ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 (DDR5)

For the launch of Intel's Alder Lake, ASRock has prepared two mini-ITX form factor motherboards for launch, one for the premium market and one for entry-level users. The most premium of the pairing is the ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 which continues the brand's lineage of providing premium power and features but on the smaller mini-ITX sized platform. The pocket rocket Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 opts for a classy glossy black rear panel cover and heatsink selection, with elements of red around the board and within the ASRock and PG gaming logo too. ASRock is also advertising an 11-phase power delivery with smart power stages, with a single 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input delivering power to the processor.

As this is a mini-ITX sized motherboard, it includes just one full-length PCIe slot which is operating at PCIe 5.0 x16. As a consequence of its size, it's only able to fit two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots on it and opts for just three SATA ports, which are still capable of supporting Intel RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. On the right-hand side of the board is a pair of memory slots that are capable of supporting DDR5-6400 out of the box, with a combined capacity of up to 64 GB. 

One of the board's most prominent features is that it has one Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port, with additional support from four USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and one USB 3.2 G1 Type-A port. Integrated audio consists of five 3.5 mm audio jacks with one S/PDIF optical output powered by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec, with a Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE controller and Killer AX1675 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi providing the boards networking support. Finishing off the rear panel is one HDMI 2.1 and one DisplayPort 1.4 video output, with a clear CMOS button and BIOS Flashback button.

ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4/D5 ASRock Z690 OC Formula (DDR5)
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  • DanNeely - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link

    Good point. I thought Intel was pushing hard for 12vo with the 6xx series, but it seems to be completely MIA.
  • Silver5urfer - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link

    Can I ask why ? What does ATX12VO provide to a consumer ?

    It doesn't make your mobo cheap, it doesn't make your mobo less complicated, it does not make your system run cooler, it doesn't make ADL consume less power, It doesn't even make any sense.

    ATX12VO was created because of that trash policies set by policing state of California about some nonsensical rubbish. Servers and Data centers can get away with modular high density PSUs because of fully standardized set and they also get 3M liquid cooling. This is consumer market and here we have people wishing for backwards in technology.
  • meacupla - Thursday, November 11, 2021 - link

    A lot of people had the same sentiment about EU RoHS restrictions, and yet, it was implemented worldwide.

    With that attitude, the same can be said about energy star, and 80plus certifications. It adds cost to the product, yet it offers not a thing to the consumer.

    Not everything is about you.
    We need to do everything we can to cut down power consumption, and ATX12VO standardization across the entire industry is very low hanging fruit.

    Stop being so selfish, there's literally only one habitable planet we have right now.
  • Oxford Guy - Thursday, November 11, 2021 - link

    80 Plus offered plenty to consumers. Less power use means quieter PSUs.

    The knock on 80 Plus was unrealistically easy testing. Despite that, it helped raise the efficiency of PSUs. Along with better efficiency, ripple, holdout time, voltage consistency, and other factors improved — as enthusiasts began to pay more attention to PSU quality.

    I don’t doubt that 80 Plus also helped a lot of non-enthusiasts/amateurs by keeping them away from ultra-cheap PSUs that catch fire. Having a high-profile certification that those PSUs can’t reach helped to steer those customers away.
  • yacoub35 - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link

    That white metal trim running tight around the molex power connector on the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula must make it an absolutely nightmare to plug/unplug the main power cable to the board.
  • Ranguvar - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link

    Correction:
    "Previously with 11th gen (Rocket Lake), Intel upheaved it from a PCIe 3.0 x4 uplink on Z490 to a PCIe 3.0 x4 uplink on Z590."

    This should say "to a PCIe 3.0 x8 uplink on Z590".
  • OFelix - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link

    Correct. And whilst we are correcting that sentence - "upheaved" ????
    This first page really needs to be read by an AnandTech editor.
    What's that? They don't any editors? :-(
  • OFelix - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link

    "Z490 Motherboard Audio" ... presumably Z690?
  • mode_13h - Friday, November 12, 2021 - link

    I caught that, as well. Even the word "upheaved" is itself somewhat noteworthy. Plenty of better alternatives: "upgraded", "widened", "expanded", "increased", "enlarged", etc.
  • GeoffreyA - Saturday, November 13, 2021 - link

    While "upheaved" is likely an error, it's not far off from the words of today. Unfortunately, the English language is on a downgrade, and it's just going to get worse and worse. The language's genius is not tuned to the over-economical forms we're finding today; and a lot of it seems to be coming from tech. Upthis, upthat. My favourite, though, is leverage. A big, scary word that companies are fond of, and which escaped its programming, game development roots. Soon, we'll be leveraging the kettle to make tea. How about using?

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