LE manufacturer MSI released a couple of previews for the brand's upcoming Z690 motherboards for Intel's Alder Lake processors. The leaker momomo_us has found several listings for retailers that give us a general idea of the specifications of each Alder Lake-compatible MSI Z690 motherboard.
Russian retailer 3Logic listed a total of 17 different MSI Z690 motherboards ranging from the MEG, MPG, MAG and Pro series. According to the list, budget models with the B660 and H610 chipsets should arrive in January. Nothing has been seen of the MEG Z690 Godlike, suggesting that the flagship motherboard for the Z690 platform will arrive at a later date and will not coincide with the Intel Alder Lake launch.
There will be a lot of Z690 motherboards for Alder Lake
The MEG Z690 Ace motherboard would fall behind the Godlike, and it features four batches of DDR5 memory and up to five M.2 slots and three PCIe x16 expansion slots. Rumors claim that only the main PCIe x16 slot sticks to PCIe 5.0 speeds. It will also have up to two USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ports and seven USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the MEG Z690 Ace.
MSI's Unify series of motherboards will be back with the Z690 with its X and non-X variants with almost identical specs. The Z690 Unify-X should better overclock memory due to the dual-DIMM design. The other motherboard specifications include five M.2 slots, six SATA III ports, two PCIe x16 expansion slots, and one PCIe x1 slot.
It appears that MSI's only Z690 mini-ITX motherboard will be the MEG Z690I Unify-X. It should have the same or more memory overclocking potential than the MEG Z690 Unify-X. It should offer three M.2 slots and four SATA III ports for storage, with a single PCIe x16 expansion slot.
The Tomahawk model designed for gamers will arrive on the Z690 platform in variants compatible with DDR4 and DDR5 memory. Both motherboards share specifications, including four M.2 slots, six SATA III ports, three PCIe x16 expansion slots, and one PCIe x1 slot. There are no signs of micro-ATX boards as 3Logic's leaked list doesn't have any of them. It may be because MSI wants to dedicate that platform to cheaper chipsets.
Source: Tom's Hardware
