The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial & Z690 Extreme (DDR5)
Starting off the ASUS Z690 product stack with support for the latest DDR5 memory, we have an equally impressive pair of flagships for users to sink their teeth into. It should be noted for Z690, ASUS has tweaked its naming scheme for its Maximus branded board. Typically in the past, it has used roman numerals to depict the series, but in the interests of making it simple for users to digest, it now opts to use the specific chipset name instead; hooray for simplicity.
The first of the aforementioned flagships is the latest Extreme motherboard from ASUS, specifically the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial. It shares the same feature and controller set as the regular ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme model, but with one major difference, The Extreme Glacial has a brand new custom 'Ultrablock' designed and manufactured by premium water cooling experts EKWB, which includes plenty of integrated RGB LED lighting and looks very premium indeed. Both include dot matrix displays built into the rear panel over, while the non-water block clad ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme model, it includes a dot matrix panel covering the chipset heatsink too.
The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial (left) and Z690 Extreme (right) motherboards
Both the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial and ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme share the same feature and controller set, with both featuring two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots operating at x16 or x8/x8, with a smaller PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. In the top right-hand corner of both models are four memory slots with support for up to DDR5-6400, with a maximum supported capacity of up to 128 GB. Also in the top right-hand corner is a DIMM.2 slot, with combined total support for up to five M.2 drives, including one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 and four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives, with six SATA ports supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays.
On the rear panel of both models is lots of premium connectivity, including one Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, and eight USB 3.2 G2 Type-A ports. ASUS does include an HDMI video output for users, as well as a Marvel AQtion 10 GbE controller, with a secondary RJ45 port powered by an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller. Wireless capabilities are provided by an unspecified Intel Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, which also supports BT 5.2 devices. For onboard audio, five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are powered by a Supreme FX4082 HD audio codec and ESS Sabre 9018Q2C DAC pairing, while ASUS also includes a BIOS Flashback button and 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.