The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTMSI MAG Z690 Torpedo (DDR5) & Torpedo EK X (DDR5)
The MSI MAG Z690 Torpedo is a slightly cut-down version of the MAG Z690 Tomahawk WIFI, but with a slightly more affordable feature set and a futuristic styled deep bluey-grey aesthetic. Touching more on the aesthetic, all of the board's design includes a metallic grey and blue set of heatsinks, with alternating black and blue memory slots, and an all-black PCB. MSI is advertising an 18-phase power delivery operating at 16+1+1.
Diving into the specifications of the MAG Z690 Torpedo, MSI includes one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots operating at x4/x1, with a one smaller PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. Looking at storage options, there's a total of four M.2 slots, including three PCIe 4.0 x4 and one PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot. Other options include six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. In the top right-hand corner are four memory slots that are capable of supporting DDR5-6400, with a combined capacity of 128 GB.
On the rear panel is one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, three USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. One of the USB 2.0 ports supports BIOS Flashback for which there is a small button, while five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are powered by a Realtek ALC4080 HD audio codec. The Torpedo doesn't include a wireless CNVi, but it does include an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller. Finishing the rear panel is a pair of video outputs, including one DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.1 output.
The MSI MAG Z690 Torpedo EK X addition is essentially the same as the Torpedo, except it comes with a custom EKWB monoblock, although we don't have any images or other information at the time of writing.
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DigitalFreak - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Except DirectStorage actually exists in the XBox Series X. Once the XBSX native games start getting ported things will start to move.Bp_968 - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Why fill my pc with loud and hot hard drives? I have 2 M.2 sticks as local storage and a NAS for all the rust drives in another room. I wouldn't want to go back to the days of using my PC for that.And if you must have tons of sata just buy a SAS card. Their cheap and flexible. Each SAS port on the card fans out to 4 sata ports using a cheap cable.
The Von Matrices - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Since the 100 series chipsets, the lanes for the SATA ports are shared with other things, so you aren't getting dedicated ports like you used to. You have to disable other features if you want to use all the SATA ports. With my current Z390 board, I can't use more than 2 SATA ports without compromising on other features, and I can't use all 6 SATA ports unless I disable both M.2 slots. Since they're sharing lanes, there's little cost and little reason to not have them, and that will probably continue into the future.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Things have changed the last couple of generations. My Z690 board has 6 SATA ports and 4 PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. The only thing shared is SATA between one SATA port and one of the M.2 slots. As long as you don't need a M.2 SATA drive, you can run 4 NVMe drives and 6 SATA devices simultaneously..KarlKastor - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
There has nothing changed. The IO-Lanes of the chipset can eather be SATA or PCIe. The reason why you have nothing shared is, because they saved money for switches. You have not the option how to use this Lanes.This happens since Rocket Lake. The CPU has additional PCIe lanes, so you don't need to share much anymore and the Board is full already. There is no space for more M.2. Backside maybe.
12345 - Monday, November 15, 2021 - link
Z690 has a x8 gen 4 link to the chipset now. You don't have to disable SATA anymore to use all m.2 slots.meacupla - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
I am pretty sure intel had 8 SATA ports since Z77, but board manufacturers routed 2 SATA ports for m.2 SATA. The On Z87 and Z97, 8 SATA ports with 2 ports shared for m.2 SATA was totally a thing.KarlKastor - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
The silicon has 8 ports for long time. But maximum usable for the Zxy7 was 6. Eight were workstation only.If you used shared SATA on M.2, then you had less than six SATA Ports usable.
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
SATA SSD sales continue to remain strong, and are much mroe economical for large file storage per TB then M.2 drives (a 2TB SATA drive is around $170 now), and if you have a RAID aray with 3+ drives speeds begin to encroah on NVMe speeds, a RAID 5 array with 4 SATA III will hit 1.6GB/s read speeds.Mr Perfect - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Man, these Z-chipset boards keep going up in price. I'm curious what eventual H670 chipset boards will look like. If they've got everything you need without all the flashy bits, I'll probably shoot for one of those.