The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTASUS ProArt Z690 Creator WIFI (DDR5)
Designed primarily for content creators, but more than adequately adapt for the foundation to any type of desktop system a user may wish to create, ASUS has its ProArt series. Some of the ProArt series main features include Thunderbolt connectivity for super-fast transfer speeds and typically features a more reserved and elegant aesthetic. The ASUS ProArt Z690 Creator WIFI ticks all of these boxes, with a primarily black theme with elements of goldish colored and white contrasting lines on the heatsinks. ASUS opts to neglect RGB LED lighting here and goes for a more subtle styling throughout.
Dominating the lower section of the ATX-sized PCB is a trio of full-length PCIe slots. The top two full-length slots both support PCIe 5.0, with the slots operating at either x16 or x8/x8, with the third full-length slot along the bottom electronically locked down to PCIe 3.0 x4. For storage, ASUS includes a total of four M.2 slots, with three offering support for PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives, and the fourth slot capable of supporting both PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA varieties. There are also eight SATA ports with all of these allowing for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays to be built. Memory support is provided by four memory slots, with speeds of up to DDR5-6000 supported, with a combined capacity of up to 128 GB.
On the rear panel of the ASUS ProArt Z690 Creator WIFI are two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports and a total of six USB 3.2 G2 Type-A ports. There's also a pair of DisplayPort video inputs for Thunderbolt 4, as well as a single HDMI 2.1 video output for users looking to use integrated graphics. The board's onboard audio capabilities consist of five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output powered by a SupremeFX S1220A HD audio codec, while ASUS also includes a Marvel AQtion 10 GbE and Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller pairing for wired networking. Wireless capability comes from a Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, with additional support for BT 5.2 devices. Finishing off the rear panel is a small BIOS Flashback button.
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Duwelon - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Asus' prices are completely bananas. If I build a new rig with Z690 it'll probably be my first non-Asus build in a very long time.Sivar - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
That caught my eye, too. I bought an Asus Hero-branded board for my current system last year at approximately $200 USD.I suspect Asus is shifting their marketspeak because the word "Maximus" (used for the z690 board but not mine) usually applies to their most expensive boards.
blppt - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
This. $2000 for a consumer grade motherboard? WTF are they smoking?Also, I'm pretty sure ASUS will be releasing some TUF Z690s at some point, probably at a lower price point than the primes. My experience with the TUF series has been very positive for the price.
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
They know they're not going to sell many of those. Those boards are either for LN2 e-peen competitions or people with more money than sense.Wrs - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
TUF is historically just a bit more expensive than Prime. They already have a TUF DDR4 version - ordered the Wifi one for $290 the other day. If worried about price DDR5 is the first mistake.blppt - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
The X570 TUF was cheaper than the X570 Prime when I went shopping for an AMD board.COtech - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Subtitle - "Intel Z690 Chipset: Like Z590, But Now With Native PCIe 4.0"I think "But Now With Native PCIe 5.0" is intended.
gavbon - Thursday, November 18, 2021 - link
The Z690 chipset doesn't have PCIe 5.0, this comes from the CPU. The Z690 chipset does, however, now include PCIe 4.0 lanes, whereas Z590 did not.Someguyperson - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
I don't get the "DP IN" ports on the ASUS ProArt Z690 Creator WIFI. I see the author just wrote what was on the ASUS website, but that doesn't really explain anything. Are they passthrough to the Thunderbolt out ports? Is there a capture card built into this motherboard? I'm very confused by the labeling here.uwsalt - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Those are passthrough to the Thunderbolt port. Add-in Thunderbolt cards work the same way. You slot in your discrete GPU, send the output from both DP ports to the Thunderbolt controller, and then use Thunderbolt to output to a Thunderbolt monitor or hub.