The Box and Packaging
The box and packaging is what you would expect from ASRock. It comes with a user’s manual, software setup guide, a Steel Legend post card, a Steel Legend key ring, an I/O shield, a pair of SATA cables, 3 sets of M.2 screws, along with a drivers disc, as well as the graphics card holder, and the WiFi antennas.
The ASRock Z690 Steel Legend WiFi 6e Motherboard
The motherboard comes in the usual matte-black and silver finish that you’ll find on all of ASRock’s Steel Legend series. There are 2 x M.2 Armor heatsinks for your SSDs and one large heatsink that cover the Z690 chipset. On the top of the motherboard, you’ll find more heatsinks that cool the Mosfets/VRMs.
You can see the new LGA1700 socket. It’s very different to the previous generation of Intel sockets such as the LGA1200 and LGA1151. The motherboard has 2 PCIE power connectors which is required if you want extra for running high-end, power hungry components and it also addes extra stability during overclocking.
There are a ton of expansion slots including 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 Steel slot for graphics card, 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, as well as 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 alot and 2 x PCIe 3.0 x 1 slot. For storage, there’s a total of 8 x SATA3 ports, 2 x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4) and 1 x Ultra M.2 slot (PCIe Gen3) for SSDs, as well as 1 x M.2 Key-E for WiFi module (occupied).
A Closer Look
There’s no on/off or reset buttons or any diagnostic LEDs on the motherboard, however you will find a clear CMOS button on the I/O panel, which is easiy accessible. I guess they resevered those features for their higher-end enthusaist motherboards.
On closer inspection, you’ll notice the labeling near the 2nd PCIE slot … yes, it’s a PCIE 5.0 x 16 slot and yes I can confirm it is backward compatible for use with PCIE 4.0 or PCIE 3.0 graphic cards! In our tests we used a GeForce RTX 2080 with no issues what so ever.
For USB lovers, you get 1 x front USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (Type-C), 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 (Type-A+C), 8 x USB 3.2 Gen1 (4 Front, 4 Rear), and additional 4 x USB 2.0 (Front). And finally, for connectivity, you get the Dragon 2.5GB LAN as well as the WiFi 6e support via the onboard M.2 wifi module.
Other connectors on the I/O panel include the PS/2 keyboard and mouse, HDMI port, DisplayPort, and connectors for your WiFi antenna, as well as an array of audio connectors.
