At first, we would like to thank EVGA for offering their Z690 CLASSIFIED LGA1700 Motherboard for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About EVGA:

 

“EVGA is one of the top NVIDIA authorized partners in channel sales throughout North America. Based on the philosophy of intelligent innovation, market knowledge, and the real time operation, EVGA continues to identify the need in the market place and providing the solution to that need. By offering product differentiation, a 90-day Step-Up program, and other customer focused programs, EVGA is a clear leader in all categories: etail, retail, distribution, and system builders. With headquarters in Brea, CA, EVGA's global coverage includes EVGA GmbH in Munich, EVGA LATAM in Miami, and EVGA Hong Kong.”

 

 

Size:

EATX form-factor of 11.99 inches x 10.89 inches (304.5mm x 276.6mm)

 

Microprocessor support:

Intel® Socket 1700 Processor

 

Operating Systems:

Supports Windows 11, Windows 10 64bit

 

System Memory support:

Supports up to 128GB Dual-Channel DDR5 up to 6400MHz+ (OC)

 

USB 2.0 Ports:

4x from Intel® Z690 PCH – 4x internal via 2 FP headers

1x from Update Port for flashing the BIOS without CPU

Supports hot plug/wake-up from S3 mode

 

USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports:

2x from Intel® Z690 PCH – 2x internal via 1 FP header

Supports transfer speeds up to 5Gb/s with full backwards compatibility

Backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 support.

 

USB 3.2 Gen2 Ports:

4x from Intel® Z690 PCH – 4x external (Type-A)

3x from ASMedia ASM3142 – 2x external (Type-A), 1x internal header

Supports transfer speeds up to 10Gb/s with full backwards compatibility

 

USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Ports:

2x from Intel® Z690 PCH – 2x external (Type-C)

Supports transfer speeds up to 20Gb/s with full backwards compatibility

 

SATA Ports:

8x SATA 6Gb/s data transfer rate / Intel® Z690 PCH Controller

- Support for RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, AND RAID10

- Supports hot plug

 

Display Outputs:

Display Port 1.4 / HDMI 2.0

 

Onboard LAN:

2x Intel® i225V 2.5 GbE (10/100/1000/2500) Ethernet PHY

Intel® Dual-Band Wi-Fi / BT

 

Onboard Audio:

Realtek ALC1220 High-Definition Audio + EVGA NU Audio

- Supports 7.1 Channel audio with Optical S/PDIF Out

- EVGA NU Audio via the FP Audio header

 

Power Functions:

Supports ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)

Supports S0 (normal), S3 (suspend to RAM), S4 (Suspend to disk - depends on OS), and S5 (soft - off)

 

PCI-Express Expansion Slots:

2x PCIe Gen5 x16 slots - 1x16/8, 1x8

1x PCIe Gen3 x4 slot (via PCH)

 

PCIe 5.0 Support:

Low power consumption and power management features

 

SLI and Crossfire Support:

NVIDIA® SLI® Ready, 2-Way Crossfire

 

Additional Expansion Slots:

1x M.2 Key-M 110mm Gen4 slot from CPU

2x M.2 Key-M 110mm Gen4 slot from PCH

1x M.2 Key-E slot

 

Pump Header:

2x Pump Header (3A)

 

Fan Headers:

2x 4-pin PWM controlled headers / 4x 4-pin PWM/DC headers

 

In this review, we will look upon another LGA1700 motherboard for Intel Alder Lake series, but now sporting support for DDR5 memory. The more interesting fact is that the board comes from EVGA, a very well-known video card manufacturer, which also produces premium motherboards for Intel platforms for quite some time now! The Z690 CLASSIFIED takes part from their mainstream series, the high-end being the more recently-released DARK K|NGP|N edition. Of course, the board incorporates support for the PCIe Gen5 standard boards, PCIe Gen4 M.2 SSDs, a solid 19-phase VRM and a 10-layer PCB. We would also like to note the support for up to 128GB of DDR5 memory, no less than two 2.5Gbps LAN interfaces, a preinstalled Wi-Fi 6E adapter which also features support for BT 5.2, 7.1 HD audio but also tons of USB ports.

 

The product is shipped inside a large cardboard enclosure, featuring the product name in the middle on a black background:

 

 

 

On the back, we will note some of the board features, along with a photo of the motherboard itself:

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with a large black cardboard enclosure:

 

 

 

The top cover opens in two halves, exposing an envelope with a EVGA logo in the middle:

 

 

 

The envelope includes quick instructions on how to install the product into the system, to have a fully functional PC. The complete manual is available online:

 

 

 

 

The hardware bundle is supplied inside a separate cardboard box, noted Accessory Kit:

 

 

 

Each of the components are wrapped inside anti-static bags:

 

 

 

 

We will note the WiFi/BT antennas, which will connect to the gold-plated ports on the I/O:

 

 

 

 

 

Multiple sets of M.2 Key-M SSD thermal pads are available in separate plastic bags:

 

 

 

The special item you will find with this board is a Probelt Connector, which can be attached to the dedicated header for real-time voltage measurements:

 

 

 

The USB Flash Drive contains the necessary drivers and the user manual:

 

 

 

A nice sticker is also included:

 

 

 

The EVGA Z690 CLASSIFIED comes with an aggressive, military look, and exceeds the ATX form factor, hence the E-ATX naming in the specifications. The PCB space is optimally used, while the solid heatsinks make the board feel quite heavy:

 

 

 

In the top left corner, we do have two 8-pin EPS power headers:

 

 

 

The VRM on this board comes with 19 phases (90A SPS MOSFETs for the CPU power), hence the need of a solid cooling solution:

 

 

 

Underside the aluminum heatsink there are two small fans, which take power from a dedicated port on the board; to the right we will note one 4-pin PWM/DC fan header:

 

 

 

The Realtek ALC1220 audio solution also includes four yellow Bennic capacitors for filtering:

 

 

 

The middle area comes with one PCIe x16 slot sporting the Gen5 standard, one PCIe x8 but also one PCIe x4 slot Gen3 for connecting devices which are using less bandwidth:

 

 

 

On the bottom area of the PCB there are plenty of other interfaces, so let’s take a closer look!

 

 

 

In the first half, we do have an extra CPIe 6-pin power connector, the Front Panel audio header, two RGB LED controller headers but also two ARGB controller headers:

 

 

 

In the second half, we have a PWM/DC 4-pin fan header, two USB 2.0 headers, but also the frontal panel header:

 

 

 

In the corner, EVGA has placed another PWM/DC fan header, a pump header, but also the BIOS selector switch:

 

 

 

No less than 8 SATA ports are available with RAID capabilities:

 

 

 

Nearby we will spot an USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C header:

 

 

 

The USB 3.2 Gen1 header is accompanied by a secondary pump header but also the Probelt header:

 

 

 

The usual 24-pin ATX power connector is clearly identified, with a positioning to the right, in order to help with cable management:

 

 

 

Near the USB to SPI for BIOS Flash port, we do also have status LEDs for different voltages of the PCH but also CPU voltages:

 

 

 

In the top right corner of the PCB, we will note the dual multi-function POST indicator but also the Reset and Power buttons. The Reset button also doubles up as a HDD/SSD activity LED after the system has booted up:

 

 

 

Between the memory slots and the top VRM heatsink, we will note another System Fan header:

 

 

 

The memory slots are all black and not color coded as we have seen with other boards:

 

 

 

The top VRM heatsink looks nice as well, but does not come with active cooling:

 

 

 

The M.2 heatsink for the slots can be easily removed and put back into place. With it lifted, we will note four M.2 socket 3 Key-M 110mm Gen 4 slots:

 

 

 

We could easily install our test drive into the first slot:

 

 

 

The heatsink does incorporate pre-installed head pads, which are sealed before first use:

 

 

 

On the back side of the PCB, we will note a massive heatsink which helps with heat dissipation from the rest of the components:

 

 

 

On the I/O, we will find the BIOS/CMOS reset button, the BIOS update button, a DisplayPort 1.4, a HDMI 2.0 port, no less than six USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C ports, two 2.5G LAN ports powered by the Intel i225V NIC, the WiFi antenna ports but also the audio jacks (including an Optical Out):

 

 

 

There is plenty of space for installing AIO mounts, as we have seen with our be quiet! Pure Loop 240mm cooler:

 

 

 

Besides the AIO, we have also used our Crucial 32GB DDR5-4800 memory kit:

 

 

 

The included lighting is easily visible and quite subtle:

 

 

 

 

 

The LED indicator turns into a temperature monitor display after the initial BIOS checks:

 

 

 

The voltage status LEDs will always display depending on the operating mode:

 

 

 

Right after boot, we can access the EVGA UEFI EZ interface, which looks like an item from a Sci-Fi movie! Here we can access the detailed configuration menu, reset the board to factory defaults, set a small overclock or access EVGA OC Robot:

 

 

The detailed setup interface does sport the same color scheme, with live information on the top such as CPU frequency, installed RAM size and in which slots the memory modules do reside, the CPU voltage, CPU temperature, the CPU ratio and BCLK, the number of cores and if HT is on or off, the CPU voltage but also information regarding the occupation of the PCIe slots.

 

In the area further down, we have the OC area, from where we can fine-tune the system performance regarding the installed CPU:

 

 

The memory settings are available in the next configuration tab:

 

 

Memory Channel Configuration

RTL Configuration

ODT Configuration

 

The Advanced area comes with a ton of sub-sections:

CPU Configuration

CPU Information

Graphics Configuration

PCIe Configuration

PCH Configuration

Power Management

USB Configuration

SATA Configuration

Onboard Device Configuration

 

H/W Monitor Configuration permits visualizing temperatures all over the board, but we can also configure each fan header on our liking:

 

 

Trusted Computing

NVMe Configuration

 

From the Boot menu, we can access the usual options, but also some special ones such as the ability to disable speaker beeps:

 

 

The Save & Exit menu allows the user to save/discard/load factory defaults but also use some save slots:

 

 

An Extras menu can be also accessed to go to the Stress Test, OC Robot or perform a BIOS update:

 

 

Stress Test does put pressure on the CPU to check for stability but also for checking out the temperatures during maximum load:

 

 

OC Robot will perform automatic overclocking until temperature limits are met:

 

 

The BIOS update menu is also easy to use:

 

 

The test system did incorporate the following:

 

CPU: Intel i7-12700K @ Stock

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Loop 240mm AIO

Motherboard: currently tested mobo

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

IMC

Southbridge

Network adapters

Audio CODEC

 

 

After testing with the Crucial kit at the default 4800MHz frequency, we wanted to see how much farther we could go, by retaining the stock timings but raising the voltage a little bit, to 1.25. We concluded 5200MHz was fully stable, anything further up resulting in BSOD or errors in TM5:

 

 

Before running the ELEET X1 application, a controller needed an update:

 

 

 

The application is very well organized, with live monitoring stats on the left, but also information regarding the installed CPU and memory. In the Overclocking tab, we can customize the frequency on all cores, but also the Ring frequency, BCLK and so on:

 

 

 

Per-core area allows a similar overclocking setting, along with voltage adjustments:

 

 

The memory settings can be tweaked in real-time as well:

 

 

Monitoring tab does show the current voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds:

 

 

More details regarding the system are available in the next tab:

 

 

The RGB setup can be configured from the LED tab, where we have the option for the onboard elements, but also the RGB and ARGB headers:

 

 

The WiFi area will display the connected wireless network details:

 

 

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 Z690 CLASSIFIED is of very good quality, so it will be able to offer great results when connecting analog equipment:

 

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

EVGA Z690 CLASSIFIED 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

EVGA Z690 CLASSIFIED LGA1700 24/96

 

The Z690 CLASSIFIED motherboard from EVGA is a fine example on how a high-quality mainstream to enthusiast board should look and be equipped, if money is not the main concern when building a system. It comes with a solid 10-layer PCB, a 19-phase VRM in order to handle overclocks, plenty expansion slots for both VGA/sound cards/other but also for M.2 storage, no less thank two 2.5Gbps LAN interfaces, a very well built audio interface which incorporates the proven Realtek ALC1220, integrated WiFi 6E via Intel’s AX211 adapter, dedicated voltage measuring points, a four-digit display for detecting init faults, which also doubles as a CPU temperature display, many PWM headers for system fans but also pumps and more…

 

The premium hardware is also accompanied by a solid UEFI implementation, which is superior to any other versions we have seen before from other manufacturers. We do have an useful EZ interface for accessing overclocking modes, but also an advanced configuration mode, with separate menus for CPU and memory overclocking. If you already have a solid AIO installed or a more advanced cooling system and not a lot of experience in the field with overclocking, EVGA can handle this process for you via the Extras menu and the OC Robot feature. Stability can be checked further with the integrated Stress Test but also in Windows with dedicated tools. If you would like on-the-fly tuning inside Windows, EVGA has you covered via the ELEET X1, which allows system parameters modification without the need to navigate inside the BIOS. Here you can also access the RGB setup settings, which will be saved to the board after choosing the desired effects.

 

While this is noted as an E-ATX board, the PCB does not reach the fourth column of screws regarding mounts inside the case and also features cutouts and horizontal headers in order to help with cable management.

 

The board can be found online for about $630, but the availability is pretty scarce due to component crisis. Hopefully this aspect will be clarified soon and stocks will go back to normal in the next time frame.

EVGA Z690 CLASSIFIED LGA1700 Motherboard is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to EVGA for making this review possible!