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.
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GeoffreyA - Saturday, November 13, 2021 - link
Certainly, there are tradeoffs, keeping a socket; but, as Mr. Tuvok would say, "Ryzen, you are an unending source of astonishment." There was a time when sockets even took CPUs from different manufacturers. I remember my Socket 7 motherboard, though I never tried it, could take a K5 and some Cyrix CPUs as well. Those 5x something, something. How things have changed.A short-lived socket can be a pain in the behind too. I was one of those unlucky folk who ended up with Socket 754 and missed out on dual-channel DDR and a long upgrade path. In any case, that computer went kaput after four years.
Oxford Guy - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
Overclocking is for employees of motherboard companies.ECC RAM support should have been a standard feature from the beginning. Apple offered it on the Lisa in ‘83 and consumer computing has gone backward since.
Doublers, though... aren’t a bad thing as long as they’re implemented well — as I understand it. Better to have a good doubler implementation than a weak individual phase system. The main thing is to have a board meet the minimum spec for reliable (i.e. not overheating and/or failing) long-term support of its supported CPUs. Anything beyond that is unnecessary.
GeoffreyA - Saturday, November 13, 2021 - link
The problem with doublers is, they over-use it as a marketing technique to give the impression that a certain board has a large amount of phases.Oxford Guy - Saturday, November 13, 2021 - link
Weak phases with a mediocre/poor regulator aren’t necessarily better than ‘marketing phases’ via the use of doublers. That’s the case when the doublers are used a correctly.There are a lot of shenanigans, though — like not even utilizing the doubler fully but counting it as the doubling of phases. I also recall that one of the big tricks was putting extra chokes on the board to make it look like there are more phases.
GeoffreyA - Sunday, November 14, 2021 - link
Quite right, and one of the reasons why people have got to read a proper analysis of the VRM, or take a look at the lists on hardwareluxx for example.t.s - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Wish Intel go with their atv12vo. Or like business lines from HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. 6 or 8 pin.shabby - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
Mobo prices will go up even more, screw that.meacupla - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
In the long term, I think the cost for ATX12VO will be cheaper.ATX12VO PSU will be cheaper than a comparable quality ATX PSU.
The BoM for 12V to 5V and 12V to 3.3V converters would go down, if mobo makers decide to stick to a single, standardized design.
With the way things are looking, electricity prices are unlikely to go down and continue to go up.
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
All ATX12VO is doing is shifting the cost from the PSU to the motherboard.Wrs - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
If mobo makers can stick to one design why can't PSU makers? They already conform to ATX.ATX 12 VO increases costs for piecemeal upgraders because of the simple observation that PSUs outlive motherboards. The question would be whether the power savings are worth it. For prebuilts they're comparing power savings to 0 net component cost so 12VO is already the norm.