Z690 Explained – New Socket, DDR5, PCIe Gen 5 and more…
With the launch of Intel’s new Alder Lake 12th generation CPUs yesterday, comes a new socket and chipset, one that’s wildly different from their previous generations, which warrants a bit of an explanation! There’s a lot to cover though, so let’s jump in.
The new chipset you’ll need to run any of these 12th gen CPUs is Z690. It’s a massive change from the previous boards which means it isn’t compatible with any other generations of Intel CPUs. The biggest reason for that is the new socket called LGA 1700. It has 1700 pins in the socket, up from 1200 on the last gen, and it’s actually a different shape for the first time on a desktop Intel chip, now coming as a rectangular package instead of square.
This new socket is actually new in more ways than just the pin count. When you try and install a CPU you’ll notice something a little different. The retaining lever arm is still there on the right, it still lifts itself upwards, but now when you unhook it and lift it up the retaining bracket that holds the CPU down and into the socket now folds down, hinging from the bottom of the socket instead of the top. It still clips back in in the same way, just a reversed orientation.
It’s worth noting that the cooler mounting holes are in a slightly different location on LGA 1700, it’s a slightly wider mount, although Asus has included the LGA 1200 mounting holes here too for better backwards compatibility. Be careful using an LGA 1200 mounting kit with these chips though, as the LGA 1700 mounting hardware Corsair includes in their new H150i I’ve been using for some of my testing is a touch over 1mm shorter, which means it’s possible you’ll have incorrect mounting pressure when using the older hardware which could help contribute to even worse temperatures than you’ll already see with the higher end chips.
Beyond the new socket, there’s a lot of new features and things you should know. The primary of which has to be RAM support. As you’ll have seen already, Alder Lake CPUs support both DDR4 and DDR5 fully, albeit with some performance differences between them. That’s a big deal, but it’s also really important that everyone understands how this works. DDR4 and DDR5, while they do have the same number of physical pins, ARE NOT THE SAME. They are NOT directly compatible with each other, and you cannot fit DDR4 in a DDR5 slot, or vice versa. When picking a Z690 motherboard, be careful to check which type of memory it supports. Boards like Asus’ TUF D4 use DDR4, but this Z690 Hero uses DDR5.
It’s also worth noting that Intel’s spec for memory is DDR4-3200 or DDR5-4800 – anything higher is considered overclocking and voids your CPU’s warranty. Timings aren’t something that are spec’d though, so get as low as you can for either!
Something else that’s new for this generation is the PCIe connectivity. You might have seen the headline that these chips “support PCIe Gen 5” – and while that is true, you are being misled by that statement. Take a look at Intel’s block diagram for their chipset connectivity. See the block on the top left? “1×16 PCIe 5.0 Readiness lanes + 1×4 PCIe 4.0 lanes” – PCIe 5.0 Readiness lanes… What does that mean? It means that, in theory, should a PCIe 5.0 device connect it should work, but only through that x16 slot. The block diagram does show support for bifurcation, splitting those 16 lanes into 2 x8 connections, but on this Asus Z690 Hero board only the top x16 slot supports Gen 5 in the BIOS. So, no M.2 slots get Gen 5, nothing through the chipset does either, only your GPU.
With that said, this has a whole lot more bandwidth full stop. You’ve got 4 Gen 4 lanes direct to the CPU for the top M.2 SSD, then 8 DMI 4.0 lanes to the chipset – up from 8 3.0 lanes on Z590. That’s basically like a PCIe Gen 4 link with 8 lanes to the chipset hence the increased connectivity. Looking at the block diagram for this Z690 Hero you’ll see the crazy amount of connections. 2.5G Ethernet, WiFi 6E, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a PCIe x4 gen 4 slot, two M.2 slots, one gen 3 one gen 4, extra SATA ports and a whole, whole lot of USB Gen 2 and Gen 2×2 ports. That’s a lot of I/O, and with 8 lanes to the chipset it’s currently double AMD’s X570 platform’s 4 PCIe Gen 4 lanes.
Something that isn’t all that new to Intel boards is the beefy, beefy VRMs. The i9-12900K chokes down 241W AT STOCK, and thanks to their new “Maximum Turbo Power” setup it’ll draw that endlessly, rather than boost for a short period to that, then drop back down to a more reasonable power level. That means the load on the VRMs is no longer limited to short bursts of high power, instead potentially subjected to sustained high power draw which means these high end boards have had to swell their power phases even further.
This Hero board has TWENTY 90A power phases onboard, setup as 10 doubled channels from a Renesas RAA229131 controller, using Intersil ISL99390 drivers, and a heatsink with more mass than some entire motherboards. Even with all that heft and heatsink material, this is still clearly working hard when the i9 is running full tilt. It’s more than capable of handling it for sure, in fact if you can keep the chip cool this board can easily handle overclocking too, but you will need to make sure you’ve got good airflow over those heatsinks if you do.
As with any large motherboard launch, motherboard vendors bring a new set of features themselves. This generation Asus went pretty heavy on the new features, some are aesthetic like the new pixelated Polymo Lighting panel on the rear I/O shield cover, but some are functional and fantastic. First is their Q-Release button. This is basically just a cable tied to the top x16 PCIe slot’s locking tab. Instead of having to reach past your GPU’s massive cooler or thick backplate, you just push the button and it pulls the locking tab back letting you remove the card. While the majority of people who build a system with these boards are unlikely to use that button more than a handful of times, it’s still a great feature to have onboard.
But, for me, their M.2 lockers are far more useful. Sadly you still need a screwdriver to remove the two now captive screws on the heatsinks – captive is a great touch although I can’t explain how much of a pain it is trying to put the heatsink back on when you can’t line up the standoffs with the holes and the top one is crammed under the VRM heatsink and rear I/O cover.. Anyway, when you get the heatsink off you’ll notice a little grey dial. That’s a little swivel tab, so when you insert an M.2 drive you just need to spin it round and that’s it, sorted! This is a really nice touch, and saves you trying to install tiny standoffs, then even tinier screws just to hold your drives in place.
There is one other catch to Z690, and that’s the price tag. The ‘entry level’ Z690 boards are currently listed for around £200, with the ‘mid field’ sitting at more like £250-300, and this Hero? That’s £520, and that’s still not actually the highest end board Asus offers. That honour goes to the Extreme, at least the non-watercooled option, which is £930!! You are looking at over £100 more going from a Z590 STRIX F to a Z690 STRIX F, so you will really need to keep that in mind when comparing both to 11th gen, and especially to Ryzen since Asus’ B550 STRIX F is only £170 instead!
