Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Firmware
ASRock’s firmware for the Steel Legend is the same as its other Z790 boards. It sports the black, white, and light blue scheme we’re familiar with from other Steel Legend SKUs. Like the other boards, you start in Easy Mode, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). Advanced mode displays headings across the top, with details below. Here you can tweak everything that can be tweaked, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No significant complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.
Software
For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, and the A-Tune application that overclocks your system (if applicable), control fans, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.
Test System / Comparison Products
We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. We also updated to F1 22 for our games and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. The hardware we used is as follows:
| CPU | Intel Core i9-13900K |
| Memory | Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32) |
| GSkill Trident Z DDR5-5600 CL36 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) | |
| GPU | Asus TUF RTX 3070 |
| Cooling | Coolermaster MasterLiquid PL360 Flux |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova 850W P6 |
| Software | Windows 11 64-bit (22H2) |
| Graphics Driver | Nvidia GeForce Driver 522.25 |
| Sound | Integrated HD audio |
| Network | Integrated Networking (GbE or 2.5 GbE) |
EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing.
Benchmark Settings
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Procyon | Version 2.1.459 64 |
| Office Suite (Office 365), Video Editing (Premiere Pro 22.6.2.2), Photo Editing (Photoshop 23.5.1, Lightroom Classic 11.5) | |
| 3DMark | Version 2.22.7359 64 |
| Firestrike Extreme and Time Spy Default Presets | |
| Cinebench R23 | Version RBBENCHMARK330542 |
| Open GL Benchmark - Single and Multi-threaded | |
| Blender | Version 3.3.0 |
| Full benchmark (all 3 tests) | |
| Application Tests and Settings | |
| LAME MP3 | Version SSE2_2019 |
| Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s) | |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 1.2.2 |
| Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x264 (light AVX) and x265 (heavy AVX) | |
| Corona 1.4 | Version 1.4 |
| Custom benchmark | |
| 7-Zip | Version 21.03-beta |
| Integrated benchmark (Command Line) | |
| Game Tests and Settings | |
| Far Cry 6 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HD Textures ON |
| F1 2022 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, Ultra High (default) Bahrain (Clear/Dry), FPS Counter ON |
MORE: Best Motherboards
MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard
MORE: All Motherboard Content
Apple's redesigned M4, M4 Pro-powered Mac Mini is just 5 x 5 inches, packs up to 14 cores, puts the power button on the bottom
Russian court reportedly fines Google 2 undecillion roubles for blocking 17 state TV channels — equates to $20.5 decillion USD, Russian media report
Chinese chipmaker's new 7nm CPUs reportedly outperform Intel's Raptor Lake — Loongson adopts "tock-tock-tick" strategy to close the gap with Intel
