Review : ROG Maximus Z690 APEX review

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The last word:

The expression chosen by Asus ” For those who dare ” makes sense! If you’ve already read our 14-hour article on the i5-12600K and i9-12900K, you know how good we think they are. And in order to make the most of these Alder Lake processors as well as DDR5, what better than this ROG Maximus Z690 APEX! Because yes, once again, Asus is on board with this new generation of CPUs.

We find all the codes of the previous generations of APEX models with the numerous tools present on the PCB as well as the regular BIOS update for the overclockers . The presence of profiles is a real plus proposed by Asus. The Nitrogen will be ordered in a few weeks, the time to complete our tests, in order to offer it a passage under LN2.

The only downside is the price of this APEX version, which is currently around 750 euros while the Z590 version was available at 550 euros at launch. Now this increase in motherboards seems to affect almost all brands. Let’s hope that these prices will drop in the coming weeks to match those of the previous generation. Don’t forget that you will also have to invest in DDR5.

As for the ROG Maximus Z690 motherboards, we’ll see you in a few days to discover the EXTREME version as well as the GLACIAL that I’ll probably install live on our Twitch channel. We don’t forget the ROG True Voltician USB oscilloscope which we will also come back to in detail.

ROG Maximus Z690 APEX

We liked:

  • An ultra powerful power stage
  • The possibility to use high capacity and high frequency memory
  • LN2 mode for testing under liquid nitrogen
  • Two BIOSes available
  • Numerous DDR5 profiles in the bios to clock the memory
  • The “tools” inserted on the PCB to facilitate extreme overclocking
  • The pleasant surprise of an automatic intelligent overclocking (AI Overclocking)
  • The reactivation of Asus to offer new bios to overclockers
  • The presence of two PS/2 slots for clocking under XP
  • The updated TurboV Core software
  • The presence of LGA-115x mounting holes!
  • Q-Release button to free your graphics card
  • ROG True Voltician USB oscilloscope

We would have liked:

  • Lower overall price for Z690 motherboards
  • H24 CPU profiles in the BIOS, not just LN2 profiles

As you can see, if you are itching to overclock Alder Lake processors, your choice should be this Maximus Z690 APEX. The big advantage of Asus is to be the only brand to offer an XOC card, for cold testing, as soon as the Alder Lake CPUs are launched. The competition seems to have planned models, but none are available and will not be available directly. Congratulations to the ROG team for the work they have done upstream, which allows this APEX to be available now! [gp_product_box ean=”4711081468509″]