The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula (DDR5)
Another mainstay of ASUS's ROG Maximus series returns for Z690, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula. Fabled for its use of water-cooled VRMs, the latest Formula which ASUS actually skipped for Z590, is back for Z690 with a new aesthetic, including a new silver theme which is reminiscent of its Extreme Glacial models. The silver armor and heatsinks cover the majority of the PCB, with a custom milled EKWB heatsink cooling the power delivery, and allowing users to either passively cool them or hook them up to a custom water cooling kit for better VRM thermal performance. ASUS includes a fancy RGB-enabled ROG logo on the rear panel cover, with a similar design implemented into the chipset heatsink. ASUS is also advertising a large 20+1 teamed power delivery with premium 105 A smart power stages.
Dominating the lower portion of the board is plenty of PCIe and M.2 slots, including two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots operating at either x16 or x8/x8, with a third full-length PCIe 3.0 slot electronically locked down to x4. Touching more on M.2 support, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula can accommodate up to five M.2 drives, including four with PCIe 5.0/4.0 x4 support, one with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 drives, and a total of 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 up to DDR5-6400, with a total capacity of 128 GB.
On the rear panel, ASUS includes two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, six USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and three USB 2.0 ports. There's a single HDMI video output for users looking to utilize the latest Intel integrated graphics, while five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are controlled by a SupremeFX ALC4082 HD audio codec and ESS Sabre 9018Q2C amplifier pairing. Networking is very premium as expected, with one Marvel AQtion 10 GbE controller and an Intel-based Wi-Fi 6E CNVi offering both wireless and BT 5.2 device support. Lastly on the rear panel is a BIOS Flashback button and a clear CMOS button.
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Flying Aardvark - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
"essentially any board with "Thunderbolt 3" along with USB 3.2 2x2 basically get "USB4" status for free."TB3 can run USB 4.0 devices, while USB 3.2 2x2 should be able to, it would be capped at its 20Gbit/sec and run over the backwards compatibility protocol for USB. USB4 ports can be either 20 or 40Gb.
I wouldn't want just USB 4.0 ports as Apple has, capped at 20Gbps. We'll probably see some of that on the AMD side. The best thing is just to have TB3 or TB4 to be sure you have fullspeed 40Gbps ports.
KarlKastor - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Just optional. If you have Thunderbolt and 10 Gbit USB, you can call it USB 4. See Apple.OFelix - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
I agree. How come there are so few boards with USB4 or TB4 ?And how come the article doesn't mention them at all before it starts listing specific features of individual boards?
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
The only way to get USB4 on a PC was by using Intel's Thunderbolt 4 chipset (or having it built into Tiger Lake). Since Thunderbolt is kind of a niche thing on desktop PCs, motherboard makers aren't interested int spending the money on Intel's TB4 chip except in high end or specialty boards. I would assume there will be some third-party USB4 chips coming soon.OFelix - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Thanks for your reply.So USB4 was built in to Tiger Lake but its not built in to Alder Lake / Z690????
That would explain somethings but not explain why on earth Intel would do that or AnandTech would not think this major regression worth mentioning!!!
The main reason I want to upgrade from my Sky Lake system (which i purchased to get built in USB3) is to get USB4/TB4.
KarlKastor - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
TB is only integrated in the mobile Dies. The Desktop Die has no TB.Alistair - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
DDR5 is not faster in almost every case, and there are no PCIe 5 devices (unlike when PCIe4 was launched at least you got video cards and storage immediately). Not really an advantage. Prices are too high also. Frankly I like PCIe 3.0 boards when they are under $100 USD.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
It's the same thing that happened during the DDR3 to DDR4 transition. The first DDR4 products weren't really any faster than the best DDR3. Eventually DDR4 speeds got faster and left DDR3 behind. Same thing will happen with DDR4 to DDR5.Kevin G - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
PCIe 4.0 support was significantly delayed on the desktop but it arrived in servers in 2017 (IBM Power9). AMD was planning on adopting PCIe 4.0 after Intel on the desktop but Intel's train wreck of their 10 nm manufacturing node derailed the chips what were going to add it (Ice Lake on desktop).I would expect both PCIe 5.0 graphics and storage by the end of 2022 on the desktop, though their benefits will be marginal outside of a few niches. (Single lane PCIe 5.0 chips for USB4/Thunderbolt 4 and 10 Gbit Ethernet vs. using four PCI 3.0 lanes are cost driven examples.)
Samus - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Kevin G - I agree, I think in a year there will be PCIe 5.0 devices, but the performance advantages, much like initial PCIe 4.0 devices (RTX 30xx, NVMe SSD's, etc) won't be there until 2023-2024, by which time this platform will already be replaced or significantly less expensive.I don't think Intel is looking to drive a lot of sales with this platform. Not many people are buying $3000 desktop PC's at the moment (and when you consider the platform alone is $500, with a $500 CPU on top of it, $3000 is pretty conservative considering most people buying something like this will want a $1000+ GPU, so that's $2000 for three components.)
Put in perspective, the last launch like this that had a lot of tech that you couldn't take advantage of right away was probably X58. PCIe 2.0 at a time no PCIe 2.0 products existed, and 36 lanes no less, left a ton of room to expand a platform that was already stacked to the gills with embedded tech. In fact it would be years before applications were fully optimized for the bandwidth offered by triple channel memory, let alone quad channel memory that Intel introduced on later HEDT platforms.
The difference though is X690 isn't even HEDT.