ASUS ProArt Z490-CREATOR 10G Intel Z490 LGA 1200 ATX Content Creation Motherboard (12+2 Power Stages, DDR4 4600, 10G LAN Card, 2.5G Intel LAN, Thunderbolt 3 Type-C, M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 2)

The reason to pay a little more for this board is the TB3 type C ports (2), the HYPER 10G LAN card (about a $100 value), and the large number of USB ports including USB 3.2. If you need connectivity for working with multiple drives and USB devices, then this is a workhorse. The included CreationFirst software also helps prioritize your network traffic for content creation. This is a workstation board, not a gaming board. Although it would serve adequately for gaming, there are less expensive alternatives.One reviewer returned the board because it did not have a TPM header. This board is only compatible with 10th and 11th generation Intel chips which almost all have Intel's built in equivalent, PTT. Turn it on in bios and your system will show full TPM 2.0 compatibility.I'm running an i9-10900K and the board runs cool.Your TB3 ports will automatically provide video from the integrated graphics of your CPU. You can also pass through graphics from a discrete graphics card, but have to connect a DisplayPort cable from the output of the card to the motherboard input. Most other motherboards in this price range only have a TB header, and you have to purchase a separate card to actually use TB ports.The board is working great for me - audio and video editing!

Connector for Front Panel 3.1 USB ports was a challenge with my Fractal Design case. It is located directly under where the GPU will most likely be installed and so is a horizontal connection rather than vertical. I installed the i7 13700F Intel CPU without graphics. On initial startup the system would only output video via the graphic card's HDMI output. I was using the Display Port output and my display remained blank. Fortunately I stumbled across an internet post that tipped me to the issue. I was ready to RMA it. Once setup and Windows 11 install completed Display Port worked properly. Very happy with the motherboard, but setup was aggravating.

Setup:Windows 11 ProfessionalIntel Core i9 12900KCorsair iCUE H100i Capellix AIO CPU coolerCorsair Dominator Platinum 32GB DDR5 RAM 5600MhzPros:* Beautiful, aesthetically balanced between form and function.* Rock solid stability. After one year of daily use (7-12 hours a day), I've run into no BSODs or freezes.* If you overclock, the ASUS BIOS has ooodles of features and settings to help you get your fastest clock speed. Some of the best in the industry, really. (Just as a side note: I no longer overclock any of my PC components. I learned over the years, that overclocking most components will shorten their lifespans. The only exception in my case, was an Intel i7 2600K CPU which ran great overclocked for 11 years!)* Two Thunderbolt 4 \ USB-C ports.* Two Ethernet ports, with one rated at 10Gb (excellent for NAS use).* Eight SATA ports for those running multiple VMs, have extensive databases or libraries, and those who need more than a single scratch drive.* Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.* PCIe 5.0* DDR5 memory support with XMP profiles* Compatible with the upcoming Intel Core 13th generation processors.* TPM headerCons:* The 4 M.2 slots are still at PCIe 4.0 (A moot point, since there are no PCIe 5.0 drives on the market as of this writing.)* The Thunderbolt / USB-C ports initially crashed my computer when connected to a device. The fix was to go into BIOS and disable the 'PCIE connection to USB4' feature.* Hard drives formatted using the NTFS file system are not detected by the motherboard when the built-in Intel GPU is enabled. (This is a problem with my other ASUS motherboard as well, a Prime Z590.) My conclusion is that if you need the built-in graphics to work, your hard drives will have to be formatted using the GPT file system.If your drives are formatted with NTFS, you'll have to enable CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in BIOS. The CSM feature, however, remains greyed out until the Intel GPU is disabled. In short, if you want to use NTFS formatted drives on this motherboard: first, disable integrated graphics and enable CSM. (This, naturally, is going in with the assumption that you have a separate graphics card in your setup.)* The Corsair LED lights and software, iCUE, don't work unless you go into the BIOS and disable the 'SPD Write' feature.* Even though it has a TPM header, you'll need to buy a TPM module separately if you want to use this with Windows 11 (SPI interface).

This Motherboard was defective after several month of use. I purchased a Z790 creator with Wi-Fi so that I could send this one back for repair under warranty. The support team came back today stating I damage the motherboard and that I had to pay $138 to repair the board and that would change the warranty to 3 months. For years I have purchased ASUS products and because I am in IT I have talked hundreds of people to purchase ASUS products. I will no longer purchase any ASUS product or recommend them. It is shocking to me that the company has went from a 10 in customer support to a 1. Bottom line is there are a lot of great companies out there that will honor the warranty and not extract money from their loyal customer base. I feel embarrassed I suggested their products to so many friends, family and business associates. to be fair to this review process the board worked amazing before the manufacturing defect surfaced. My other motherboard (Z790 creator Wi-Fi) is still working great but I fear it will also fail and will have more money extracted from me. I hope someone from ASUS reads this and realizes they lost a loyal customer for over 20 years. Good bye ASUS