Z790 MB storage with Gen5 M.2 interface
Z790 MB storage with Gen5 M.2 interface
Looking for a Z790 motherboard with solid build, PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot, WiFi 6E, and better audio codec like ALC4080. Budget under $300 is tight since PCIe 5.0 support is needed for future GPU needs, especially with upcoming 13th-gen CPUs. Most manufacturers are pushing PCIe Gen5 over Gen5 M.2 storage, making it hard to find affordable options. Any recommendations would be great!
I don’t take PCIe gen5 GPU support for GPUs seriously because the 13th generation CPU will hit a bottleneck long before we reach a point where we’ll fill PCIe 5.0 x16 lanes with a GPU. Most manufacturers agree and are adding PCIe gen5 GPU support instead of sticking with gen5 M.2 storage. The idea that a GPU is useless for SSDs is even more questionable. At the moment, the price for the latest Gen 5 products is around $450, which isn’t much to worry about. You probably don’t need Gen 5 SSD access either. My takeaway is that there’s no real benefit here.
Your expectations might be a bit high. A PCIe Gen 5 slot doesn’t require you to connect a GPU. You could purchase an NVME expansion card and link several Gen 5 NVME drives via that board. I’m not sure if such cards are available yet, but the Gen 5 ports are independent of their use. As long as you have another way for video output—such as onboard IGP—you can utilize the Gen 5 ports for whatever you need.
We can confirm it should work, but we need verification on the current parts.
The next-gen SSDs are coming soon and should offer a quick speed improvement for reading and writing compared to the current Gen 4 models. Unlike GPUs, which can't fully utilize the available PCIe bandwidth, these SSDs will deliver better performance. That’s why I’m focusing on Gen 5 M.2 support alongside Gen 5 GPUs.