The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTColorful iGame Z690 Ultra D5
Colorful which primarily targets the Asian market also have a model ready for the launch of Alder Lake. Typically Colorful's options are limited but very funky in design and the latest Colorful iGame Z690 Ultra D5 is no exception to this. Equipped with a very modest range of features and controllers, it's aimed at the entry-level, but it has plenty of pizazz. On the design side, Colorful has gone with a white, silver, and grey aesthetic, with multiple areas of integrated RGB LED lighting. The iGame Z690 Ultra D5 features a wave-themed design on its power delivery heatsinks, with a U-shaped M.2 and chipset heatsink combined. Colorful is also advertising a 19-phase (18+1) power delivery, with dual 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs.
Looking at the feature set, Colorful isn't clear here on the expansion slots, as they sent us details with PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 3.0 slots, despite Alder Lake and the Z690 chipset offering PCIe 5.0 support. The top two full-length slots (PCIe 5.0/4.0) can operate at x16 and x8/x8, while the board also includes a half-length PCIe 3.0 x4 and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Storage options include three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, with six SATA ports capable of supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Looking at memory support, Colorful has only given us compatibility of speeds of DDR5-4800, which could mean it has yet to QVL list various memory kits, but we do know the four memory slots can accommodate 128 GB of capacity.
While we don't currently have a rear panel image for the Colorful iGame Z690 Ultra D5, we know that it includes one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, four USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Networking is handled by an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller and unspecified Wi-Fi 6 CNVi, while Colorful lists an 8-channel HD audio codec for the onboard audio.
We will update this page when we receive more information.
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DigitalFreak - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Except DirectStorage actually exists in the XBox Series X. Once the XBSX native games start getting ported things will start to move.Bp_968 - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Why fill my pc with loud and hot hard drives? I have 2 M.2 sticks as local storage and a NAS for all the rust drives in another room. I wouldn't want to go back to the days of using my PC for that.And if you must have tons of sata just buy a SAS card. Their cheap and flexible. Each SAS port on the card fans out to 4 sata ports using a cheap cable.
The Von Matrices - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Since the 100 series chipsets, the lanes for the SATA ports are shared with other things, so you aren't getting dedicated ports like you used to. You have to disable other features if you want to use all the SATA ports. With my current Z390 board, I can't use more than 2 SATA ports without compromising on other features, and I can't use all 6 SATA ports unless I disable both M.2 slots. Since they're sharing lanes, there's little cost and little reason to not have them, and that will probably continue into the future.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Things have changed the last couple of generations. My Z690 board has 6 SATA ports and 4 PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. The only thing shared is SATA between one SATA port and one of the M.2 slots. As long as you don't need a M.2 SATA drive, you can run 4 NVMe drives and 6 SATA devices simultaneously..KarlKastor - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
There has nothing changed. The IO-Lanes of the chipset can eather be SATA or PCIe. The reason why you have nothing shared is, because they saved money for switches. You have not the option how to use this Lanes.This happens since Rocket Lake. The CPU has additional PCIe lanes, so you don't need to share much anymore and the Board is full already. There is no space for more M.2. Backside maybe.
12345 - Monday, November 15, 2021 - link
Z690 has a x8 gen 4 link to the chipset now. You don't have to disable SATA anymore to use all m.2 slots.meacupla - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
I am pretty sure intel had 8 SATA ports since Z77, but board manufacturers routed 2 SATA ports for m.2 SATA. The On Z87 and Z97, 8 SATA ports with 2 ports shared for m.2 SATA was totally a thing.KarlKastor - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
The silicon has 8 ports for long time. But maximum usable for the Zxy7 was 6. Eight were workstation only.If you used shared SATA on M.2, then you had less than six SATA Ports usable.
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
SATA SSD sales continue to remain strong, and are much mroe economical for large file storage per TB then M.2 drives (a 2TB SATA drive is around $170 now), and if you have a RAID aray with 3+ drives speeds begin to encroah on NVMe speeds, a RAID 5 array with 4 SATA III will hit 1.6GB/s read speeds.Mr Perfect - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Man, these Z-chipset boards keep going up in price. I'm curious what eventual H670 chipset boards will look like. If they've got everything you need without all the flashy bits, I'll probably shoot for one of those.