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Updat­ing a com­put­er or build­ing it from scratch is a whole sci­ence. In the net­work at every step there are rec­om­men­da­tions for the selec­tion of proces­sors, RAM, dri­ves and pow­er sup­plies. But often peo­ple pay lit­tle atten­tion to such an impor­tant com­po­nent of any com­put­er as a moth­er­board, usu­al­ly buy­ing it on a left­over basis. And, mean­while, it is the moth­er­board that is direct­ly respon­si­ble for how ful­ly the poten­tial of your assem­bly will be real­ized.

The recent intro­duc­tion of the 12th Gen Alder Lake Intel Core is the world’s first con­sumer proces­sor to sup­port PCIe 4.0 and DDR5 RAM at the same time. Of course, many copies have already been bro­ken in the debate about the use­ful­ness of the lat­ter, and per­haps now this mem­o­ry has few advan­tages over DDR4. But many are well aware that the future lies with this type of RAM. And, giv­en the huge cost of com­po­nents, when updat­ing your com­put­er or assem­bling it from scratch, it is worth build­ing a sys­tem specif­i­cal­ly for DDR5. So to speak, with a back­log for the future.

If you think the same way, then this arti­cle is for you. In this arti­cle, we’ll cov­er the best moth­er­boards for Alder Lake proces­sors that sup­port DDR5 RAM.

GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X (rev. 1.0)

• Chipset: Intel Z690
• Form Fac­tor: ATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6000 (up to 128 GB)

This rel­a­tive­ly inex­pen­sive moth­er­board is ful­ly com­pat­i­ble with the lat­est 12th gen­er­a­tion Intel Core Alder Lake proces­sors and offers four DDR5 mem­o­ry slots with a max­i­mum fre­quen­cy of up to 6000 MHz and a total capac­i­ty of up to 128 GB. It uses a 16+1+2 phase pow­er sub­sys­tem com­bined with a pro­pri­etary VRM zone heatsink and MOSFET.

ASUS PRIME Z690‑A

• Chipset: Intel Z690
• Form Fac­tor: ATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6000 (up to 128 GB)

ASUS paid spe­cial atten­tion to the cool­ing of all key com­po­nents of the moth­er­board. The com­pa­ny installed a sep­a­rate heatsink on the chipset, the VRM zone is cov­ered by two inde­pen­dent heatsinks. There are ther­mal pad heatsinks on three of the four M.2 SSD slots. On the fourth con­nec­tor, this lux­u­ry is not pro­vid­ed.

Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro

• Chipset: Intel Z690
• Form Fac­tor: ATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6000 (up to 128 GB)

This is per­haps one of the most bal­anced moth­er­boards for the lat­est Alder Lake proces­sors, offer­ing a great fea­ture set at an afford­able price. But I would espe­cial­ly like to high­light a pow­er­ful 19-phase pow­er sub­sys­tem with a load of up to 90 A per phase ver­sus the usu­al 60 A for many moth­er­boards in this price cat­e­go­ry. The VRM mod­ule of the moth­er­board is cov­ered with its own heatsinks. The same goes for the four M.2 ports for PCIe 4.0 SSDs.

MSI MAG B660M Mortar WIFI

• Chipset: Intel B660
• Form fac­tor: microATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6200 (up to 128 GB)

The com­pact MSI MAG B660M Mor­tar WIFI microATX moth­er­board is designed for those who don’t want to over­pay for frills like trendy LED light­ing, and its aus­tere design is in stark con­trast to what we’ve come to expect from mod­ern moth­er­boards.

Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero

• Chipset: Intel Z690
• Form Fac­tor: ATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6400 (up to 128 GB)

The most expen­sive moth­er­board in our selec­tion is per­fect for hard­core gamers and over­clock­ers. It uses a pow­er­ful 20+1 phase pow­er sup­ply sys­tem (90A per chan­nel) with met­al capac­i­tors and Microfine alloy chokes. All this is com­ple­ment­ed by an impres­sive cool­ing sys­tem with large pow­er heatsinks, an alu­minum inter­face pan­el shroud, heatsinks on the ROG Hyper M.2 adapter, and three M.2 heatsinks with two rein­force­ment plates. There are also con­nec­tors for the liq­uid cool­ing sys­tem, as well as eight fan con­nec­tors.

In oth­er words, the moth­er­board can han­dle the most pow­er­ful proces­sors of the Alder Lake gen­er­a­tion with­out any prob­lems, while offer­ing excel­lent over­clock­ing poten­tial. Well, ordi­nary users will cer­tain­ly appre­ci­ate a huge set of inter­faces, includ­ing a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 port and two Thun­der­bolt 4 (USB‑C), six SATA con­nec­tors and five slots for M.2 SSD PCIe 4.0, two of which are installed on the ROG Hyper expan­sion card M.2.

ASUS PRIME Z690‑A

• Chipset: Intel Z690
• Form Fac­tor: ATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6000 (up to 128 GB)

ASUS paid spe­cial atten­tion to the cool­ing of all key com­po­nents of the moth­er­board. The com­pa­ny installed a sep­a­rate heatsink on the chipset, the VRM zone is cov­ered by two inde­pen­dent heatsinks. There are ther­mal pad heatsinks on three of the four M.2 SSD slots. On the fourth con­nec­tor, this lux­u­ry is not pro­vid­ed.

Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro

• Chipset: Intel Z690
• Form Fac­tor: ATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6000 (up to 128 GB)

This is per­haps one of the most bal­anced moth­er­boards for the lat­est Alder Lake proces­sors, offer­ing a great fea­ture set at an afford­able price. But I would espe­cial­ly like to high­light a pow­er­ful 19-phase pow­er sub­sys­tem with a load of up to 90 A per phase ver­sus the usu­al 60 A for many moth­er­boards in this price cat­e­go­ry. The VRM mod­ule of the moth­er­board is cov­ered with its own heatsinks. The same goes for the four M.2 ports for PCIe 4.0 SSDs.

MSI MAG B660M Mortar WIFI

• Chipset: Intel B660
• Form fac­tor: microATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6200 (up to 128 GB)

The com­pact MSI MAG B660M Mor­tar WIFI microATX moth­er­board is designed for those who don’t want to over­pay for frills like trendy LED light­ing, and its aus­tere design is in stark con­trast to what we’ve come to expect from mod­ern moth­er­boards.

Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero

• Chipset: Intel Z690
• Form Fac­tor: ATX
• RAM sup­port: 4 slots up to DDR5-6400 (up to 128 GB)

The most expen­sive moth­er­board in our selec­tion is per­fect for hard­core gamers and over­clock­ers. It uses a pow­er­ful 20+1 phase pow­er sup­ply sys­tem (90A per chan­nel) with met­al capac­i­tors and Microfine alloy chokes. All this is com­ple­ment­ed by an impres­sive cool­ing sys­tem with large pow­er heatsinks, an alu­minum inter­face pan­el shroud, heatsinks on the ROG Hyper M.2 adapter, and three M.2 heatsinks with two rein­force­ment plates. There are also con­nec­tors for the liq­uid cool­ing sys­tem, as well as eight fan con­nec­tors.

In oth­er words, the moth­er­board can han­dle the most pow­er­ful proces­sors of the Alder Lake gen­er­a­tion with­out any prob­lems, while offer­ing excel­lent over­clock­ing poten­tial. Well, ordi­nary users will cer­tain­ly appre­ci­ate a huge set of inter­faces, includ­ing a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 port and two Thun­der­bolt 4 (USB‑C), six SATA con­nec­tors and five slots for M.2 SSD PCIe 4.0, two of which are installed on the ROG Hyper expan­sion card M.2.

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