I. Introduction
This year's situation is slightly more complicated, the epidemic situation abroad is very serious, directly led to a lot of computer hardware products, production has always been problematic. The more famous is this graphics card, the output can not go up, and there are various mine owners intercepting goods, resulting in a very serious price increase.
In addition to graphics cards, there are actually many motherboard products that have also been affected, such as ASRock's Taiji Z690 motherboard. When major motherboard manufacturers are listing the new Z690 motherboard, ASRock's flagship Z690 motherboard has been absent, not only has not been seen in the listing, but even various news and evaluations are very small.
It was not easy, Mushroom received a PIECE of ASRock's Z690 Tai Chi motherboard, and seized the time to do a disassembly evaluation for everyone to see the materials and details of this board. Look at what kind of tricks ASRock, which is good at making "demon boards", will play on its own Z690 flagship motherboard.
Second, ASRock ASRock Taiji Z690 motherboard unboxed
▼ The packaging of the motherboard is very large, a large carton, thick and heavy.
▼ On the front of the package is a ASRock Taiji LOGO, and the words Z690 Taiji are printed in the lower left corner.
▼ The back of the motherboard introduces the parameters of the motherboard, mainly including power supply, PCIe5.0 slot and DDR5 slot part, ASRock has done some targeted optimization and strengthening.
▼ The carton of the motherboard is a page-turning design, the front can also open a hinge, the internal information is more abundant, in addition, there is a transparent design on the right side, you can directly see the internal motherboard.
▼ ASRock Taiji Z690 motherboard accessories are very rich, a variety of accessories dazzling.
▼ There is a small fan with adjustable speed of 4Pin to take care of the heat dissipation of the metal part of the motherboard power supply.
▼ There is also a keycap inside the package, which is very practical, and the ESC key on the keyboard is very suitable.
▼ There is also an ASRock motherboard's iconic metal graphics card bracket in the package, which is particularly easy to use. At a time when graphics cards are getting thicker and heavier, this accessory is super practical.
▼ Finally, there is a USB2.0 interface extension PCIe board, through this small board, you can easily expand the USB2.0 interface of the whole machine, and can be far away from the rear IO interface part of the motherboard, so that there is less interference and the transmission is more stable. Usually used with some hardware dongles, it is very suitable, which does not occupy the IO interface at the rear of the motherboard, and is more stable.
Third, ASRock ASRock Taiji Z690 motherboard appearance
▼ The appearance of the motherboard is very beautiful, the front is covered with a large number of metal parts, and the color is black with gold, which looks very textured.
▼ The power supply part of the motherboard looks very solid, densely packed with slightly waved capacitors, arranged in more than one row.
▼ The lower part of the motherboard, complete metal parts coverage, three PCIe slot parts, also have metal parts to strengthen, to ensure stability.
▼ The power supply part of the motherboard is covered with a large area of metal heat sinks, and the appearance is very complex.
▼ The IO trim part on the left side has the iconic gear shape of ASRock Taiji, and this gear is very interesting, not only decorative, but really can be rotated.
▼ Next to the interior of the power supply heat dissipation metal part, there is also a small fan hidden, which is specially used to take care of the heat dissipation of the metal heat sink.
▼ In the upper left corner, the familiar dual 8Pin auxiliary power supply slot provides a powerful power input to the CPU part.
▼ There are two fan operations on the right, one is the CPU Fan and the other is the CPU Pump. There are also two 5V three-pin ARGB lighting sockets on the right side, which is convenient for expanding some hardware that supports lighting effects.
▼ ASRock's Z690 Tai Chi motherboard, support DDR5 memory, memory slot has complex metal reinforcement wrapping, this reinforcement part can provide force support, so that the memory slot is more stable, durable, but also can provide excellent shielding effect, so that the memory signal transmission is more stable.
▼ On the right is the motherboard's 24Pin powered socket, and there are three chassis front USB slots, two USB Type-A, and one USB Type-C. In addition, there is a separate USB Type-A interface, which can be independent of other interfaces and can effectively prevent malware access.
▼ There are also two 4Pin fan sockets under the CPU slot of the motherboard, which is convenient for installing fans in the rear of the chassis.
▼ The lower part of the motherboard has a large area of metal parts covered, all M2 slots have metal heatsink cover, and PCIe slots also have metal parts wrapped.
▼ In the right part, there are six SATA3.0 interfaces, which can expand the SATA hard disk.
▼ On the bottom of the motherboard, there are many various interfaces. From left to right, there are audio interfaces, 12V four-pin lamp sockets, 5V three-pin lighting sockets, 4Pin fan sockets two, TPM assembly sockets and USB2.0 sockets.
▼ There is also a separate SATA interface on the right side, a two-digit Debug indicator screen, a restart key, a power-on button, and a chassis jumper socket. By the way, this standalone SATA interface is also independent of other interfaces, which can effectively avoid malware access.
▼In terms of IO interface, it is super rich. On the far left is a hardware-free BIOS write button, followed by a WIFI antenna socket, hdMI video output interface, USB3.2 Type-A interface two (bandwidth 10Gbps), audio interface, of which the lower left corner is the light output interface. Two Type-C interfaces, support Raiden IV, USB4.0, maximum bandwidth 40Gbps, while supporting fast charging output, maximum support 9V@3A (27W), very powerful. There are two wired Lan ports, one is a 1G intel interface and the other is a 2.5G killer interface. Finally, there are four USB3.2 Type-A interfaces, the one in the lower right corner that supports hardware-free write to the BIOS.
▼ There is a metal backplane on the back of the motherboard, and the coverage area is very large.
▼ The surface of the metal backplane has a beautiful brushing treatment, and there is also the familiar Tai Chi LOGO in the lower left corner. This backplane not only has the function of strengthening the motherboard, but also assists in the heat dissipation of various hardware on the motherboard.
▼ The audio part of the lower right corner of the motherboard has a very complex physical partition, which can effectively shield interference and make the sound more pure.
4. ASRock Taiji Z690 motherboard disassembly
▼ The motherboard needs to be disassembled to see how the material is.
▼Various overlays on the front of the motherboard, and the overlays are very interesting, and the details are very well designed.
▼ The power supply part of the motherboard is covered with a large volume of metal heat sink, and the heat sink has a variety of grid designs on it, and there is a heat pipe connection between the two heat sinks to balance the heat dissipation.
▼And the metal heat dissipation block on the left side has an active heat dissipation design, and a small fan is installed to promote air flow and improve heat dissipation efficiency.
▼ On the back of the gear on the motherboard IO trim cover, there is a small motor that can drive the outside gear to rotate, which is very interesting.
▼ After removing various overlays, the motherboard is black and has a variety of dense hardware on the front.
▼ The power supply part is super gorgeous, a simple look, there are 11 power supply on the left side, 9 power supply on the upper side, 2 power supply at the bottom, very exaggerated 11 + 9 + 2 = 22, outrageous. In addition, the filter capacitor of the 12V input part powered by the left and upper sides is a smooth tantalum capacitor, which is very reassuring at a glance.
▼Auxiliary power socket of cpu, dual 8Pin design, next to Nikkicom's FP12K black gold capacitor.
▼ At the bottom of the socket is a PWM controller, silk screen printed RAA229131, which is a new PWM control chip from Renesas, which is used by the high-end Z690.
▼ On the left is the same color DrMos, silk screen print RAA22010540, the maximum stable output current 105A, very exaggerated.
▼ The upper side of the power supply is also the same color DrMos, silk screen printing is also RAA22010540, the maximum stable output current of 105A. One of the rightmost phases powers VGT and the remaining 19 phases power Vcore.
▼ The lower left corner of the CPU socket also has two-phase VCCIN power supply, the lower left corner is the PWM chip, silk screen RAA229001, a very familiar PWM controller, the previous generation of motherboards are often used for one-way Vsa power supply. DrMos is two ISL99360, single maximum stable output current 60A, the power supply is still very good.
▼ 4Pin fan socket in the upper left corner of the motherboard, each fan socket has an independent IC control, support speed regulation.
▼ The front usb 3.2 Type-A and USB3.2 Type-C sockets on the motherboard have a Realtek 5452E chip behind it, which is a USB 3.2 Type-C main control chip.
▼ There are many chips behind the IO interface of the motherboard, the top is Intel's i219V, Gigabit Lan port main control chip; in the middle is Intel's JHL8540, Raiden 4 master, the maximum support PCIe3.0 x 4, bandwidth 40Gbps.
▼ There is also a USB main control chip below, which provides support for multiple USB Type-A interfaces on the back of the motherboard.
▼Next, here's Killer's E3100G, 2.5G wired Lan port driver IC.
▼ Next to It is Killer's AX1675i, WIFI 6E wireless card that supports KCC controllers.
▼ The following is the small crab's sound card chip ALC1220, with ESS's 9218 independent DAC chip, the upper capacitor is nijicon's audio capacitor, and the red below is the WIMA's audio cap to ensure the quality and driving force of the output audio.
▼Next to the second M2 slot is the NCT6696D, which is used to detect the parameters of the motherboard.
▼ The motherboard's Z690 chip looks like a small CPU. In the lower right corner is a power supply circuit that powers the Z690 chip.
▼ In the upper right corner, there is an ASM1074, USB 3.0 HUB to support that separate USB interface.
▼ There is also a FLASH BACK2 chip below, which is used for the support of the motherboard's hardware-free brushing BIOS function.
▼ There is also a PCIe3.0 bridge chip in the upper right corner of the bottom M2 slot, which provides PCIe3.0 support for the bottom M2 interface.
▼ On the back of the motherboard, there are also many chips, which look the same dense.
▼ The back of the power supply module of the motherboard is covered with a thermal pad to transfer heat to the metal backplane to ensure the operating temperature. In addition, there is no phase multiplier IC here, indicating that the power supply of the motherboard is completely straight out.
▼There is a storage IC on the right side that provides support for the lightning master.
▼ Below you can see four JYS13008 chips for splitting PCIe5.0, which can be split into PCIe5.0 x 8 and PCIe5.0 x 8 when the top two PCIe slots are used at the same time.
▼There are also multiple LEDs on the left side of the motherboard to provide support for the lighting effect of the motherboard.
▼The bottom is an ARM architecture microcontroller chip to provide support for the lighting effect of the motherboard. The front space of the motherboard is wired, and only this chip can be placed on the back.
5. Summary
ASRock this Z690 Tai Chi motherboard is still very good, the power supply part of the material is very gorgeous, 12V voltage regulator filter capacitor for tantalum capacitor, DrMos for 20 phase 105A specifications, advanced 90A inductor, in addition to the same Nikkecon FP12K black gold solid capacitor, look very powerful. In addition, the VCCIN power supply is also a 2-phase maximum 60A DrMos power supply, which is very stable!
In terms of scalability, ASRock Z690 Taiji Motherboard has 2 Thunderbolt 4 interfaces, the maximum bandwidth of 40Gbps, very powerful, can expand a variety of high-performance mobile hardware. PCIe5.0 slot 2, support splitting, support PCIe5.0 x 8, PCIe5.0 x 8 split, daily use of dual card will be very comfortable. However, there are only three M2 slots, two support PCIe4.0 x 4 and one support PCIe3.0 x 2, which is slightly embarrassing. However, looking at the two Thunderbolt 4 interfaces behind the motherboard, the M2 interface is a little less, or it is understandable, haha.
In addition, this motherboard also has a separate USB interface and a separate SATA3.0 interface, these two interfaces are independent of other interfaces on the motherboard, which can avoid malware access from the physical level and ensure data security, which is very "ASRock", a bit of a demon!
In addition, in the details part, the wired 2.5G killer network card, the wireless WIFI6E killer network card, look very reassuring. The audio part, the ALC1220 with ESS9218 DAC, as well as the professional Nikeacon audio capacitor and WIMA audio cap, this professional configuration, the sound quality and thrust of the audio part, are very reassuring.
Personally, I feel that this ASRock Z690 Tai Chi motherboard has achieved a very extreme level in almost all aspects, especially the two Thunderbolt 4 interfaces. Of course, if the M2 slot could have been a little more, it would be perfect!
Thank you!
The End