked at recently was slower in these tests.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platform, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21 to F1 22, while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

On the other hand, Gaming results were average to above average among our tested samples. 3DMark results were average, while the actual game tests were some of the fastest results so far. It may be slow with heavy CPU use and productivity-type tasks, but it’s a more than competent gamer with these titles.

Overclocking

While the B760 chipset for Intel doesn’t generally allow users to overclock the processor this board does have a BCLK generator, and we got our system to 5.6 GHz and 4.4GHz (P and E cores, respectively), setting the BCLK to 102. We set the voltage to 1.35V, unlocked the power limit, and off we went. Since we used much less power in this manual configuration, the system handled it well, including the power delivery. Unlock the power limit and let it run by default. You’ll get all kinds of thermal throttling of the processor and, eventually, the power delivery, as it’s incapable of sustaining that much power without active cooling.

The board had no issues running the two RAM kits we tested at speeds up to DDR5-6000. ASRock lists support up to DDR5-7200, but we used our DDR5-6000 for overclocked testing as most users buying a budget board won’t reach for the faster options. The kit passed our stress test without flinching. Your mileage may vary as reaching these speeds depends on the memory kit. Stick with the QVL list for the best chance of achieving the highest supported speeds.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption on our B760M PG Riptide peaked around 60W at the desktop, which is one of the lower values we’ve recorded. Peak power reached 390W, or around the average for the chip/platform in our testing. After the Intel turbo kicks in and reduces the clocks/voltage, power peaks around 220W with the CPU locked to 125W.

VRM temperatures on the PG Riptide, like the Sonic board, don’t have a chance to heat up much, considering the low 125W limit imposed under a minute into testing. The board wants to get hot fast when running the PL2 limit of 253W. Temperatures during our testing were fine, but the power delivery heats up if you manually raise that PL1 limit and leave the Vcore alone. If you push a high-end processor in this board, you can lower the Vcore to help with thermal throttling and performance issues.

 Bottom Line

If you’re in the market for an inexpensive motherboard and don’t need all the bells and whistles the new chips and platform offer, like PCIe 5.0 capability, a B760 board is the way to go. The B760M PG Riptide has everything you need for a smart mainstream system. There are two M.2 sockets and four SATA ports, 2.5 Gb networking (available Key-E M.2 socket for an adapter), a budget audio codec, and power delivery capable of handling our 13900K. It also looks good for such a cheap board and includes RGB LEDs. Performance out of the box is limited to Intel’s spec, so it can limit long-running and heavily multi-threaded activities. You can make some manual changes, such as adding more PL1 power and lowering the Vcore, bringing it back up to par. In short, this is a well-rounded, fair-priced option among its peers, but make sure you understand how you use your system to get the most out of it.

Regarding the competition, Gigabyte has a B760M Aorus Elite AX ($169.99), while Asus has a Prime B760M-A board for $153.99. Gigabyte’s standout feature is the 20 Gbps Type-C port and the contrasting black and grey appearance (also with integrated RGB lighting). Meanwhile, the Asus doesn’t have much, if anything, over either of these boards (and doesn’t have integrated RGBs). MSI’s Pro B760M-A Wi-Fi DDR4 ($169.99) is the most expensive. However, it supports DDR4, so the overall cost to get into the platform is less as DDR4 is still cheaper to buy. It also has integrated Wi-Fi, while that costs extra on the other boards.

Ultimately, The ASRock B760M PG Riptide is easy on the wallet, handsomely featured, and looks good for the price. You don’t get PCIe 5.0 hardware or faster than 10 Gbps USB ports native to the platform, but neither does the competition (MSI has 20 Gbps Type-C, but no PCIe 5.0). A great selling point for this board for overclockers is the integrated BCLK generator, which allows for additional headroom so you can overclock the locked chips. So long as your new system doesn’t require ultra-fast USB ports, or PCIe 5.0 anything, the PG Riptide is the pick of the litter, and it costs around $20 less than its direct competitors.

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WD has responded to the growing throng of disgruntled SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro portable SSD users who have been through or are facing the frightening prospect of sudden data loss. Ars Technica sought comment from the SanDisk parent company after it noted multiple social media threads complaining of data loss and drives sometimes becoming completely unreadable. SanDisk says that a firmware fix is on the way "soon," but its response only mentions 4TB versions of these portable flash storage devices, and not an update for the 2TB models. 

Prudent computer users buy data storage solutions from the likes of SanDisk to ensure their data is safe and secure. Portable SSDs like the SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro series come with the promise of "professional grade storage… rugged… worry-free… dependable" operation for at least five years (the warranty duration). Thus, these portable SSDs should be a good choice for a working data or backup drive.

In recent months, dissatisfaction with the SanDisk Extreme SSD series has grown, as evidenced by reddit threads like this, or this, or this. Symptoms commonly experienced are that after a sustained write to the drive, all the data on the device will appear to have been wiped. Some then find that the drive isn't just empty but has been rendered completely unwritable. Ouch.

An Ars employee has been unfortunate enough to have experienced not one but two (2TB) SanDisk Extreme Pro SSDs dying. In his experience, "a slew of read and write errors" were thrown up after the drives reached about half full. After disconnecting and reconnecting, the drives appeared to be unformatted, and it sounds like the data in place wasn't recoverable. Normally the odds of having two successive drives failing like this would be huge, but WD has admitted there is something wrong with the firmware, and it will issue an update to fix things.

"Western Digital is aware of reports indicating some customers have experienced an issue with 4TB SanDisk Extreme and/or Extreme Pro portable SSDs (SDSSDE61-4T00 and SDSSDE81-4T00 respectively)," wrote the storage tech company, in response to Ars Technica's inquiries. "We have resolved the issue and will publish a firmware update to our website soon. Customers with questions or who are experiencing issues should contact our Customer Support team for assistance."

The WD statement neglects to mention the possibility of refunds, much to some users' chagrin. Additionally, it is unclear whether the lack of mention of 2TB drives is an oversight or whether they will also get updated firmware "soon," as they should.

Some unconfirmed chatter suggests that the SanDisk Extreme SSD issues affect only those using devices "manufactured after November 2022." Still, at the time of writing, we would advise anyone using these drives to use them with extreme caution. Perhaps it is advisable to only use these storage devices for convenient duplicate or temporary data until the fix arrives and it has been tested well.

We can't help but notice that there are some hefty discounts on SanDisk Extreme / Pro SSDs on Amazon right now. However, until the above mess gets sorted out to everyone's satisfaction, buyers should stay clear - even though one of these drives performed very well during our lab testing (March 2021) and gained a place in our Best External SSDs and Hard Drives feature.