Hardware

ASUS Prime Z790M-PLUS D4 mATX MoBo: Restore an Image and/or do a Clean Install

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The Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) driver holds the controllers (?) and storage drivers I needed to do a Backup and Restore (Windows 7) of a Win11 Pro saved image, and/or to do a clean installation of Win11 Pro – on an ASUS Prime Z790M-PLUS D4 MoBo.

I am no expert at motherboards, but I sometimes do more ‘Tinkering’ with my main computer (‘Apevia’) than I should—hence the reason for using the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) utility that comes with Windows 11 before actual ‘Tinkering’ starts.

Long story, but I don’t really want to go thru the ‘Nightmare’, in great detail, again. Doubtful that I could remember all the details anyway, since a lot of the experience involved luck, searching, banging away, more searching, more banging away mixed in with deep thought & pondering, experimenting & testing, and a stroke of good luck in the home stretch. 👍😳👌🙂

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VELOCIFIRE Wireless Mechanical Keyboard – TKL71WS with Ice Blue Backlit

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The VELOCIFIRE Wireless Mechanical Keyboard TKL71WS 71-Key Tenkeyless Brown Switches Compact Gaming Keyboard with Ice Blue Backlit for Copywriters, Typists, and Programmers is the best keyboard I’ve ever owned, and just purchased a second one for only $25.99.

Couple years ago, I had grown tired of the big old Full-size Wireless Microsoft or Logitech no backlit squishy keyboards that I had been using for decades, and decided to test some new ones. Had never had a backlit keyboard, and was having to grab a light too often to see where a key was, even when a small desk lamp was on.

WOW!!! Can’t believe it took me that long to get a backlit keyboard!? Am no gamer, so was wanting to avoid one with flashing lights. Desktop space was also important—especially the Prime Desktop Real-estate area under and in front of the display (I use gas spring arms for displays).

So many choices!?! Ended up buying four to test. Liked the VELOCIFIRE Wireless Mechanical Keyboard, TKL02WS 87 Key w/ white light the best for over a year, but the nice soft blue light from the TKL71WS kept calling me – it looked so small though, and where were all the keys!?!

Then again, the TKL71WS was not only incredibly lightweight compared to the ship anchor weight of the TKL02WS, but its footprint didn’t require much Prime Real-estate area.

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ASUS Prime Z790M-PLUS D4 mATX MoBo – BIOS & Drivers

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I have found that finding the right ASUS Z790M PLUS D4 drivers can be frustrating for this one. Since 2005/2006 I have purchased $60-$90 motherboards for my builds, but decided to ‘splurge’ on the ASUS Prime Z790M-PLUS D4 mATX MoBo – $171.89 + $12.03 Tax = $183.92.

Requirements were – Micro ATX, Intel Z790, LGA 1700, and 1Gb LAN motherboard. Have moved away from the big ATX & small ITX boards, and prefer the mATX boards and cases now—fact is, I was going to be removing (intact) an older board from my favorite case, a APEVIA X-QPACK3 mATX case, and building a new Intel® Core™ i9-13900K system in it.

I didn’t find a huge mATX selection, and PCPartPicker only had TWO listed, and I went w/ the ASUS Prime Z790M-PLUS D4.

(*1/31/2024 UPDATE: new info in ASUS Prime Z790M-PLUS D4 mATX MoBo: Restore an Image and/or do a Clean Install post*)

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Builds & Upgrades — Part 5 (FINAL – Before & After)

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Finished up new Build yesterday ‘n have it setup in my primary desktop spot – posting this from it right now. 👌👍🙌😁

Here are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

‘Before’ as in the intact MoBo I moved out of the Apevia X-Qpack3 case, and ‘After’ as in this new Build inside it now. I name most of my computers after the cases I use to build them, and I’ll update the new components in ‘Apevia’ soon.

Here is a closer look at the new benchmark results – from UserBenchmark:

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Builds & Upgrades — Part 4 (“Delivered Today” – *NOT*!)

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OK, ‘Thangs have slowed to a crawl – fortunately I am in no rush ‘n just keep spending more money whilst I wait. 😁👍 However, instead of four Parts there will be a Part 5: here are the links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Let’s get started…

‘Delivered Today‘

I knew that “$50 drop in the price of an Intel® Core™ i9-13900K CPU” mentioned in Part 3 looked unusual for the 2nd ‘Fastest average effective speed CPU‘ right now:

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