ASUS launched the ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME GLACIAL motherboard, which features an integrated EK Ultra Block, developed in collaboration with EK Water Blocks. ... ASUS releases its ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME GLACIAL with an integrated water cooling block.
why this news ? it's already been out for at least 1-2 months how do I know ? I'm typing from one...you can see my comments about it in the guru3d review of the regular z690 extreme motherboards here's a recap 1) if you expect pcie lanes like X570 you will be very disappointed VERY compared to a 1/4 of the price asus crosshair viii dark hero, it's garbage :/ thanks intel 2) the pcie 5.0 M.2 is watercooled but also unusable, it doesn't simply split your bandwith in half between pcie slot1 and the m.2 slot AND disables the pcie slot2 no instead it sets the pcie slot1 to x8 whatever you have so pcie 4.0x8 or pcie 3.0x8 yes...seriously it's that dumb 3) 7 usb-a which 99.99% of PC peripherals use is a joke (and adapters often reduce your speed to usb 2.0) 4) 2 of the 6 sata (already not great, better motherboards have 8) aren't full speed but seriously nerfed ASMedia controlled (written nowhere in the manual) those can only be used for storage not games as the max speed is around 400Mb/s and the random read writes are half of a real sata port 5) the PCH liquid cooling works but doesn't do miracles it's still in the 53°C, still better than amd threadripper or x570 which is more often in the 60-70°C (thats why they need a fan) 6) cpu and vrm cooling works great but not better than a regular ekwb monoblock+compatible motherboard setup would not buy again I would buy another motherboard with an cpu only waterblock if no monoblock exist, this motherboard glacial or regular is badly designed the way they split bandwith is idiotic the 12900k for gaming tough, destroys amd, benchmarks as usual don't tell you the real thing, games are way smoother...way way way than on a 5950x...did I say way smoother ? WAY the places where a 5950x even with a 3090 would drop to 40fps are at like 70fps and thats a HUGE difference, one that you notice more than between 340 et 350fps in csgo (dumb reviews) there are more games unoptimized than the few AAA reviewers keep using and that's where Intel is in another league even in better optimized games on AMD even heavily tweaked (more like only if...as amd without tweaks/oc/undervolt is crap) you never really have a smooth fps line you always have fps dips frames lost, if you do any work with your computer tough go 5950x + X570 without thinking twice it has more everything, Intel is pure gaming and only that p.s I paid around 1800 but that was pre-order with a cashback there is one thing asus made that seems to work well, their AI driven auto overclock seems pretty good, I tried manually overclocking as usual and it was garbage unstable BSOD super hot, with auto-oc from asus I ran 3 cores at 5.5Ghz and 5.2Ghz all cores in like 5 reboots between cinebenches, it does run cores at 1.46V sometimes but heh 3 cores at 5.5Ghz with no manual tweaking ! (they aren't always at that speed but with rivatuner I saw several times the cores at that speed while gaming on DX11 or older titles, DX12 use all cores so I get 5.2ish moire like 5.17-5.18) also with it you keep the versatility of the stock cpu behavior with no app opened the desktop idles around 14Watts and my system is bloated, iCue etc... the DIMM style M.2 works fine (at least with my pcie 3.0 drives)
Interesting feedback nice to see Intel is still playing silly beggers, I actually have a 5900x with a x570 and a 3090 all watercooled and I have never seen any game stutter ever, even on a widescreen, my fan on the X570 never comes on its always at 59deg c maximum even when moving large files (25bg+) round my 10gig home network which it saturates also have 3x pcie4 ssds all running at full speed etc all active with 64gb 3600 Ram my loop never exceeds 37 DegC and the CPU has never gone above 73 the GPU absolute max ever was 61DegC. Out of curiosity was this on Win 11 with the refreshed optimisation or not?
- games absolutely stutter and run slower on AMD I've had a 3960x and 5950x (much better) it does, you just don't know what to look for or don't play those games in the conditions to get it also I have both computers one at each side of my desk (well had...dismantled one after the gpu died) if you play in 4K you probably see it less than 1080p high fps (my old TN monitor has near zero motion blur I'll give it up when it breaks) - win11 obviously, yes - you seem to have a pretty high storage usage but mine is unusual to say the least ^^ yes thats 168TB written in 1.5 year that said you were right I checked again and on my crosshair dark hero the temps of the PCH hovered borderline under 60°C which is still too hot for me but okay (TRX40 3960x the fan was on almost all the time) the point was, the PCH liquid cooling is not a feature of this board you should care about it's not that good, not like the VRM cooling which does bring a significant change
I'm planning for one last upgrade and I'm out of this hobby. I will love it for as long as I live but I'm almost done with the upgrade game and following up news. prices became incredibly ridiculous and my priorities in life have changed. I'm lucky to have lived through and experienced the evolution of the PC and the gaming industry all the way since the arcades and Atari days. But it's the twilight, and I'm happy with the time I had. good luck descendants and always remember this: if it lasted for your ancestors it wouldn't have reached you.
So I just purchased the 690 Glacial board. I read the manual as showing I can't run the GPU at X16 if I put in the PCIE 5.0 SSD in the M.2_1 slot. But that the M.2_2 slot is also connected to the CPU. I should be able to run a PCIE 4.0 SSD in the M.2_2 slot at X4 AND the GPU at X16. DO I read that correct?
