For a few generations, the mid-range ROG Strix ZXXX-A Gaming boards have been hitting the market with a black-and-silver theme that is vastly different from Asus’s black-and-red ROG-themed boards. The Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 continues that tradition and offers high-quality hardware on top of that. At a current price of around $320, it is the cheapest entry point to Asus’ premium ROG line. The motherboard comes with four M.2 sockets, high-quality audio bits, fast networking and Wi-Fi, capable power and is ready for any Alder Lake processor.
With the latest BIOS (1601), our Z690-A Gaming WIFI D4 performed very well in our test suite. Procyon Office’s test results are some of the fastest we’ve seen, and the board was above average for most others. The gaming performance was also spot on compared to the other Z690 and B660 based motherboards. The Strix also overclocked our Intel Core i9-12900K without any problems. Overall, this is a well-performing motherboard in a wide range of benchmarks, and it doesn’t consume much power in the process.
We’ll take a deep dive into the features to see what makes this board tick and see if this mid-range option finds a home on our best motherboards list or is even a worthwhile Z690 DDR4 option. But before that, here are the detailed specs of the board, straight from the Asus website.
Specifications: Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WIFI D4
| Wall outlet | LGA1700 |
| chipset | Z690 |
| form factor | ATX |
| Voltage regulator | 17 Phase (16+1 80A DrMOS MOSFETs for Vcore) |
| Video ports | HDMI (v2.1) |
| DisplayPort (v1.4 – [email protected]) | |
| USB ports | (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, Type-C (20 Gbps) |
| (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-C (10 Gbps) | |
| (2) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) | |
| (4) USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) | |
| (2) USB 2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| Network connections | (1) 2.5 GbE |
| Audio connections | (5) Analog |
| Old ports/connections | |
| Other ports/jack | |
| PCIe x16 | (1) v5.0 (x16) |
| (1) v3.0 (x4) | |
| PCIe x8 | |
| PCIe x4 | |
| PCIe x1 | (2) v.3.0 (x1) |
| CrossFire/SLIE | AMD 2-Way CrossFireX |
| DIMM slots | (4) DDR4 5333+(OC), 128GB capacity |
| M.2 connections | (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) / PCIe (up to 110mm) |
| (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) / PCIe (up to 80mm) | |
| (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) / PCIe + SATA (up to 110mm) | |
| (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) / PCIe + SATA (up to 80mm) | |
| Supports RAID 0/1/5 | |
| U.2 ports | |
| SATA ports | (6) SATA3 6Gbps (supports RAID 0/1/5/10) |
| USB headers | (1) USB v3.2 Gen 2×2, Type-C (20 Gbps) |
| (1) USB v3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) | |
| (2) USB v2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| Fan/Pump Heads | (8) 4-pin (CPU, CPU OPT, AIO pump, chassis) |
| RGB headers | (3) AURA aRGB (3 pin) |
| (1) RGB (4 pin) | |
| Diagnostic panel | (4) POST LEDs |
| Internal button/switch | |
| SATA controllers | |
| Ethernet controller(s) | Intel I225-V (2.5GbE) |
| Wi-Fi / Bluetooth | Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 (2×2 axe, MU-MIMO, 2.4/5/6 GHz, 160 MHz, BT 5.2) |
| USB controllers | ASMedia ASM1074 |
| HD audio codec | Realtek ALC4080 (with Savitech SV3H712 amplifier) |
| TTL/DTS | / DTS Sound Unbound |
| Guarantee | 3 years |
In the box of the Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WIFI D4
Inside the motherboard box are several accessories designed to get your system up and running without a trip to the store. While nothing stands out in this stack of accessories, you’ll find SATA cables, Q-latch for M.2, the driver DVD, and more. Below is a complete list of the included accessories.
- (4) SATA cables
- Wi-Fi antenna
- Package of cable ties
- M.2 rubber package
- M.2 Q-Latch
- ROG Keychain/Stickers
- Support DVD:
- User manual
Design of the Z690-A Gaming
The ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WIFI D4 and its black and silver design are what I like to call a unique Asus. All other ROG and ROG Strix boards have the signature black-on-black/red theme, while this one is more like their Prime series, but steroids. Above the VRMs and the rear IO area is a large heatsink with a cool-looking RGB feature on top for the ROG Strix branding to shine through.
The rest of the 6-layer PCB, including the PCIe and DRAM slots, is black, although the primary PCIe slot does use amplification and is silver. The heatsink covering the chipset also has a unique design with a Velcro strap that runs through the heatsink instead of your standard heatsink design. For those who want to buy a premium ROG-class motherboard, but prefer a contrasting black-on-silver aesthetic, this is a good alternative to the other ROG/Strix cards (which are also more expensive).
Starting at the top on the left, we come across the two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) that power the processor. Its main feature is the large VRM heatsink with the unique RGB feature on top and a brushed aluminum finish around it. The heatsink has a lot of mass and surface area and is more than enough to keep the power bits below within specifications.
Above the top VRM heatsink are the first two (of eight) 4-pin fan headers. This is where we find the CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT headers, with the rest scattered strategically around the board. All fan headers are Q-Fan controlled, minus the AIO_PUMP (full speed) and output up to 1A/12W. There are plenty of headers to go around, but I’d like to see one with increased output to piggyback some fans or power a more robust pump for custom water cooling.
As we go to the right, past the socket, we come across four unamplified DRAM slots that interlock at both ends. The board supports up to 128GB of RAM, with speeds up to DDR4-5333 (OC) – one of the higher values ​​we’ve seen. We ran into no issues with our DDR4-4000 kit, but achieving those speeds requires the right kit and a good IMC, so as always your mileage may vary.
In white, just above the DRAM slots, are the first two (of four) RGB headers. Here we find a 3-pin Aura ARGB header and a 4-pin RGB header. Looking down on the right side, we come across the Q-LED function that tells you if there is a problem during POST. Below that is the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board, a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) connector on the front panel, and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header.
Another notable feature is the handy Q-Release button to unlock the PCIe slot. Often there is very little room to push down the standard PCIe locking mechanism, and that is the case here. Grandet, most people don’t swap out graphics cards or remove them with any frequency, but the buttom mechanism here is still useful when you do.
The power supply of the Z690-A Gaming WIFI D4 consists of 17 phases, 16 of which are for Vcore. Power comes from the EPS connectors to Asus’ DIGI+ VRM (ASP2100 10-channel controller) and then to the 16 80A Vishsay SIC659 DrMOS MOSFETs. The 1280 amps available for the processor is enough to overclock the flagship Intel Core i9-12900KS, and we had no trouble overclocking our equally power-hungry i9-12900K. As has been the case with Alder Lake, you are usually limited by the cooling solution, not the power delivery.
On the lower half of the board, on the left, is the audio section, isolated from the rest of the board by the audio line shielding that most boards have today. Hidden beneath Faraday’s chrome cage is the SupremeFX chip which is based on the premium Realtek ALC4080 codec. The front panel output is handled by a Savitech SV3H712 amplifier, designed to drive a wide variety of headphones. This is one of the better audio implementations at this price.
In the center of the board are three PCIe slots and four M.2 sockets, each with heat sinks. Starting with the PCIe slots, there are two full-length slots on the board, with the reinforced top slot designated as the primary graphics card slot. The top slot connects to the CPU and runs at PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds, while the full-length bottom slot connects via the chipset and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4. The x1 slot in the middle also connects through the chipset and runs on PCIe 3.0 x1. This configuration supports AMD Crossfire technology.
Scattered across and between the PCIe slots are four M.2 sockets, all of which have heatsinks to keep hot-running devices cool. The top socket connects through the CPU and runs up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps), with up to 110mm modules. The rest of the sockets are connected via the chipset and run at a maximum of PCIe 4.0 x4. In addition, they can all contain up to 80 mm modules. M.2_4 supports PCIe and SATA storage. We like that flexibility, as many boards only support PCIe M.2 modules. If you want to RAID the NVMe, the Z690-A Gaming WIFI D4 supports RAID0/1/5 modes. Along the right edge are six SATA connectors that can run in RAID0/1/5/10 modes on the four native ports. The other two, SATA6G_E1-2, are supported by an ASMedia controller.
At the bottom of the board are several visible headers. You’ll find the usual here, including extra USB ports and RGB headers. Below is a full list of headlines, from left to right.
- Front panel audio
- 4-pin chassis fan header
- (2) 3-pin AURA ARGB headers
- Thunderbolt Header
- (2) USB 2.0 headers
- 2-pin temperature sensor
- TPM header (above CHA fans)
- (2) 4-pin chassis fans
- Front panel
The rear IO area comes with a pre-installed IO board with a white background. Ports and branding are in black or gray for easy reading. In total there are 10 USB ports: one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) Type-C and Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C ports, four blue USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports, two (red) USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports and two USB 2.0 ports (the bottom is used for BIOS Flashback functionality. On the left are the video outputs, Displayport and HDMI. On the right and below the USB 2.0 ports are the BIOS Flashback and Clear CMOS buttons. Additional ports include the 2.5 GbE, the Wi-Fi 6 antenna connectors, and the 5-plug analog audio stack.
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