ASRock Z690 Taichi – PC Gamer

Perhaps the main feature weakness of the board is its M.2 complement. There are only three slots, with one of them supporting PCIe 3.0 x2 only. It may not be an issue for a typical gamer with a couple of M.2 drives and a SATA drive or two, but the Taichi does lack a little compared to some other boards in this price range, ones that support up to five M.2 drives.

Read more @ PC Gamer

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME GLACIAL – Pause Hardware

The ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial is a real success due to a new cooperation between ROG and EKWB. This cooperation gave birth to the EK-Quantum Ultrablock which is an integral liquid cooling block that covers the entire motherboard. In addition to its cooling capabilities, this block offers a unique look to the ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial.

Read more @ Pause Hardware (French)

GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS XTREME – OC3D

The peak of the Gigabyte range is their Aorus Xtreme. A motherboard which causes our fingers no end of grief as we automatically type extreme. It does smack of the Monster energy world, but hey perhaps we’re just out of the loop of what counts as “hey fellow kids”. However, the important thing is what lays behind the name, and Gigabyte have thrown the kitchen sink at the Aorus Xtreme, from lighting to PCB design and connection format. We’ll let you peruse the specifications and show you the motherboard in our usual high detail on the next few pages.

Read more @ OC3D

GIGABYTE Z690M DS3H DDR4 – Budget Z690 w/DDR4, PCIe 4.0

To keep the board more focused on budget builders, the DS3H also comes with DDR4 support instead of DDR5. This is optimal since DDR5 is both very expensive and very difficult to find right now.

For connectivity, the DS3H DDR4 comes with a single PCIe Gen 4 x16 slot and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots, along with dual Gen 4.0 M.2 slots for high-speed storage. The rear I/O consists of three USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, two USB 2.0 ports, and four display outputs including VGA, HDMI and two DisplayPort connections.

Read more @ Tom’s Hardware / GIGABYTE

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO – Allround-PC

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero comes with nice goodies such as a GPU holder , a key ring and various ROG stickers. There are also some cables (ARGB & SATA), WLAN antennas and other accessories: M.2 Q-Latch twist lock, M.2 Rubber spacer for single-sided SSDs, Q-Connector for the front panel. On top of that comes the Hyper M.2 expansion card . Furthermore, a manual and a USB stick for important drivers are of course included in the box.

Read more @ Allround-PC (German)

MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY – Allround-PC

There is a lot to discover in the scope of delivery of the Z690 Unify, including a manual, a quick installation guide and a USB stick with drivers. There are also important accessories such as the Wi-Fi antenna, M.2 screws, EZ M.2 clip, screwdriver, EZ front panel cable, RGB-Y adapter, Corsair RGB cable, Rainbow RGB cable and four SATA cables. And last but not least: stickers, case badges and cable labels . A fine cleaning brush is also included in the box for cleaning.

Read more @ Allround-PC (German)

MSI MPG Z690 CARBON WIFI – GEEKNETIC

This motherboard accommodates some of the most notable changes of recent years for the custom desktop market. Hand in hand with the new Alder Lake-S processors come technologies such as the use of performance and efficiency cores in X86 processors, comes support for DDR5 SDRAM memory and even state-of-the-art interfaces such as PCI Express 5.0 that double in bandwidth to previous generations.

Read more @ GEEKNETIC (Spanish)

GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO – MegaObzor

Z690 Aorus Pro is a mid-range motherboard with excellent technical equipment for building a gaming system or workstation with Intel 12th generation processors. High-quality hardware components, a set of interfaces and I / O ports, efficient heat dissipation from VRMs and M.2 drives, support for high-speed Wi-Fi 6ax.

Read more @ MegaObzor (Russian)

ASUS PRIME Z690-A – Vmodtech

In terms of design, I have to say that the ASUS PRIME Z690-A is really beautifully designed, although it’s not a full-featured build, but it exceeds the expectations of a mid-range motherboard like this that is different from its predecessor. Much that in the PRIME series focuses on simplicity and durability. But for this model Z690 comes in a space shuttle style that focuses on black and white tones, outstanding with RGB lights on top of the heatsink, the power supply is really beautiful.

Read more @ Vmodtech (Thai)