DARK AND CLASSIFIED: EVGA Z690 motherboards are for hobbyists

Yesterday evening at 6 pm, the non-disclosure agreement fell from the pure product display Intel’s new Alder Lake S platform, which also includes the twelfth generation. At the same time, we were also allowed to give our readers a file New Z690 motherboards from ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock Shows. Very early on, EVGA teased two new boards with an Intel Z690 chipset and an LGA1700 socket.

EVGA’s Z690 CLASSIFIED is aimed at enthusiasts who don’t aim to overclock their CPU significantly. On the E-ATX motherboard, the Americans introduced a large-volume CPU voltage cooler, which cools the 19 power phases and power levels. Depending on the platform, the four DDR5 UDIMM slots can accommodate up to 128GB of RAM. As usual on EVGA, the 24-pin power connector is at a 90-degree angle, which also applies to the USB 3.2 Gen1 connector and eight SATA 6Gb/s ports.

The photo also shows two 8-pin power connections, two LED displays, and a power and reset button. At the bottom left, EVGA also left out the 6-pin PCIe (mechanical) connector to stabilize the power supply for the two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. The PCIe 3.0 x4 interface works via the Z690 chipset.

If those interested in the LGA1700 CPU really want to move on, they have introduced the EVGA Z690 DARK KINGPIN designed for significant overclocking. is similar to EVGA X570 Dark The CPU socket and two DDR5 UDIMM slots have been rotated 90 degrees. The two 8-pin connectors have been moved to the right side under the 24-pin ATX power connector, making wiring from the power supply easier. Compared with EVGA Z690 CLASSIFIED, Z690 DARK KINGPIN provides 21 level CPU performance to differentiate itself from each other.

On board there is a probelt port for reading the most important voltages, plus two LEDs for debugging and of course the power and reset buttons are also included. Eight SATA 6Gb/s interfaces and three M.2 M-Key interfaces with PCIe 4.0 x4 connections allow for quite enough storage expansion. Both boards also have two LAN 2.5Gb/s ports as well as WLAN 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. EVGA hasn’t said a word about pricing and availability, so interested parties should be patient. The past showed that EVGA didn’t offer the boards directly at launch, but at a later date.