What Z690 board are you eyeing?

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Nirad9er

2[H]4U
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I was wondering what Z690 motherboard everyone is planning on getting with alder lake.

I'm definitely going DDR5 route since I've waited like 4-5 years to upgrade from my 7820x.

I browsed through everything I've seen on Newegg and BH Photo and I was thinking any of the following with DDR5 & WIFI


MSI MPG Z690 CARBON $399​

ASUS ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming $399​

MSI MPG Z690 EDGE $329​

GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO $329 (only WIFI 6, not 6E)​

GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS ULTRA $369 (only WIFI 6, not 6E)​


If I change my mind and stretch the budget to $599

Asus Z690 Maximus Hero (supports both LGA 1200 / 1700 CPU mounting)
MSI MEG Z690 Ace
Asrock Z690 Taichi

Do you recommend any of the above boards over the other based on features? Seems like you have to pay about $400 for DDR5 and Wifi 6/E and $599 to get thunderbolt 3 and the best power delivery.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks
 
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I like the Taichi because it has more power phases. However, it's expensive as hell. I'd be all over it if there was decent DDR5 at launch. I'm probably going with a DDR4 board till later on.
 
I'm waiting for a Z790 if I build an Alder Lake setup. I'm not going to be a guinea pig for new memory, new platform, new architecture, new Windows scheduler for efficiency cores, etc all at the same time. Not to mention paying an early adopter tax on DDR5 memory.

But out of those choices, I'd probably buy the Asus Strix.
 
maximus hero for me, but i just built a z590 so i may skip 690 and wait for ddr5 to mature, not a lot of sense for that and no pcie5 cards right now
 
the big problem with the DDR5 right now----isn't really the price of the RAM. the problem is the often $100+ premium for the DDR5 versions of the same motherboards.

I have pre-ordered the Gigabyte Z690I AORUS Ultra DDR4, because its the only DDR4 ITX board available for order, right now. I did the pre-order at B&H.
 
I'm not sure what I'll end up with. It will most likely be whatever I like best during testing and review.
 
If I was buying a new setup, I'd like to get this one, but it's probably super expensive.
Kingpin.jpg
 
rewted said:
maximus hero for me, but i just built a z590 so i may skip 690 and wait for ddr5 to mature, not a lot of sense for that and no pcie5 cards right now
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I was eyeing that one but 699€ is a bit steep, that's more then the CPU, but if money was no issue, that one or the EVGA kingpin one
 
Possibly the aorus ultra, looks pretty good to me. I did like the MSI meg ace but $600 is ridiculous.
 
I wonder if it would be best to just wait for reviews on motherboards first before making a decision?
 
I read that the Asus boards support both LGA 1200 & 1700 cpu mounting brackets. That's a big plus not having to get a new bracket.
 
Nirad9er said:
I read that the Asus boards support both LGA 1200 & 1700 mounting brackets. That's a big plus not having to get a new bracket.
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Yes, they bothered to offer a hole pattern, which allows both. Its kind of confounding that something so simple, isn't offered by nearly every board.
 
Asus Maximus Extreme or Extreme Glacial for me because I haven't built a new rig in over 10 years, i want the best, I have the money burning a hole in my bank account and even if the logic is flawed, I'd like this new rig to potentially last another 10 years.
 
Kinda stuck between the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon, Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Master or the ASUS ROG Strix Z690-E Gaming.

Have a 12900K on the way and debating on waiting to choose a board until reviews are out on Thursday, but there's always that small chance that scalpers and bots will eat up all the good boards lol.
 
Do you think the ASUS Z690 Maximus Hero is worth the premium over the ROG Strix Z690 boards?
 
Dutt1113 said:
Do you think the ASUS Z690 Maximus Hero is worth the premium over the ROG Strix Z690 boards?
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All I see is 20+1 vs 16+1 power phases and different audio. Seems like a hefty premium but you get that plus thunderbolt 3.
 
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What about MSI MPG Carbon vs Asus ROG Strix?

MSI has 18+1+1 phases vs 16+1 for Asus.
Everything else looks the same or similar.

Both $399
 
Was planning on the Gigabyte Z690 Aero D, but it's low on rear USB ports and will probably release later. So I preordered an Asus Z690 Hero, as that's the only board I saw with Thunderbolt. The 12900K price was a bit lower than I expected, but the motherboard ends up costing way too much lol.

DDR5 is basically non-existent in Canada for now, hopefully we get some soon. I managed to preorder a single 8GB Crucial DDR5-4800 stick from Amazon so I can be sure I can at least boot the thing when I get it. Looking to get at least 32GB of DDR5-5200+.
 
Spicedaddy said:
Was planning on the Gigabyte Z690 Aero D, but it's low on rear USB ports and will probably release later. So I preordered an Asus Z690 Hero, as that's the only board I saw with Thunderbolt. The 12900K price was a bit lower than I expected, but the motherboard ends up costing way too much lol.

DDR5 is basically non-existent in Canada for now, hopefully we get some soon. I managed to preorder a single 8GB Crucial DDR5-4800 stick from Amazon so I can be sure I can at least boot the thing when I get it. Looking to get at least 32GB of DDR5-5200+.
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The MSI ACE also has thunderbolt so it's the $599 price point to get that feature.
 
The Gigabyte Aorus Master $479 (19+1+2 Phases 105A) looks very tempting. Has the power delivery similar to the $599 boards except no thunderbolt 3.
 
Is the Gigabyte Bios really as bad as everyone says it is? I've narrowed my search down to the Gigabyte Aorus Master or the MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY.
Was looking at the Strix Z690-E Gaming board, but don't like the fact that the Pci-e 5.0 16x slot drops down to 8x if I install a m.2 into the top slot & I plan to use 3 M.2 drives.

​

 
Saw a gigabyte x570 for a friend's system, was atrocious
 
SaViOr- said:
Is the Gigabyte Bios really as bad as everyone says it is? I've narrowed my search down to the Gigabyte Aorus Master or the MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY.
Was looking at the Strix Z690-E Gaming board, but don't like the fact that the Pci-e 5.0 16x slot drops down to 8x if I install a m.2 into the top slot & I plan to use 3 M.2 drives.

​

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I use Gigabyte boards for mostly all my builds, and they are fine. Not as much bloat as others, but all the tweaking is there.
 
The Asus ProArt Z690-Creator looks to be the most equivalent to their WS line, kind of leaning that way at this point.
 
Noctua is already listing B660 boards from Asus for their compatibility info. Hopefully this means the boards will be available quickly. Rather than the very slow trickle we saw with B560 boards...

mla5sbiu7zw71.png
 
Notta....

I'll gladly wait on Rev 1 or even 2 (so the launch day bugs get worked out), AND for the prices to come down to reasonable levels, this goes for the ram too :)
 
kinda seems like there's no point in getting a board without reviews and without any ddr5 memory to even put in it. It will be a useless paper weight until then. Holding out until ddr5 memory is available will allow plenty of time for board reviews. However, would getting a board and sitting on it for a little bit be a good idea if boards could possibly be in short supply for a while? Would boards be in short supply in the same way as the chip shortage?
 
Dutt1113 said:
kinda seems like there's no point in getting a board without reviews and without any ddr5 memory to even put in it. It will be a useless paper weight until then. Holding out until ddr5 memory is available will allow plenty of time for board reviews. However, would getting a board and sitting on it for a little bit be a good idea if boards could possibly be in short supply for a while? Would boards be in short supply in the same way as the chip shortage?
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I think that overall, the board supply seems pretty great, considering how quickly DDR5 RAM sold out. Sure, there are a few motherboard models which are selling out. But overall...seems pretty good. Honestly, the VRMs are pretty exceptional on most of the boards. So it really comes down to.....what EXACTLY do you want on your back panel or what do you want for storage options? There are so many slight variations of models, you can practically line up newegg pages and count the USB port differences and otherwise have very similar specs.
 
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SOAREVERSOR said:
EVGA classified
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Nirad9er said:
I was wondering what Z690 motherboard everyone is planning on getting with alder lake.

I'm definitely going DDR5 route since I've waited like 4-5 years to upgrade from my 7820x.

I browsed through everything I've seen on Newegg and BH Photo and I was thinking any of the following with DDR5 & WIFI


MSI MPG Z690 CARBON $399​

ASUS ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming $399​

MSI MPG Z690 EDGE $329​

GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO $329 (only WIFI 6, not 6E)​

GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS ULTRA $369 (only WIFI 6, not 6E)​


If I change my mind and stretch the budget to $599

Asus Z690 Maximus Hero (supports both LGA 1200 / 1700 CPU mounting)
MSI MEG Z690 Ace
Asrock Z690 Taichi

Do you recommend any of the above boards over the other based on features? Seems like you have to pay about $400 for DDR5 and Wifi 6/E and $599 to get thunderbolt 3 and the best power delivery.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks
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I thought this was a good look:
 
I have the Gigabyte Aorus Ultra DDR4 on order simply because it was the only one I could find that I could order and is in mITX format. My next build will be going into a spare white HYTE case I bought a while back that I never got around to building in. I'll basically using parts I have leftover or laying around (or cannibalized from other builds).
  • Hyte Revolt 3 White
  • 12900KF *(no integrated graphics)
  • Gigabyte z690 Aorus Ultra DDR4
  • Cooler Master ML 280 Mirror
  • Cooler Master 750w SFX
  • 2x8gb G.Skill Trident Z NEO 3800
  • Zotac Trinity Gaming 3090
At least that's the plan for now.
 
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