What would happen if you must build a pc for your work, but, you are so used to Flashing RGB that you don’t know where to turn to (after your boss said NO RGB)? MSI have you covered with their PRO Series we will be looking specifically at the MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI motherboard.

The MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI comes in two variants a DDR4 model and a DDR5 model (you will see the DDR4 variant pop up more in google searches). These motherboards from the PRO Series are made for working (even if they can take on gaming motherboards).

Thanks to the Z790 chipset, you can push your RAM up to 7000MHz and run up to 196GB of RAM. I don’t know about you, but I can see that I won’t have any problems running Premier or Davinci and editing 4k footage(you might even be able to edit 8K footage with that amount of RAM). Not just can you run 196GB of ram, but you also would be able to get the full advantage of this in Photoshop. Couple the Z790-P WIFI with an RTX 30 or 40 series and you have a beast of an editing machine, here you would also be able to use the card to its max thanks to your main PCIe slot being 5.0.

If you do decide(due to buying 196GB of DDR5 RAM) not to get them an RTX card you can still rely on your Intel CPU to cover you with onboard graphics (I will recommend getting that dedicated GPU) and you would be able to generate up to 4K 60Hz content on the screen with it.

MSI made sure that you will have enough USB ports on the machine especially for production environments, with 1x 20Gbps USB 3.2 type C(Gen2x2) port, 2x 10Gbps USB 3.2 Type A + C ports, 6x 5Gbps Gen 3.2 USB and 8x normal USB 2.0 ports. This is always welcome and makes transferring data a breeze!

Speaking of transferring data, the MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI has (as the name suggests) WIFI built into the board, this is all thanks to Intel’s WIFI 6E chipset, you should expect speeds of up to 2.4Gbps when using WIFI 6E. It not just has Wi-Fi but also features Bluetooth 5.2 which would be a boon for all your wireless devices (and maybe some gaming when the boss is not around).

When it comes to storage you can look forward to some fast writing speeds thanks to the four M.2 drive slots that are on the motherboard. Each slot is PCIe4.0 compatible and two out of the four are also SATA mode compatible. MSI also included easy access clips that you can use to secure your M.2’s to the motherboard. Your main M.2 slot also features a FROZR Shield to keep the M.2 cool (this is if the M.2 does not feature a built-in Heat shield). The Z790-P WIFI also features six SATA 6G ports if you are still using normal HDDs.

The other thing I noticed about the MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI is, that it features not just one 8-pin power connector, but two 8-pin power connectors. Most of your gaming motherboards (even with the new ATX standards) feature only one 8-pin and one 4-pin power connector. This will make sure that your CPU gets more than enough power for when you crunch video or photo data. I love also the fact that they are using a 6-layer PCB design with a 2oz copper as it will help with removing cross-talk between the different layers and will, in theory, improve transfer speeds. I see also that MSI opted to use extended heatsinks and it does feel like heavier heatsinks on the VRMs and Mosfets.

When it comes to cooling your i9 or i7 you can look forward to a dedicated AIO water pump pin header and you can control up to 6 system fans. Do you remember I said that there is no RGB on this board? Well, it might not have RGB on board, but it does feature 3 RGB pin headers on the board (2 are ARGB 5V and one is a 12V RGB pin header). So you would be able to power the ARGB or RGB fans for your system or you can have RGB strips.

Overall I am very pleased with the MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI motherboard. Yes, it is not a gaming board and you can see that in the design of the board. Coming in at R7999 it is also not cheap, however, like I said it is made for production. It has PCIe5.0 and DDR5, both should come down in price (for their relevant components). The Z790-P WIFI also supports the Intel 12th Gen CPUs and will make it a bit better when building your production machine. It has enough USB ports and enough storage space. The WIFI and Bluetooth are very fast as well(that’s if your network can support it). I will recommend this board for Media creation(video, photo and 3d). The only thing would be to update the BIOS when installing a 13th gen Intel CPU as the first revisions of this board do not come with that BIOS Update. I would have loved(for this price point) to see a USB instead of a CD/DVD for all the drivers and BIOS updates.

Specs

Chipset – Intel Z790
CPU Support – Supports 12th/13th Gen Intel® Core™ Processors, Pentium® Gold and Celeron® Processors (Socket: LGA 1700)
Memory – 4x DDR5, Maximum Memory Capacity 192GB (Memory Support 7000+ (OC)/ 6800 (OC)/ 6600 (OC)/ 6400 (OC)/ 6200 (OC)/ 6000 (OC)/ 5800 (OC)/ 5600 (JEDEC)/ 5400 (JEDEC)/ 5200 (JEDEC)/ 5000 (JEDEC)/ 4800 (JEDEC) MHz)
Onboard Graphics – 1x HDMI (Supports HDMI 2.1 with HDR, Max resolution 4K 60Hz), 1x Display Port (supports DP1.4, Max resolution 4k 60Hz)
Expansion Slots – 3x PCI-E x16 slot(1x PCIe5.0 x16, 2x PCIe3.0 x1, 1x PCIe4.0 x4)
Storage -4x M.2 (Supports up to PCIe4.0 x4), 6x SATA 6G
USB – 8x USB2.0(4x rear and 4x front), 6x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type A(2x rear, 4x front), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A(rear), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C(front), 1x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type C (rear)

LAN – Intel 2.8Gbps Lan adaptor
WIFI/Bluetooth – Intel Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3
Audio – Realtek ALC897 codec Chipset