The MSI Z790-P PRO WiFi, A Mix Of Old And New

Decent Value If You Don’t Mind Missing A Few Bells And Whistles

The MSI Z790-P PRO WiFi comes at an attractive price and offers some nice modern features such as 2.5GbE, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C and up to 192GB of DDR5-7000.  The power delivery is also solid, at least during testing, though on paper the 14+1+1 phase power at 55A doesn’t sound great.  At that price you are not getting 14 true phases so the Z790-P PRO WiFi won’t blow you away with overclocking prowess but it will certainly do the job.

The onboard audio codec is the Realtek ALC897 7.1, one we haven’t seen on many motherboards in years as it is more than a little outdated.  There may also be a problem with the Intel 2.5GbE port, The FPS Review would sometimes loose it after a reboot and couldn’t get it back without rebooting again.  If you have a USB audio solution and are happy with the performance the two antennae give the WiFi 6 connection, neither of those points should bother you.

At the price point it is a fairly solid base for a budget system, just keep in mind the sacrifices MSI made to reach that cost.