The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula (DDR5)
Another mainstay of ASUS's ROG Maximus series returns for Z690, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula. Fabled for its use of water-cooled VRMs, the latest Formula which ASUS actually skipped for Z590, is back for Z690 with a new aesthetic, including a new silver theme which is reminiscent of its Extreme Glacial models. The silver armor and heatsinks cover the majority of the PCB, with a custom milled EKWB heatsink cooling the power delivery, and allowing users to either passively cool them or hook them up to a custom water cooling kit for better VRM thermal performance. ASUS includes a fancy RGB-enabled ROG logo on the rear panel cover, with a similar design implemented into the chipset heatsink. ASUS is also advertising a large 20+1 teamed power delivery with premium 105 A smart power stages.
Dominating the lower portion of the board is plenty of PCIe and M.2 slots, including two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots operating at either x16 or x8/x8, with a third full-length PCIe 3.0 slot electronically locked down to x4. Touching more on M.2 support, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula can accommodate up to five M.2 drives, including four with PCIe 5.0/4.0 x4 support, one with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 drives, and a total of six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. In the top right-hand corner are four memory slots with support for up to DDR5-6400, with a total capacity of 128 GB.
On the rear panel, ASUS includes two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, six USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and three USB 2.0 ports. There's a single HDMI video output for users looking to utilize the latest Intel integrated graphics, while five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are controlled by a SupremeFX ALC4082 HD audio codec and ESS Sabre 9018Q2C amplifier pairing. Networking is very premium as expected, with one Marvel AQtion 10 GbE controller and an Intel-based Wi-Fi 6E CNVi offering both wireless and BT 5.2 device support. Lastly on the rear panel is a BIOS Flashback button and a clear CMOS button.
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Oxford Guy - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Creating more fiat bills has consequences. Congress literally printed money to give to lobbyists as part of ‘Covid relief’.fcth - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Sad to see only one mATX board, though at least it looks like a decent (if expensive) option.Mite - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Can ASUS Z690 Maximus Extreme run PCIe 5.0 x16 GPU and PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 SSD concurrently? Will the GPU (PCIe 5.0 x16 slot 1) drop to PCIe 5.0 x8 instead when SSD is installed on the PCIe 5.0 x4 (M2 slot)?Kakkoii - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
MSI does show the Audio Codec... just not on the simplified summary. You guys have to click the "Detail" tab on the Specifications page for a given board. All the boards show which audio they're using.The Carbon for example has ALC4080.
gavbon - Thursday, November 18, 2021 - link
At the time of writing, even the detail sections of the specifications didn't show them. On top of this, all of the information we received prior to launch mentioned no specific HD audio codecs. I will update this though :)JackNJ - Friday, November 12, 2021 - link
The GIGABYTE Z690I Aorus Ultra is not DDR5 I think?chavv - Friday, November 12, 2021 - link
5 m2 slots?How is this useful for a normal user?!
Or 600$ mobo for desktop usage?!
World gone mad
mode_13h - Saturday, November 13, 2021 - link
For RAID, obviously. That borderline makes sense. If you're running a 4 or 5-drive RAID of SSDs in a consumer rig, it's more cost-effective and still plenty fast to use SATA. And I think it's not unreasonable to expect anyone using M.2 drives to put them in a PCIe carrier card, which will have better cooling potential anyhow.sunmobo - Friday, November 12, 2021 - link
You've included MSI's ITX variant in the list (MEG Z690I Unify) but I can't seem to find it on their website. Although if you google you'll find a few mentions on some shops, without pics. Is this because MSI is still working on the board, or?gavbon - Thursday, November 18, 2021 - link
It's likely to launch soon, but it does and will exist.