Nzxt n7 z390 review in Spanish (full analysis)

It has taken time, but we finally have a final version of the NZXT N7 Z390 motherboard. The manufacturer already surprised us in its day with a version for Z370 and now it has done the same with this gaming-oriented chipset. It is a fully covered plate in its front area with a metallic housing in various colors available that will go perfectly with chassis like the 510i Elite. It seems that NZXT has opted for a 9-phase power configuration without benders and its own lighting and fan control system, since it knows a lot about this.

Let's see what this Z390 board offers us with an Intel Core i9-9900K, we will even try to overclock, since it is an unlocked chipset. And before we continue, we appreciate NZXT's trust in us by giving us their license plate for our analysis.

NZXT N7 Z390 technical features

Unboxing

We start as always with the Unboxing of the NZXT N7 Z390, a board with a very careful design as well as the package it comes in. This time it is a flexible cardboard box completely painted white and with purple edges. On the main face we have a photo of the plate, while in the back a lot of information about the product has been arranged, and that we will see later.

Now we will open the main box and inside we have a neutral cardboard mold with a hard plastic housing that is responsible for storing the motherboard without an antistatic bag. A system that many manufacturers are now using for their top of the range motherboards on the AMD platform.

In the bundle we will find the following elements:

• NZXT N7 Z390 motherboard Screw set for installing M.24x cards SATA cables for storage drives 3x 4-pin header LED connectors 2x rear panel antennas

Without a doubt we have a very complete bundle and with enough connectors for this board. The multiple NZXT HUE compatible light strip connectors and full set of sata hard drive cables are greatly appreciated. All of this covers the available internal connectors, and all you need is a multiplier for fans.

Design and Specifications

And without a doubt the most differential aspect of this NZXT N7 Z390 is the exterior design, specifically that of the main face of the board. The form factor of course is lifelong ATX and it has been chosen to include a relatively narrow EMI protector and integrated I / O panel plate. The cover that we have on the main face is available in white, black and with a blue Vault Boy skin (Fallout game) that will sit spectacularly, as a good fan of the saga . The VRM and chipset heatsink cover is also available in bright blue, red, or purple.

In practically all the plate we find a cover made of metal, presumably the same metal that the brand uses for its chassis, since it is quite thick and with the same roughness in the paint. Well, this sheet is responsible for covering the entire area of ​​expansion slots, chipset, sound card and DIMM slots. Only the necessary gaps have been left for the different connectors available.

Similarly, the VRM has also been covered with a sheet of the same color and perforated. This is removable, and covers the finned aluminum heatsinks that cover the supply phases in an integral way. And we must admit that these heatsinks are quite small for what we are currently used to, so we will see how they behave under high load.

Another element to comment on is the sheet that is on the chipset. It is removable, in fact it is a little badly fastened and it moves a lot, personally I did not like this solution. The three M.2 slots have sheet metal covers that double as heatsinks, since under them we have a thermal pad installed.

In general, the finishes of this cover are quite good, giving it a look that integrates perfectly with its entire family of chassis, without a doubt this is the idea. While it is true that opting for sheet metal instead of aluminum for me, it slightly worsens the quality of the edges and the refined aesthetics that it should have.

In the back area we do not have any type of protection in the form of a cover, and the truth is that the manufacturer should have taken advantage of introducing some elements that give greater security and isolation to the whole.

Special care in ventilation and lighting

And if NZXT understands something, it is ventilation and lighting systems, since they are its specialty. For this reason, it has taken advantage of this for its new NZXT N7 Z390 and integrate its own systems that differentiate its board from the rest.

Regarding the ventilation system, the board consists of 8 headers of which 6 are for system fans, 1 for a CPU fan and another for a cooling pump. The system is called GRID + and is compatible with CAM software to be able to customize the ventilation profiles and also activate the 0 dB mode that was originally introduced with the Smart Device on its chassis. For those who don't know, it's an intelligent fan control system that adjusts speed based on temperature and noise to achieve optimal operating conditions.

On the other hand, we also have a complete system compatible with HUE 2 lighting in the form of three 4-pin lighting headers. The bundle includes adapters for these headers and enables the connection of LED strips or fans. Of course behind it will be the CAM software to customize the entire system and integrate it with our NZXT chassis with Smart Device.

VRM and power phases

This NZXT N7 Z390 has significantly changed its power phase configuration compared to the N7 Z370, since now we do not have a signal duplicator system. In this way the phases have been reduced to 9 reales instead of 15 duplicates. Each of them is occupied by a MOSFET DC-DC SM7340EH built by Sinopower. These have a two-channel system to supply voltage at 4.5 and 10 V at a total of 60A. They are elements of a fairly high quality and above all a lot of power that will withstand moderate overclocking processes for high-end mid-range Intel CPUs.

In the next stage we have huge solid CHOKES, also 60A, and their corresponding 560 µF RF921 capacitors to stabilize the signal and get as much plate as possible. The entire system will be powered through a single 8-pin connector, a fairly conservative configuration, although it is understandable due to the phase count we have.

Perhaps in this sense, NZXT has not wanted to risk too much in providing its board with a strong overclocking capacity, since with 9 phases we do not have too much to play in, even though these are 60A. Similarly, the built-in heatsinks do not have a too high profile, which invites us to think that when we turn the 9900K on, we are going to get high temperatures.

Socket, chipset and RAM memory

Now we have to see the benefits of this NZXT N7 Z390 in terms of its main hardware capacity. Of course we are facing a Z390 chipset board, the most powerful south bridge available on the Intel desktop platform. This chipset supports a total of 10 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports and 6 SATA ports, Ethernet and Wireles-AC connectivity and of course M.2 storage thanks to its 24 Lanes PCIe 3.0.

This time NZXT offers compatibility with 8th and 9th generation Intel Core i9, i7, i5 and i3 processors. It does not give details regarding its compatibility with Intel Celeron and Gold processors. In any case it should be compatible like all the plates that make up this platform.

Finally we have 4 DIMM slots that support up to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM over 3600 MHz. It offers compatibility with the manufacturers XMP OC profiles in their Non-ECC memories and in Dual Channel configuration. Again, the manufacturer does not give details about the maximum frequency that these slots support, but we have tested 3600 MHz and they go perfectly. Of course, the capacity seems to be that it does not reach the 128 GB that the new CPUs of Intel support, being limited to 64 according to specifications.

Storage and PCI slots

Now we turn to see the expandability of the NZXT N7 Z390 analyzing its different PCIe and storage slots.

Starting with its capacity for hard drives, we have a total of 4 SATA 6 Gbps ports and two M.2 slots connected to the chipset that are compatible with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. Also with Intel Rapid Storage 15 and Optane Memory. These are the ports:

• The first slot supports sizes 2242, 2260 and 2280 supporting connections in PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gbps. The second slot also supports the same sizes and only supports PCIe 3.0 x4

In neither case, these SATA ports and slots share PCIe lanes, so we can make a complete connection without losing any connector. Precisely for this reason NZXT has omitted two SATA ports, since normally on boards with 6 ports, two of them share a bus with M.2 or other ports.

Now let's deal with the PCIe slots, which will be all 3rd generation and the two main ones are compatible with AMD CrossFireX 2-way. So this time we do not have compatibility with Nvidia SLI, which seems strange to us. In any case, the slots functions as follows:

• The two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (large) will work at x16 / x0 the first one or x8 / x8 both together. Two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots will both operate at this speed without sharing lanes with each other. The PCIe 3.0 x1 slot will operate at x1 at all times and without sharing lanes with any other.

Surely you have been quite struck by having two x4 slots instead of a third x16 or 2 x1. It is another interesting aspect in which this NZXT N7 Z390 board has wanted to differentiate itself from the rest. In many cases these slots are going to be much more interesting than the x1 or x16 limited in bandwidth, for example, for expansion cards M.2 10 Gbps network cards or any other. NZXT has managed to occupy absolutely all PCIe lanes "your way"

Network connectivity and sound card

The next section is about extra connectivity so to speak, that this time we also have some interesting details.

Regarding the sound card, we find a Realtek ALC1220 codec, which is the one with the best features available. It offers 8-channel 7.1 HD audio capability with S / PDIF digital output. We have an integrated 32 bit 192 kHz DAC specially designed for headphone output.

As far as network connectivity is concerned, we find a normal and current Intel I219-V 10/100/1000 Mbps chip. Along with this, we have chosen to integrate Wi-Fi 5 connectivity with an Intel dual Band Wireless-AC 9560 that gives us a maximum bandwidth of 1.73 Gbps at the 5 GHz frequency. In addition, this chip is installed on a third M.2 CNVi E-Key slot located under the first PCIe x16 slot. It is the maximum connectivity available for the platform, and also located in a fairly accessible place. This is the main reason why the I / O panel EMI cover is so tiny.

I / O ports and internal connections

We reached the final stretch to see the ports that the NZXT N7 Z390 has integrated. During the photos you will not have seen a Debug LED panel or buttons integrated on the board to start it. This is because the manufacturer has placed them directly on the I / O panel of the board, a solution that seems very original and accessible to all users.

Starting with its rear I / O panel we have:

• 2x connectors for external Wi-Fi antennas Board power and Reset button Panel Debug LED Clear button CMOS1x HDMI 1.4b1x DisplayPort 1.2 4x USB 3.1 Gen2 (red) 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 (blue) 1x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C RJ- port 45S / PDIF for digital audio 5x 3.5mm jack for audio

We note a wide variety of ports, including an HDMI that in this case will offer us a maximum resolution of 4096 × 2016 @ 24 Hz. The truth is that we would have liked it to be version 2.0, to reach 60 Hz, but At least we have one. A rather positive aspect is that all the built-in USBs are high speed, 4 of them 3.1 Gen 2 at 10 Gbps. And in this case we do not have any BIOS update system quickly via USB, so we will have to resort to traditional systems.

And the main internal ports of the NZXT N7 Z390 are as follows:

• 8x headers for ventilation (6 SYS_FAN, 1 CPU_FAN and 1 AIO_PUMP) 3x RGB LED headers compatible with HUE 21x noise sensor for GRID system + Front audio connector 3x headers for USB 2.0 (6 ports total) 1x header for USB 3.1 Gen1 (2 ports total) 1x Header for USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C Backup button for ROM DUAL BIOS switch

It may surprise in this case the large number of internal headers available for USB ports, which will be very interesting to integrate controllers like Smart Device and other lighting systems of our chassis or components. The truth is that, in this sense, we have nothing to object to, and it is even a great advantage to have so many.

testing bench

In this case we have not stopped to see the NZXT CAM software on this board, since the operation and options will be very similar to other systems that we have already tested. We leave you this link for you to take a look.

Now let's see what the test bench is formed in which we have tested this NZXT N7 Z390:

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel Core i9-9900K
Base plate:	NZXT N7 Z390
Memory:	16 GB G-Skill Trident Z NEO RGB 3600 MHz
Heatsink	Corsair H100i Platinum SE
HDD	Adata SU750
Graphic card	Nvidia RTX 2060 FE
Power supply	Cooler Master V850 Gold

BIOS

This time we have a Dual BIOS system that offers us much more stability in the face of overclocking failures or errors that may occur with different hardware components. In addition, both on the I / O panel and inside we have complete control over this system, intuitive and simple with just a glance at the manual. We have only lacked a direct update system from the USB port as other manufacturers have.

This BIOS has two forms of management, or rather, a welcome interface and an interface for advanced users. In the first of them, we have a very original configuration and not seen to date. In it, we see the CPU and RAM voltage measurements, temperatures and the RPM of the pump or fan. Right in the central area we have a very basic description of the installed hardware, and under this, the list and order of the boot devices. We can reorder them by clicking on them and dragging the icons. In the upper area we will have access to the advanced mode and the operating profiles of the ventilation system.

Now we go to the advanced interface, which will be where we have all the configuration options for our BIOS. In general it is a system that combines a very basic and black interface with many options in different subsections, although the truth is that it is very intuitive.

We have a total of 7 sections that are generic in almost all BIOSes, and of course the one that will interest us most having this chipset is the overclocking one. It will be here where we can manually increase the CPU frequency and activate the memory XPM profile. Let's note that it initially comes off, and the CPU frequency is limited to 4900 MHz in the case of the 9900K. The whole system is extremely intuitive for almost any user and quite complete, so NZXT does a good job for this BIOS, although it is not as complete as those of the main manufacturers.

Overclocking

As it could not be otherwise, we have tried to get the most available from this NZXT N7 Z390 board, so we have placed the XMP profile of the corresponding RAM memories, increasing their voltage to 1.36.

Likewise, we have gone to the overclocking section and have manually increased the frequency to 5.0 GHz for all 9900K cores with a voltage of 1, 400 V. In this case we are not allowed to place a value per desktop, but we will have to choose it from a list with a jump of 0.050V.

With 5.00 GHz overclocking

In Stock 4.9 GHz

With 5.00 GHz overclocking

In Stock 4.9 GHz

It should be noted that the CPU has responded perfectly to the changes made from the factory 4.9 GHz to the manually increased 5.0 GHz, with the corresponding performance improvement. We have not been able to obtain satisfactory stability at 5.10 GHz @ 1, 450V or other registers, so we can conclude that the maximum admissible in our test bench has been 5 GHz.

Temperatures

We have also made captures on the surface of the plate to see in more detail the distribution of temperatures on it. We have made these captures with the metal cover placed on the heatsinks and with it removed to see how this affects.

With the cover removed and the equipment at rest, we have obtained records that are between 45 and 50 ⁰C, which we consider relatively high. As always, the maximum temperatures will be located in the MOSFETS and the base of the plate, corresponding to the whitish yellow color.

After this, We have replaced the cover and we have stressed for several hours this CPU with liquid cooling and its stock speed (4.9 GHz). Temperatures now hover around 70 ⁰C in almost the entire VRM zone including capacitors.

Finally we have removed the sheet and we have left a time for the temperatures to stabilize again. We are still close to 70⁰C in some areas outside, but the interior has dropped considerably. Precisely for this reason it is why we preferred an aluminum cover in certain places like this, since it is appreciated as it saves enough heat and makes the heatsinks not breathe correctly.

In any case, they are relatively good temperatures if we take into account that the CPU tested is the top Intel range for this chipset. Registers below 75 degrees are somewhat acceptable and will remain stable even with the 5 GHz CPU.

Final words and conclusion about NZXT N7 Z390

In this way we come to the end of the review of the NZXT N7 Z390, a quite particular board by the manufacturer that offers it to us and with a fairly noticeable layer of customization. Without a doubt this may be its most differential aspect, with the PCB practically completely covered with a metallic casing available in white, black or a Vault Boy version, and details in other colors.

We have lacked a cover of this in the rear area to finish rounding off the design, which integrates perfectly with its chassis and cooling systems. It will be here where we see the maximum aesthetic potential of the plate. We also don't have RGB lighting on the PCB, which surprises us.

We would have liked a somewhat more powerful VRM, with at least 12 phases so that it has a greater potential for overclocking. Surely it would have obtained speeds higher than 5.00 GHz in this case and better temperatures with larger heatsinks. In this sense it could be positioned as a mid-range Z390, since its capacity is somewhat limited.

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Another advantage to highlight will be the extensive external and internal connectivity that we have, with USB 3.1 ports and up to 5 internal headers to distribute. Similarly, the manufacturer has squeezed the most of the PCIe lanes with two successful x4 slots, two x16 and one x1, although only compatible with CrossFireX. There are also two M.2 slots with integrated heatsinks and an integrated Wi-Fi 5 card, in this sense, impeccable.

Following the manufacturer's trajectory, there could be no lack of an exclusive ventilation system such as the GRID + with 8 independently customizable headers and a 0 dB system similar to that of the Smart Device. All this manageable with CAM, like its three RGB headers.

The BIOS has also seemed very stable to us, with a correct and intuitive organization for overclocking, for example. We have a dual system for greater stability and on-board interaction buttons for the user. Part of them are located on the I / O panel next to the Debug LED. Of course, we are not at the level of manufacturers such as Gigabyte or Asus in terms of options and update.

We finish with the price of this NZXT N7 Z390, which will be around 249.99 euros, although we do not know if it will be like this in all colors. The truth is that it is a high cost for a plate that in pure performance is located in a medium-high range. We appreciate its great customization and full connectivity, but it is very difficult to unseat top manufacturers in pure performance.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ ORIGINAL DESIGN	- VRM SOMETHING LIMITED TO OVERCLOCKING
+ COMPLETE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CONNECTIVITY	- PURE PERFORMANCE NOT AT THE LEVEL OF MAIN MANUFACTURERS
+ WITH INTEGRATED WI-FI AC	- WE HAVE NO RGB LIGHTING ON THE PCB
+ VERY STABLE AND SIMPLE DUAL BIOS
+ GRID + SYSTEM FOR FANS AND RGB HEADBOARDS COMPATIBLE WITH HUE 2

The Professional Review team awards him the gold medal:

NZXT N7 Z390

COMPONENTS - 87%

REFRIGERATION - 82%

BIOS - 82%

EXTRAS - 89%

PRICE - 80%

84%

Unique NZXT seal design on a board suitable for the most powerful Intel CPUs