We have reached the end of the review, and it is once again time to consolidate everything into a few talking point. As with previous reviews, I will start with what I think ASRock could improve upon before finishing on a positive note.

The ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 falls into a sub-niche market which already has a host of hurdles to overcome. First, let's discuss the initial price point. ITX motherboards generally cost the same as the mid-range offerings, but have less features overall. The saying "less is more" does not apply here. You are essentially paying more because the small form factor is a premium feature in and of itself. That being said, ASRock does keep it competitive with Gigabyte, ASUS, and MSI, which all offer at least one Z690 ITX motherboard.

ASRock's attempt to reuse the previous generation's (Z590 ITX) cooling solution is a major flop. What may have worked before does not this time. Those who plan on installing an i9 CPU or use this motherboard for anything besides gaming could run into thermal VRM problems. ASRock's use of 105 A power stages is offset by an incompetent heatsink design. I believe the idea from ASRock was to utilize an internal fan that would provide cooling regardless of the case setup. This would further be helped by the fan directing hot air build up out through the rear I/O section. However, this is a failure in two ways. First, it does not exhaust air well, as it is too far inset to do so reliably. Instead, air is just circulates inside that area. Second, the fan is placed flush with the back of the heatsink. Without any heatsink fins to help dissipate the heat, it does little to stay in control of the raising temperature of long up-times.

Next up on my short list is a point worth talking about for those who are going to tinker inside the BIOS. Those who prefer leaving everything on Auto won't have to worry about this talking point. However, as explained in the BIOS section of this review, those who want to overclock or tweak the memory will find a few BIOS bugs that need to be sorted out. The short version of my investigation found that the Clear CMOS function is somewhat broken and support voltages for memory are mislabeled.

The criticism continues as we shift to the audio section. Quite frankly, the on-board audio is subpar based on the test results. Given ASRock has a finite space to work within, compromises had to be made, and it seems even with a decent Realtek Codec, the on-board audio is lacking a clean signal. Pointing fingers at ASRock does not help find a solution either. The competition possibly has similar issues. Without those motherboards in hand, I can only suggest that those who truly care about audio fidelity use an external DAC; audio over HDMI and SPDIF out are alternative options with this ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 motherboard.

Being an ITX form factor by design, a few things can be forgiven in terms of connectivity. The form factor is the main selling point after all. ASRock has done its due diligence by including the latest technologies, even if underutilized for a number of years. In any case, providing support for PCIe Gen5 and DDR5 makes it somewhat future proof. This extends to the implementation of WiFi 6E and Thunderbolt 4. How much money it would have saved on production cost to leave those out is up for debate.

What ASRock does offer is a product that is priced competitively, but a bit rough around the edges. As with every ITX-based system, there's two main build types. One is based on low power to perform basic tasks you would expect from an ultra-thin laptop, and the other is orientated towards maximum performance simliar to a full-tower setup. The latter isn't the best option due to the underlining design flaws. Unless it is solely used for gaming, weigh the pros and cons and decide whether it will work for you—the information is there to dissect. What may be a red flag to some is a non-issue for others. ITX motherboards are tricky to get right, and ASRock is teetering on the edge of what is considered passable for a high-end Z690 ITX build.