In for review is the ASRock Z690 PG Velocita. This is a top of the line Intel Z690 chipset motherboard from our friends at ASRock retailing for about $521.99 USD.
For its price price point, what you’ll get is a full size ATX motherboard with all the goodies of the Z690 chipset along with a 17 phase power design, KILLER networking, surface mounted PCIe slots and a whole lot more that we will explore in this review.
Disclosure: ASRock sent the Z690 PG Velocita for the purpose of this review. The brand did not ask me to say anything particular about it. The distributor sent a whole lot of components for this review though – for pictorial I guess.
- Product Page: ASRock Z690 PG Velocita
- Price: $521.99 USD (Amazon)
- Release Date: Q4 2021
Technical Specifications
| Processor | |
|---|---|
| CPU Support | 12th Gen Intel Core Processors |
| Chipset | Intel Z690 |
| Socket | LGA 1700 |
| Memory | |
| SDRAM | DDR5 (Non-ECC) |
| Slot | 4x LO-DIMM |
| Channel | Dual Channel |
| Frequency | 6400 MHz (max) |
| Capacity | 128 GB (max) |
| Graphics | |
| GPU | Intel Xe, UHD (Integrated) |
| Multi-GPU | — |
| Expansion | |
| PCI Express | 1X PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16, 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 2x PCIe 3.0 x1 |
| Bifurcation | — |
| Storage | |
| SATA | 6x SATA III |
| M.2 | 1x PCIe 5.0 x4, 1x PCIe 4.0 x4 1x PCIe 3.0 x4 |
| RAID | RAID 0/1/5/10 (SATA), RAID 0/1/5 (M.2) |
| Network | |
| LAN | Killer E3100G |
| WLAN | Killer AX1675 802.11ax |
| Bluetooth | — |
| Audio | |
| DAC | Realtek ALC1220 |
| ADC | Realtek ALC1220 |
| Amplifier | — |
| Channel | 7.1 |
| Rear IO | |
| USB | 2x USB 3.2 Gen2, 6x USB 3.2 Gen1, 2x USB 2.0 |
| eSATA | — |
| Thunderbolt | — |
| LAN | RJ-45 |
| Audio | 5x 3.5 mm, SPDIF |
| Display | DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1 |
| Front IO / Internal | |
| USB | USB 3.2 Gen2x2, 2x USB 3.2 Gen1, USB 2.0 |
| Audio | AAFP |
| Fan | 8x 4-Pin |
| LED | 4-Pin RGB, 3x 3-Pin RGB |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 305 mm |
| Width | 244 mm |
| Height | 45 mm |
| Weight | — |
Packaging and Accessories
ASRock had the Z690 PG Velocita packed inside a huge motherboard packaging.
The packaging should come with the following items inside:
- ASRock Z690 PG Velocita
- Quick Installation Guide
- Support CD
- 4x SATA Data Cables
- Graphics Card Holder
- Wireless Dongle USB Bracket
- 3010 Cooling Fan with Bracket and Screw Package
- 4010 Cooling Fan Bracket and Screw Package
- ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz Antenna
- 3x Screws for M.2 Sockets
- 3x Standoffs for M.2 Sockets
Pretty good bundle we got here. Actually awesome with the extra cooling fan, a PCIe slot USB adapter and a graphics card support bracket.
Design, Build and Connectivity
Out of the box, the ASRock Z690 PG Velocita is poised to impress with its alloy cladded structure. Its more metal, less plastic approach is a fresh breath of air even at its price point. Layout is appropriate for the price point as well.
The back shows more about the soldering job involved into making the motherboard – which is just so good. I also appreciate the fact that ASRock went with a braced backplate – front and back for this motherboard. As for the PCIe traces, the PCIe 5.0 x16 appears to be a x1 slot from this side but it actually is a full speed slot – the rest of its pins are just surface mounted.
The Z690 PC Velocita comes with a beefy 17 phase power design. This is actively cooled which is quite a surprise considering the amount of metal this comes with. Anyway, up top are dual 8-pin CPU power, 3x 4-pin PWM fan headers, 2x LED headers and the much appreciated power and reset buttons.
Internal storage ports are excellent – at least when it comes to this side of the motherboard. We have a debug LED here, the SATA headers, USB 3.0 headers, USB 3.2 header and of course the 24-pin power for the motherboard. At this angle, you could also see the reinforced LO-DIMM slots for the DDR5 memory.
We have the usual assortment of headers down below along with the remaining 4-pin fan headers and another LED header. It’s nice to see a clear CMOS button next to the CMOS battery as well – although I prefer to see this button at the backplate.
Rear I/O port configuration is just excellent. We have a BIOS flashback button here along with a number of useful IO ports. That includes a dedicated USB ports for gaming peripherals.
I don’t have much to complain with the ASRock Z690 PC Velocita. It is actually a well build and well designed ATX motherboard from the ground up – overkill to an extent.
Firmware Interface
ASRock had the Z690 PG Velocita shipped with a visual interface like most motherboards these days. Below is the EZ Mode featuring the basic stuff that you could configure. That includes setting up boot priority, XMP profiles for the DDR5 memory that supports it and a whole lot more.
OC Tweaker is where the magic happens. ASRock did this in sections as opposed to one huge scroll down settings for the CPU and memory settings.
Advanced is where the chipset and or PCH options could be found. I noticed you could also set the UEFI to Full HD here but maxes out at 102 x 768 so it will look like a stretched 4:3 interface on any 16:9 display.
Tools is where you could setup RAID, securely erase storage and flash your BIOS. Handy tools to setup your system for a clean installation.
Hardware monitor comes with four thermal sensors, nine fan speed sensors and a whole lot of voltage sensors.
Last but not the least we have a screenshot of the FAN-Tastic Tuning sub menu. Nine fans could be configured here each on their own or you could set them up in one single configuration. Sadly, we cannot manually setup the maximum fan speed to our desired level. BIOSTAR is the only brand I know that does this still with their motherboards – to this date.
Nothing to complain here other than the Auto Driver Installer. It still pops up on my task bar even if it is disabled.
Test Setup and Methodology
Our test setup relies on the measurements taken from industry standard benchmark tools and real-world applications. It is important to note that we are testing the review sample after burn-in, with at least 24-hours of uptime. This is done so to negate the FOTB (fresh out the box) state of the DUT (device under test), yielding better benchmarking consistency.
| Test System Specifications | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i9-12900K |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z690 PG Velocita |
| Cooler | Noctua NH-U12S Redux |
| Memory | ADATA Premier 2666MHz 16 GB |
| GPU | GALAX RTX 2060 EX White 6 GB |
| Storage | Kingston FURY Renegade 2 TB |
| Case | Mechanical Library JXK-K2 |
| PSU | Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850 W |
| Display | LG UF680T |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit |
The DUT is tested with the following configuration from our test system:
- UEFI configuration: Default
- Windows Power Plan: Balanced
Note: ASRock wanted me to test this unit with the products sent along with this unit. I tested the motherboard with the Fractal Lumen S36 RGB but I did not see any major changes to the results compared to my usual test setup – with the exception of better thermal of course. That said, results you’ll see below were taken with the components listed above.
Arithmetic
Pi calculation speed is measured in Seconds (s). This is done via SuperPI.
Roots calculation speed is measured in Seconds (s). This is done via WPrime.
The ASRock Z690 PG velocita with the Intel Core i9-12900K is the fastest board we have tested on our arithmetic benchmarks.
3D Rendering
Cinema 4D score is measured in Points (pts). This is done via Cinebench R20.
V-Ray 5 score is measured in V-Ray samples (vsamples). This is done via V-Ray 5 Benchmark.
The Z690 PG Velocita is the fastest at Cinebench R20 while it took the second place from the Z690-I Gaming at V-Ray 5.
Digital Content Creation
Image editing speed is measured in Seconds (s). This is done via RealBench and its built-in GIMP benchmark.
Video encoding speed is measured in Seconds (s).This is done via RealBench and its built-in HandBrake benchmark.
The ASRock Z60 PG Velocita is the fastest board here no doubt.
Web Browsing
Web browsing speed is measured in Seconds (s). This is done via PCMark 10 and its built-in Chromium benchmark.
Web browsing speed is measured in Seconds (s). This is done via PCMark 10 and its built-in Firefox benchmark.
Pretty good performance output we got here. Nothing is out of place.
Office Productivity
Productivity speed is measured in Seconds (s). This is done via PCMark 10 and its built-in LibreOffice Writer benchmark.
Productivity speed is measured in Seconds (s). This is done via PCMark 10 and its built-in LibreOffice Calc benchmark.
Same thing could be said for the office productivity benchmarks.
Compression
Compression speed is measured in Kilobytes per Second (KB/s). This is done via WinRAR and its built-in benchmark.
Instruction speed is measured in Giga-Instructions per Second (GIPS). This is done via 7-Zip and its built-in benchmark.
Trend continues here. Nothing to complain.
Gaming
Frame rate is measured in Frames per Second (FPS). This is done via Final Fantasy XVI: Endwalker and its official benchmark.
Frame rate is measured in Frames per Second (FPS). This is done via Sid Meier’s Civilization VI and its built-in benchmark.
Gaming performance is essentially similar to the other Z690 models with the same setup.
POST Speed
Time to finish POST is measured in Seconds (s) at warm and cold boot. This is done via Windows Task Manager and its Last BIOS Time feature.
Last BIOS Time performance is good. Cold and warm boot are essentially the same.
DPC Latency
Kernel timer latency is measured in Microseconds (μs) at current and highest. This is done via LatencyMon.
DPC latency is the worst out of the bunch. Still not at an alarming level though.
Memory Latency
Memory latency is measured in Nanoseconds (ns). This is done via AIDA64 Extreme and its Cache and Memory Benchmark.
Memory latency is the best out of the systems with the same test setup. This is most likely the reason for the motherboard’s excellent arithmetic and encoding performance.
Storage Performance
Storage throughput is measured in Megabytes per second (MB/s) at read and write. This is done via CrystalDiskMark and its sequential benchmark.
Pretty good storage performance we got here for the Z690 PG Velocita.
Audio Performance
Sound level is measured in decibels, A-weighting (dB, A). This is done via the RightMark Audio Analyzer and its Test Report.
Weak audio performance in and out. Get a dedicated audio solution if you wish to buy this motherboard for serious auditory related tasks.
Network Performance
Network throughput is measured in Megabits per second (Mbps) at download and upload. This is done via LAN Tester.
Networking performance is far from the best either. So much for the Killer branded LAN. Not that bad though – acceptable to say at the very least.
Thermals
VRM temperature is measured in degree Celcius (ºC) at system idle and load. This is done via AIDA64 Extreme and its System Stability Test.
The ASRock Z690 PG Velocita clutches up with great VRM thermals. No surprise here since it basically has one of the chunkiest heatsink with an additional active cooling fan to boot. Noise level isn’t bad either.
Power Consumption
System power consumption is measured in Watts (ºC) at system idle and load. This is done via AIDA64 Extreme and its System Stability Test.
Now power consumption is decent for its size and complexity.
Features
ASRock had the Z690 PG Velocita bundled with tons of applications from the get go. The ASRock APP Shop for an instance is a one-stop solution where you could download these applications. Such is the Phantom Gaming Tuning. This tool is essentially similar to the settings you’d see within the UEFI.
Now what’s note worthy to add here are the bundled accessories. We have a graphics card bracket/holder, wireless dongle USB bracket and an additional 30mm fan with its own bracket should the need for extra VRM/MOSFET cooling is warranted.
Final Thoughts
ASRock really did a great job with the Z690 PG Velocita on most fronts. It comes with excellent out of the box performance shown by our arithmetic and encoding benchmarks which is most likely due to its stellar memory latency. Continuing the excellence part, this motherboard is cladded in metal from top to bottom – providing support and a desirable cooling performance seen on our stability benchmark.
General performance is great yes but if I were to nit pick, its audio performance could be better. Those amplifiers means nothing if the signal itself is too noisy to begin with. Networking could also do better but it’s not as bad as the ADC nor the DAC’s performance. If this board has an Achilles heel, then it’s the audio solution no doubt. It could power 300Ω headphones though – but not quite some entry level planar magnetics.
Luckily, the rest checks out on a positive note. We have a nice bundle of accessories, good connectivity options and a UEFI that works without a hitch.
For the price of around $521.99 USD, the ASRock Z690 PG Velocita sits right next to the enthusiast level Z690 motherboards – as it should. It is no way near perfect but it is still a commendable product.
ASRock Z690 PG Velocita
Summary
For the price of around $521.99 USD, the ASRock Z690 PG Velocita sits right next to the enthusiast level Z690 motherboards – as it should. It is no way near perfect but it is still a commendable product.
