DARK AND CLASSIFIED: EVGA’s Z690 boards are for enthusiasts (update)

Last night at 6pm the NDA fell on the net product presentation Intel’s new Elder Lake S platform, which also includes the 12th core generation. At the same time, we were given permission to give our readers New Z690 Motherboards from ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock To demonstrate. Not long ago, EVGA is now teasing two new boards that have Intel’s Z690 chipset and bring with them the LGA1700 socket.

EVGA’s Z690 CLASSIFIED is aimed at enthusiasts who don’t aim for excessive CPU overclocking. On the E-ATX mainboard, Americans have provided a sizable cooler for the CPU voltage supply, cooling 19 power stages and performance levels. Of course, depending on the platform, up to 128 GB of RAM can be accommodated in the four DDR5 UDIMM slots. As is typical for EVGA, the 24-pin power connector is angled 90 degrees, which also applies to the USB 3.2 Gen1 header and eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports.

The picture also shows two 8-pin power connectors, two LED segment displays, and a power and reset button. At the bottom left, EVGA has also omitted the (mechanically) 6-pin PCIe connector to stabilize the power supply’s two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. A PCIe 3.0 x4 interface is powered through the Z690 chipset.

If the LGA1700 CPU likely really wants to move forward, EVGA has provided the Z690 DARK Kingpin, which is designed through and through for extreme overclocking. according to EVGA X570 Dark The CPU socket and two DDR5 UDIMM slots were rotated 90 degrees. The two 8-pin connectors have been moved to the bottom right of the 24-pin ATX power connector, making wiring from the power supply even easier. Compared to the EVGA Z690 CLASSIFIED, the Z690 DARK KINGPIN offers 21 CPU performance levels to differentiate itself.

Also on the board is a Probelt port for reading the most important voltages, as well as two debug LEDs and power and reset buttons are definitely part of the game. Eight times SATA 6GBit/s and three M.2 M-key interfaces with PCIe 4.0 x4 connections enable fully substantial storage expansion. Both boards have two 2.5 Gbit/s LAN ports and also the same WLAN 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. So far, EVGA hasn’t said a word about prices and availability, so those interested should be patient. The past has shown that EVGA did not provide the boards directly at launch, but at a later time.

Update February 18th, 2022 at 1:10 pm: More details and prices

In the meantime, some time has passed and in the meantime, apart from more pictures of the EVGA Z690 CLASSIFIED and Z690 DARK Kingpin, more technical details have emerged, which we have put in the table below. The prices of both mainboards are now known. The EVGA Z690 Classified is priced at $629.99, but it’s not currently available. On the other hand, the Z690 DARK Kingpin is priced at US$829.99, which is €200 more. However, Mainboard can only be purchased as an elite member and currently only in the USA.