Motherboards News - Page 1

BIOSTAR has just announced its new Racing Z690GTA motherboard, which packs Intel's new Z690 chipset that supports the latest 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs.

The new BIOSTAR Racing Z690GTA motherboard has some wicked Tron-inspired styling, with a 17-phase power design and an actively-cooled armor gear with heat sink. You've got 4 x DIMMs with support for up to 128GB of DDR4-5000 RAM, next-gen PCIe 5.0 connectivity, and a DVI port... yeah, the old school DVI connector.

On the I/O panel, BIOSTAR includes 1 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI 2.0, and 1 x DVI port as well as an old-school PS/2 port for your keyboard, a bunch of USB ports, 2.5GbE ethernet, and 3.5mm audio jacks.

Intel has finally launched its new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs with the flagship Z690 chipset and various motherboards, but now someone has been accidentally sent a mid-range ASUS PRIME B660 PLUS D4 motherboard, and something interesting was discovered.

The new ASUS PRIME B660 PLUS D4 motherboard includes the expected LGA1700 socket, which will support the new Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs -- mostly the non-K series processors. If you want a new Alder Lake CPU, but didn't want to upgrade to DDR5 -- it has DDR4 memory -- but no PCIe 5.0 unfortunately.

This isn't a big deal right now, especially on a mid-range B660-based motherboard -- there are no PCIe 5.0 SSDs or PCIe 5.0 GPUs right now and won't be for many months at the very least. I wouldn't be buying some new balls-to-the-wall Gen 5-enabled SSD or GPU for a mid-range B660-based motherboard, but hey.

If you haven't heard about Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs by now you must be living under a rock... and now GIGABYTE has just unleashed its new family of Z690 motherboards ready for the world of Alder Lake, DDR5 memory, and PCIe 5.0 connectivity.

The company has mostly DDR5-based Z690 motherboards but there are some DDR4-based Z690 motherboards here, so you get the best of both worlds: Z690 chipset that supports LGA 1700 socket and 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs but PCIe 5.0 connectivity for future-gen SSDs and GPUs but current-gen DDR4.

This means you wouldn't need to upgrade your RAM, and could just buy a new Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU with one of GIGABYTE's fresh new Z690-based motherboards. I wouldn't be buying a new high-end $500+ motherboard with brand new DDR5 memory... but that's me.

MSI is preparing the Big Boi of its Z690 motherboards with the MEG Z690 GODLIKE motherboard, flexing out its teaser muscles in its gigantic E-ATX form factor.

MSI's gigantic new flagship MEG Z690 GODLIKE motherboard is bigger, wider than the flagship ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme -- which is already huge, at 305 x 277mm -- MSI's new MEG Z690 GODLIKE is 305 x 310mm which is why it looks pretty much like a square.

MSI isn't messing around with the MEG Z690 GODLIKE motherboard, packing in 22 phase CPU VRM design and support for up to 128GB of super-fast next-gen DDR5-6666+ memory. You've got 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 and x16 slot, while another offers PCIe 4.0 x8. The board will have plenty of power flowing into it with the 24-pin power connector joined by dual 8-pin EPS power connectors that are placed above the DDR5 DIMMs.

ASRock has just unveiled its new range of Z690 motherboards, all ready to rock and roll with Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs, DDR5 memory, and PCIe 5.0 devices.

The new range of boards is led by the flagship ASRock Z690 Taichi, which has a 20-phase SPS Dr.MOS power design, with support for DDR5-6400 memory through overclocking. You've got a plethora of super-high-speed next-gen connectivity here, with 2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 ports, 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 port, and 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1 port.

ASRock also includes 2 x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connectors, the usual USB 3.2 Gen 2/1 connectors, Killer 2.5GbE + Intel GbE + Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth connectivity. ASRock has you absolutely covered with the new flagship Z690 Taichi motherboard.

ASUS has unveiled 19 new Z690-based motherboards now that Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs are here, along with the next-gen Z690 chipset that has DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support.

First off, we have the flagship ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial motherboard which features a pre-installed EK Ultrablock water block for liquid cooling your new Core i9-12900K -- come on, you're not going to put anything else into it. No Core i5-12600K is going to go into a super-high-end motherboard like the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial.

ASUS includes 24+1 power stages (105A) on its ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial and ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme motherboards. Both boards of course have the Z690 chipset which unlocks DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technologies, with 10GbE networking, dual Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and an E-ATX form factor -- beast motherboards. The difference between the Extreme Glacial and Extreme boards is the Glacial has the integrated EK Ultrablock, the non-Glacial model does not.

COLORFUL has unveiled its new enthusiast-class iGame Z690 Ultra D5 motherboard, ready for Intel's just-released 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs and the flagship Core i9-12900K processor.

COLORFUL's new iGame Z690 Ultra D5 motherboard has the expected LGA 1700 socket, ready for any of the 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs, with 4 x DDR5 DIMM slots ready for up to 128GB of DDR5 memory. COLORFUL has a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot here, with another PCIe 4.0 x16 backing it up.

There's active cooling on the Z690 chipset, with a unique design on the heat sink and fan of the COLORFUL iGame Z690 Ultra D5 motherboard. COLORFUL is calling it the Ice Terrace Space 1.0 Heatsink, which is a name I love. It sounds so ridiculous, but it suits the style of aesthetic. COLORFUL uses an aluminum extrusion molding process, with a wicked wave-like design that has multiple layers to "increase surface area and maximize heat dissipation".

EVGA has unleashed its new Z690 range of motherboards, with the introduction of the new Z690 DARK and Z690 CLASSIFIED motherboards ready for Intel's just-released 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs.

Starting off with the EVGA Z690 DARK KINGPIN motherboard we have the LGA 1700 socket, ready for an Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU right up to the flagship Core i9-12900K. There's 2 x DDR5 DIMM slots, PCIe 5.0 x16 for your top slot and PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD support -- while there's a slew of other connectivity.

EVGA's new Z690 DARK KINGPIN motherboard has 8 x SATA III ports (6Gbps), a butt-load of USB connectivity, 7,1-channel HD audio, 2 x 2.5Gbps NICs as well as Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. EVGA has provided round-outs with 2 pump headers that are ready for an all-in-one (AIO) cooling solution... but exclusive to the EVGA Z690 DARK KINGPIN motherboard.

ASUS will be debuting a new tweak to its ROG Maximus and ROG Strix motherboards, with the ASUS PCIe Slot Q-Release.

The new ASUS PCIe Slot Q-Release would be a special button on the ROG Maximus and ROG Strix motherboards, which will make it much easier to pull your graphics card -- no matter what it is -- out of the new PCIe 5.0 x16 slot on the Z690-based ASUS ROG Maximus and ROG Strix motherboards.

There's nothing like this on any MSI or GIGABYTE motherboard, even the new Z690 motherboards, so ASUS will make it much easier for graphics card reviewers -- hey ASUS, I need this new ASUS PCIe Slot Q-Release button and ASUS Z690 ROG Strix motherboard -- as it will make putting in, and taking out -- and in again -- easier than ever before.

MSI is going to be offering something special on its MEG Z690 motherboards with a new feature called CPU Force 2, which will assist you in your journies overclocking your new Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU.

The next-gen MSI MEG Z690 motherboards will have both CPU Force 2 and Memory Force overclocking tools, which will help you with overclocking your Intel Alder lake CPU and DDR5 RAM. How does CPU Force 2 work exactly? Once you've installed your new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU into the MSI MEG Z690 motherboard, you'll start with a score of 100, and CPU Force 2 will detect your settings and see how they fit, and then adjust the score.

The lower the score, the better -- so CPU Force 2 will detect your settings and provide a lower score, which means you'll have better stability and overclocking headroom in your new Alder Lake processor. If you've made adjustments and CPU Force 2 doesn't like them, then you'll get a higher score. This will come in handy with power consumption and voltage running through Intel's new Alder Lake CPU, but it's not a one-button OC tool that does it for you.