Don't let the name fool you - it's a great mid-range creator motherboard
by AdamD884Overall, a great motherboard for work, mid-range editing and loads of peripherals. My use case: The last time I built a PC was in 2013, with an ASUS z97-k motherboard driving an i7-4790. The main reason I picked ASUS again was that after the previous 2000s standard of motherboards lasting no more than 2-3 years on average, the z97-k setup still runs fine after ten years of daily work including video editing, rendering, and having hundreds of browser tabs open (and nowadays the latter taxes the system the most). Having spent way too much time with hardware testing videos, it's clear the z line is still the one that the best and sturdiest components go into. I don't like building a new PC every couple of years, so I need my components to last. So for a 12th, 13th or 14th generation Intel, going with the z790 range was a no-brainer after seeing how z690 pricing was now often higher. The differences may be down to a couple of USB ports or M.2 slots, but why buy older for more money? Note that at time of purchase, I nabbed it for around 200 quid, which made it a no-brainer. Since Christmas 2023 I've seen prices up to 350 quid, which is a much worse proposition (all the better to stick to Overclockers, where it remains competitive). While the ASUS line of boards is quite dizzying in its naming conventions, don't let the weird TUF GAMING name put you off if you're not in fact going for a gaming setup. You don't actually need to go up to the ProArt line of "creator" motherboards if you're not editing in 6K/8K or running an entire professional cinema-level editing and post-production studio off your machine. And if you have lots of fast storage needs, you will love the many, many M.2 slots in this one. If your case is not huge though, make sure to plug most things in before placing it in the case, I spent hours finicking with PSU and case cables on the edges.
