The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Pro (DDR5)
The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Pro offers a solid entry point into the Aorus series, with a more modest feature set when compared to the Z690 Aorus Master. The design is also similar, but the Z690 Aorus Pro opts for a simpler design that consists of black and silver heatsinks throughout. GIGABYTE does include a small amount of integrated RGB LED lighting that can be found built into the rear panel cover. Having a simplistic design and slightly more feature light specifications also makes it one of the cheapest Aorus branded models at launch.
Looking at the feature set, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Pro includes one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with two full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slots. The Pro also includes plenty of storage options, including three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots and one PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, with 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 DDR5-6000, and a combined capacity of up to 128 GB.
On the rear panel, GIGABYTE includes one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, four USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. The board is using an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller with an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 CNVi for its networking capability, while the integrated audio consists of two 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output powered by a Realtek ALC4080 HD audio codec.
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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?