The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR4): Over 30+ New Models
by Gavin Bonshor on November 24, 2021 2:00 PM ESTMSI MPG Z690 Edge WIFI (DDR4)
The MSI MPG Z690 Edge WIFI DDR4 motherboard is very similar to the DDR5 supported MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI in both some of the specifications and aesthetics. The primary difference is the Z690 Edge WIFI DDR4 supports DDR4 memory as the naming and model number suggests. Looking at the design, the MPG Z690 Edge WIFI DDR4 includes a large black rear panel cover, with an RGB illuminated MSI Dragon logo, with more RGB LEDs found underneath the chipset heatsink. The Edge WIFI DDR4 has an all-black theme with a contrasting mix of shading, with an all-black PCB. MSI is also advertising that the MPG Z690 Edge WIFI DDR4 features a premium direct 16+1+1 power delivery.
Dominating the lower portion of the board are the PCIe slots. MSI includes one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots electronically locked down to x4, while MSI also includes one smaller PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. For storage, MSI includes four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, each with M.2 heatsink coverage, as well as eight SATA ports, Six of these support RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, while the other two are powered by an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller. Located in the top right-hand corner of the board are four memory slots, which can support up to DDR4-5200 with a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB.
On the rear panel are one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Powering the onboard audio which consists of five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output is a Realtek ALC4080 HD audio codec while networking options consist of an Intel Wi-Fi 6 CNVi and Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller. MSI also includes a pair of video outputs consisting of an HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4, while a small BIOS Flashback button finishes off the rest of what's on the rear panel.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
42 Comments
View All Comments
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."