The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR5): Over 50+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 9, 2021 9:00 AM ESTASRock Z690 Aqua and Aqua OC (DDR5)
In 2019, ASRock debuted its highly premium yet expensive Aqua series through the ASRock X570 Aqua, which we reviewed. We also reviewed the ASRock Z490 Aqua, and our overall thoughts were that the Aqua was extremely 'cool' in both performance and aesthetics. ASRock at CES 2022 pulled the trigger and launched not one, but two new Aqua series motherboards for Intel's Alder Lake. One features a conventional desktop design, while one is designed for extreme overclockers looking to maximize both compute and memory performance under sub-zero cooling.
The ASRock Z690 Aqua E-ATX motherboard
The ASRock Z690 Aqua has a 'wave' of features, including a large custom monoblock designed to cool both the processor and large advertised 19+1 phase power delivery using the latest premium 105 A power stages. It also includes stainless steel plating across the 12-layer E-ATX sized PCB, with plenty of integrated RGB lighting for users to host their own epic water-cooled discotheque. The ASRock Z690 Aqua also includes an OLED display, which can display many different forms of information from voltages, frequency and can be configured within the BIOS.
Dominating the lower portion of the board are two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots that can operate at x16 or x8/x8, one full-length PCIe 4.0 x4, and one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, with three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots that all include M.2 heatsink coverage. For SATA, there are eight ports in total, with four coming from the chipset with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, while an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller powers the other four. As does most premium Z690 motherboards, the Z690 Aqua can support up to DDR5-6400 memory, with a combined capacity of 128 GB across four slots.
The ASRock Z690 Aqua OC E-ATX motherboard with two DDR5 memory slots and overclockers toolkit
The ASRock Z690 Aqua OC shares the same core feature set but has two memory slots with support for DDR5 memory. As many 'OC' branded boards do, this is to enhance memory performance when overclocking. ASRock also states that it includes an external clock generator to boost OC potential, as well as the exact premium 19+1 phase power delivery as the 'regular' Z690 Aqua. It also includes an overclocker's toolkit next to the memory slots for on-the-fly overclocking. However, both models have a power and reset button, with a two-digit LED debugger.
The ASRock Z690 Aqua rear panel (the Z690 Aqua OC drops two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A ports for a PS/2 port)
On the rear panel, the ASRock Z690 Aqua includes two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C with two DisplayPort 1.4 video inputs, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. The ASRock Z690 Aqua OC has the same layout, except it drops two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports for a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port. Both models feature a Marvel Aquantial AQC113CS 10 GbE and Killer E3100 2.5 GbE controller pairing, as well as a Killer AX1675 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi. For users planning to use integrated graphics, there's a single HDMI 2.1 video output, as well as five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output powered by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec and ESS Sabre 9128 DAC. Finishing off the rear panel is a clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback button pairing.
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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.