1. Preface: Only 1599 yuan of high-value Z790 overclocking motherboard
Nowadays, more and more gamers are fond of high-value pure white consoles, but many so-called white motherboards on the market only use white heatsinks, and the PCB version is still black.
此前七彩虹推出过全白配色的CVN Z790 GAMING FROZEN主板,现在又推出了一款外观更具特色的产品——CVN Z790D5 ARK FROZE方舟主板(以下简称Z790D5方舟)。
The difference in the appearance of the CNV Z790D5 Ark motherboard is that it is not pure white, but uses a combination of silver-gray PCB and titanium gray frost thermal armor, which looks more high-end and calm.
Of course, such a color scheme with a white console is no problem at all.
In the colorful CVN product series, ARK Ark is positioned as a top-of-the-line flagship, let's take a look at what features this motherboard has!
1、14+1+1相90A供电电路
The motherboard adopts a 14+1+1 design with a total of 16 phases of power supply, and each phase of the core power supply has a 90A DrMOS.
In addition, Colorful also equips each phase with an expensive chip polymer tantalum capacitor that was previously only available on top-of-the-line overclocking motherboards.
2. 4 PCIe 4.0 M.2 ports
M.2 SSDs are now the price of cabbage, and many gamers have multiple SSDs.
The Z790D5 Ark provides 4 M.2 interfaces, and each interface supports PCIe 4.0 x4 bandwidth, which is believed to meet the needs of most users.
3. VRM heatsink with heat pipe
Motherboards under 2000 yuan will either have a small VRM heatsink or no heat pipes.
The Z790D5 Ark has a bulky VRM heatsink that is also connected with heat pipes.
CNV Z790D5方舟主板详细规格参数如下：
2. Picture appreciation: high-end is revealed everywhere
Simple and elegant box.
The CVN Z790D5 Ark motherboard uses a new design language, with a silver-gray PCB and a titanium gray frost cooling armor, and starship elements, making it look high-end and cold.
The back, which is easy to overlook, has also taken a lot of thought, decorated with some personalized patterns, and there are huge numbers 7 and 9.
The sheer size of the heatsink is a bit unexpected.
4 DDR5 DIMM slots, supporting DDR5 7800+MHz, a single maximum capacity of 48GB, and up to 192GB memory.
The top one is a full-size PCIe 5.0 x16 slot with metal reinforcement.
There is a full-size PCIe x16 slot in the middle, with a bandwidth that supports PCIe 4.0 x4 and is also reinforced with metal.
There is also a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot in between.
Surprisingly, there is a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot at the bottom, which is of course also compatible with devices with a PCIe x1 interface, which is rarely equipped with mainstream motherboards.
PCIe 4.0 x4插槽。
Removing the heatsink we can see that there are 4 M.2 2280 ports, all of which support PCIe 4.0 technology.
背部I/O接口：1xBIOS UPDATE、1xClear CMOS、1xDP、1xHDMI、4xUSB 2.0、2xUSB 3.2 Gen 1、3xUSB 3.2 Gen 2、1xUSB3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C 20Gbps、1x2.5Gbps网口、2xWi-Fi天线口、5*3.5mm、1xS/PDIF。
The DEBUG LED on the lower left will display the self-test code when it is time, and it will change to display the CPU temperature after successfully entering the system.
14+1+1 phase power supply circuit design, the core and core display are equipped with a 90A DrMOS in each phase, which can theoretically support more than 800W power output, equipped with i9-14900KS and overclocking is not a problem at all.
Close-up of the power supply circuit, the DrMOS model is ISL99390, and many high-end motherboards have used it before.
Surprisingly, as a thousand-yuan motherboard, the Z790D5 Ark actually uses expensive chip polymer tantalum capacitors, which are usually only equipped with top-of-the-line overclocking motherboards.
Frost heat dissipation armor and matrix composite groove design double the heat dissipation area, which can effectively improve heat dissipation efficiency.
Heat pipes are also used to connect the two heatsinks, allowing you to get the most out of each heatsink.
Generally speaking, heat pipes are also standard on high-end motherboards.
3. BIOS Introduction: Very rich CPU overclocking details settings
The CVN Z790D5 Ark motherboard has a very interesting BIOS setting, when this option is set to AUTO, the DEBUG LED on the motherboard will display the self-test code at boot, and it will change to display the CPU temperature after successfully entering the system.
This is a very creative idea, after all, after entering the system, the self-test code has no effect, and it is more practical to display the CPU temperature.
The EZ BIOS interface can display information such as temperature, frequency, and voltage of the processor and memory.
We can see that there are three modes to choose from in the lower right corner: "Default", "Performance" and "Energy Saving".
The fan setting interface allows you to freely adjust the temperature curve, for example, you can set the CPU fan and the case fan to stop below 40 degrees Celsius to achieve zero noise under low load.
There are a total of 6 4-PIN fan connectors, each of which supports manual curve adjustment.
The above two are the CPU overclocking interface, and there are many more options for adjustment than before, such as the AVX Offset frequency, P-Core frequency, anti-drop, PL1/2 power consumption wall, temperature wall, etc., basically there are adjustment options that should be there.
There are also many options for adjusting the memory parameters.
In the advanced voltage setting, you can freely adjust the voltage of the CPU size, cores, and memory.
In "Advanced Mode", you can modify settings such as processors, fans, power USB, hard disks, and so on.
Resizable BAR is enabled by default, which can improve the performance of AMD and Intel graphics graphics to a certain extent.
The BIOS upgrade interface allows you to directly put the BIOS file into the USB flash drive for upgrade.
The CVN Z790D5 Ark motherboard also adds the OC preset save function. You can name the current BIOS overclocking settings and save them in the preset archive, or you can save them in a USB stick, so that even if you empty the BIOS, you can quickly restore the BIOS settings from the preset archive.
Launch the settings screen.
4. Performance test: i9-14900KS stable 350W performance release
1. Oven test
It's a bit surprising, on the CVN Z790D5 Ark motherboard, the i9-14900KS actually ran up to 380W, and the power consumption was 360W after half a minute.
The oven lasted for 38 minutes, and finally the power of the i9-14900KS was maintained at 350W, and the P-Core all-core frequency was up to 5.5GHz - here it hit the temperature wall, and with the heat dissipation released, the all-core frequency could reach 5.9GHz.
We have previously tested on other top motherboards, using the same heatsink, this processor can only stabilize at 330W, and the all-core frequency is 5.2~5.3GHz.
The performance of the CVN Z790D5 Ark is really unexpected, and I don't know why for the time being.
2. Memory test
Our i9-14900KS does not support high-frequency memory very well, so we replaced it with i9-14900K, and the test used Langke Z RGB DDR5-8000 16GB x2 electroplated silver memory.
When XMP is directly enabled and the memory parameter is 8000MHz 40-47-47-128, the measured read, write, and copy bandwidths are 119GB/s, 102GB/s, and 104GB/s, respectively, and the memory is 63.4ns.
5. Summary: There is no need to be superstitious about the expensive top-of-the-line Z790 motherboard
If 3 years ago, you asked me to recommend a motherboard suitable for i9-12900KS, I would choose ROG or other top motherboards at the 5000 yuan level, but now the times are different.
The latest-generation i9-14900KS can't even run at silent clocks on many top-of-the-line Z790 motherboards, let alone overclock.
In terms of silent frequency performance, the CVN Z790D5 Ark motherboard showed amazing performance, and in the 38-minute AIDA64 FPU baking test, it allowed us to run the i9-14900KS at 350W of power, and the P-Core was maintained at an all-core frequency of 5.5GHz.
And this processor has been tested many times on other top motherboards (5000 yuan level), and it can only maintain a 330W baking power consumption and a 5.3GHz P-Core all-core baking frequency.
It is not yet known what causes the CVN Z790D5 Ark motherboard to have a higher performance release, but it is certain that the performance of this motherboard is indeed comparable to the high-end models of the three major manufacturers.
As for the memory overclocking ability, we used the Z RGB DDR5-8000 16GB x2 silver-plated memory, which can run stably at 8000MHz after XMP is enabled.
In terms of workmanship, the Z790D5 Ark is equipped with a 14+1+1 phase 90A power supply circuit, and even a chip polymer tantalum capacitor that most high-end motherboards do not have, to enhance the stability of the processor in high-load operating conditions.
The motherboard also has strong expansion capabilities, with 4 PCIe slots (including a PCIe 5.0 x16), 4 PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 ports, a 2.5Gbps LAN card, a Wi-Fi 6E wireless card, and a heavy VRM heatsink with heat pipe connections. It can be said that it has all the elements that a high-end motherboard should have.
Finally, let's talk about the BIOS design of the colorful motherboard alone!
Half a year ago we tested the CVN Z790 GAMING FROZEN V20, and its BIOS didn't have much CPU overclocking capabilities, and now we see that the BIOS of the Z790D5 Ark is completely different.
AVX Offset frequency, P-Core frequency, anti-drop, PL1/2 power consumption wall, temperature wall, etc., there are all adjustment options, which can be compared to traditional motherboard manufacturers in terms of details.
Mainland motherboard manufacturers can do this, and only Colorful is the only one.
As for the price, the daily price of the CVN Z790D5 Ark motherboard is only 1649 yuan. The workmanship of the high-end motherboard and the distinctive silver gray color matching, selling only at this price shows the sincerity of Rainbow.
We also recommend DIY gamers who don't have brand beliefs to buy this motherboard with a Core 14th Gen i9 processor.