Introduction
GIGABYTE is a well-known staple of the motherboard industry that goes back decades. GIGABYTE offers a wide range of products at each price point, with the vast majority of its offerings being targeted toward gamers and DIY enthusiasts. Today, we are looking at GIGABYTE’s Z690 GAMING X DDR4 motherboard. As far as the physical hardware goes, it isn’t the most innovative at this price point, but it does have a slick and appealing industrial look.
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 is a value-oriented motherboard based on a high-end chipset coming in right at around $277 at the time of this writing. That being said, it does have a relatively rich feature set for the price. These days that’s something of a nice surprise as motherboard costs seem to be increasing more often than not.
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 is based on Intel’s Z690 Express chipset as the name implies. It supports DDR4 memory only but there is a virtually identical DDR5 version of the Z690 GAMING X as well should you prefer to go that route. The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 will support all 12th and 13th-generation Intel CPU’s with a BIOS update. It does support PCI-Express Gen 5, as well as M.2/NVMe devices. This version of the board also lacks any wireless network support but does offer wired 2.5GbE LAN.
Packaging and Contents
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 comes in a pretty standard cardboard box with simple box art. Inside the box, you’ll find the board itself in a cardboard protector and anti-static bag. Inside the box, you’ll find a user manual, SATA cables, and some M.2 screws. That’s basically it for what comes with the motherboard. You do not get a driver disc or a flash drive or anything along those lines.
GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 PCB & Features
The layout of the GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X is one of the standout aspects of this board’s design. The layout is what I’d consider almost perfect. At long last, a motherboard manufacturer remembered where to place a CMOS battery where it wouldn’t be a huge pain to remove or change if necessary. The motherboard has impressive-looking heat sinks and an industrial design that’s more grown-up than we are used to seeing with something that has “Gaming” in its name. There is some RGB, but it’s very subtle compared to what we are used to seeing.
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 exudes quality. When you pick it up the motherboard feels like one that should cost a great deal more than it is. Its layout is superb and its heat sinks are nicely finished. They do not show fingerprints super easily or have a mirror-like finish that shows every spec of dust that enters your case. The color palette for the motherboard is well-chosen. While it doesn’t break any ground here, it has a classic industrial color scheme that would be right at home in almost any build.
Despite its price point, the GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 does feature a reset and Q-Flash Plus CMOS button. There is even a clear CMOS jumper. It doesn’t have a specific power button or LED display for POST codes. The ports and plugs are all well-marked and it’s easy to locate pin 1 on any of them. SATA ports are all of the right angle variety, while USB headers are vertical as is the norm. More expensive motherboards have started placing all the plugs in a right-angle position for better or for worse. The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 remains traditional on that front.
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 is built on a 6-layer 2x copper PCB. Normally, you’d see this listed as 2oz rather than 2x. Upon checking the website, it does not appear to be in error as it states there are two separate copper layers within the PCB. These are 0.07mm thick each. This is evidently done for improved thermal conductivity and lower impedance.
On the PCB there are 6 internal temperature sensors, There are 6x total fan headers. One is dedicated to the CPU, another to the water pump, and a specific water pump header. The rest are system fan headers. According to GIGABYTE, each of these headers supports DC and PWM control modes as well as AIO_Pump, Pump, and high-performance fan modes and can deliver up to 2A/12v @ 24w. There are also 2x addressable RGB headers, 2x standard RGB headers, 2x Thunderbolt add-in card connectors, and a TPM header for anyone interested in those features.
Power Delivery
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X features what GIGABYTE calls its Direct Digital VRM design I wasn’t able to get a ton of specifics on the VRM design beyond the fact that it has 16 60a power stages. I believe this is actually a “fat phase” or “parallel” VRM design which is essentially an 8-phase design that has two power stages per phase to reach a total of 16. It also features a single phase with a 60a power stage for VCCGT and 2x 70A DrMOS power stages for VCCAUX. This should provide a solid transient response and for the given price point of the motherboard, I think it’s fine.
The VRMs are more than adequate for most applications. Additionally, the VRMs have massive heat sinks on there and I think you’ll be limited more by the fact that many of Intel’s CPUs have no overclocking headroom more so than the motherboard itself. The motherboard features an 8+4-pin CPU power connector. Both of these and the 24-pin ATX power connector utilize GIGABYTE’s “Solid Pin” feature. These provide larger contact areas supporting higher voltages and heat.
Memory
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 (as the name implies) has 4x 288-pin DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 128GB of memory using 32GB DIMMs. It supports speeds in excess of DDR4 5333MHz through overclocking. The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 naturally supports dual-channel memory mode operation. The memory slots use double-sided locking tabs for module retention. The slots are also color-coded to properly denote dual-channel memory mode operation. Above the memory slots, you will also find the layout of the DIMM slots and channels shown for reference.
Expansion
The expansion slot layout of the GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 is a master class in how to design a motherboard. The primary PCI-Express slot has plenty of room to hang down regardless of the type of GPU you are using. The bottom two PCI-Express x4 slots (x16 form factor) are nice and out of the way but the top one would allow for a second GPU if desired. The primary PCI-Express x16 slot is Gen 5.0 compliant and is clearly different than the rest which is Gen 3.0 compliant and attached to the PCH. The primary slot also features steel reinforcement to prevent plate bending and sheering.
However, where the GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 really excels is in regard to its M.2 slot placement and the quantity of those slots. The PCIe 5.0 compliant slot and the one that uses CPU PCIe lanes is the one located above the primary PCI-Express x16 slot. This one has its own heat sink and slot cover which also features a captive retention screw. I would like to have seen the toolless retention mechanism I’ve seen on competing boards used to actually hold down M.2 devices, but this is a minor complaint.
The remaining M.2 slots are all connected to the south bridge or PCH. Only M2M_SB supports the use of SATA type M.2 devices whereas all of them support PCIe/NVMe type devices. These slots are also long enough to allow the use of 110mm devices (type 22110) on all of them. These slots are also clearly marked on the PCB as to what number they are and what they are connected to. A larger heat sink and the cover is used for all the remaining slots whereas the Gen 5.0 slot has its own cover. This is truly one of the best layouts I’ve seen for a motherboard. You don’t have a bunch of different kinds of covers and different orientations for devices or any guesswork without the manual to determine what slots are connected to.
Network Hardware
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X has an integrated Realtek 2.5GbE network controller which supports 100/1000/2500Mbit speeds. Unfortunately, GIGABYTE’s website and even the driver in Windows does not tell me precisely what controller it is. The driver simply labels it as a “Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Adapter.”
Audio Hardware
When it comes to audio hardware, the GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 utilizes the tried and true Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio CODEC. This is a 7.1 channel HD audio CODEC supporting DSD audio, HD audio, and supports a 120dB SNR via the back panel. The front panel allows for a 110/114dB SNR. The audio implementation supports impedance detection for connected devices.
This implementation is very common and was the high-end option up until recently. The ALC1220 has been around for a long time but newer and more expensive motherboards now utilize the ALC4080. The latter has basically the same feature set as the ALC1220 found on the GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4. The main difference is how they connect to the rest of the system. The ALC1220-VB is PCIe while the ALC4080 is a USB audio CODEC. Oddly, the usual 5x mini-stereo setup has been omitted here with only a line-in, line-out, and a S/PDIF connector.
Rear I/O Panel
The GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 features a built-in I/O shield and a generally clean back panel. On the back panel, you will find a 1x USB Type-C® port on the back panel, with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) on the back panel, and 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports. There is a standard mini-stereo line-in and line-out port and a single S/PDIF optical port for audio. For video, we have a single DisplayPort Port and 1x HDMI port. Lastly, there is a 2.5GbE RJ-45 port for network connectivity.