The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE Z690 Gaming X (DDR5)
Out of all of GIGABYTE's gaming-centric Z690 options, the GIGABYTE Z690 Gaming X is perhaps the most basic from the brand in terms of features, but it looks very stylish for an 'entry-level' gaming model. From top to bottom, the GIGABYTE Z690 Gaming X is decked out in gunmetal grey, with a large power delivery heatsink, and plenty of M.2 heatsinks that amalgamate into the chipset heatsink; a very consistent design throughout. There's also a small element of integrated RGB LED lighting which can be found at the right-hand side of the board and provides a sort of an underglow effect.
Looking at connectivity, GIGABYTE includes one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with two full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slots. Located in and around the PCIe slot area is the board's M.2 storage, with GIGABYTE including four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. There are also six SATA ports on the right-hand side with support for Intel RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Located in the top-right corner are the board's memory slots, with GIGABYTE opting for four in total with support for DDR5-6000 and support for up to 128 GB of capacity.
On the rear panel of the GIGABYTE Z690 Gaming X, there's one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, three USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. The board omits Wi-Fi but does include an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller which is the minimum specification on LAN we've seen on Z690 so far. Onboard audio options consist of two 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, with one HDMI and one DisplayPort video output pairing allowing users to leverage integrated graphics.
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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.