86 Motherboards Compared for Intel Z690 Alder Lake

[aciDev]

They can keep them!
I believe we can thank streamers and YTrs for those prices.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I personally like the Asus Hero/Formula/Extreme but those price increases are disappointing. I did sorta expect absurd prices though.

I guess I'll just have to live with the fact that if I want a flagship cpu/board it's gonna cost north of 1500 usd. I was already thinking 1100 usd for my 5950X/Aorus Master was slightly ridiculous.

Either way I'm excited to see some alderlake reviews today hoping it kicks a$$! I would love to get to a point where both cpu manufacturers are trading blows with each release.

Yeah, motherboard prices are getting absurd and in countries with 20-25% sales tax, even more so.

They can keep them!
I believe we can thank streamers and YTrs for those prices.

How did you come to that conclusion?

 

[Dammeron]

(...)but Gigabyte is best value for money.

And maybe they'll throw their PSU as a freebie. Perfect for frying a GPU, when You can't get a second one.

Nice to see well equipped mATX boards for once, not like the ones on X570...

 

[iO]

ASRocks Z690M is some weird ass board, doesn't even support PCIe5.

 

[Zubasa]

And maybe they'll throw their PSU as a freebie. Perfect for frying a GPU, when You can't get a second one.

Nice to see well equipped mATX boards for once, not like the ones on X570...

There are decent B550 MATX boards out there though.
There is not much point in X570 if the boards don't have space for the extra pcie / m.2 slots.

 

[Timelessest]

Which itx model is the best

Best? I guess that depends on your budget. Asus seem to have the most feature packed board, followed by Gigabyte and ASRock, but Gigabyte is best value for money.

I mean in terms of vrm. Does the asus itx one have more phases?

 

[looniam]

Which itx model is the best

I mean in terms of vrm. Does the asus itx one have more phases?

from the product page(s)

ASRock Z690M-ITX/ax

Supports 14th, 13th & 12th Gen Intel Core™ Processors (LGA1700); 8 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design; 2 x DDR4 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 5000+ (OC); 1 PCIe 5.0 x16; Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort; Realtek ALC897 7.1 CH HD Audio Codec, Nahimic Audio; 4 SATA3, 1 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4...

www.asrock.com

8 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design

Z690I AORUS ULTRA DDR4 (rev. 1.0) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

10+1+2 Direct Digital VRM Design

1. 105A Smart Power Stage
2. Premium Choke and Capacitor
3. 2X Copper PCB

ROG STRIX Z690-I GAMING WIFI | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-G GAMING WIFI Intel LGA 1700 ATX motherboard, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, 14+1 power stages, WiFi 6E, Intel® 2.5 Gb Ethernet, three M.2 slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 USB Type-C®, SATA and Aura Sync

rog.asus.com

10+1 Power Stages, 105A

edit for LS

ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4

Supports 13th Gen & 12th Gen Intel Core™ Processors (LGA1700); 11 Phase SPS Dr.MOS Power Design; Supports DDR5 6400MHz (OC); 1 PCIe 5.0 x16; Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt™ Type-C; Realtek ALC1220 7.1 CH HD Audio Codec,, Nahimic Audio; 3 SATA3, 1 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4...

www.asrock.com

• 11 Phase SPS Dr.MOS Power Design

ASRock Super Alloy
- Premium 90A Power Choke
- 105A SPS (Smart Power Stage)
- Nichicon 12K Black Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors)

 

[TheLostSwede]

from the product page(s)

ASRock Z690M-ITX/ax

Supports 14th, 13th & 12th Gen Intel Core™ Processors (LGA1700); 8 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design; 2 x DDR4 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 5000+ (OC); 1 PCIe 5.0 x16; Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort; Realtek ALC897 7.1 CH HD Audio Codec, Nahimic Audio; 4 SATA3, 1 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4...

www.asrock.com

Z690I AORUS ULTRA DDR4 (rev. 1.0) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

ROG STRIX Z690-I GAMING WIFI | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-G GAMING WIFI Intel LGA 1700 ATX motherboard, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, 14+1 power stages, WiFi 6E, Intel® 2.5 Gb Ethernet, three M.2 slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 USB Type-C®, SATA and Aura Sync

rog.asus.com

You missed the ASRock gaming board

 

[looniam]

You missed the ASRock gaming board

ya know i didn't scroll down because i doubted there were two from the same manufacturer, good on them!

fixed.

 

[aciDev]

How did you come to that conclusion?

To me, the prices seem to increase more in relation to how flashy the components look than to the technical features.
And I think content creators, with their flexing, have contributed a lot to this trend.

 

[TheLostSwede]

To me, the prices seem to increase more in relation to how flashy the components look than to the technical features.

Yeah, there's something to that for sure, since as I've mentioned before, the tooling to make plastic parts are not cheap. I've been involved in making moulds for a few clients and a mould for a small-ish thing (10-15cm long, 5-7cm thick) is US$25,000-50,000, even in Taiwan. That gets you one or two parts at the most and with all these different designs, you're ending up with a lot of moulds. Add to that the cost of the moulds for all the different and quite complex extruded aluminium some of these boards feature and it's no surprise you're paying a lot for the bling.
In all fairness, I'm a big fan of the pre-attached I/O shields, which requires something to mount them to on the board. Beyond that, I'm not into most of the other stuff.

 

[Fleurious]

Waiting on reviews but for now the ASUS Prime Z690-A looks like the board I'll be settling on.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Waiting on reviews but for now the ASUS Prime Z690-A looks like the board I'll be settling on.

Not a bad board overall, with the only "downgrade" being the onboard audio compared to the more expensive entry level Strix boards.
That said, $300 for a lower-midrange board is really a ripoff, but prices are apparently up on almost all motherboard components, which means the board makers are passing on all those costs straight to the consumers, as lower margins is apparently not an option.

ASRocks Z690M is some weird ass board, doesn't even support PCIe5.

I think that was a typo and they seem to have pulled the product page for now as well.

 

[FedericoUY]

Since z390 prices has skyrocketed on motherboards. I remember purchasing a maximus IX apex at normal price (~$270). Nowadays they are unpayable!

 

[Fleurious]

Not a bad board overall, with the only "downgrade" being the onboard audio compared to the more expensive entry level Strix boards.

From what I've read (Here) the ALC4080 offers the same sound performance as the Realtek S1220A but does so in a different way. I guess the Strix/ROG line do offer more sound related software but i tend to prefer a more bare-bones approach. I agree the value doesn't seem there.

 

[InVasMani]

Think if I were getting 12600K I'd probably pair it with a Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X myself the Biostar Z690A Valkyrie looks nice too, but I think it'll be a lot more pricey.

You made a bit of a mistake on the Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X the part about two PCIe 4.0 x16 slots at x4 is incorrect btw its PCIE 3.0 according to Gigabyte's specifications on the product page.
2. (The PCIEX4 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)

 

[TheLostSwede]

From what I've read (Here) the ALC4080 offers the same sound performance as the Realtek S1220A but does so in a different way. I guess the Strix/ROG line do offer more sound related software but i tend to prefer a more bare-bones approach. I agree the value doesn't seem there.

It does some things that the ALC1220 can't, but for most people 32-bit/384KHz audio doesn't matter.
Thanks for the link though.

None of the boards are a good value proposition really, with some being more reasonable than others.

Think if I were getting 12600K I'd probably pair it with a Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X myself the Biostar Z690A Valkyrie looks nice too, but I think it'll be a lot more pricey.

You made a bit of a mistake on the Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X the part about two PCIe 4.0 x16 slots at x4 is incorrect btw its PCIE 3.0 according to Gigabyte's specifications on the product page.
2. (The PCIEX4 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)

Thanks for the heads up, typo, which is easy to do here, but it's fixed now.

 

[noel_fs]

this is some hard work

 

[TheLostSwede]

this is some hard work

Yeah, took a few days to write up.
Hopefully it'll help people get a better idea of what board to get if they're looking to upgrade.

 

[asdkj1740]

Some of the lower end boards even went with gen3 on some of the M.2 slots.
Also many of them have almost no USB with Gigabyte even cheaping out on the damn audio jacks.

A funny thing about the pricing of the Aero D vs Aorus Master.
The Aorus Master is listed at around $470 at newegg, but in Hong Kong it is listed at around $616USD.
That put it well above the price of the Aero D that has better IO on everything. I guess the distributor is milking hard on the Gamer tax.

wtf is going on in hong kong?

btw it is true that aero d kills aorus master.

 

[TheLostSwede]

btw it is true that aero d kills aorus master.

Depends I guess. Yes, you do get Thunderbolt 4 and a second Ethernet port, but in most countries, it's likely to cost more than the Master so...
Also, the Aero boards are clearly not geared towards people that want to overclock their hardware in the same sense.
I can obviously only work with the pricing I was able to find, since many boards, from all manufacturers aren't readily available everywhere.
That said, just as with the Asus ProArt, the Aero boards seem to offer good value for money compared to the more gaming/overclocking focused boards.

 

[asdkj1740]

Depends I guess. Yes, you do get Thunderbolt 4 and a second Ethernet port, but in most countries, it's likely to cost more than the Master so...
Also, the Aero boards are clearly not geared towards people that want to overclock their hardware in the same sense.
I can obviously only work with the pricing I was able to find, since many boards, from all manufacturers aren't readily available everywhere.
That said, just as with the Asus ProArt, the Aero boards seem to offer good value for money compared to the more gaming/overclocking focused boards.

aero d msrp should be priced slightly lower than aorus master, with gen5 switches and tb4 that arous master has not.
i doubt in terms of cpu overclocking under normal condition areo d would be any worse than aorus master.
given the same ddr5 6400 rated on both mobos , i think aero d maybe still a bit worse than aorus master because of tb4 onboard.

 

[cst1992]

What struck me, is that there are so many overlapping models from the same manufacturer, but with big jumps in price for tiny feature improvements.

Gotta make your pandemic losses back...

 

[TheLostSwede]

aero d msrp should be priced slightly lower than aorus master, with gen5 switches and tb4 that arous master has not.
i doubt in terms of cpu overclocking under normal condition areo d would be any worse than aorus master.
given the same ddr5 6400 rated on both mobos , i think aero d maybe still a bit worse than aorus master because of tb4 onboard.

We're going to have to wait and see, but as I said, the Aero and ProArt boards all look good.

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

Jesus Christ Gigabyte... 25 motherboard SKUs!!!!

The Z690 gaming x looks like a good value