NZXT Announce N7 and N5 Z690 Motherboards for Intel 12th Gen Core Processors
NZXT has announced the N7Z690 and N5Z690, a new motherboard pair designed for Intel’s 12th generation core processors. The N7 Z690 has established itself as a premium model for pairing, with armor covering most of the PCB, Wi-Fi 6E, and supporting memory speeds up to DDR4-4800. The N5 Z690 chooses a more affordable and less aggressive approach, but it still comes with Wi-Fi 6E and supports all of Intel’s Alder Lake Core processors.
Starting with the most premium of NZXT’s new motherboard pairings for Intel’s 12th generation processor family, the NZXT N7 Z690 follows the same design as previous versions of the N series models, including the previously reviewed N7 Z490. Like NZXT’s previous N-series models, they are designed around a variety of chassis, including the H-series model, for a seamless look and design. Perhaps the most striking feature of the N7 Z690 is that it has a cleaner, smoother look due to the armor plating that covers almost all of the PCB.
Under sophisticated armor, there is space for up to three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives and four SATA ports for traditional HDD and optical media drives. NZXT has one full-length PCIe 5.0×16 slot, the second full-length slot operates on PCIe 4.0 x4, and the lower full-length slot operates on PCIe 3.0 x4. There are two PCIe 3.0×1 slots between the full-length slots, the N7 Z690 supports DDR4 memory at speeds up to DDR4-4800, and the four slots support up to 128GB in total.
The NZXT N7 Z690 is available in both black and white and includes a midrange function controller. Set in Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 GbE controller, Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, and Realtek ALC1220HD audio codec.
The NZXT N5 Z690 is more affordable in this pair and does not include all of the N7’s armor. Instead, choose a more barebones look that users are accustomed to with entry-level motherboards. It has the same network configuration as the N7 (RTL8125BG2.5GbE and AX210Wi-Fi6E), but uses the cheaper and lower grade Realtek ALC897 HD audio codec and supports DDR4 memory up to DDR4-5000 speeds.
It has the same PCIe configuration as the N7, with one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16, one full-length PCIe 4.0 x4, one full-length PCIe 3.0 x4, and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. The N5 Z690 contains four PCIe 4.0×2 M.2 slots, one more than the more expensive N7 Z690 model.
The NZXT N7 Z690 is available in black or white and can be purchased directly now. $ 300 NZXT.. In the absence of all armor and low grade HD audio codecs, the NZXT N5 Z690 is also available in black or white, NZXT directly $ 240..
sauce: NZXT
