Without a doubt, Asus’ top motherboard line for Alder Lake will be the ROG Maximus Z690 line, and thanks to a new leak from Videocardz, we now know what the Apex, Extreme, Extreme Glacial, Formula, and Hero models will look like.
The Z690 APEX motherboard is geared towards extreme overclocking and features a powerful VRM and only two RAM slots. We also see a large number of buttons, switches, and voltage measurement points that allow you to maintain complete control of the platform at all times and get the most out of Alder Lake.
As usual, the Extreme line will come with all sorts of features, and in this case, interesting lighting on both the I/O and chipset heatsinks, where we see the ROG line name and logo respectively, drawn with LEDs for an interesting effect.
As if the Maximus Z690 Extreme wasn’t enough, Asus will also be launching a Glacial version, with a huge liquid cooling block that cools the CPU, VRMs, chipset, and top M.2 slot to keep all these components running as cool as possible.
For liquid cooling and white color lovers, Asus will also be showcasing its ROG Maximus Z690 Formula, which is all white and features a liquid cooling block for the VRMs, which is handy considering Alder Lake’s high power consumption.
Finally, there is the Maximus Z690 Hero, which is probably the most popular simply because it is the most affordable of the 5 models. This model is for those who want to make the jump from the STRIX line but don’t need the extra features of the rest of the Maximus Z690 line, making it the ideal offering for most gamers.
With Alder Lake-S being announced on October 27, it’s likely that Asus and the other manufacturers will announce their LGA 1700 motherboards on the same day. So stay tuned for more information about the different options offered by the various brands.