November 2021 – Page 14 – Motherboard Review

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME – Guru3D

November 5, 2021 by Stephen

If you have the cash to burn (read this slowly; 1000 USD/EUR and upwards), The EATX based ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme could be your preferred ideal platform for constructing a high-end computer. Dark colors dominate the surface of the ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme, attracting your attention to the AniMe Matrix display on the I/O shield (which is fully programmable). Using 222 individual LEDs, this array displays personalized pictures and animations, and it can be set to respond in real-time to audio playback.

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO – Guru3D

November 5, 2021 by Stephen

Starting with the basics, the Maximus Z690 Hero is more than capable of handling the most powerful CPUs that Intel has to offer this generation, including the Core i7 and i9 processors. The new p- and e-core design places more demands on the operating system to delegate duties in a more dynamic manner, necessitating the development of a motherboard power supply circuit that can react quickly to changes in load. In order to achieve this requirement, the Hero is equipped with a battery of twenty 90A power stages, which are organized into ten paired phases, which ensures that transitions between efficiency and performance cores are handled as seamlessly as possible.

MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY – Guru3D

November 5, 2021 by Stephen

The Unify might not be that uber super-premium product in the motherboard range, but it boasts many features that will impress and ticks most of the right boxes. First and foremost, there’s an extensive 19+2 Power Phase design with 105A Smart Power Stages, one of the more muscular configurations we’ve seen this launch and will help overclock any new CPUs. Of course, support for the latest DDR5-6666 memory, two PCIe Gen 5 x16 slots, and five M.2 slots, all of which support the super-fast PCIe Gen 4 specification. Also present; Thunderbolt 4 ports, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2. To make things even better, you also get a twin 2.5 GbE LAN, along with a Wi-Fi 6 and a whole host of other features.

Intel Z690 Motherboard Roundup – 86 Boards Compared

November 5, 2021 by Stephen

The chipset itself gains up to 12 lanes of PCIe 4.0, which makes for three PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe slots on most boards, though not all. The DMI interface has also been upgraded to the equivalent of PCIe 4.0, but retains the upgrade to eight lanes the Z590 chipset got. Rather oddly, Intel also added support for a pair of additional SATA ports for a total of eight, but as these are shared with other interfaces courtesy of Intel’s HSIO design (often called SERDES in similar implementations), most motherboards will have fewer SATA ports than eight.

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO – TechPowerUp

November 5, 2021 by Stephen

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero features a robust VRM cooling solution paired with twenty 90 A power stages for a rounded CPU overclocking experience. A BIOS flashback has also been included, as well as ASUS’s stress-free overclocking with AI Optimized. The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero also offers great connectivity with the newest WiFi 6E technology, Thunderbolt 4, and three onboard M.2 slots. There is a lot to cover in this review, so let’s take a closer look at what the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero has to offer.

MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE Pictured

November 2, 2021 by Stephen

While the MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE flagship missed the initial announcement, it is definitely being prepped for launch soon. We have managed to obtain the first PCB shots of the motherboard & it looks like MSI has put in all of their engineering expertise into designing this monster of a product.
The MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE comes in an E-ATX form factor but it is going to be the largest of all flagships from the top three vendors. ASUS’s ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme measures 305×277 mm while the Z690 AORUS Xtreme measures 305×285 mm. The MEG Z690 GODLIKE will measure an insane 305x310mm, almost a perfect square