Biostar Z690 Motherboards

Biostar has a very limited family of Z690 motherboards, with only three models announced so far.

Biostar Z690GTA

The base model of those is the Z690GTA, although Biostar's launch revision of all its Z690 boards is weirdly enough 5.0. We haven't managed to dig up any pricing on any of the Biostar boards, but Biostar boards are usually quite competitively priced. The Z690GTA is by no means an entry level board, although Biostar has been somewhat conservative when it comes to expansion slots as you only get one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 4.0 x16 slot at x4 and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots, as well as one PCIe 3.0 M.2 and two PCIe 4.0 slots. The board also has the option for an M.2 E key CNVi or PCIe WiFi/Bluetooth card to be added. Furthermore, you'll find eight SATA ports, one rear USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) port, and an internal header for a second one. We're not sure why this board has no 20 Gbps USB ports, but it does at least have 2.5 Gbps Ethernet and decent audio courtesy of an ALC1220 codec. There's also a retro feature on this board, as Biostar has for no apparent reason included a DVI-D port, but there's also an HDMI 2.0 port and a DP port of an unspecified standard. The heatsinks on this board don't look fantastic, but they look similar to other boards in this price bracket, and the rear I/O shield does come pre-attached. Whether this motherboard will be a worthwhile investment all boils down to their asking price.

Biostar Z690 Valkyrie and Z690A Valkyrie

Next up, we have the Z690 Valkyrie and Z690A Valkyrie, which are DDR5 and DDR4 versions of what are otherwise identical boards as far as we can tell. Gone are the PCIe x1 slots and in their place you'll find two PCIe 5.0 that operate in either x16/x0 or x8/x8 mode, plus a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot at x4. The M.2 slots have been increased to four in total, of which three are PCIe 4.0 and one is PCIe 3.0, and you still get eight SATA ports. Once again, there's a slot for an M.2 E key CNVi or PCIe WiFi/Bluetooth card, but neither SKU seems to be available with WiFi out of the box. This time around, Biostar has gone full-on crazy when it comes to display outputs with two HDMI ports and two DP ports, because why not? These boards also get USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) connectivity around the back, audio and Ethernet remain the same as on the Z690GTA. Other little niceties include a POST80 debug LED and onboard power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons. Once again a decent-looking products from Biostar, but as we don't know how much they'll, both are again hard to suggest.

EVGA Z690 Motherboards

Unfortunately, we don't have the full specifications of EVGA's two boards as they have only just been announced, but not fully revealed. What we know is that they've got a Z690 Classified and a Z690 Dark Kingpin edition coming.

EVGA Z690 Classified

The Z690 Classified appears to have a pair PCIe 5.0 x16 slots that either operate in x16/x0 or x8/x8, plus a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot, three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, and eight SATA ports. The board has an unusual layout with mostly 90 degree angled connectors except the front USB-C header, which is at least USB 3.2 Gen 2 compatible. We can't tell too much about the rear ports beyond that there will be Wi-Fi and what appears to be a standard set of audio connectors. Other visible features include a pair of POST80 debug LED displays, power and reset buttons, and a standard USB 2.0 port near the front of the board. Expect this to be a pricey board.

EVGA Z690 Dark Kingpin

The Z690 Dark Kingpin edition is going to be a board that is really mostly just geared towards overclockers and benchmarking, as it's a two-DIMM board and even the DIMMs are placed in a less common location above the CPU socket. It has all the features of the Z690 Classified minus the PCIe x4 slot, as in its place we spotted a U.2 connector which never really gained a lot of popularity, especially in the consumer market. Vincent "Kingpin" Lucido himself posted a few pictures of the board on Facebook which give us a better look at it, although we once again can't really see any of the rear ports. Expect to pay a heavy premium for what is likely to be a limited edition board.