Count Your Way through China

Hello to people bought this board, I'm having some problem ATM it seems to fails to see the NVMe drivers ( things that didn't the first time I did install win 10, after many trial without gpu or other parts I've sorted by using some of the drivers from gigabyte support but still in the BIOS I'm not able to see the drivers ( just in intel rapid storage section for set raids...) and even the sata ( which windows see ) is not showed in the bios ....At last any time I try to able the CSM support it set back to unable by it self.....Hope anyone out there can help with those issue I really want to know if is hardware or software relate ( tried to update bios different time with no positive result...Thanks in advance for all

Why did I choose this motherboard? It was quite simply one of the cheaper Z690 options that support PCIex5 for graphics, PCIex4 for storage and DDR5 for memory. In my case, I also have multiple M.2 NVME drives so a lower number of PCI lanes on the Alder Lake platform needs some solution if you have more than 1 or 2 M.2 drives. I have owner Gigabyte motherboards in the past and they tend to be strong value contenders.In terms of features, there is nothing that is obviously missing aside from a simplified audio output on the back panel (no 7.1 in sight). Yes, you could argue that more lighting, more cooling, a higher spec VRM or perhaps a few more screws and cables in the box would be great but these are relatively peripheral things that you pay a lot more for. For those used to slick UEFI BIOS screens and options, the Z690 GAMING X is a little less user-friendly than some I have worked with. I wouldn't say it was the worst BIOS but it isn't amazing.In terms of performance, pairing this with DDR5 and an i5-12600K has been a revelation. A stable and fast platform with a good storage performance. The stability has been rock solid so far. Not a single BSOD or error code in the first 3 weeks since the re-build. Boot times are short and the ethernet is super fast.In terms of installation, it is not quite as slick as perhaps some people would expect. If you come from a ROG STRIX or other high-end gaming motherboard, you may find the level of fiddling a little higher than you would like. For example, there are known problems with the early versions of the bios on this board but if you can get it to flash to F7b then everything works a treat. It is also a bit lacking in included accessories, particularly if you are trying to re-use a CPU cooler as the Alder Lake LGA1700 socket requires some adaptation and Gigabyte doesn't provide anything to help. There is also a slightly fiddly setup with RGB Fusion which is way short of Asus Aura Sync or similar RGB tools, lacking several options that you may be used to.Overall, this board ticks a lot of boxes and the value is pretty good if you are intent on DDR5 (a lot of DDR4 boards costs similar to this one). If you don't want to shift to DDR5 or the new PCIex5 standard, you could perhaps pick up a higher-end board with the older DDR4 support instead.

I was unsure about buying this board after reading some reviews, but it had exactly all the specifications I needed so I went ahead.I built my new pc, switched on and updated the bios immediately to version F8, which was very simple.After that, nothing more to report other than great performance. DDR5 XMP profile works great, internet works great (these were some rumoured problems I heard).All in all very pleased with the board. Great quality parts.

Aside from gigabyte's usual terrible bios, it performs fairly well for the price.I love the aesthetics of this board. It's very heavy too, with hefty heatsink all around.After some growing pains and bios F7, both XMP and RAID (IRST) work well.Overclocking is a bit finicky (never use gigabyte's terrible oc tuner - use Intel XTU) but doable.Intel 12th gen does run pretty hot and you'll need an AIO or open loop water cooling to take full advantage.Would I buy this board again? Yeah probably - at this price it beats out boards from Asus and MSI. I prefer Asus boards for ease of use from experience, but my Z370 board was gigabyte and I'm pleased enough with the Z690 because of the huge feature set and brilliant performance (more than 2x compute from my i9-9900, as well as 2x on my Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 SSD). Amazing progress in just 3 yearsA bit of headache with this board is worth it for the features and price

My previous z390 gaming x had a lot of rgb,this one has only in back of motherboard and i don't understand why,is controlled by RGB FUSION app on desktop and it affects the GPU too,i have to start the rgb fusion app so my gpu rgb starts,I'm not happy what they did,for perfomance does the job.For future i hope they change the location of cpu connectors and move ram section a bit lower because they are blocked by cpu cooler size