Question Upgrading from Z690 to Z790 motherboard

[Light Hope]

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of upgrading my system, moving from a Z690 motherboard to a Z790 motherboard, alongside upgrading my CPU, GPU, PSU, AIO, and case, among other components. Below, I have outlined my current configuration as well as the new setup I intend to transition to.

My primary concern is whether the Z790 motherboard will support five M.2 drives, six SSDs (four in RAID 0 configuration), and a second GPU without compromising or disabling any ports or features. I have found a decent offer for this motherboard on eBay, and before making the purchase, I want to ensure this configuration will work as intended. While I have reached out to ASUS for clarification, they have yet to respond, likely due to the holiday season.

Lastly, I would like to make it clear that I am not here to invite criticism or negative remarks about my configuration, as has occurred in the past with previous rigs. If that is your intent, please refrain from commenting. I am only seeking input from individuals with relevant experience and technical knowledge regarding these motherboards.

Thank you for taking the time to assist, and I’ll see you on my next protocol.


Current Configuration


1. Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Hero Z690

2. CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KS

3. Cooling: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420

4. GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM LIQUID X 24G

5. RAM: 128GB Corsair Dominator Platinum (premium variant)

6. Case: Phanteks Eclipse P500A

7. Power Supply: Corsair RM1000 PSU

8. Primary Storage (OS): Samsung 250GB 970 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD

Additional Storage

Samsung 2TB 980 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD

4 Samsung 870 QVO SATA SSDs in RAID 0 configuration

2 Corsair MP600 8TB M.2 SSDs (installed in the ROG Hyper M.2 Card in the second PCIe slot)

1 addlink S95 8TB NVMe M.2 SSD



Proposed Upgrade Configuration


1. Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme

2. CPU: Intel Core i9-14900KS

3. Cooling: EK Water Blocks EK-Nucleus CR360 Lux D-RGB

4. GPUs: Primary: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1590 (upon release)

Secondary: ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090

5. RAM: 128GB Corsair Dominator Platinum (unchanged)

6. Case: Phanteks G500A

7. Power Supply: Corsair HX1600i Titanium

8. Primary Storage (OS): Crucial T50 1TB M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD

Additional Storage:

Samsung 990 PRO 4TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD

3 Corsair MP600 8TB M.2 SSDs (an extra one replacing the addlink S95)

6 Samsung 870 QVO SATA SSDs (four configured in RAID 0(unchanged)



Questions


1. Can the Z790 Extreme motherboard handle this configuration (six SATA SSDs, five M.2 drives, and two GPUs) without any compromises, such as ports being disabled or bandwidth limitations?


2. Are there specific BIOS settings or adjustments required to optimise this configuration?


3. If all components are installed as described, will the GPUs maintain full bandwidth and all storage devices remain functional simultaneously?


Thank you and Happy Holidays to everyone.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

.....Lastly, I would like to make it clear that I am not here to invite criticism or negative remarks about my configuration, as has occurred in the past with previous rigs. If that is your intent, please refrain from commenting. I am only seeking input from individuals with relevant experience and technical knowledge regarding these motherboards.

Let's get one thing straight right out of the gate. You do NOT get to decide who can or cannot comment in a thread. Such behavior is a fast track out of here.

 

[Light Hope]

Let's get one thing straight right out of the gate. You do NOT get to decide who can or cannot comment in a thread. Such behavior is a fast track out of here.

I'm not bothered mate. There's plenty of other platforms out there.

I'm just interested in any negativity.

 

[faalin]

Well.

If you install a M.2 NVME into the slot right under the CPU it will disable the bottom PCIEx16 slot. If you dont use the M.2 under the CPU and install 2 GPUs then both PCIEx16 slots will only run at 8x speed


If your wanting that many PCIe lanes you would be better off switching over to an AMD EPYC build.

 

[Light Hope]

Well.

If you install a M.2 NVME into the slot right under the CPU it will disable the bottom PCIEx16 slot. If you dont use the M.2 under the CPU and install 2 GPUs then both PCIEx16 slots will only run at 8x speed


If your wanting that many PCIe lanes you would be better off switching over to an AMD EPYC build.

Thank you. I'll stick with the one GPU.

Appreciate your time and input.

 

[faalin]

Thank you. I'll stick with the one GPU.

Appreciate your time and input.

i forget what page it was in the manual but, if you only install a GPU it will run at x16 speed, if you install 2 GPU's then both PCIEx16 slots will run at 8x, if you install a GPU and NVME in the M.2_1 slot the top PCIe slot will drop to 8X the bottom PCIe slot gets disabled and the M.2_1 slot runs at x4 speed.