The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Tachyon (DDR5)
One of GIGABYTE's more recent additions to its Aorus series of motherboards is the Tachyon. Initially debuted on the previous Z590 chipset, we did review the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon earlier in the year and we found it to be one of the best clocking Z590 boards we tested. As it's primarily aimed at sub-ambient overclockers, many won't appreciate the 'extreme' features enabled on this model. The design of the latest Z690 Aorus Tachyon is similar to the previous version in many ways, including a large finned rear panel cover with integrated RGB LEDs, with more around the chipset heatsink. In the top right-hand corner of the board is a comprehensive overclocker's toolkit which includes many switches including a cold reset button, CPU ratio up and down buttons, as well as a set of voltage measurement points.
GIGABYTE is advertising the Z690 Tachyon to feature a direct 18-phase power delivery operating at 15+1+2, with dual 8-pin CPU power inputs providing juice to the CPU.
Looking at the core feature set of the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Tachyon, there's a pair of memory slots to the right of the LGA1700 socket with support for DDR5-7000 which is the fastest supported speed of any board we have seen at launch so far. Both memory slots can accommodate a maximum of 64 GB. For PCIe expansion, GIGABYTE includes two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots that can operate at x16 or x8/x8, with a third full-length slot electronically locked down to PCIe 3.0 x4. Focusing on storage, there's are three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, as well as six SATA ports that are capable of supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays.
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On the rear panel is one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, three USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. A Realtek ALC1220VB HD audio codec powers five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, while GIGABYTE also includes separate PS/2 keyboard and mice inputs. For networking, there's one Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller, with an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi providing both wireless and BT 5.2 connectivity. Finishing off the rear panel is an HDMI 2.1 video output, an OC Ignition button, and a Q-Flash BIOS Flashback 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.