Best Z790 Motherboard & Best Z690 Motherboard for 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake | Z690 vs Z790

hi welcome back to PC Builder I'm Jason today we're looking at the best z790 motherboard and best c690 motherboard for 13th gen Intel Raptor like processors and 12th gen Intel older light processors despite the fact that both 12th and 13th gen are compatible with both z690 and z790 motherboards it's actually pretty complicated to know which one you should buy so we'll cover the best z690 motherboard and best z790 motherboard features including explaining z690 versus z790 for Intel 13th gen Raptor like processors and will make specific product recommendations for every budget level for the best motherboard for you if you get value out of the video please give it a like because it really helps out the channel and of course subscribe and click that Bell icon that way you get notified when we release cool content with that let's jump into it so which CPUs are we focused on today well for 13 gen Intel Raptor Lake we have the 13600k with six performance cores and eight efficiency cores the 13 700k with eight perform course and eight efficiency cores and the 13900k with eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores the K in the name of the CPU just means it can be overclocked on a compatible z-series motherboard something Intel calls unlocked now note that each processor has an F version like the 13600 KF which just means that it does not have integrated graphics and typically it's a little cheaper Pro tip for video editors avoid the fcpus as the integrated GPU does help out when exporting video from programs like Adobe Premiere Pro we also have the 12600k 12700k and 12900k which have the same number of performance cores but only half as many efficiency cores as the 13th gen models and of course they're also overclockable now both of these CPU Generations share the LGA 1700 socket motherboards which are the 600 and 700 series so why do you want a z690 motherboard or z790 motherboard if you have an unlocked Intel 12 or 13 gen CPU will well the first reason is of course overclocking which can only be done properly on Z series motherboards now while it is possible to run these CPUs on Cut Down motherboards like b660 h670 or h610 and their equivalent 700 series boards once they launch you'll lose a lot of features and could get lower performance from these weaker boards so I advise anyone buying an unlocked case-q 12th or 13 gen Intel CPU to pair it with a z690 or z790 motherboard to get the most out of it let's talk about z690 versus z790 motherboards while both 13 gen Intel raptor-like processors and 12th gen Intel ultralight processors will work with either z690 or z790 motherboards there are some key differences now while this seems complicated it basically comes down to whether or not you want to run Ultra fast ddr5 memory and how much connectivity you really need let's address the memory differences between z690 and z790 motherboards while you still need to buy board specific for d dr5 or ddr4 memory with each model typically offering both a ddr4 and separate ddr5 version there have been improvements to ddr5 memory controllers on the z790 motherboards which generally list compatibility with ddr5 kits running about 10 percent faster than their z690 counterparts for instance the MSI Tomahawk z690 ddr5 motherboard is ready to run a two-stick configuration called one dim per Channel or one DPC using dual rank note it is 2R at a maximum speed of 6000 Mega transfers note that of course MSI incorrectly lists this is megahertz but that's pretty common and we go over all this in our best RAM for gaming 2022 video so check that out if you're confused this configuration is typical of a 2 by 16 gigabyte dr5 kit for 32 gigabytes total looking at the z790 ddr5 tomahawk we see it is rated compatible for that same configuration up to speeds of 6600 Mega transfers for about a 10 difference now note that what we're we're looking at here is rated compatibility not absolute speeds so it's entirely possible that you could get the kit of ddr5 6600 speed memory to actually run on the z690 but it's clear that the z790 has a stronger memory controller as we would expect is ddr5 technology matures remember that if you want to guarantee Ram compatibility you can always consult the motherboard manufacturer's qualified vendor list or qvl for short which lists specific kits of memory that the board has been tested with and of course remember to enable XMP on your memory in the Bios in order to get the full rated speed note that the memory compatibility speed increase in z790 versus z690 is specific to ddr5 memory looking at ddr4 versions of both the z690 and z790 Tomahawk and a number of other ddr4 motherboards I don't see any other differences that's not surprising given how mature ddr4 technology is versus ddr5 whether you should buy a ddr4 motherboard versus ddr5 motherboard is really going to come down to Ram pricing ddr5 memory is no longer as stupidly expensive as it once was at least in the US market but at the time of filming the higher speed ddr5 memory that you see in many of The Benchmark videos is still many times more expensive than fast ddr4 so while that remains the case many users might be better off buying a ddr4 motherboard and cheaper but fast ddr4 RAM and spending the extra money on getting a faster graphics card or higher core count CPU especially if you're just gaming at some point in the future I do expect that ddr5 prices will likely come down to a reasonable point so the only Evergreen advice we can offer is consider your budget and current ddr5 pricing which you can check using the links in the video description the other major difference in z690 versus z790 it's the amount of connectivity now while both chipsets have 28 total pcie Lanes the z690 has 12 running at pcie Gen 4 speeds and 6 16 running a PCI gen 3 speed the z790 boards take eight of those pcie 3 speed lanes and increase them to pcie Gen 4 speed so a total of 20 Gen 4 lanes and 8 gen 3 Lanes now this yields a modest increase in the total amount of connectivity in terms of pcie slot speeds the number and speed of USB ports and the like just how big a difference is for you depends on your needs as in reality z690 already contained more than enough connectivity for most users so I suspect for most buyers this should not influence their decision except for more production oriented power users but what about pcie Gen 5 speed devices like future graphics cards and ssds now most z790 motherboards they've entirely avoided supporting the brand new pcie Gen 5 m.2 ssds something that we called a total waste of money in our best ryzen 7000 motherboard guide and you're only going to find them on the higher end and more expensive motherboards as we said in our ryzen 7000 motherboard guide except for very Niche use cases and you folks out there know who you are pcie Gen 5 device support is unlikely to matter in the realistic lifespan of these motherboards that being said most z690 and z790 motherboards sold and all the ones that we recommend do already include a pcie gen 5-speed main GPU slot let's talk about Motherboard BIOS because this is a quick but important note for z690 motherboard buyers using a 13 gen Intel Raptor like processor it's very likely you will need to update the Motherboard BIOS in order to get the system to post for the very first time now I see folks all the time who are terrified of updating their bios so let me assure you this is not only completely normal to do but I recommend you update your Motherboard BIOS to the latest version even if it posts without an update I especially recommend doing that bios update before you change any settings in the Bios itself or try to install Windows we have a whole video on how to use bios flashback something gigabyte calls Q flash plus just to be different all the z690 motherboards that we recommend have bios flashback and it's fairly prevalent on most c690 motherboards motherboard vrms now most of the z790 motherboards have either kept the same vrm configuration as their z690 models or improved it with additional phases or beefed up the heatsinks since the z690 vrms were already incredibly over built even for the 12900k the only concern will be running ridiculous pairings like a 3900k heavily overclocked on the cheapest z690 or z790 motherboards something nobody should do anyway any of the motherboards that we recommend will be absolutely fine for a 13 600k or 13700k and 3900k owners should simply skip the most budget boards just to be safe let's talk about motherboard audio because one unfortunate casualty of the z690 versus z790 Square which seems to be the quality of motherboard audio codecs on some of the z790 motherboards versus their z690 models with several downgrading their audio codecs to entry level ones like the alc 897 remember when evaluating motherboard audio there are multiple factors but the audio codec it's one way to help to determine the quality entry-level audio codecs like the alc 897 they're fine but mid-range ALC 1200 audio codec brings improved signal to noise and special support for headphones plugged into the front cased audio jacks the highest end audio codecs are the alc 1220 as well as the newer but similar ALC 4080 that include additional audio encoding and decoding support as well support for high impedance headphones plugged into the front case Jacks remember that onboard audio only matters if plugging in an analog audio device using a connection like this and if you're using a digital connection like USB or HDMI then you're bypassing the motherboard audio in favor the processor on the digital device let's jump into our product recommendations which will all be linked in the video description below if you want to check current pricing now these recommendations are based heavily on price to Performance and I do expect the z790 motherboards to fall in price over time the same way that z690 motherboards have so check the links for current pricing in your region which might differ from the US let's start off with the best budget boards here now we're going to focus almost exclusively here on z690 for obvious reasons the pricing on many of those boards is completely slid since they were introduced last year now remember if you've got 13 gen Intel you want and need bios flashback in order to really guarantee that you're going to be able to get this thing to post the first board I'm going to take a look at is the ASRock z690 Phantom gaming 4. now remember we're talking about budget motherboards here so we're talking about entry-level audio codecs like the alc 897 that's what this has fewer m.2 connections this has two plus it also has a hyper M2 for a Wi-Fi card on it so you can get this with Wi-Fi for a couple bucks more you can always add that in later has the BIOS flashback but you're not going to get features like the built-in you know rear i o Shield that being said honestly it's got six high speed ports including a type c two type A ports honestly if you're just gaming probably don't need much more than that especially if you end up with like a 12 600k 13 600k on Black Friday getting a super discount you're just trying to put together a cheaper system this is when I would take a look at for 139 dollars going up in terms of overall quality of boards the gigabyte z690 UD is definitely a very very good motherboard we got a 19 phase vrm the previous ASRock board only had nine phases now we're at 19. honestly the vrms on this thing are so incredibly over built you don't need to worry about any of the CPUs put a 3900k overclock at all day long you'll do just fine with this entry level audio codec on it you get a little bit more m.2 connectivity so we've got 3m.2s on the sport instead of two all these m.2s by the way are at pcie Gen4 speed again you're not going to see pcie Gen 5 speed which I don't think anybody needs and nobody will need in the lifetime of these motherboards but you're not going to see that until we get considerably higher up now gigabyte always does a good job on the rear panel so here we've got absolutely tons and tons of connectivity including more type A ports 169 now this is a board that is right on the edge of some higher end motherboards so you can decide in your Market if this makes sense or you just need to spend about 20 or 30 bucks more jumping over very quickly to the best budget ddr5 motherboards we're still in z690 land however we've added a couple more so we already talked about the z690 Phantom gaming the ddr5 version of the board very very similar you know in fact pretty much the exact same board except it's ddr5 this is one I would take a look at about 155 you'll notice a slight price bump around the ddr5 versions of most of these boards another one to take a look at is the ASRock z690m now if you're looking for microage TX motherboard for ddr5 160 dollars not a bad board has a pretty good vrm on it the only thing I will say only one m.2 drive connector does have an m.2 Wi-Fi add-in card slot as well but only one and not two storage drive that might be a deal breaker for some but actually has really really good rear panel USB connectivity even better than the other budget boards that we looked at for about the same price you can also take a look at the MSI pro z690-a-ddr5 model now the difference between the z690-a and z690-p I'm not recommending the P because it does not have bios flashback the dash a model has bios flashback so just make sure if you have 13 gen Intel you're getting that bios flashback again cut down features and honestly right now selling for about a hundred and eighty dollars the problem is this board is starting to compete with boards that have way more in terms of their feature set now let's jump over to the best price to Performance boards honestly we're still mostly dealing with z690 because we're in about the 180 to about 200 range and there's a couple of boards here that when they came out initially I told you that these boards were honestly they were too good in terms of their feature set for the price that continues to be the case to the point where these boards have actually been nerfed the Z6 790 versions of these boards have been nerfed because they were the z690s were too good so let's go over what boards they are gigabyte gaming X to me one of the best price to Performance motherboard now if you don't like gigabyte that's fine I have some alternatives for you but let's go through why I think this board is really great it's basically the ud version of the board so it's still got that rock solid like 19 phase vrm on it ridiculously over built but what we're adding to this is we're adding upgraded ALC 1220 audio and you can see the audio section down there looks really really nice it also adds an additional m.2 slot so I believe we get four with this that's really phenomenal now those n.2s are still all gen 4. again we don't need Gen 5 if you feel like you need Gen 5 I will have some other boards I can recommend to you in terms of the rear panel on this one not bad you got two super high speed USB ports we've got four other high-speed USB ports including a type c two and a half gigabit real Tech Lan and then you got your four type A's that's for your mouse your keyboards your other kind of slower devices that you don't need super fast connection this is a great board built-in rear i o shield on it obviously bios flashback gigabyte calls it Q flash plus just to be difficult you have to know that the Q flash plus button on this is down here at the bottom of the motherboard so don't look for it on the back of the panel you will get lost same with the gigabyte UD board they're down here at the bottom honestly this is the board when it was 230 dollars I was telling you this was the board to get I know it had some initial ddr4 compatibility issues those have largely been straightened out remember you can always buy memory off the qvl list directly if you want to make sure that you're definitely getting memory that will be compatible with it fantastic motherboard and and the ddr5 version of this board right here only ten dollars more if you are looking for a version of the giveaway gaming X actually has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on it then you got to jump up to the gigabyte z690 aorus Elite ax a little bit more expensive 199 that's both for the ddr5 and dr4 version vrms on these boards are actually upgraded slightly not that it really needs it audio stays the same everything else is pretty much the same on the sport another board to take a look at is the ASRock z690 extreme now my understanding is that the only the ddr4 versions of these were ever released or sold at least in the United States and there is no z790 version of it I think either they're going to release it later or maybe they're just going to cancel all together because it's another one of these too good to be true boards because it's pretty much got all the features that you would need especially if you're just gaming maybe doing content creation you want more m.2s this does only have two m.2 SSD slots on it has an m.2 Wi-Fi key on it as well but again ALC 1220 audio codec vrm's a little bit weaker than the gigabyte board but again 13 phase vrm and the vrm heatsink so it's plenty for anything that you're going to throw at it especially if you're looking like a 13600k build maybe you just want to go for the kind of that cool blue and black RGB styling on it has a bevy of high-speed USB ports this one does actually have dual land maybe that's attractive for some folks but overall if you're looking for a board that has kind of all the features and is priced really appropriately this is another one to take a look at if you're wondering well the Asus and MSI boards are well the problem with the S2 Sports is they don't include bios flashback on a lot of their boards under a certain price point boards like the z690-a are actually quite phenomenal boards but no bio slash back means no bueno for the 13th gen so I simply can't recommend them similarly we've got like the z690 tomahawk good board terrible price 260 dollars I just can't see spending like another 80 extra dollars if you're somebody who absolutely has to have MSI this is the board I would recommend though I would say if you want the ddr5 version of it I would take a look at the z790-a the pro z790-a very much almost an identical board just has the pro which is typically a tier lower than the tomahawk designation but has that stronger ddr5 memory control that we were talking about earlier in the video so if you're somebody who wants to run like these super super super fast ddr56 and you have to have MSI I would take a look at the MSI Pro z790-a jumping into some great color themed motherboards in the mid-range NZXT N7 now pay close attention to this the z790 version of this board that's coming out 299 currently I'm filming this before launch hasn't yet released this is going to be the ddr5 version and the z690 version of this board that was released a year ago this is ddr4 that's the big difference between the two typically with these NZXT boards what you're buying is you're buying the cool styling because the feature set honestly I don't want to say mediocre because it's it's definitely more premium at ALC 1220 audio it's got all five audio outs it's got Wi-Fi and Bluetooth it's got a decent amount of USB connectivity in the back but for 299 dollars which is what these boards sell for you would expect a lot more features which you get with NZXT is you get the cool clean awesome looking aesthetic and you can get either the all white or you can get the Black Version and they do sell an N5 version of this without all the metal plates on it it's just a very bare looking motherboard I don't know why anyone would buy that version of it to be quite honest you can get a lot better motherboards if that's all you want but if you're looking for all white all black theme builds or black and white themes build these are always great now if you're one of those people who absolutely has to have an Asus board and I know you folks exist out there because I get your messages all the time let me give you a couple of options none of them are priced very well that's just Asus again has completely overshot the mark unfortunately no bios flashback like I said on their z690s below the strix version I will show you some strict boards that are z690 but I think if you want to get into Asus boards ddr4 then this use tough gaming z790 plus Dash plus again ddr4 only board I don't see any ddr5 board on their website or that they've announced now it's possible that they'll come with one later they did I believe in the last generation that being said this is a good board 289 dollars definitely a good board and if you don't mind spending the price premium which is about a hundred dollars more in the boards I was just showing you you do get the same ALC 1220 audio codec you get decent rear connectivity not a bad board other potential options are like 300 for the z690-a that's a strix board that's the old white one again great uh feature set on it has bios flashback so you can use this with 13 gen Intel or if you're looking to get that same board as z79 you're talking 379 dollars the price pricing on these strix boards to me totally out of line with the other three board manufacturers you really really have to be dedicated to getting into Sue sport in order to buy one of these let's go through a couple of boards for creators especially if you need Thunderbolt 4 support let's start off 339 dollars to gigabyte z690 aerod this is a ddr5 only motherboard it got a number of great features it has a postcode on it it's got it this is an eatx board by the way it's slightly larger make sure it's going to fit into your case but you can see there it's got the two Thunderbolts got tons of rear panels super high speed USB connectivity it's got dual Lan on it pretty much everything you need to be a Creator is on this board especially if you're in that Thunderbolt environment it is backwarded right now this is a very very popular motherboard so let me give you some Alternatives other boards I would look at if you need that Thunderbolt support z690 Tai Chi also has bios flashback in the ring great motherboard this is a ddr5 motherboard as well 439 dollars you can look at the z790 version of it it's fortnite I think it's 479 it's not that much more so maybe you just decide to go for z790 instead if it's not that big a price discount for you the other one of course on the Asus side is the Asus Pro art z690 Creator now this motherboard is also ddr5 has a couple of Thunderbolt ports in the back very very popular but of course 450 quite a bit more expensive than the gigabyte board remember if you got value out of the video give it a like it makes a huge difference to the channel and of course subscribe and click that Bell icon that way you get notified when we release cool content let me know down in the comments what kind of motherboard features are you looking for in z690 and z790 motherboards and check out those links in the video description all the models are there check out pricing and availability in your region and we'll catch you on the next one

Channel: PC Builder

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Id: JEViM1s4UMY

Length: 22min 47sec (1367 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 20 2022