NZXT N7 Z890 Review: Best Z890 Motherboard for Gamers?

NZXT continues to expand its range of motherboards with two new “Intel-based” models, the N9 Z890 and N7 Z890. The former is positioned as a showcase product, while the latter aims for an optimized performance-to-price ratio.

Its pricing tries to stay reasonable, which comes with some trade-offs, but without straying from a high-end positioning. Compared to its big sister, this is achieved through adjustments in equipment, features, and design. They are intended for Intel’s new Core Ultra processors and promise a setup capable of fully exploiting the potential of a Core Ultra 9 285K.

tech2geek offers a complete test in different situations to evaluate its potential, strengths, and weaknesses. Does the N7 Z890 live up to its promises and price?

Specifications

N7 Z890

Hardware enthusiasts will instantly recognize the NZXT product from the packaging. The style is minimalist with brand-specific colors and a clear picture of the motherboard. A large label warns about the presence of a button cell battery, which is dangerous if swallowed.

The bundle includes only the essentials: SATA cables, two antennas that attach directly to the back of the motherboard, and a manual detailing the hardware and aiding in efficient assembly by pointing out the fastest interfaces.

The board comes with a well-crafted shroud that hides much of the PCB and its electronic components. There is no backplate.

The socket is surrounded by two large aluminum heatsinks responsible for dissipating heat from the power delivery system, which uses a 16+1+2 phase layout (80A DrMOS). NZXT uses thermal pads for the MOSFETs and chokes.

A small black heatsink is located on the chipset, partly hidden under the board’s white aesthetic.

Power is supplied through a 20+4 pin ATX connector and two 8-pin EPS connectors for the CPU.

The top M.2 slot, wired in PCIe 5.0 x4, includes a smoothly contoured and reasonably sized heatsink. It supports 2280-sized drives but does not offer tool-less installation.

A small Phillips screw is required to secure the drive. Additionally, there is only one thermal pad on the heatsink side. The other three M.2 slots are PCIe 4.0 x4. The last one (M.2-3) also supports SATA 6 Gbps drives.

However, NZXT made a puzzling choice in design—none of the lower M.2 slots have cooling, and worse, the two removable covers are made of plastic.

Storage is complemented by four standard 6 Gbps SATA ports positioned at 90°.

The four memory slots support dual-channel DDR5 with XMP 3.0 technology to easily configure overclocked modules via the BIOS.

Wired connectivity uses a 2.5G Realtek Ethernet chip, and wireless includes Wi-Fi 6E (not 7) and Bluetooth 5.3. Audio is handled by a Realtek ALC1220 chip.

Rear I/O includes two antenna connectors, one HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port, four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports. Additionally, there’s a Clear CMOS button, audio jacks, and an Optical S/PDIF output.

PCIe slots include one reinforced PCIe 5.0 x16 slot (for heavy GPUs) and two PCIe 4.0 x16 slots.

Onboard, NZXT has added thoughtful features such as a Power button, Reset button, and diagnostic LEDs to indicate boot phases (Post LEDs). These help pinpoint hardware issues. There are also two USB 2.0 headers for four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers for four more ports, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port.

The board features five PWM fan connectors (4-pin): three SYS-FANs, one AIO_PUMP, and one CPU-FAN. RGB is supported via one proprietary NZXT_RGB connector and two 5V ARGB LED headers. It also has two proprietary 8-pin NZXT headers for managing CPU cooling and chassis ventilation.

Overall, the N7 Z890 is ready for the future with advanced features. Thunderbolt 4 and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 ensure fast transfers with external devices, while PCIe 5.0 on the first x16 and M.2 slot offers maximum bandwidth. Its black-and-white color scheme is stylish and classic. However, it’s surprising to see plastic used on PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots and the absence of tool-free mounting for both M.2 drives and the main PCIe 5.0 x16 slot.

BIOS

NZXT uses a common approach with two modes. In both, the interface is clean and focuses on information and easy access to settings, minimizing visual clutter. However, there are some rendering issues, like overlapping text, which will likely be fixed via an update.

EZ Mode is for users who don’t want advanced tweaking or overclocking. It displays key information and options on a single page—real-time temperatures, voltages, fan states, and RAM settings. You can select an XMP profile with one click and rearrange boot order with drag-and-drop.

Advanced Mode is more comprehensive and organized by tabs. It’s packed with settings, especially the Extreme Tweaker section, which opens the door to overclocking. Power users can adjust voltages, frequencies, multipliers, and latencies.

You can also customize fan curves individually or by groups—useful for cooling management.

Test Setup

Configuration

• CPU: Core Ultra 9 285K
• Cooler: Aorus WaterForce II 360 ICE
• RAM: FURY Renegade DDR5-8400 CL48
• GPU: GeForce RTX 4090 / RTX 3080 Ti
• Storage: Corsair MP700 Pro SE 4TB SSD
• PSU: NZXT C1500
• OS: Windows 11 24H2 (64-bit)

Benchmarks Used

• PCMark 10
• CrossMark
• Procyon Office Productivity
• CrystalDiskMark
• AIDA64 Extreme

Power consumption was measured with a wattmeter. Games were tested at 1080p with all options maxed out, no Ray Tracing or DLSS:

• Far Cry 6
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Watch_Dogs Legion
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Metro Exodus
• Cyberpunk 2077

Power Consumption

Measured at the wall, covering the whole platform (CPU, GPU, storage, cooling, PSU).

N7 Z890 – Power Consumption
Power usage ranged from 70 to 755 Watts, slightly higher than the Z890 Aorus Wi-Fi 7. Notably, NZXT’s board is more efficient at idle.

This highlights the importance of a high-efficiency power supply. A 10–15% gain under load can save dozens of watts—translating into less heat, less pollution, and lower energy costs.

Cooling

The N7 Z890 uses two large heatsinks around the LGA 1851 socket, performing efficiently along with the aluminum M.2 PCIe 5.0 x4 heatsink. After two minutes of stress testing, temperatures remained under control, with no thermal throttling. The MP700 2TB reached 68°C in open air; this should improve inside a well-ventilated case.

However, the PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives triggered thermal throttling quickly. The plastic covers should be removed and replaced with drives that have native heatsinks.

Gaming Performance

Tested at 1080p (1920×1080) with max settings, no Ray Tracing or DLSS. GPU: GeForce RTX 4090.

Both boards perform closely, but NZXT edges ahead by 3% thanks to the faster DDR5-8400 compared to DDR5-6400.

DDR5 Overclocking

Using AIDA64 Extreme, memory performance with the FURY Renegade DDR5-8400 CL48 running its XMP 3.0 profile:

• Read speeds jumped by 35 GB/s, write by 20 GB/s over DDR5-6400.

Interface Performance

Tested with CrystalDiskMark:

• SATA: 512GB Crucial MX100 SSD
• USB/Thunderbolt: Vision Drive 1TB (Gigabyte)
• Boot Drive: Corsair MP700 Pro SE 4TB PCIe 5.0 x4

NZXT provides a well-balanced setup, with consistently fast internal and external data transfer. USB 3.2 Gen2x2 and Thunderbolt 4 reach 2 GB/s, and the Corsair MP700 hits over 10 GB/s.

The Samsung 990 Pro (PCIe 4.0 x4) maxes out at 6.8 GB/s.

Overall Platform Performance

Benchmarks: PCMark 10 and CrossMark (office, content creation, productivity).

The N7 Z890 leads with a 2% edge, likely due to DDR5-8400, especially in the Digital Content Creation category.

In CrossMark, both platforms score almost identically. Gigabyte wins by 0.2%, which is negligible.

In office tasks, the N7 Z890 slightly outperforms the Z890 Aorus Elite WIFI7 (+0.9%) but falls just behind the ROG Maximus Z890 HERO (+1.1%). The gap is minor.

Final Verdict

The NZXT N7 Z890 confirms NZXT’s skill in clean design and careful integration, all built on a technically solid platform. It impresses with a sleek, elegant look that aligns with the brand’s identity, and a future-proof feature set: PCIe 5.0 support, high-speed DDR5 compatibility, and Thunderbolt 4.

However, it’s unfortunate that Wi-Fi is not version 7. The BIOS is user-friendly for both beginners and advanced users thanks to its dual-mode interface.

Performance-wise, the N7 Z890 ranks high, especially in data transfer and memory bandwidth with fast DDR5. Still, a few compromises may disappoint demanding users—no tool-less mounting for M.2 or PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, and plastic M.2 covers feel out of place on such a premium board.

All in all, the NZXT N7 Z890 is a convincing, well-equipped motherboard that can power a high-end setup with both efficiency and style. It will appeal to users looking for performance, aesthetics, and coherence, with some adjustments needed depending on the use case (like cooling for PCIe 4.0 SSDs). Lastly, the inclusion of a printed manual for offline assembly is a great touch—but it’s a shame NZXT didn’t include a USB stick with drivers, especially at this price point.