At $159.99, the B660 Steel Legend is priced right and comes with a feature set comparable to the competition, including multiple M.2 sockets, a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port, and some bright RGB lighting. Performance was off in some heavily multi-threaded tests due to thermal throttling, but a simple voltage adjustment should mitigate this concern, as would running a lesser processor.
Read more @ Tom’s Hardware
ASRock Z690 Taichi, as befits a motherboard occupying the highest position in the hierarchy, excluding the completely niche ASRock Z690 Aqua, received a very solid equipment. The manufacturer took care of a powerful power section, an efficient cooling system, impeccable appearance and solutions that make it easier for overclockers to play. In addition, the latest modules responsible for wireless connectivity and a high-quality sound system were also added.
Read more @ PurePC (Polish)
The Z690 PC Velocita comes with a beefy 17 phase power design. This is actively cooled which is quite a surprise considering the amount of metal this comes with. Anyway, up top are dual 8-pin CPU power, 3x 4-pin PWM fan headers, 2x LED headers and the much appreciated power and reset buttons.
Read more @ TechPorn
Around the LGA 1700 socket, there are two reinforced DIMM connectors compatible with DDR5 (in dual-channel, accepting up to 64 GB of DDR5-6400+), a reinforced PCI-Express 5.0 16x port, three SATA 6 Gbps ports , an M.2 2280 (NVMe) connector wired in PCIe 4 4x, a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connector, a USB 3.2 Gen1 connector, a USB 2.0 connector, the essential HD Audio connector, two RGB connectors − including one addressable − as well as three power connectors for the various fans and/or water cooling system.
Read more @ Comptoir Hardware (French)
As expected, the Z690 PG Velocita also includes DDR5 and PCIe 5.0-ready solutions for those looking for the newest technology. ASRock has also added a M.2 Gen5 4x socket for when these next-gen NVMe drives reach the market in late 2022, which is not commonly found on Z690-based motherboards. To round out the experience, the ASRock Z690 PG Velocita also offers great connectivity with the newest WiFi 6E technology and 2.5G LAN for those who need to transfer data quickly. There is a lot to cover in this review, so let’s take a closer look at what the ASRock Z690 PG Velocita has to offer.
Read more @ TechPowerUp
The Z690 Aqua comes in two SKUs; the standard Z690 Aqua, a board that offers an identical hardware platform to the board we are testing today, with the difference being four DIMM slots, while the Aqua OC features two DIMM slots, a design more typical of enthusiast OC boards. Outside of that, both platforms offer support for 12th Gen Intel CPUs on the LGA1700 socket. Memory is supported from DDR5 4800 through 7000+ with an overclock, capacity dependent on platform, the standard Aqua at 128GB, and the Aqua OC, 64GB.
Read more @ TweakTown
ASRock offers, with its Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 motherboard, a compact platform to accommodate an Intel Alder lake-S processor. We are in front of a high-end solution aimed at demanding players looking for a muscular Mini-ITX configuration.
The beauty is armed with a sleek dress, an active cooling system, “Premium” features and support for DDR5. Its equipment includes two M.2 slots and numerous fast USB ports as well as Wi-Fi 6E support. Added to all this is a PCIe 5.0 x16 port and a 10+1 phase power supply scheme.
Read more @ GinjFo (French)
As we continue our coverage of Z690 motherboards we move over to ASRock and their Z690 Taichi motherboard. I’ve always been a fan of the Taichi series from ASRock as these boards were always loaded with features and they have that awesome clockwork theme. On the Z590 Taichi we finally got a moving gear on the board and of course they are bringing that back with the new Z690 version. On top of that you are getting all of the features you would expect from a Z690 motherboard like a 20 phase power design, PCI-Express 5.0 support, Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 gen 2×2, WiFi 6E and so much more!
Read more @ ThinkComputers
Today, it is the Z690 Extreme motherboard that we are testing. A motherboard for running Intel Alder Lake (12th Gen) processors, based on the high-end Z690 chipset. Designed to work with DDR4 memory, rather than DDR5, it is nonetheless equipped with all the features that these new processors bring. PCI Gen 5 among others. The ASRock Z690 Extreme is priced at 289 euros at the time of writing. Or at a price that positions it between the Gigabyte Z690 Aero G and the MSI Z690 Tomahawk WIFI. Suffice to say that the competition is fierce.
Read more @ Cowcotland (French)
Now we get to the motherboard itself, and what a beauty. All that metal looks space age, and it’s not just on the front, the rear is covered by a full backplate, too. The board includes three M.2 slots, all of which support PCIe 4.0 x4. One of them is positioned to the right of the memory slots. That’s an area we like to see M.2 slots as its located well away from a heat-dumping GPU.
Read more @ PC Gamer