Motherboards have become less of a function-only item and more of a flex. Throughout the brands, there is always the top-tier motherboard, the pinnacle of that generation, usually with a substantial price tag to go with it and plenty of top-tier components and features.
With the introduction of the latest generation of CPUs, namely Adler Lake, so to has come to the Z690 range. And in the ASUS stable, the top-tier motherboard spot belongs to the behemoth (and mouthful) that is the ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial, a water-cooled motherboard made in partnership with EKWB.
Inside the Box


The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial comes in what can only be described as a box befitting of being in a movie. It is not your standard motherboard box, no, it is a hard board box that comes up to around my knee, that opens up with clasps, to greet you with what can be described as the most intimidating motherboard that I have ever seen.
Inside the box of the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial, you are met with a plethora of “things”. My mouth hit the floor when I unpacked it, here is a list of goodies accompanying the motherboard:
- 1-to-3 ARGB splitter cable
- 1-to-2 ARGB splitter cable
- (2) 1-to-4 fan splitter cables
- RGB extension cable
- (3) ROG weave SATA 6G cables
- (4) SATA 6Gb/s cables
- 3-in-1 Thermistor cables pack
- ROG Fan Controller
- Fan EXT PWR cable
- ARGB input cable
- USB input cable
- ROG Fan Controller 3M Mounting tape
- Fan Controller manual
- ROG DIMM.2 with heatsink
- M.2 pad for ROG DIMM.2
- (2) M.2 screw package for ROG DIMM.2
- ROG True Voltician
- (4) Cables for ROG True Voltician
- ASUS Wi-Fi moving antennas
- M.2 SSD screw package
- Q-connector
- ROG CLAVIS DAC
- ROG graphics card holder
- ROG key chain
- ROG logo plate stickers
- ROG screwdriver
- ROG stickers
- ROG thank you card
- Thermal pad package for M.2 heatsink
- USB drive with utilities and drivers
- User guide
- Monoblock
- (3) Screw package for monoblock
- Thermal pad for monoblock
- Fittings for monoblock (hard tube)
- M.2 heatsink

Exploring the Board

After unpacking the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial and all of its goodies you have time to really take it all in. The large monoblock replaces all the heatsinks on the board, including the CPU, VRMs, M.2 sockets, and all the chipsets. The clear plexi of the monoblock lets you see the internal workings while being lit up by plenty of ARGB that shines from behind the large ASUS ROG logo. There is also Matrix LED and LiveDash OLED on the side of the IO.
The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial board is basically completely covered except for the few parts that you need to make contact with, namely where you plug in your DDR5 RAM sticks, the M.2 expansion port, two PCIe slots, and the headers, that’s it! The rest is all covered up which does give the board an extremely smooth look. There is no doubt that the Extreme Glacial board is arguably the most high-end board around, and it looks it!

Taking a look around the board, once we could draw our eyes away from the massive EK block and all the RGB and AniME Matrix and LiveDash OLED displays, above the four RAM DIMMs there are three, of the eight, 4pin fan/pump headers. There are two pump headers, both of which can do 3A/36W which should cover nearly every pump on the market. Further to the right, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial caters to the extreme users by giving test points that you can use with a multimeter to truly get every Voltage reading your heart could ever desire. For the average user, these will never be used.

The debug LED area is also covered in a plastic cover to give a more slick and appealing look. The power and reset buttons can also be found on this cover. Moving below the cover is two more 4-pin fan headers, the e24 pin ATX connector as well as an extra 6-pin plug for multi-GPU setups although that is not popular anymore. I also spotted a new 6-pin Gen 2 ARGB connector that works with the newer RGB WS2812B or WS2812 B-based LED strips (Google was used for this). Lastly, around the shroud is a USB 3.2 Type C for the front panel, which is good for 20 Gbps.

Moving towards the bottom half of the board, the appearance does change slightly with less monoblock and more polished black covers. The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial boasts the very impressive Supreme FX codec chips that should provide adequate sound to go with your enthusiast-level motherboard. Thanks to using USB use, the sound resolution can now be upped from 192 to 384kHz.
The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial has three PCIe slots, two full-length slots that are reinforced, the primary slot runs at PCIe 5.0 x16 if you are not using the second PCIe slot or the M.2 Socket.
- Front panel audio
- BCLK +/- buttons
- 4-pin RGB header
- 3-pin ARGB header
- RSRVD
- Slow Mode switch
- VLatch switch
- (2) USB 2.0 headers
- LN2 Mode jumper
- Temperature sensor jumper
- Retry/BIOS/Safe Boot buttons
- (2) 4-pin fan headers
- Waterflow in/out/flow sensors
- Front panel header

The rear IO, much like most higher-end boards now, has a preinstalled IO plate. There is the BIOS flashback with the CMOS reset buttons at the top. Below is an HDMI 2.1 port for integrated graphics, along with seven USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports. The ethernet ports are rated for 2.5GbE and 10GbE respectively. There is also three Type C ports of which one is a thunderbolt. Below that is the WiFi-6E antenna connectors and the SPDIF audio output. There is also the 5-plug audio out jacks which are all backlight to represent their colours for connection.
Specifications: Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial
CPU
Intel® Socket LGA1700 for 12th Gen Intel® Core™, Pentium® Gold and Celeron® Processors*
Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 and Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0**
* Refer to www.asus.com for CPU support list.
** Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 support depends on the CPU types.
Memory
4 x DIMM, Max. 128GB, DDR5 6400+(OC)/ 6200(OC)/ 6000(OC)/ 5800(OC)/ 5600(OC)/ 5400(OC)/ 5200(OC)/5000(OC)/4800 Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory*
Dual Channel Memory Architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
OptiMem III
Graphics
* Graphics specifications may vary between CPU types. Please refer to www.intel.com for any updates.
***Support 4K@60Hz as specified in HDMI® 2.1.
Expansion Slots
Intel® 12th Gen Processors*
2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (supports x16 or x8/x8 modes)**
Intel® Z690 Chipset***
1 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot
* Please check PCIe bifurcation table in support site.
** M.2_1 shares bandwidth with PCIEX16(G5)_2. When M.2_1 is enabled, PCIEX16(G5)_2 will be disabled.
*** Support Intel® Optane Memory H Series on PCH-attached PCIe slot.
Multi-GPU Support
NVIDIA 2-Way SLI® Technology*
*Support varies with different graphics cards
Storage
Total supports 5 x M.2 slots and 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports*
Intel® 12th Gen Processors
M.2_1 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280/22110***
– Intel® 12th Gen processors support PCIe 5.0 x4 mode.
M.2_2 slot (Key M), type 2280
– Intel® 12th Gen processors support PCIe 4.0 x4 mode.
Intel® Z690 Chipset**
M.2_3 slot (Key M), type 2280 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 & SATA modes)
DIMM.2_1 slot (Key M) via ROG DIMM.2, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 mode)
DIMM.2_2 slot (Key M) via ROG DIMM.2, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 mode)
6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports****
* Intel® Rapid Storage Technology supports NVMe RAID 0/1/5, SATA RAID 0/1/5/10.
** Intel® Rapid Storage Technology supports Intel® Optane Memory H Series on PCH attached M.2 slots.
***M.2_1 shares bandwidth with PCIEX16(G5)_2. When M.2_1 is enabled, PCIEX16(G5)_2 will be disabled.
****RAID configuration and boot drives are not supported on the SATA6G_E1-2 ports.
Ethernet
1 x Intel® 2.5Gb Ethernet
1 x Marvell® 10Gb Ethernet
USB
Rear USB: Total 10 ports
1 x Thunderbolt™ 4 port (1 x USB Type-C®)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port (1 x USB Type-C®)
8 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (7 x Type-A + 1 x USB Type-C®)
1 x Thunderbolt™ 4 connector (1 x USB Type-C®)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 connector (supports USB Type-C®)
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers support additional 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports
Audio
ROG SupremeFX 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio CODEC ALC4082
– Impedance sense for front and rear headphone outputs
– Supports: Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking
– High-quality 120 dB SNR stereo playback output and 113 dB SNR recording input
– Supports up to 32-Bit/384 kHz playback
Audio Features
– SupremeFX Shielding Technology
– ESS® SABRE9018Q2C DAC/AMP
– LED-illuminated audio jacks
– Rear optical S/PDIF outport
– Premium audio capacitors
– Audio cover
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x Thunderbolt™ 4 USB Type-C® port
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port (1 x USB Type-C®)
8 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (7 x Type-A + 1 x USB Type-C®)
1 x HDMI® port
1 x ASUS Wi-Fi Module
1 x Intel® 2.5Gb Ethernet port
1 x Marvell® AQtion 10Gb Ethernet port
5 x LED-illuminated audio jacks
1 x Optical S/PDIF out port
1 x BIOS FlashBackâ„¢ button
1 x Clear CMOS button
Internal I/O Connectors
Fan and Cooling related
2 x 4-pin Chassis Fan headers
2 x 4-pin Radiator Fan headers
2 x W_PUMP+ headers
1 x WB_SENSOR header
1 x 2-pin Water In header
1 x 2-pin Water Out header
1 x 3-pin Water Flow header
Power related
1 x 24-pin Main Power connector
2 x 8-pin +12V Power connector
1 x 6-pin PCIe Graphics Card connector
Storage related
3 x M.2 slots (Key M)
1 x DIMM.2 slot supports 2 x M.2 slots (Key M)
6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
USB
1 x Intel® Thunderbolt™ 4 port (USB Type-C®)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 connector (supports USB Type-C®)
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers support additional 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports
Miscellaneous
1 x 6-pin ARGB Gen 2 header to support 2 x ARGB Gen 2 headers
1 x Addressable Gen 2 header
1 x AURA RGB header
1 x WB_ADD header
1 x BIOS Switch button
2 x BCLK button
1 x FlexKey button
1 x Front Panel Audio header (AAFP)
1 x LN2 Mode jumper
1 x Osc sence header
12 x ProbeIt Measurement Points
1 x ReTry button
1 x RSVD switch
1 x RSVD header
1 x Safe Boot button
1 x Slow Mode switch
1 x Start button
1 x V_Latch switch
1 x 10-1 pin System Panel header
1 x Thermal Sensor header
Special Features
Extreme OC Kit
– FlexKey button
– LN2 Mode
– Probelt
– ReTry button
– Safe boot button
– Start button
– Slow Mode
Extreme Engine Digi+
– 10K Black Metallic Capacitors
– MicroFine Alloy Choke
ASUS Q-Design
– M.2 Q-Latch
– Q-Code
– Q-Connector
– Q-DIMM
– Q-LED (CPU [red], DRAM [yellow], VGA [white], Boot Device [yellow green])
– Q-Slot
ASUS Thermal Solution
– M.2 heatsink backplate
– M.2 heatsink
– Steel backplate
– VRM heatsink design
ASUS EZ DIY
– BIOS FlashBackâ„¢ button
– Clear CMOS button
– ProCool II
– Pre-mounted I/O shield
– SafeSlot
– SafeDIMM
AURA Sync
– ROG AURA sync backplate
– AURA RGB header(s)
– Addressable Gen 2 header(s)
Dual BIOS
OLED 2″
Front Panel USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 with Quick Charge 4+ Support
– Support: up to 60W charging*
– Output: 5/9/15/20V max. 3A, PPS:3.3–21V max. 3A
– Compatible with QC 4.0/3.0/2.0, PD3.0 and PPS
* To support 60W, please install the power cable to 6-pin PCIe Graphics Card connector or can only support 27W
ASUS HYDRANODE
– 2 x Chassis fan support* (CHA_FAN1P,CHA_FAN2P)
* Visit ASUS Website for the latest compatibility list.
Software Features
ROG Exclusive Software
– GameFirst VI
– ROG CPU-Z
– Sonic Studio III + Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer + Sonic Suite Companion
– Sonic Radar III
– DTS® Sound Unbound
– BullGuard Internet Security (1-year full version)
ASUS Exclusive Software
Armoury Crate
– AIDA64 Extreme (1 year full version)
– AURA Creator
– AURA Sync
– Fan Xpert 4
– Two-Way AI Noise Cancelation
– OLED Display
– AniMe MatrixTM LED Display
AI Suite 3
– Easy Optimization with AI Overclocking
TPU
EPU
DIGI+ Power Control
Turbo app
MyAsus
WinRAR
UEFI BIOS
AI Overclocking Guide
ASUS EZ DIY
– ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
– ASUS EZ Flash 3
– ASUS UEFI BIOS EZ Mode
MemTest86
BIOS
2 x 256 Mb Flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS
Manageability
WOL by PME, PXE
Accessories
Cables
1 x 1-to-3 ARGB splitter cable
1 x 1-to-2 ARGB splitter cable
2 x 1-to-4 fan splitter cables
1 x RGB extension cable
3 x ROG weave SATA 6G cables
1 x 3-in-1 Thermistor cables pack
ROG Fan Controller
1 x ROG Fan Controller
1 x Fan EXT PWR cable
1 x ARGB input cable
1 x USB input cable
1 x ROG Fan Controller 3M Mounting tape
1 x Fan Controller manual
ROG DIMM.2 with Heatsink
1 x ROG DIMM.2 with heatsink
1 x M.2 pad for ROG DIMM.2
2 x M.2 screw package for ROG DIMM.2
Additional Cooling Kit
1 x Monoblock
3 x Screw package for monoblock
1 x Thermal pad for monoblock
1 x Fittings for monoblock
1 x M.2 heatsink
Miscellaneous
1 x ASUS Wi-Fi moving antennas
1 x M.2 SSD screw package
1 x Q-connector
1 x ROG CLAVIS DAC
1 x ROG graphics card holder
1 x ROG key chain
1 x ROG logo plate stickers
1 x ROG screwdriver
1 x ROG stickers
1 x ROG thank you card
Installation Media
1 x USB drive with utilities and drivers
Documentation
1 x User guide
Form Factor
Extended ATX
30.5cm x 27.7cm
*all info as per ASUS website