Alder Lake, Intel's latest family of desktop CPUs, demands all-new motherboards. But which one is right for your build? Let's break down the lineups from all the big board OEMs.
On Nov. 4, Intel’s 12th Generation Core “Alder Lake” CPUs go on sale. (See our early primer on the new Alder Lake CPU lineup.) With it comes a whole new platform and CPU socket, so anyone who wants to jump on this Lake’s boat will need to get a ticket in the form of a new motherboard.
For the first wave of new boards, Intel has defined the Z690 chipset. (See our overview of the Z690 chipset and how it differs from earlier ones.) In Intel motherboard parlance, the “Z” family of chipsets is always the premium line, found on boards designed for enthusiasts, overclockers, and folks who want the maximum possible connectivity. The Z boards are usually followed by “B,” “H,” and “Q” lines that take a more moderate approach to features and tweakability.
Boards in those lesser lines are coming (Intel reps did not yet share a timeline when quizzed), but issuing the Z models first makes sense. That’s because the first Alder Lake chips are all overclockable, premium-priced “K” versions (Core i5-12600K and Core i9-12900K, for example) that will be of interest mainly to gaming-performance hounds, tweaking enthusiasts, and serious content creators. The Z’s are also, generally, the most expensive boards, so Z690 boards, even though their prices range widely, will be early-adopter fodder.
Below, we’ll go over all of the Z690 motherboards that are currently available for order or pre-order, to help those of you eager to try out Alder Lake first-hand find the right board for you. At this writing, a few days before the Alder Lake launch, more than 30 boards were already available for pre-order. That said, if you’re willing to wait, it may be a good idea to hold off a few weeks, as some notable boards (including Asrock’s and MSI’s flagships) haven’t made it to the US market just yet. We’ll be covering a selection of these boards in greater detail in the coming weeks as we review them, but for now, let’s take a look at the Z690 models currently on offer.
Before diving into the individual boards, we recommend reading (if you haven’t) our related content on the new Alder Lake CPUs and the Z690 chipset linked above. Alder Lake and its platform contain some of Intel’s most noteworthy desktop advances since 2nd Generation Core (“Sandy Bridge”) roughly a decade ago. The platform witnesses the introduction of support for PCI Express 5.0 bus lanes and DDR5 memory (with DDR4 still supported on some boards). The chipset proper now has support for PCI Express 4.0, in addition to having connections for a wide range of other devices.
These changes mean we will see several boards in variants that support either DDR5 or DDR4 RAM. (To be clear: Boards will support one or the other memory type, never both on one PCB.) While DDR5 is set to take over the market in due time, for many buyers it might be more economical to aim instead for a DDR4-supporting board at launch. DDR5 will be pricier per gigabyte, and many PC upgraders will already own a bank of DDR4 modules.
We’ve also seen a slight increase in the overall number of M.2 NVMe SSD slots and SATA 3.0 ports, both of which are likely due to changes in the chipset. As always with Intel platforms, most Alder Lake CPUs have an integrated graphics processor (IGP) built into the chip, and many (but not all) of the new motherboards have video connections to support this. Look explicitly for that in any Z690 motherboard you buy, if you’ll need to rely on the IGP instead of on a graphics card for video output. You can also assume that the boards here are ATX form factor, unless stated otherwise. (We saw only a handful of Mini-ITX, MicroATX, and large EATX boards in this initial Z690 haul.)
Asrock’s flagship board, the Z690 Taichi detailed below, certainly looks sharp, as the company’s elite Taichi boards always do. But it’s so very upscale, this time: It’s a $500-plus spend that demands DDR5 RAM. If you’re not ready for that kind of splash-out, the best Asrock board on order before the Alder Lake launch is the Z690 Extreme Wi-Fi 6E, more of a “midrange enthusiast” product. The board has a 13-phase power system that’s cooled by a pair of heatsinks. It also has a Realtek Dragon 2.5Gbps wired NIC, a secondary Intel gigabit network controller, and a Wi-Fi 6E wireless chip. Audio on this board runs through a Realtek ALC1220 codec. Aesthetically, the board is very dark—essentially all black—but RGB LEDs are set in various places to add color when the system is powered on.
The Z690 Extreme Wi-Fi 6E is available at launch priced at $289.99. A nearly identical version, the Z690 Extreme, is also available for $269.99, with the key difference being the lack of Wi-Fi on the lower-priced board. Both models use DDR4 RAM.
Asrock’s flagship Z690 motherboard is also the newest member of the company’s long-running, mech-themed Taichi series. As expected, this means a dark aesthetic design with bronze-colored gear highlights (this time, over the rear I/O shroud and the chipset heatsink). With 20 power phases cooled by two heatsinks and a heatpipe, this board has potential to be an excellent board for overclocking.
The rear I/O panel is a quirky, packed mix. It has two Thunderbolt Type-C ports, but Asrock also opted to place the audio jacks in the middle of its rear I/O panel like it did with its Z590 Taichi. This defies logic, to our eyes, with the potential to introduce more noise into the analog audio connections than if Asrock put the 3.5mm audio jacks on the end of the panel. The board only ships with a Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, as well, which is a below-market codec versus many of its competitors, so Asrock seems to be eschewing a high-end audio experience with this effort.
Networking support is better than average, though, with a Killer E3100 2.5Gbps NIC and a secondary Intel gigabit controller. Also aboard: a Killer AX1675 Wi-Fi 6E controller for connecting to a Wi-Fi router. DDR5 RAM is supported on the Z690 Taichi with speeds up to a lofty 6,400MHz. At this writing, this board was available from Newegg for $589.99.
Asrock’s Z690 Steel Legend motherboards are similar to the company’s Z690 Extreme products, but Asrock made a few concessions with the Steel Legend boards to cut down cost. The second wired NIC has been dropped, and the audio codec has been downgraded to a Realtek ALC897 chip that simply doesn’t perform as well as the Realtek ALC1220.
Whether or not these downgrades will be a deal breaker for you very much depends on how much you, as an individual, would use them. If you rely on Wi-Fi or a single Ethernet connection to get online, and on HDMI or USB audio instead of the mini-jacks, there’s little downside to going with the Z690 Steel Legend over the Z690 Extreme.
Asrock has introduced two versions of this board that are available for order so far. The Z690 Steel Legend WiFi 6E outlined here is priced at $269.99, and (as its name suggests), this board includes Wi-Fi 6E built-in. The model without Wi-Fi sells for $249.99. Both models use DDR4 RAM.
Asrock’s Z690 Pro RS motherboard is one of the more budget-friendly Z690 options so far. Priced at $189.99, it’s considerably lower than the Z690 Steel Legend, but it retains several similarities. Asrock opted to use a 13-phase power design for this board as well, and it also has DDR4 memory channels instead of DDR5. Realtek’s ALC897 audio codec is once again used for sound output, but the Z690 Pro RS has only three 3.5mm audio jacks, which will restrict it to, at best, a 3.1-channel sound system. If you rely solely on headphones or a pair of stereo speakers, no big deal, but it’s a limiter if you have an advanced audio setup.
The rear I/O panel is likely the weakest aspect of this board, as it has just six USB ports and a lot of vacant space on the rear I/O shield. At this time, Asrock offers only one version of this board, and it lacks built-in Wi-Fi. It does, however, have a 2.5Gbps Realtek Dragon RTL8125BG NIC, so it’s solid if you rely on hardwired networking.
In addition to being the lowest-priced Asrock Z690 motherboard currently available, the Z690 Phantom Gaming 4 is also the least-expensive Z690 board from any manufacturer, for now. No surprise, then, that it’s one of the most stripped-down, too. The board has a nine-phase power design with some of the smallest VRM heatsinks you’ll find on any Z690 motherboard. It also has a rather small chipset heatsink, no over-module M.2 cooling, and no cover or shroud over the rear I/O port blocks.
What is surprising about the Phantom Gaming 4, though, is that its rear I/O panel is better than the Asrock Z690 Pro RS’s. It has eight USB ports to the Pro RS’s six, and one of these is a USB Type-C port. Audio support is identical to the Pro RS (Realtek ALC897 audio codec), but the networking hardware was scaled back even further, with an Intel i219-V Gigabit NIC as the only onboard networking device. It’s priced at $179.99, and this board, too, was built to support DDR4 RAM.
At launch, the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero (Wi-Fi 6E) will be the company’s new flagship Intel mainstream-platform motherboard. At $599.99, it costs a bundle, but this will be the board with the feature set to die for and the bling to make your fellow PC enthusiasts envious. LEDs are set over the rear I/O panel and the chipset heatsink, by default displaying “ROG” and the ROG logo in pixelated style. The board is almost entirely covered with black heatsinks to aid with cooling, and it’s equipped with a robust 20+1 stage power system with each stage able to handle 90 amps of current.
Other hot items on the Z690 Hero include a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports on the rear I/O. Any Thunderbolt ports at all are a premium pick, even in a high-end board, but two is almost unheard of.
Given that this Hero board is the new Asus flagship, this one supports DDR5 RAM and can support RAM clocked as high as 6,400MHz. It also has a top-tier audio solution, in the form of a Realtek ALC4082 audio codec, and there’s built-in Wi-Fi supporting the Wi-Fi 6E standard.
A large dollars-and-cents step down from the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero is the not-too-dissimilar ROG Strix Z690-E Gaming WiFi 6E. This board is priced a hefty $130 less than Asus’ flagship, but in terms of overall features it doesn’t change much. It drops down to an 18+1 power design with 90-amp power stages. (That will concern extreme overclockers only.) The audio hardware is also slightly different, with a Realtek ALC4080 audio controller and a Savitech SV3H712 amp.
Arguably the biggest loss is on the rear I/O panel. Where the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, the Strix Z690-E Gaming has two USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 ports. Thunderbolt connectivity is still available, but only via an internal header. The biggest differences other than these are purely cosmetic. (DDR5 is supported on this board, as well, at 6,400MHz.)
Given the $469.99 price, this board appears a more attractive offering for the included features than the Hero model. In addition to the items mentioned above, the Strix Z690-E also has a few quality-of-life features that the Z690 Hero lacks, including Q-Release, a nifty button to easily unlock graphics cards from the PCI Express slot, not to mention: screwless M.2 slot connections! Every modern motherboard needs both—like, years ago.
This is one of the few Mini-ITX Z690 motherboards that will be available at launch (see our picks for the best Mini-ITX cases), and it’s one of the most unusual in the series. Last year, Asus introduced the Asus ROG Strix Z590-I Gaming Wi-Fi, which featured a secondary PCB for storing certain components. This design helps to overcome the space limitations on Mini-ITX motherboards and enables more features and hardware to be added. It felt a tad underutilized on the Z590-I, though, and was a bit difficult to work with. But on the new Z690-I Gaming WiFi, Asus is taking this design to the next level by including not one but two additional PCBs for components.
We’ll wait to review this board before getting deeper into that aspect of the design (really, it needs to be tried and built before it can be properly assessed), but suffice to say for now that in terms of specs, it’s not too far from the company’s flagship, with some of the cutbacks you would expect due to Mini-ITX space constraints. It has a 10+1 phase power design with circuits that can handle up to 105 amps of current. The audio components are identical to those used on the ROG Strix Z690-E, but with a few changes in layout. This board also makes use of DDR5 RAM. Expect to pay around $439.99, a healthy sum for any small board.
Asus slowly steps back features on its boards as we work our way from the flagship down to the bottom of its Z690 launch stack. The ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi 6E is a perfect example of this, as it’s quite similar to the ROG Strix Z690-E Gaming.
We see a few more power phases chopped off, leaving a 16+1 configuration. It still makes use of the same audio codec, Realtek’s ALC4080, and it has the same Savitech SV3H712 amp, too. Like all the Asus boards so far, this one was designed to use DDR5. It’s priced at $399.99.
The Strix Z690-G Gaming WiFi 6E is essentially what you’d get if you sliced down the Z690-F Gaming to the MicroATX board form factor. Indeed, that is what Asus did here. A few more bits fall off that drop the board down to a 14+1 power stage design, but the audio and networking support remain unchanged. This board is priced at $349.99.
Starting with the ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4, we start to see DDR5 getting dropped in favor of DDR4. Otherwise, this board is very much like the Z690-F Gaming, with a 16+1 power design. Going with DDR4 does save you a considerable amount, however, as this board costs just $349.99 and DDR4 RAM is also more affordable than DDR5. (Plus, maybe you already own some DDR4 modules that you can re-use.)
Asus’ Prime Z690-A features a 16+1 power design with DDR5 and Thunderbolt 4 support. The number of heat spreaders for M.2 slots has been reduced on this board, and Wi-Fi is missing here, but otherwise you will see few compromises to going with the Asus Prime Z690-A over one of the lower-priced ROG Strix boards. This model is priced at $299.99.
Asus targets its TUF Gaming motherboards at gamers on a budget, and as one of the lowest-priced of Z690 motherboards Asus has at launch, this shows. The board utilizes a 14+2 power design and relies on more affordable DDR4 RAM. The board also switches to the old Realtek S1200A codec instead of the Realtek 4080 as another cost-cutting measure. In exchange, this board is priced a bit lower ($289.99) than the early ROG Strix Z690 models, and it picks back up Wi-Fi 6 support.
Asus’ Prime Z690-P has a more barren look to it than the Prime Z690-A, with smaller heatsinks and fewer heat spreaders, along with a 14+1 power design. You get just three M.2 slots on this board, and Wi-Fi is gone once again. On the plus side, DDR5 support is back, so if you’re looking for a budget-friendly board that does DDR5 instead of DDR4, this is a sensible choice. It’s priced at $229.99. An identical version of this board (the Asus Prime Z690-P D4) with DDR4 memory support instead of DDR5 is also available for $219.99.
Asus’ most budget-friendly motherboard is the Prime Z690M-Plus D4, which shares much in common with the company’s other Prime Z690 boards. It looks aesthetically quite similar, but the power system is cut down to a 10+1 phase design. Wired Internet support is also reduced to a single gigabit NIC on this board, but it sells for just $189.99, making it one of the least-expensive entry points across the initial Z690 lot from any OEM.
Biostar announced the Z690 Valkyrie as its flagship motherboard, but it hadn’t shown up for sale at this writing, and we don’t yet have a set price for it. Comparing it based strictly off of its features, it should stack up well against the midrange-to-lower-end Z690 motherboards in the $200-to-$300 range. It features a 20-phase power design, a better-than-average power-delivery arrangement. It also has a Realtek 2.5Gbps NIC and built-in Wi-Fi support, but the audio codec in use is the older Realtek ALC1220, making it a bit of a core-component mixed bag. The board appears to be well covered by heat spreaders to keep those ever-important M.2 SSDs cool.
Colorful, like Biostar, has announced its new flagship, but the board isn’t currently available for sale. The iGame Z690 Ultra D5 utilizes an 18+1 power phase design with 90-amp components. This board also ships with an Intel i225V Gigabit NIC with Wi-Fi 6 support.
The board design is certainly one of the most interesting that we’ve seen to date. It’s hard to describe, but the wavy, swirling aesthetic applied to the PCB and all of the heatsinks certainly stands out from the initial Z690 crowd.
The most expensive Z690 motherboard up for pre-order ($899.99!) is Gigabyte’s new flagship, the Z690 Aorus Xtreme. This is the only oversize Extended ATX (E-ATX) board so far, and reflecting that, it has the most robust power design: a 20+1+2 phase configuration. Each of the power stages can handle 105 amps of current, which gives this board the ability to handle more overall power than any other competing board at launch. This board seems tailor-made as a match for overclockers who will rock a Core i9-12900K on day one.
The Z690 Aorus Xtreme also has a significant amount of thermal hardware to keep this hardware cool. Almost the entire board is encased in metal, including the DDR5 RAM slots, which are also covered over by a metal shroud. (Check out our review of the last-generation Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Xtreme, with a similar back-and-front shroud design.)
In addition to the first-rate power and thermal hardware, the Z690 Aorus Xtreme ships with best-in-class wired and wireless connectivity: a 10Gbps Aquantia NIC, a secondary 2.5Gbps Intel NIC, and Wi-Fi 6E support. Gigabyte opted to go in a different direction than all of the other OEMs on the audio-hardware front and shipped this board with an ESS ES9280AC DAC and two additional ESS ES9080 audio controllers. That 900 bucks had to go somewhere.
Gigabyte’s Z690 Aorus Master is positioned directly below the Z690 Aorus Xtreme in Gigabyte’s product line, but it costs just a little more than half as much at $469.99. This will certainly make it a more attractive option for many serious Alder Lake early adopters. In spite of the huge price drop, you don’t lose a lot in terms of features by going with the Z690 Aorus Master. This board also has the 10Gbps Aquantia NIC, and its power hardware is almost equally as robust, with a 19+1+2 configuration of 105-amp power stages.
The Z690 Aorus Ultra takes another steep step down in price—it’s $369.99—for relatively minor reductions in features. The power system was scaled back to a 16+1+2 phase design, but the 105-amp circuits are still in use here. The 10Gbps Aquantia NIC does get dropped here in favor of a 2.5Gbps Intel NIC, and the audio subsystem ditches the elaborate trappings of the Z690 Aorus Xtreme board and uses the more common Realtek ALC4080 audio codec. Depending on your ISP and internet plan, as well as how you draw your audio from your system, these changes may matter a lot—or not at all.
Next in line from Gigabyte is the Z690 Aorus Pro, which was designed to be very similar to the Z690 Aorus Ultra. The biggest difference here is the switch from 105-amp power circuits to 90-amp ones, but most other aspects of the board remain unchanged. The DDR5-based Z690 Aorus Pro is listed for sale at $329.99.
Gigabyte also created the Z690 Aorus Elite AX DDR4 motherboard, which looks identical to the Z690 Aorus Pro but switches the RAM support from DDR5 memory to DDR4. This board also has kicked-down, less-capable power-regulation hardware, built on 70-amp power stages. This board can be picked up for $269.99.
The Gigabyte Z690I Aorus Ultra DDR4 is one of only two Mini-ITX motherboards up for order with the Z690 chipset. (Asus had the other, detailed above.) Unlike Asus’ Z690 Mini-ITX offering, this one is targeted as a midrange solution and accordingly priced much lower. The power-regulation hardware on this board is top-notch, competitive with Asus’ Mini-ITX board, with a 10+2+1 power-phase design using 105-amp power stages.
The audio hardware is lacking, though. The board makes use of a Realtek ALC4080 audio codec, but you get only a single 3.5mm audio jack for speakers, so this is a model best reserved for folks relying on simple stereo setups, USB headphones, or HDMI audio. Gigabyte has priced this board at $289.99, however, well below the $400-plus price of the Asus.
The Z690 Aero G DDR4 comes off as a solidly midrange product offering, no bad thing in this lot of pricey PCBs. Looking over the specs, nothing fundamental seems lacking on this DDR4-based board, unless you’re dead-set on going to DDR5. It just doesn’t really stand out with anything particularly impressive, apart from some really spiffy-looking silver heatsinks and shrouds.
The audio codec in use here is, again, Realtek’s ALC4080, which far outpaces the Realtek ALC897 used on some competing boards. It also has solid wired networking support with a 2.5Gbps Intel NIC, and Wi-Fi 6 AX201 support is included as well. This board is priced at $289.99.
At $229.99, with the Z690 Gaming X DDR4 you are nearing the entry point for the initial Z690 motherboards, if not quite there yet. This is a board with a different approach, however, to fitting its price point.
Instead of drastically cutting back on the number of power phases on the board, Gigabyte has opted for an equal number of lower-performance power circuits. The Z690 Gaming X DDR4 continues to utilize a 16+1+2 power-phase design, but instead of using hardware rated to handle 105, 90, or 70 amps of current, this board instead has 60-amp parts. Realistically, for non-overclockers, this should be fine, and for casual tweakers, this board just won’t overclock as well as its higher-end kin.
This board also lacks Wi-Fi, and it has a slightly older Realtek ALC1220 audio codec than what’s used on most of Gigabyte’s other Z690 boards. No issues on the LAN front, though: The 2.5Gbps Intel NIC didn’t get the axe. This looks like a good (relative) budget-gaming option if you have hardwired internet nearby.
Gigabyte’s last two Z690 motherboards present as slight variants of the Z690 Gaming X DDR4 defined above, with altered aesthetics but essentially the same feature sets. The first one is the Z690 UD AX DDR4 ($219.99, pictured here), and the second is the Gigabyte Z690 UD DDR4 ($199.99). It’s not entirely clear why the Z690 UD AX DDR4 is priced lower than the Z690 Gaming X DDR4, as it has the same power design but also includes Wi-Fi 6E support. As for the Z690 UD DDR4, it’s identical to the UD AX DDR4, but minus the Wi-Fi support altogether.
The MSI MEG Z690 Unify-X will be MSI’s flagship Z690 motherboard at launch (at least until the inevitable MSI Godlike board). Like most elite motherboards, this one is almost entirely covered by heatsinks and heat spreaders to aid in cooling the vital chipset and power-regulation circuitry. The board has a 19+2 power design with 105-amp components that should perform well while overclocking.
Why are we looking forward to this one? Because the MEG Unify-X supports the fastest DDR5 RAM timings of any motherboard announced so far, with support for speeds as high as 6,800MHz. The board’s audio and networking hardware are similar to what’s on many midrange boards in this list (2.5Gbps Intel i225-V NIC, Realtek ALC4080 audio codec). The board also has a built-in Intel Wi-Fi 6E wireless adapter. Expect it to sell for around $499.99.
At launch, if you can’t find the Unify-X, MSI’s best motherboard available to order will be the MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi DDR5. This board has a dark aesthetic with RGB LEDs set over the rear I/O shroud and the chipset heatsink.
A plethora of USB ports will be available on the rear I/O panel, including one ultra-fast USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port for the latest external SSDs, and MSI opted for an Intel i225-V 2.5Gbps LAN controller for high-speed Internet access. You also get a built-in Wi-Fi 6E controller, and Realtek’s relatively new ALC4080 audio codec is used for sound output.
One of the notable aspects of this board is that it supports DDR5 clocked at up to 6,666MHz, which is higher than any of the competing boards we’ve seen so far apart from the Unify-X flagship. It’s priced at $399.99; a virtually identical model, the MSI MPG Z690 Force WiFi DDR5, which comes in white (plus a few other minor cosmetic changes), is also available for $389.99.
MSI has four more motherboards that have shown up for pre-order, but they are essentially the same, so we will cover them here all as one entry. These boards are as follows:
MSI Pro Z690-A WiFi DDR5 ($249.99, pictured here)
MSI Pro Z690-A WiFi DDR4 ($239.99)
MSI Pro Z690-A DDR5 ($229.99)
MSI Pro Z690-A WiFi DDR4 ($219.99)
Apart from price, the key differences among the four boards are readily apparent from their names. The top-end SKU in the list has Wi-Fi and DDR5 support, the next board drops to DDR4, the next board drops the Wi-Fi but switches back to DDR5, and the last board lacks Wi-Fi and uses DDR4.
Cosmetically, these boards are all identical, with a mostly black color scheme with scattered silver bits thrown in for contrast. All four boards utilize Realtek’s ALC897 audio codec for sound output, and they all have an Intel i225-V NIC for fast 2.5Gbps wired Internet.
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Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a life-long tech enthusiast and gamer. He began breaking down PCs and ancient video devices known as “VCRs” at the age of 10. When he isn’t gaming or tearing apart gadgets to learn how they work, he can usually be found reading history. He’s also a student of the Chinese language and has a first-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. You can follow him on Twitter @EmperorSunLao.
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