The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR4): Over 30+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 24, 2021 2:00 PM ESTBiostar Z690GTA (DDR4)
Out of the trio of Z690 motherboards from Biostar at the launch of Intel's 12th generation of Alder Lake processors, the Biostar Z690GTA is one of just two models with support for DDR4 memory. While it's applicable to say the Z690GTA is perhaps the more affordable of the three, it still has a decent feature set and controller selection which puts it firmly in the mid-range to the upper end of Z690 models with DDR4 support. The aesthetic is very out there when compared to other Z690 models, with different shades of blue dominating the design of the heatsinks on a background of black. While it may look like there are RGB LEDs integrated into the rear panel cover and chipset heatsink, Biostar hasn't specified if it does.
The Biostar Z690GTA has one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with a second full-length slot electronically locked down to PCIe 4.0 x4, and two smaller PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Storage options consist of three M.2 slots, two with support for PCIe 4.0 x4 drives, and one with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA varieties. Biostar includes eight SATA ports, but only four of these feature support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Located in the top-right hand corner are four memory slots, with support for DDR4-5000, and can accommodate up to 128 GB of capacity.
Looking at the rear panel of the Biostar Z690GTA, it includes one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Biostar displays a Wi-Fi 6E antenna, but in the specifications, it does say that it doesn't include one, but it does include a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE controller. For integrated graphics, Biostar includes one HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 and D-sub video output trifecta, while three 3.5 mm audio jacks are powered by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec. Finishing off the rear panel is a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port.
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meacupla - Wednesday, November 24, 2021 - link
Those boards are probably still stuck in the Pacific.Mat-mat - Thursday, November 25, 2021 - link
Why not include the Z690 TORPEDO, Z690 ACE, Z690 FORCE, Z690 Taichi, Z690 AORUS XTREME and Z690M DS3H DDR4 (not yet released).By the way, love the fact that the Phantom Gaming 4 boards look no-nonsense in style, while it has DrMOS MOSFETs for VRM power delivery.
PlasticMouse - Thursday, November 25, 2021 - link
Small typo: Previously with 11th gen (Rocket Lake), Intel upheaved it from a PCIe 3.0 x4 uplink on Z490 to a PCIe 3.0 x4 (x8?) uplink on Z590. With Z690, the uplink is now fully-fledged PCIe 4.0 x8 lanes to interconnect things.GarBaGe - Thursday, November 25, 2021 - link
"Intel upheaved it from a PCIe 3.0 x4 uplink on Z490 to a PCIe 3.0 x4 uplink on Z590. With Z690, the uplink is now fully-fledged PCIe 4.0 x8 lanes to interconnect things."This is wrong. Probably just a typo, since the author uses a phrasing which suggests it is a typo.
Z490 has 4 links PCIe 3 from CPU to chipset.
Z590 has 8 links (not 4) PCIe 3 from CPU to chipset
Z690 has 8 links PCIe 4 from CPU to chipset.
My question to Intel: If Z690 is supposed to be your first PCIe 5 platform, why not use PCIe 5 from CPU to chipset instead of PCIe 4?
DazFG - Thursday, November 25, 2021 - link
what listing motherboards with diagnostic panels for overclockers, or how many power phases.cgull.at - Thursday, November 25, 2021 - link
This has been irritating me a bit for a while: "Over 30+ new models"That's redundant. It's like saying "More than more than 30 new models". Pick one or the other. Please?
T2daroy - Thursday, November 25, 2021 - link
I'm considering the MSI MPG Z690 Edge WIFI DDR4. What are your thoughts on this?quantumshadow44 - Thursday, November 25, 2021 - link
}}}While Intel states that it includes an integrated 2.5 GbE MAC/PHY, this is a little nonsensical, as wired ethernet still requires a MAC/PHY as an attached PCIe controller. This means regardless of whether a vendor is using a Gigabit, 2.5 GbE, or even 10 GbE, it connects the exact same way to the PCIe interface.Can someone explain to me why is it "nonsensical"? Thanks.
GreenReaper - Saturday, November 27, 2021 - link
I think the assertion is that the chipset doesn't contain anything to enable this. It's like "you could buy [a motherboard with] a PCIe-based 2.5Gbps Ethernet solution, and it could be from Intel, so we'll list it as a feature".Conversely, for 1Gbps, the Z690 spec sheet lists: "Intel® Integrated 10/100/1000 MAC: Support for the Intel® Ethernet Connection I219-V" - https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/produc...
If you read the datasheet for that it suggests that the I219-V basically turns one of the PCIe links to the PCH ("chipset") into a half-speed Gen1 2.5Gbps connection - but it's not actually the PCIe protocol, it sends Ethernet packets from the I219-V PHY to be handled by the PCH. It also works in SMBus mode at 10Mbps to provide functionality when the machine is a lower-power state.
There is a lot of wake-up functionality which means it has to be able to detect bit patterns, direct-addressed IPv4/6 wakeups, etc, but it relies on chipset features to otherwise process packets.
ScottSoapbox - Saturday, November 27, 2021 - link
"Intel upheaved it from a PCIe 3.0 x4 uplink on Z490 to a PCIe 3.0 x4 uplink on Z590."