News – Motherboard Review

NZXT N7 B550 – NikKTech

July 10, 2022 by Stephen

Rather than creating the best all-around motherboards NZXT’s goal to date has been to offer models that combine high performance with a good set of features at a relatively affordable price range. So even though the N7 B550 may not be a beast in terms of overclocking potential (the 16 phase design works well but the average passive cooling solution used is obviously not meant to handle heavy loads) and it may lack the number of PCIe and M.2 slots found in other models (not to mention any onboard ARGB/RGB LEDs) overall, it does deliver on pretty much everything that really matters.

MSI Pro H610M 12VO Debuts ATX12VO

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

MSI looks set to roll out its first H610 chipset motherboard with support for the ATX12VO power connector standard. The MSI Pro H610M 12VO(opens in new tab) featured briefly in an MSI Insider broadcast in mid-January when mainstream Alder Lake processors were fresh, but only now is it being readied for retail, with its product page providing a features overview, gallery, and full specs. In January, we thought this might become a system integrators only product, but its appearance on the consumer site confounded this notion.

GIGABYTE Z690I AORUS ULTRA PLUS – PC Gamer

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

The Z690I Aorus Ultra Plus is a relatively new offering, launching back in May 2022. It’s also available in both DDR4 and DDR5 versions, and I have the DDR5 version on hand for my review. It serves as a replacement for the Z690I Aorus Ultra which was recalled after reports of PCIe 4.0 compatibility issues. The Ultra Plus’ only PCIe 16x slot supports up to PCIe 5.0. In my testing with a PCIe 4.0 card, I didn’t experience any issues as I’d expect from an updated model. In addition, the Ultra Plus has been upgraded with Wi-Fi 6E support, too.

ASUS Announces 600 Series Motherboards Support Intel Raptor Lake

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

Taipei, Taiwan, July 9th, 2022 — ASUS today announced BIOS support and updates readying a range of motherboards for a new wave of Intel CPUs. ASUS provides convenient tools to update the BIOS — BIOS Flashback and EZ Flashⁱ . The design of BIOS Flashback allows users to update the BIOS without entering the BIOS screen, and the ASUS EZ Flash 3 program allows them to easily update the BIOS version without entering the Windows operating system. ASUS 600-series motherboards will receive support for these new CPUs according to the chart below.

Full List @ ASUS

EVGA Z690 DARK K|NGP|N – Tom’s Hardware

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

Performance-wise, the Dark Kingpin lit up the charts as one of the fastest boards across our multi-threaded tests, and nearly did a clean sweep as the best-performing board in our Procyon Office tests. Single-threaded portions of our tests didn’t fare as well, but the board was still average across most of those tests. Gaming performance was also above average. Overall, this is a well-performing board out of the box, especially when pushed with heavy multi-threaded loads.

MSI MAG Z690 TORPEDO – Hardware-Inside

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

With the MAG Z690 TORPEDO, MSI has another mainboard with DRR5 support in its portfolio that tries to set itself apart from the competition with its numerous features. With the TORPEDO, MSI relies on a plain and simple design and does without RGB lighting on the board. Four M.2 slots and a generous power supply with 18 phases should give the user a secure feeling to fire up Intel’s Core i7 or Core i9 processors. In the following, we don’t want to withhold from you the numerous features, any overclocking potential of the CPU and the working memory as well as the temperatures.

ASRock Z690 Pro RS – CowcotLand

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

But we can’t help but think that we could have hoped for a little better. Because finally, a few more USB ports on the back would make it more attractive to the general public who will see a limit. One or two more heatsinks for SSDs would have been welcome as well. So, for office or gaming use we will then turn to other models that will have better cooling or better connectivity in this price segment, especially when we know that some B660 also have a PCIe Gen 5.0 port.

ASUS TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 – Overclocking

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

When the first Z690 DDR4 motherboards were released, Asus and MSI dominated the sales. Despite some initial memory compatibility issues, BIOS updates have corrected the issues over time. The latest, namely version 1504, was released in early June 2022. With a manufacturer follow-up still ongoing, the board certainly hasn’t said its last word, despite the upcoming launch of Z790 motherboards. Let’s see if like a good wine, the TUF Gaming for Intel Alder Lake has improved over time.

MSI MEG Z690I UNIFY – Hardware-Inside

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

Today the MSI MEG Z690I UNIFY arrived at our editorial office shortly before the editorial deadline. MSI relies on the simple and completely dispenses with RGB lighting on the mainboard itself, which may sometimes be a welcome change for the end user. It starts with 12 phases and not only offers WIFI 6E and three M.2 slots, according to the manufacturer it also supports DDR5 6800 MHz+. In the following, we don’t want to deprive you of the numerous features, temperatures and possible overclocking potential of the CPU and RAM. MSI provided us with the test sample for our test.

ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-I GAMING WIFI – Comptoir Hardware

July 9, 2022 by Stephen

After ASRock’s version , it’s Asus’ turn to show us what it can do best in the mini-ITX format – the only representative in this format – with its ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming WiFi. The manufacturer is particularly targeting players with its motherboard, hence the term “Gaming” in its name (yes, yes). Intended for Alder Lake processors in LGA 1700 socket, this ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming WiFi appears in any case to be very complete, at least on paper: DDR5 and PCI-Express 5.0 are thus in the spotlight, alongside a multitude other state-of-the-art features. Head to the test bench to dissect this mobo.