ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Glacial, $2000 Worth Of Motherboard
A Maximus Extreme With An Integrated EKWB Monoblock
If you want a serious motherboard for your next Intel build the ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Glacial is the pinnacle of Z690 boards at the moment. 24+1 phase power design on a 12 layer PCB will ensure that you can overclock enough to actually make use of the extra cooling from the EKWB waterblock on the chipset.
The connectivity is very impressive with no less than five NVMe slots when you use the DIMM.2 module, two PCIe x16 Gen5 slots that can both be used, albeit at 8x, as well as a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports and seven USB3.2 Gen1 one of which is Type-C. The networking features 10Gbe via a Marvell AQC113 controller, and Intel provides an additional 2.5Gbe and WiFi 6. As for the onboard audio, Realtek’s AC1220 is paired with the ESS Sabre9218 codec.
Tweaktown’s testing showed this to be among the best Z690 boards on the market right now but at this price it is hard to justify unless you have a very specific need. Still, it is an impressive board to check out whether you would consider buying it or not.
At $2000, the ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Glacial is the most expensive Intel Z690 motherboard, but is it worth it? Let's see.
For the price of that board, they should have given it a 1 40G QSFP+ port (with an included transceiver) and 1 10GbE port instead for networking.
I might consider buying one with an 85% price reduction.