Asus Prime Z690-A Review: More USB, Please

Four M.2 sockets, capable power delivery and quality audio at a reasonable $279.99.

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Asus Prime Z690-A
(Image credit: © Asus)

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Asus Prime Z690-A Firmware

Asus’ Prime Z690-A BIOS should be familiar to those who ran Prime boards in the recent past. The Prime’s black and light-blue/white theme persists, as does the ease of movement through the UEFI and similar to Z590, except for items new to Alder Lake (P and E core adjustments, to name a couple). It’s loaded with options and menus, though the most frequently accessed items are easily accessible and not buried several layers down. There’s also an easy mode that’s more of a dashboard with limited functionality. We’re a fan of the Asus BIOS and its logical layout. It has everything you need, and then some, to tweak your motherboard and component settings. If you want to know how to access your BIOS (from any system), we can help!

Joe Shields
Joe Shields
Staff Writer, Components

Joe Shields is a staff writer at Tom’s Hardware. He reviews motherboards and PC components.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • perpetual98
    I think you've got some duplicate paragraphs there at the end. Or my browser is being dumb
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    perpetual98 said:
    I think you've got some duplicate paragraphs there at the end. Or my browser is being dumb

    I thought I was just tired.

    Great board for review.

    For me 6 USB plus front headers is plenty but I'm probably not a power user. USB is easy (and cheap) to add by card if needed later. 4 x M.2 is great.

    I would like to see integrated Wi-Fi. (mainly for the Bluetooth)
    Reply
  • mdd1963
    DDR5....?

    Not just yet. Pity.
    Reply
  • abepcnt
    i am having a very bad time with this board, the 4 USBs 3.1 are not working. i contacted Asus customer service here in Sydney, they are very unprofessional and they have no idea about the M/B, they gave me a very stupid answer and they asked me to pay $110 for repair, this board is 2 weeks old and still under the warranty, i do not recommended it at all.
    Reply