An ideal motherboard is vital to any gaming fanatic’s rig, as it’s the base upon which you’ll improve your parts sooner or later.
Z690 motherboards are what you’ll must future-proof your rig, and are designed to deal with the brand new twelfth Gen Intel CPUs that include a model new LGA1700 socket.
These Z690 motherboards provide a number of vital options equivalent to PCIe 5.0 help, DDR5 reminiscence, thunderbolt 4 USB 3.2 gen 2×2 ports, and a couple of.5G high-speed community connections that embody Intel Wi-Fi 6 and 6E.
Whereas these motherboards could have you spending a bit additional than older boards, it’s a worthy funding when you don’t plan on getting a brand new motherboard for a number of years.
The perfect motherboards to purchase in South Africa for Intel gaming PCs are listed beneath.
ASRock Z690 Taichi — R6,999
ASRock Z690 Taichi is exclusive because it has an epic cyberpunk theme — full with copper accents and stylised cogs.
The motherboard’s key options embody Twin Thunderbolt 4 ports, a stable audio resolution, and robust DDR5-6400 reminiscence help.
The one draw back to purchasing this motherboard is that it’s pretty costly, and solely comes with three M.2 slots.
ASRock Z690 Taichi specs | |
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CPU help | Intel twelfth Gen |
Socket | LGA 1700 |
Measurement | ATX |
Reminiscence help | 4x DIMM, as much as 128GB, DDR5-6400 (OC) |
Growth slots | 2x PCIe 5.0 x16 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 1x PICe 3.0 x1 |
Video ports | 1x HDMI 2.0 2x Thunderbolt Kind-C |
USB ports | 2x Thunderbolt 4 Kind-C 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 9x USB 3.1 Gen 1 3x USB 2.0 |
Storage | 3x M.2 6x SATA 6Gbps |
Community | Killer Wi-Fi 6E | Killer E3100G 2.5G | Intel i219V 1G LAN |
Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Professional — R6,146
The Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Professional presents good worth for cash by slicing down on pointless luxuries, equivalent to limiting it to Wi-Fi 6 (versus Wi-Fi 6E).
Whereas this could be an issue for some, it makes up for it by providing 4 M.2 slots, 13 rear USB ports and a powerful VRM.
Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Professional specs | |
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CPU help | Intel twelfth Gen |
Socket | LGA 1700 |
Measurement | ATX |
Reminiscence help | 4x DIMM | as much as 128GB | DDR5-6400 (OC) |
Growth slots | 1x PCIe 5.0 x16 2x PCIe 4.0 x16 |
Video ports | 1x DisplayPort 1.4 |
USB ports | 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 6x USB 3.1 Gen 1 8x USB 2.0 |
Storage | 4x M.2 6x SATA 6Gbps |
Community | Intel Wi-Fi 6 | Intel i225V 2.5G LAN |
Asus Prime Z690-A — R5,499
The Asus Prime Z690-A is a good choose for these searching for the newest options of the Z690 motherboard with out breaking the financial institution.
Whereas it has no Wi-Fi help, it does provide DDR5 6400 reminiscence help, AI overclocking, eight USB 3.2 gen 2×2 ports and a high-speed 2.5G LAN connection.
This motherboard additionally helps Aura Sync which lets you synchronize the RGB lighting parts of your gaming PC.
Asus Prime Z690-A specs | |
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CPU help | Intel twelfth Gen |
Socket | LGA 1700 |
Measurement | ATX |
Reminiscence help | 4x DIMM, as much as 128GB, DDR5-6000 (OC) |
Growth slots | 1x PCIe 5.0 x16 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 1x PCIe 3.0 x4 2x PICe 3.0 x1 |
Video ports | 1x HDMI 2.0 1x DisplayPort 1.4 |
USB ports | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Kind-C 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 2x USB 2.0 |
Storage | 4x M.2 4x SATA 6Gbps |
Community | Intel 2.5G LAN |
MSI MAG B660M Mortar Wi-Fi — R4,999
A barely extra reasonably priced Alder Lake choice than a number of the Z690 boards out there’s the MSI MAG B660M Mortar WIFI DDR4.
Regardless of not supporting PCle 5.0, this motherboard presents a bolstered x16 PCIe 4.0 slot, a full-length slot working at x4, and one quick PCIe 3.0 slot — which is lots for many customers.
MSI MAG B660M Mortar specs | |
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CPU help | Intel twelfth Gen |
Socket | LGA 1700 |
Measurement | Micro ATX |
Reminiscence help | 4x DIMM, as much as 128GB, DDR4-4800 |
Growth slots | 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 1x PCIe 4.0 x4 1x PICe 3.0 x1 |
Video ports | 1x HDMI 2.1 1x DisplayPort 1.4 |
USB ports | 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Kind-C 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 |
Storage | 2x M.2 6x SATA 6Gbps |
Community | Intel Wi-Fi 6 | Realtek 2.5G LAN |