NZXT N7 and N5 Z690 Review

Up Close Part Two

Looking in more detail you can see that the N5 has a tiny bit less in the way of fan headers. The N7 also has a slightly better arrangement for the ease of keeping your system tidy. It’s not that the N5 is bad, but it perhaps shows its affordable nature a little more than the N7.

  
  

Both motherboards only offer 4 SATA ports, which is slightly strange given that they are based upon the Z690 chipset. It’s not like the Intel 12th Gen is short of lanes to control it all.

  
  

The bottom edge also shows off the extra fan headers you get with the N7. Both have the single PCI Express 5.0 slot at the top with the other two full length slots being PCI Express 4.0. Has anyone got anything in their bottom two slots? We haven’t. Perhaps it’s less of a real-world issue than it might appear on paper.

  
  

Lastly around the back you get a suite of USB ports for all your connection needs, as well as an Intel 2.5G LAN and their AX210 Wi-Fi 6E. It’s not a massive amount of USB ports, but at this end of the market its very much in keeping with its competitors.