Monday, October 18th 2021
Huge List of Close to 100 Upcoming Z690 Motherboards Leaks
If the amount of upcoming Z690 was anything to go by, one could presume that the motherboard makers are backing Intel's upcoming platform to the max, as a leaked list of what should be close to every Z690 that will hit the market, counts a total of 98 boards. The list covers ASRock, ASUS, Biostar, NZXT, Gigabyte and MSI, but not EVGA and some other smaller players.
ASUS is apparently planning no less than 30 different models/SKUs, since some are clearly DDR4/DDR5 SKUs of the same model or SKUs with or without Wi-Fi, but even so, that's a massive launch lineup. Gigabyte isn't far behind with 27, followed by MSI at 24 and ASRock at 14, if we didn't count wrong. There isn't much news in terms of details of each of the boards here though, but it's clear that the high-end SKUs are mostly DDR5, while the mid-range and standard models are mostly using DDR4. The only slight surprise here is that only ASRock has more DDR4 than DDR5 models, with ASUS having exactly half of each, but Gigabyte and MSI are going with a preference for DDR5. ASRock, ASUS and Gigabyte appear to have liquid cooled SKUs, but it's not clear if MSI will offer such a SKU of its Godlike board.
Source:
@momomo_us
ASUS is apparently planning no less than 30 different models/SKUs, since some are clearly DDR4/DDR5 SKUs of the same model or SKUs with or without Wi-Fi, but even so, that's a massive launch lineup. Gigabyte isn't far behind with 27, followed by MSI at 24 and ASRock at 14, if we didn't count wrong. There isn't much news in terms of details of each of the boards here though, but it's clear that the high-end SKUs are mostly DDR5, while the mid-range and standard models are mostly using DDR4. The only slight surprise here is that only ASRock has more DDR4 than DDR5 models, with ASUS having exactly half of each, but Gigabyte and MSI are going with a preference for DDR5. ASRock, ASUS and Gigabyte appear to have liquid cooled SKUs, but it's not clear if MSI will offer such a SKU of its Godlike board.
32 Comments on Huge List of Close to 100 Upcoming Z690 Motherboards Leaks
I don't understand why we need 9 ASUS Prime and 10 ASUS Strix boards, for example. One with DDR4 and one with DDR5 would be enough.
But yes, it's all a bit mad.USB4? Although it seems like we might not even see that, since there was a shortage of some component from TI that was needed or USB4 would only be Thunderbolt 3, or was it Thunderbolt 4 that couldn't be USB4? I'm really confused about the difference.
That said, you'd need to get USB4 Gen 3x2 to hit 40Gbps...
Also, if motherboards supported both DDR4 and 5 (like some DDR2/3 boards did back in the days), we would need even fewer models.
Edit: With the minimal price difference between Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi models of current generations, I also don't understand why they don't just include Wi-Fi in all models as standard.
Doesn't seem to be many Thunderbolt 4 boards in the list, in fact, Thunderbolt seems to be far more popular on laptops than desktops, so that might be an alternative route?
Edit. Good (for me) to see many mid-range DDR5 boards.
I'm just curious if we're expected to once more fork ~$300 for a decent mid-range mobo.
Asus' top of the range model with the liquid cooling kit was listed at well over €1,600 somewhere and Gigabyte's Aorus Elite AX is said to retail for AU$440 or US$330.
@AusWolf seems to be a massive price gap between the Strix E and the Strix G.
Too bad more mundane designs aren't coming down in price. I'm not even sure what to buy anymore, since I had to cross AsRock off my list :(
Then again, if going for Alder Lake, I probably won't need the Z690. Luckily, I'm not in any hurry.
TUF is offered in all 4 combinations. If that has a good enough VRM it could be the sensible ATX choice.
That is a lot of boards though, especially when you have the overlapping set of prime boards and then the high end boards on top. In comparison, they only list ROG strix E, A and I for Z590, while F and G are B560 boards.
Biostar is obviously not going to release just a single board.
Asus naming is really a mess though.
As a personal preference, micro-ATX is my sweet spot. Normal ATX systems look empty without expansion cards, and as much fun as I have building mini-ITX rigs from time to time, sub-compact cases can be a bit difficult to work with.That's not how it currently works. Now you have model names like "Prime B560M-K" where B560 is the chipset, M stands for micro-ATX and K suggests how equipped the model is.
As for the picture: I like the way the Wi-Fi antenna ports moved to the top of the I/O shield. I winder why they haven't been there all along.