At first we would like to thank BIOSTAR for offering their Z690A VALKYRIE LGA1700 Motherboard for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About BIOSTAR:

 

“In 1980, the IT industry was growing at a phenomenal rate. With wide experience in buying and selling electronic parts as well as researching on future demands for mainboards and add-on cards , the founder of BIOSTAR GROUP, established BIOSTAR MICROTECH INTERNATIONAL CORP in 1986.

 

In the early years, BIOSTAR concentrated on the manufacture of mainboards built for XT form factor. To maintain steady business growth, BIOSTAR managed to keep a large portion of its capital and manpower invested on the design and development of new products, which at the same time has enabled it to stay competitive in the rapid evolution of the computer industry.

 

BIOSTAR has enriched its competence in the design and manufacture of products such as add-on cards, multi-media and system products to develop the market and meet the demands of customers for more integrated solutions. In order to expand its capacity to meet customer demand globally, BIOSTAR was the first to establish a manufacturing facility in China in 1990. In 1998, its sales revenues exceeded US$130 million and it ranked 227th among the top 1000 enterprises in Taiwan. Furthermore, BIOSTAR obtained an ISO 9001 certification in 1999 and became a publicly listed company in the same year. BIOSTAR’s future has limitless possibilities.”

 

2oz Copper?8-Layer?Low-loss PCB

Providing stable power and higher energy efficiency, it's able to offer the best overclocking experience.

 

Supports DDR4 -5000+(OC)

Deliver higher performance and DIMM capacities

Improve data integrity and lower power consumption

Feature Daisy Chain design and offer better memory overclocking

 

PCIe 5.0

A New-Generation transmission technology

Data transfer rate from 16 GT/s PCIe 4.0 to 32 GT/s PCIe 5.0. (2 times faster)

PCIe 5.0 can be backward compatible with PCIe 4.0 and previous versions

 

Armor Gear

Protects I/O interfaces

Improves thermal dissipation

Synchronize it to build your own color gaming lights

 

Digital PWM

Increases system efficiency

Has faster transient performance

Delivers stable power and reliability

 

105A Dr. MOS

Makes you overclock smoothly

Improves thermal performance

Delivers superior efficiency and performance

 

2.5Guard

Strengthens electrical stability

Makes internet more stability at home

Prevents damage from lightning strikes and electrical surges

 

LED ROCK ZONE

Offers more colorful lighting options

Supports to a wide array of peripherals

Comes with the RGB 12V LED header and ARGB 5V LED header

 

VIVID LED DJ

Change system colors

Enjoy the process of computer modding

Customize the on-board LEDs and LED ROCK ZONE

 

CPU OPT Header

Keep your computer stable

Connect any kind of water coolers

Enjoy awesome liquid cooling system

 

A.I FAN

It has automatic detection system

Ensures optimum performance and save more energy

Detects temperature of PC to make fan operate at defined speed

 

Smart Update

Biostar Smart Update is a utility that can help users run online update. It can download the drivers for your motherboard from Biostar official website and install them automatically.

 

USB 3.2 GEN2X2 20Gb/s

Reversible Type C connector

Improves data transmission speed

Has a max data transfer rate of 20Gbps

 

4 Port Display

With INTEL 12th Gen processors can do 4K 60Hz / 5K 60Hz

 

Chipset: Intel Z690

CPU SUPPORT: Support for 12th Generation Intel Core™ i9/ i7/ i5/ i3 processors and Intel Pentium processors/ Intel Celeron processors in the LGA1700 package

MEMORY: Supports Dual Channel DDR4 5000+(OC)/ 4333(OC)/ 4266(OC)/ 4133(OC)/ 4000/ 3866/ 3800/ 3733/ 3600/ 3200/ 2933/ 2800/ 2666/ 2400/ 2133

4 x DDR4 DIMM Memory Slot, Max. Supports up to 128 GB Memory

Each DIMM supports non-ECC 4/ 8/ 16/ 32GB DDR4 module

Support Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

 

INTEGRATED VIDEO

By CPU model

Supports DX12

Supports HDCP

 

STORAGE

Total supports 4x M.2 socket and 8x SATA III(6Gb/s) ports

8 x SATA III (6Gb/s) Connector: Supports AHCI, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (Support Only SATA_1~SATA_4) & Intel Rapid Storage Technology

1 x M.2 (M Key) Socket (M2_PCIEG4_64G_1):

Supports M.2 Type 2280 SSD module

Supports PCIe 4.0x 4 (64Gb/s)

Supports Intel® Optane Technology

1 x M.2 (M Key) Socket (M2_PCIEG4_64G_2):

Supports M.2 Type 2280/22110 SSD module

Supports PCIe 4.0x 4 (64Gb/s)

Supports Intel Optane Technology

1 x M.2 (M Key) Socket (M2_PCIEG4_64G_3):

Supports M.2 Type 2280/22110 SSD module

Supports PCIe 4.0x 4 (64Gb/s)

Supports Intel Optane Technology

1 x M.2 (M Key) Socket (M2_PCIEG3_32G_SATA):

Supports M.2 Type 2242/2260/ 2280/ 22110 SSD module

Supports PCIe 3.0x 4 (32Gb/s) & SATA III (6Gb/s) SSD

 

LAN:

Intel I225-V

10/ 100/ 1000/ 2500 Mb/s auto negotiation, Half / Full duplex capability

 

AUDIO CODEC:

ALC1220

7.1 Channels, High Definition Audio, Hi-Fi (Front + Rear)

USB 2 x USB 3.2 (Gen2x2) Type-C ports (1 on rear I/O and 1 via internal header)

9 x USB 3.2 (Gen2) ports (7 on rear I/Os and 2 via internal header)

4 x USB 2.0 ports (4 via internal header)

 

EXPANSION SLOT:

2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 Slots (x16 or x8 mode)

1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 Slot (x4 mode)

 

REAR I/O:

2 x WIFI Antenna Ports

2 x HDMI Ports (2.0/1.4)

2 x DP Ports (1.4/1.2)

7 x USB 3.2 (Gen2) Ports

1 x USB 3.2(Gen2x2) TYPE-C-Port

5 x Audio Jack

1 x PS/2-Keyboard & Mouse Port

1 x 2.5 Gigabit LAN

1 x SPDIF_Out

 

INTERNAL I/O:

8 x SATA III Connector (6Gb/s)

1 x M.2 (E Key) Socket: Supports 2230 type Wi-Fi & Bluetooth module and Intel CNVi

2 x USB 2.0 Headers (each header supports 2 USB 2.0 ports)

1 x USB 3.2 (Gen2) Header (each header supports 2 USB 3.2 (Gen2) ports)

1 x USB 3.2 (Gen2x2) Type-C Port (each header supports 1 USB 3.2 (Gen2x2) port)

2 x 8-Pin Power Connectors

1 x 24-Pin Power Connector

1 x CPU Fan Connector

1 x CPU water cooling connector (CPU_OPT)

3 x System Fan Connectors

2 x MOSFET Fan Connector

1 x Front Panel Header

1 x Front Audio Header

1 x Internal Stereo Speaker Header

1 x Clear CMOS Switch Button

1 x Power Switch Button

1 x Reset Switch Button

1 x COM Port Header

1 x TPM Header

1 x Thunderbolt Header

2 x LED Headers (5V)

1 x LED Header (12V)

1 x IO LED Header

1 x SB LED Header

* M.2 (E key) Wi-Fi card is not provided

 

H/W MONITORING:

CPU / System Temperature Monitoring

CPU / System Fan Monitoring

Smart / Manual CPU Fan Control

System Voltage Monitoring

 

DIMENSION:

ATX Form Factor Dimension: 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm ( W x L )

OS SUPPORT Supports Windows 10(64bit) / 11(64bit)

?Biostar reserves the right to add or remove support for any OS with or without notice.

 

BUNDLE SOFTWARE:

AURORA Utility

 

ACCESSORIES:

4 x SATA Cable

1 x DVD Driver

1 x User Manual

1 x Smart Connector

 

FEATURES:

VIVID LED DJ

Touch Button

Dual BIOS

Tweak Tech

Rapid Debug3

BIO-FLASHER

A.I FAN

LED ROCK ZONE

RGB Memory Sync

BIOS EZ Mode /Advanced Mode

Intel Optane technology

AURORA Utility

 

In this article we will test another Z690 motherboard for Alder Lake processors from Intel, but a more special product from the high-end segment, the BIOSTAR Z690A Valkyrie with support for DDR4 memory. The product has arrived inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure, with a large product logo on the top cover. The end of the name signifies that this is a DDR4-compatible product, while the BIOSTAR Z690 Valkyrie runs with DDR5:

 

 

 

The back side informs the user on the main product highlights, the technical specifications, but we will also spot a drawing on the I/O shield interfaces:

 

 

 

After lifting the top cover, we will note the main product carefully wrapped inside a plastic anti-static bag:

 

 

 

The lower area includes the hardware bundle along with the documentation:

 

 

 

Speaking of the bundle, we will receive the User’s Guide, the software disk, four SATA cables but also an adapter for connecting the F_PANEL interfaces easier:

 

 

 

Here is a closer look at the adapter; we have seen a similar design many times before with other manufacturers:

 

 

 

The documentation is split in multiple chapters and comes with every bit of information needed to get the system up and running:

 

 

 

Z690A Valkyrie does come with an interesting, mech-like heatsink design, which is also RGB enabled. To avoid overheating with higher specced CPUs, BIOSTAR has equipped the board with no less than 20 power phases! Unlike other manufacturers which have used an inferior VRM design for the DDR4 boards, this is not the case for this board:

 

 

 

Power to the CPU is supplied from two 8-pin 12V ATX power headers:

 

 

 

The beefier VRM area comes with a large heatsink featuring multiple layers:

 

 

 

Further down we do have another plastic shielding, which also covers the audio solution centered around the ALC1220 CODEC from Realtek:

 

 

 

The two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (which can operate in both x16 and x8 modes), along with the PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (operating in x4 mode) are surrounded by large heatsinks which are split into multiple sections and are fully removable:

 

 

 

The lower PCB area is filled with useful interfaces:

 

-F_AUDIO header

-3x SYS_FAN 4-pin headers

-a Thunderbolt header

-a COM port header

-two USB 2.0 headers (for connecting controllers, AIOs and so on)

-a F_PANEL header

 

 

 

 

 

Near the two-digit display for diagnose purposes, we do have a LN2_SW switch, a TPM_SPI header, a Speaker header but also a BIOS switch (the board also highlights on which BIOS is running with separate LEDs). To the far right of the photo, we will also note a JSPI header:

 

 

 

The board comes with no less than 8 SATA ports:

 

 

 

Near the Clear CMOS button, we do have a F_USB 3.2 Type C 20Gbps header, but also a F_USB 3.2 type A 10Gbps header:

 

 

 

A 24-pin ATX power connector is closer nearby:

 

 

 

BIOSTAR has also equipped the Z690A Valkyrie with separate Reset and Power buttons for working with the board while on an open testbench or in test mode:

 

 

 

The 12V_LED, and dual 5V_LED headers are available in the usual spot for BIOSTAR boards:

 

 

 

The DDR4 memory channels are not color coded differently, but share the same black color for an unified scheme:

 

 

 

The CPU_FAN header is joined by a CPU_OPT header, where the AIO pump can be connected:

 

 

 

The top VRM area is equipped by a smaller heatsink, with a small addition:

 

 

 

The addition consists in two small fans with variable speed, fully configurable from within UEFI or the dedicated application:

 

 

 

The heatsinks can be easily removed from their location; each packs thick heat pads in order to properly cool the underneath SSDs (if applicable):

 

 

 

Here is how the board does look with all heatsinks removed:

 

 

 

In the upper area, we do have a PCI-E 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, for installing storage; the WiFi antenna ports can be seen here as well:

 

 

 

The M.2 slot for WiFi card is also available here:

 

 

 

Further down, there are two additional PCI-E 4.0 x4 M.2 slots:

 

 

 

The last slot is a PCI-E 3.0 x4 32Gb/s with support for M.2 SATA drives as well:

 

 

 

On this board we will also notice the ITE IT8625E SuperIO chip:

 

 

 

The chipset cooler features RGB lighting, an assembly which is separately connected to the dedicated mobo header (SB_LED):

 

 

 

The connectivity options on the I/O are plenty as well!

 

-DisplayPort 1.4 coupled with a HDMI 1.4

-DisplayPort 1.2 coupled with a HDMI 2.0

-PS/2 combo port coupled with 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A

-2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A

-1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A coupled with an USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type C

-2.5Gbps LAN port coupled with another two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A ports

-audio jacks coupled with an Optical S/PDIF as well

 

 

 

Not only the I/O comes with shielding, but also more than half of the back side of the motherboard comes with a large backplate:

 

 

 

After booting up the board, we will note the status codes, but also the SMD LED signaling the currently active UEFI BIOS:

 

 

 

The VRM lighting is also easily visible, the one on the chipset being blocked by the video card, as usual:

 

 

The Valkyrie Z690A board comes with a familiar UEFI interface; we will note the live monitoring stats on the left column, the menu titles on top but also information on the right side. The Main area does allow the user to check out details on the motherboard, currently installed RAM but also adjust the interface language, date and time:

 

 

 

The Advanced menu features plenty of sub-sections:

 

 

Connectivity Configuration

CPU Configuration

SATA Configuration

Thunderbolt Configuration

Trusted Computing

ACPI Settings

Super IO Configuration

 

Hardware Monitor

PCI Subsystem Settings

USB Configuration

Network Stack Configuration

NVMe Configuration

Offboard PCIe SATA Controller

The Chipset menu is next:

System Agent Configuration

PCH-IO Configuration

 

Onboard Device

 

Boot menu includes the usual options:

 

 

 

The Security menu also comes with the useful Secure Boot option, useful for W11 installs:

 

 

Tweaker area is the menu to go to for fine-tuning system performance; here we can tweak the CPU clocks, memory clocks, voltages and more!

 

 

The Memory Configuration area comes with the usual timings, but also all sub-timings in separate sub-sections:

 

 

The Voltage menu is organized the same way:

 

 

Detailed CPU Power Management options can be configured as well:

 

 

GT Power Management has a separate menu as well:

 

 

Memory Insight menu will let us know on the modules pre-programmed timings:

 

 

Finally, we do have the Save & Exit menu:

 

 

There are additional UEFI sections as well, which allow configuration without the need of extra software installed in the OS. We can set individual fan curves for each available header:

 

 

RGB options are available via Vivid LED DJ:

 

 

For ease of access, BIOSTAR has also included an EZ Mode:

 

 

The test system did incorporate the following:

 

CPU: Intel i7-12700K @ Stock

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Loop 240mm AIO

Motherboard: BIOSTAR Z690 Valkyrie

RAM: Neo Forza Faye 2x16GB DDR4600

Video: XFX Radeon RX 5700XT Ultra THICC III

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: Silicon Power US70 1TB PCIe 4.0

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

With the help of the AIDA64 system reporting/benchmarking utility, we have extracted some more information regarding the system:

 

Motherboard

Northbriddge

Southbridge

Network adapters

Audio CODEC

 

 

First, we would like to note that the Faye kit from Neo Forza was unable to run at 4600MHz (XMP profile) on this board and we decided to go instead with the second XMP (compatible) profile at 3600MHz first:

 

 

After testing at this particular frequency, we went ahead and checked out which was the highest frequency we could obtain with this kit on the Z690A Valkyrie and the answer is 4400MHz, while running at 1.5V!

 

 

 

 

BIOSTAR has made available the well-known software suite for this board; we do have the BIOSCreen Utility, which allows changing the initial UEFI boot image:

 

 

 

BIOScreen is another utility which can help with altering the intro screen:

 

 

The AURORA Utility (a skinned version of RACING GT EVO Utility) has reached its third iteration, with improved graphics, while the main functionality remains the same. The main menus to work with are available on the left side of the GUI; beginning with the System Information area, we will find some more details about the components"

 

 

Smart Ear section will allow the user to adjust the audio volume levels but also the gain level:

 

 

The GT Touch menu places at the users’ disposal three different preset profiles, regarding system performance:

 

 

The included RGB header LED lighting effects can be configured from Vivid LED DJ menu, that is also available from the UEFI interface; this particular product does not have any RGB LEDs onboard:

 

 

A.I Fan section allows fan curve modification, or we can simply choose from one of the available presets:

 

 

H/W Monitor does simply display monitoring data:

 

 

The OC/OV area does not allow Overclocking, but we can do Overvoltage adjustments:

 

 

The last tab informs the user on the software version of the application:

 

 

AIDA64

 

Memory

 

CPU Queen

 

CPU PhotoW

CPU Zlib

CPU AES

CPU SHA3

FPU Julia

FPU Mandel

FPU SinJulia

FP32 Ray-Trace

FP64 Ray-Trace

CineBench R15

 

CineBench R20

 

CineBench R23

 

Blender Ryzen Render

 

PCMark 7

 

 

PCMark 10

 

 

Geekbench 5

 

 

 

SuperPI XS

 

X265 Benchmark 1080P 64-bit Normal

 

3DMark Vantage

 

3DMark 11

 

3DMark 2013

 

Unigine Valley Ultra AA Off DX11 FHD

 

Ashes of the Singularity DX12 CPU Focused

 

 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Highest

 

 

The ALC1220 CODEC implementation on the Z690A Valkyrie is a bit weird, meaning that we have encountered issues when doing the RMAA test, with a 3.5mm cable routed from Line Out to Line In. The test results were not very good, RMAA detecting distortions, but we have tested the Line Out and Line In individually with other devices and this way the distortion was gone. This board does not seem to "like" when Line Out is linked directly to the Line In...it may be a thing of software or hardware implementation. The results were better when using the Microphone 3.5mm jack as a Line in:

 

BIOSTAR Racing Z370GT6 16/44

BIOSTAR Racing X470GT8 16/44

MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC 16/44

ASRock X570 Taichi AM4 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING X570GTA AM4 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING B550GTQ AM4 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING B550GTA AM4 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING B550M-Silver AM4 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING Z690GTA LGA1700 16/44

BIOSTAR Z690A VALKYRIE LGA1700 16/44

 

 

 

 

BIOSTAR Racing Z370GT6 24/96

BIOSTAR Racing X470GT8 24/96

MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC 24/96

ASRock X570 Taichi AM4 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING X570GTA AM4 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING B550GTQ AM4 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING B550GTA AM4 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING B550M-Silver AM4 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING Z690GTA LGA1700 24/96

BIOSTAR Z690 VALKYRIE LGA1700 24/96

 

The Z690A Valkyrie from BIOSTAR has impressed us in terms of performance, even when running with the memory at a lower speed of 3600MHz. The UEFI BIOS is well optimized and we can obtain good results with top CPUs from Intel’s Alder Lake generation, while the VRM hardware implementation with 20 phases ensures and a beefy cooling system will keep the temperatures at bay, even while overclocking. The connectivity options are top-notch and besides a lot of USBs on the I/O, we can install more thanks to the internal headers, up to 4 M.2 SSDs and also slower drives such as HDDs or 2.5’’ via the eight SATA ports.

 

The mecha-like heatsink theme makes you think that this motherboard is part of a large robot, ready for battle, with fully-configurable RGB segments. While the RGB on-board does include only two segments (VRM and chipset), the board comes with no less than three more RGB headers to connect other light strips/controllers/hubs you may own.

 

Unlike some other manufacturers, BIOSTAR has made the decision again not to include the WiFi card, but the wiring is there, along with the antenna ports; this gives you a lot of choice in term of what Wi-Fi card you will go with; if you need optimal Ping times, then you will need to go with the wired route, and here you are covered as well with an Intel I225-V adapter which is capable of 2.5Gbit.

 

After numerous retries with the previous platforms, this is the first board we are testing which can run the Neo Forza Faye 4600Mhz at 4400MHz, which tells us that the wiring is quite improved and the UEFI BIOS is also much more optimized versus the RACING Z690GTA.

 

In terms of pricing, the Z690A Valkyrie falls in-line with the rest of mainstream-to-high-end boards out there, being available for about 438 Euros.

BIOSTAR Z690A VALKYRIE LGA1700 Motherboard is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank BIOSTAR for making this review possible!