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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mode_13h - Friday, November 12, 2021 - link
I was really disappointed not to see more discussion of costs and why the price distribution of these boards tends to skew so high.However, I was most surprised to see how much lower some of the entry-level models are priced. Do we think these will be produced in sufficient volume, or are they primarily there as a means of upselling would-be buyers who, out of frustration at seeing them always out-of-stock eventually end up buying one of the more expensive models?
mikk - Saturday, November 13, 2021 - link
MSI Pro Z690-A WIFI, MSI Pro Z690-A and many more have the cheaper Realtek ALC897 Codec, the audio table is not accurate and it says Z490 instead of Z690.ajollylife - Sunday, November 14, 2021 - link
Wtf is with the PCIe 3.0 slots? I'm looking at the Gigabyte Aorus Master, has 10gig onboard, great, but then the other two pcie slots are pcie 3.0 So confused.mode_13h - Sunday, November 14, 2021 - link
From what I've read, PCIe 4.0 tends to require retimers, which adds cost and takes space. Those could be reasons why we don't see more PCIe 4.0 slots.back2future - Monday, November 15, 2021 - link
maybe mainboards start getting reshaped/redesigned (vertical m.2, backside slots/connectors, ?) instead of using retimers (chipset TDP includes retimer power?, cooling power for peripherals on PCIe 5.x speeds on 4GB/(s*lane)=~2 lanes sufficient for fastest available (2021, consumer) SSDs )?ecclesiastes121314 - Wednesday, February 23, 2022 - link
2 ram slots? I've seen this on a few of these new DDR5 boards. Most people here are talking about Thunderbolt 4 and USB4. Yes these are very useful to a select group of people yet these can be achieved with add on cards. Then you can pay for the devices to take advantage of these technologies. Reducing ram slots from 4 to 2. Wow. Yes you can buy high density ram. But this is forcing you that direction. What is wrong with 4x16 or 4x32 ram kits? If you (me) are interested in high performance video then affordable and available ram is a huge consideration. Is it just me?