ASUS ROG Z690 Strix-A D4 Review

Up Close – In Detail

Time to take our famous tour of the ROG Strix Z690-A D4, and we begin the 8+8 12V CPU power input and also some cooling header for your exhaust fan.

  

The CPU fan is a single header, if we assume the OPT fan is used elsewhere. That’s a slight strange decision, especially as this is a motherboard which ostensibly falls beneath the Republic Of Gamers banner. Even if you use the OPT header for your pump you’re limited to chaining fans, because you definitely shouldn’t run a 120mm AIO with the 12th Gen Intel CPUs.

  

Front panel USB come in both Type-A and Type-C styles for all your easy access peripheral quick changes or external storage needs.

  

If you, like many people, still have some 2.5″ drives amongst your collection then having six SATA ports will enable you to transfer them across to your new system with easy. You can also see how chunky the central section of the M.2 heatspreaders are.

 

At the bottom of the above shot, and just at the top right of this, is the first of three fan headers at the bottom right corner of the Strix-A. Additionally we have the front panel headers and two USB 2.0 ports.

  

Lastly before we reach the IO backplate, the other two AURA lighting headers – one RGB one ARGB – and another fan header to ensure you can keep your Z690 system as cool as possible. Between the USB 2.0 and AURA headers is the Thunderbolt header, should you require a method of connecting to that ecosystem.

  

The backplate has a good arrangment of connectivity options. From top to bottom we have a DisplayPort and HDMI, followed by the BIOS controls – Flashback and Clear CMOS – and a couple of USB 2.0 ports. Everything else is USB 3.2 with four Gen1 and three Gen2 – including a Type-C. Lastly the centre of the choices is a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 20Gbps Type-C port. Networking is WiFi 6 or 2.5G LAN, and at the bottom the headers for the SupremeFX audio.