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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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?