The renewed connectivity is found in important elements, especially in communication with the processor, introducing additional performance buses such as DMI 4.0 that uses an 8x PCI Express 4.0 interface, doubling the bandwidth available to the Z590 and also doubling the bandwidth of its direct competition, the AMD X570. They are a total of 128GT/s of bandwidth, double that of the previous generation, which was already double the previous one.
Read more @ Geeknetic (Spanish)
Up for another motherboard review is the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero. This is one of the higher-end Intel Z690 chipset based motherboards from ASUS ROG, bearing legendary Maximus moniker – reserved for the best of the best.
The Maximus Z690 Hero is no slouch as its model name implies. This is a full size ATX motherboard equipped with a robust power solution, excellent thermal design, high performance networking and powerful connectivity options to name a few.
Read more @ TechPorn
Something unusual is the inclusion of a backplate, plus MSI takes advantage of being aluminum to incorporate thermalpads and thus cool the VRM. Although it is true that I expected more lighting effects, this has come to nothing for this model, very serious in appearance. To compensate, we have different ports between ARGB, RGB and Corsair, thus being able to add lighting components and further customize our equipment.
Read more @ NewEsc (Spanish)
The card is equipped with three PCIe x16 slots. The first two reinforced to accommodate a large graphics card are PCIe 5.0 standard while the last is PCIe 3.0. The wiring of the set is x16, x8/x8 and x4 type. On the audio side, we are entitled to a Realtek S1220A codec. Asus specifies a power pre-regulator, switching noise reduction and Audio protection.
Read more @ GinjFo (French)
In this review we will be looking at the Z690 Pro from Aorus Gaming (Gigabyte). This a new motherboard design for the LGA 1700 and Alder Lake processors supporting DDR5 and PCI Express 5.0. When you look at the complete lineup of Z690 motherboards the Pro is about mid-level on the list and share many of the same features found in both higher and lower tier motherboards.
Read more @ Hardware Asylum
This new generation of motherboard based on the Intel Z690 chipset also leads to the appearance of PCIe Gen 5.0 as well as DDR5. On this last point and for various reasons (availability, price, etc.), the various brands do not hesitate to include motherboards that support DDR4 in their catalog. This is the case with our MAG Z690 Tomahawk Wifi which is also available under the name MAG Z690 Tomahawk Wifi DDR4 .
Read more @ Modding (French)
ASUS ROG Maximus Formula motherboards are designed for gamers and enthusiasts who want maximum system stability in any usage scenario, including fully loaded overclocked Core i9 processors. The key difference between Formula boards is a pre-installed water block on the power subsystem, which can also serve as a conventional heatsink – in fact, this is a combined solution. The novelty, based on the Intel Z690 chipset, received noticeable design changes compared to its predecessor based on the Z490 (Z590 was skipped by the manufacturer).
Read more @ GreenTech_Reviews (Russian)
We here at ThinkComputers are finally getting a chance to take a look at some new Intel Z690 motherboards! With the introduction of their Alder Lake processors and subsequent Z690 chipset Intel is taking the fight back to AMD. Motherboards are one of the favorite things we like to cover and Intel is really stepping things up with Z690, giving the platform both PCI-Express 5.0 and DDR5 support. We are starting our Z690 journey with ASUS’s ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard. If you are not familiar with the ROG Maximus line from ASUS it basically serves as their flagship with the Hero board being the entry point.
Read more @ ThinkComputers
The Racing Z690GTA mainstream motherboard for Intel’s Alder Lake generation does feature a catchy color scheme and is very well equipped in terms of interfaces. The BIOS is easy to configure/understand and has support for high-speed RAM as well (32GB kits should work fine till 4200MHz at least, while with 16GB you might get lucky and run at 4600MHz as well). The top VRM heatsink is complimented with two small fans in order to keep temps in check which can get loud at times, but their fan curve can be customized as well via UEFI or the Windows application.
Read more @ [M]adShrimps
Almost everything on a modern motherboard is defined by the chipset, and certainly to a large extent by the processor itself. Part of the connectivity, depending on the processor, depends on it, so the chipset, although still very important, is relegated to secondary functions that Intel, as in this case, uses to differentiate certain ranges of its products.
Read more @ Geeknetic (Spanish)