The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Apex (DDR5)
More aimed at extreme overclockers than other boards in the Republic of Gamers series, the Apex is back for Z690. Equipped with a typical ASUS ROG theme throughout, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Apex uses a primarily black color scheme, with a fancy ROG logo effect on the rear panel cover, integrated RGB built into the rear panel cover and chipset heatsink. It also features silver diagonal lines across the chipset and M.2 heatsinks for a nice contrasting look. The Z690 Apex much like the previous Z590 Apex is also using an ATX sized frame, which other vendors for similar models have used an E-ATX sized frame.
Given this is a model designed primarily for extreme overclockers, ASUS is advertising a large 24-phase teamed power stage array with the latest 105 A smart power stages. Predominately located in the top right-hand corner of the board is an overclocker's toolkit, which includes PCIe dip switches, an LN2 mode switch, a Safe boot button, a power button, a reset button, and a two-digit LED debugger.
The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Apex includes two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots that can operate at x16 and x8/x8, with one half-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. As this is an overclocking-focused model, ASUS includes two memory slots capable of supporting up to DDR5-6600, with a combined capacity of 64 GB. ASUS also includes a ROG DIMM.2 M.2 slot, with the Apex supporting up to five M.2 drives in total, and a total of six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays.
On the rear panel, the Z690 Apex includes one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports, with an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE and Intel Wi-Fi 6E CNVi making up the board's networking array. For onboard audio, ASUS includes five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output which is powered by a SupremeFX ALC4080 HD audio codec and Savitech SV3H712 amplifier pairing. Finishing off the rear panel is one PS/2 keyboard port, one PS/2 mouse port, a BIOS Flashback button, and a clear CMOS button.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
126 Comments
View All Comments
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?