Welcome to the Motherboard News & Reviews Database. This is a collection, primarily of reviews, dedicated to motherboards from across the globe. Looking for something specific? Use the search utility, tags, or just explore through using the drop-down menu. From there, you can select your preferred motherboard manufacturer to find a listing of motherboards by chipset that have reviews available. If it’s been reviewed recently, you’ll find it. All reviews that are not natively in English will have translated links provided where possible.
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We’ll be focussing on the N7 Z690 here, which has on-board 802.11ax Wi-Fi, PCIe 5.0 support, three M.2 slots for the latest SSDs. Its main feature, though, is the large shroud that covers the PCB, which is available in black or white. There are plenty of black motherboards out there, but relatively few white ones, but with white cases and graphics cards in hot demand, clearly owners of those will want to pair them with a white motherboard too.
Read more @ Forbes
We show in our video there is a setting in the BIOS of the NZXT N7 Z690 that encourages you to select your chosen CPU cooler. Behind the scenes this setting adjusts the power limits for your 12th Gen Intel CPU and that strikes us as a good way to help the novice PC builder who has no clue about PL1 and PL2 and just wants to get on with their life.
Read more @ KitGuru
In today’s review, we will be looking at the Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Xtreme WaterForce. By combining the flagship Xtreme motherboard with Gigabyte’s WaterForce line, we get a limited edition product of only 200 ever produced! Gigabyte uses the AORUS naming convention to serve as the company’s gaming-orientated line of Intel and AMD motherboards. These AORUS Z690 branded motherboards come in multiple models comprising of the Pro, Ultra, Elite, Tachyon, Master, and Xtreme, some of which overlap in features and suggested price points.
Read more @ TechPowerUp
There is an outside chance that you are unaware that NZXT sells motherboards, in which case you might find our previous N7 Z590 review useful so do please take a look. The main appeal of NZXT motherboards is that they look immaculate inside NZXT cases such as the H7 Flow, however here at KitGuru we also demand features and performance. Did the NZXT N5 Z690 really make me smile or is that a grimace of pain?
Read more @ KitGuru
According to renowned hardware leaker Moore’s Law is Dead, Intel Meteor Lake CPUs may ditch LGA 1700, which suggests Raptor Lake will be the last generation to support the socket. While the new design is supposedly only slightly larger than LGA 1700 in terms of footprint, it’ll potentially include 50% more pins than the current-gen standard.
MLID claims Meteor Lake uses an LGA 2551 socket, but an additional Benchlife leak clarifies that it’s actually LGA 1851 (via Videocardz). The insider info suggests that the 2551-pin version could be a BGA variant, but says it’ll likely not be used for desktop products.
Read more @ PCGamesN
The B660 Master comes with almost everything you’d expect from a B660 board. There are three M.2 sockets, capable 16-phase 60A power delivery, a last-gen flagship audio codec, along with integrated Intel Wi-Fi 6 and 2.5 GbE. Gigabyte uses a black and gray heatsink combination here, which some may not find particularly appealing. That said, this is still a good-looking board and the heatsinks and shrouds covering most of the board, delivering a premium look.
Read more @ Tom’s Hardware
It features ASRock’s newest 20 Phase SPS Dr.MOS Power Design and supports PCIE 5.0 slots for graphics cards, as well as memory speeds of up to DDR5 6400MHz (OC). For storage, it comes with 6 x SATA3 ports, 2 x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4) slots and 1 x M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x2 & SATA3) slot, which is more than enough for more most users. As far as expansion is concerned, it has 2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, and 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot.
Read more @ FunkyKit
ASRock has revealed five upcoming X670 and X670E motherboards on its main site, including the X670E Taichi Carrara, Taichi, Steel Legend, Pro RS, and the X670 PG Lightning. All five boards will serve as ASRock’s introduction into the AM5 platform and are designed to run AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 7000 series processors.
The newest entry in ASRock’s lineup is the X670E Taichi Carrara. This board appears to be nothing more than an outfit change over the vanilla X670E Taichi, with general specifications being identical between the two motherboards. The Carrara sub-variant features a rather extravagant looking white marble top spread out over the entire bottom and rear I/O section of the motherboard. This design is accompanied by a matte black finish in the top and top-right sections of the motherboard, paired with a line of RGB LEDs to the bottom right.
Read more @ Tom’s Hardware
The NZXT N5 Z690 is the first of its kind amongst the rest of the motherboards sold by NZXT. This board is the first time we have seen a lower tier board compared to other boards they’ve previously released which have been typically seen as part of the “N7” line-up with the most notable feature being the clean shielding that covers pretty much all of the board and matches perfectly with NZXT’s own brand of cases. This newer N5 approach from NZXT forgoes the shields and instead focuses on making a board simplistic, full of features and as easy to build with as possible.
Read more @ eTeknix
As usual, NZXT hasn’t skimped on the packaging of its motherboards. The N7 Z690 comes in a bigger-than-you’d-expect box, providing ample protection. After removing the motherboard from the box, I readied it for installation.
My i7-12700K, 16 GB of RAM, and RTX 3070 joined the board and other components inside of the H7 Elite case without issue. Ports are placed thoughtfully and I was especially happy with the generous number of fan headers. After the installation was complete, I was left with a very good-looking system.
Read more @ GameRevolution