Verdict and Conclusion
After taking a look at the ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4, I have to say it’s no doubt, one of the best Z690 Mini-ITX motherboard available on the market. It’s suitable all the latest 12th Gen Alder Lake processors from Intel, and supports for DDR5 ram with speeds of up to DDR5-6400 OC, and comes with one PCIE 5.0 x16 steel slot, as well as 2 x Hyper M.2 slots for PCIE Gen4 SSDs.
What I really like about the motherboard is how easy it was to setup and run the DDR5 ram. We used Adata’s XPG Lancer RGB DDR5-6000 32GB kit, and all we did was to enable XMP 3.0 Profiles and that’s it! Trust me … I’ve had plenty of instances where the system would fail to boot after selecting XMP profiles.
When it comes to DDR5 ram, I’ve had my doubts about the real benefits. But after seeing the whole system in action … I have to say, I’m quite impessed. Both CPU-Z and AIDA64 memory benchmarks show the DDR5 ram in running at Quad Channel mode. We explained this earlier … DDR5 gives you two 32-bit wide (40-bit wide, with ECC) channels per stick, which means that you get a quad-channel configuration when running two DIMMs.
What remains to be seen, is the real benefits of PCIE 5.0. Currently, there are NO graphics card that are capable to support PCIE 5.0 yet.
Before we continue, I have to emphasize the fact that we were not able to test the motherboard using a GeForce RXT 30-series due to chip shortage/scalpers/overpricing, so the bottleneck would come from the graphics card itself. Yes, I’m stuck with a Radeon RX 6500 XT … *sigh*
Using the Intel Core i9-12900KF processor, we got some really good scores in all of our benchmarks. It produced Cinebench R23 scores of 25,713 (multi core) and 2,043 (single core), with a PassMark9 score of 8,535. For PCMark 10, we got a score of 7,866, which is quite impressive. For UL’s latest Procyon Photo and Video Editing Benchmark, we got a score of 8,379 and 3,761 respectively.
We were unable to run 3DMark Port Royal or the DLSS benchmarks, due to the lack of ray-tracing capabilities on the Radeon RX 6500 XT graphics card. But for Timespy and Firestrike, we got decent scores of 5,481 and 13,559 respectively.
Performance aside, the ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 comes with a lot of expansion capabilities. You get the Thunderbolt™ 4 Type-C connector, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Front Type-C, 4 x Rear USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, and 3 x USB 3.2 Gen1 (1 Rear, 2 Front). For connectivity, you get the Killer E3100G 2.5GB LAN as well as the Killer AX1675 802.11ax supporting WiFi 6e + Bluetooth. And finally, the rear I/O panel includes a HDMI port, DisplayPort, BIOS flashback, Clear CMOS button, and connectors for your WiFi antenna, as well as an array of audio connectors.
The motherboard comes with all of ASRock’s unique features which includes, their new 11 Power Phase SPS, Dr.MOS Power Design, Super Alloy, 7.1 HD audio, Polychrome RGB, and 11 layer PCB design.
You can buy the ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4
Pros:
- Great performance
- Intel Z690 Chipset
- Supports Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake processor
- Supports DDR5-6400+ (O.C.)
- 1 x PCIE 5.0 sleet slot
- 2 x Hyper M.2 PCIE Gen4x4 slots
- Killer E3100G 2.5G LAN
- Killer AX1675 WiFi 6e support
Cons:
- None I can think of
Final Words:
The ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 is, no doubt, one of the best Mini-ITX motherboards you can get right now. It supports DDR5 ram, and comes with a PCIE 5.0 x16 steel slot, two PCIE Gen4x4 slots, Killer 2.5GB LAN, as well as support for WiFi 6e and Thunderbolt 4. It’s packed with some great features and offers excellent performance and compatibility.
You can buy the ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4
Related articles
- ASRock Z690 PG Riptide Motherboard Review
- ASRock Z690 Extreme Motherboard Review
- ASRock Z690 Steel Legend WiFi 6E Motherboard Review
- ASRock X570S PG Riptide Motherboard Review
- ASRock B550 PG Riptide Motherboard Review
- ASRock Z590 PG Velocita Motherboard Review
- ASRock B550 TAICHI – RAZER EDITION Motherboard Review
- ASRock X570 TAICHI – RAZER EDITION Motherboard Review
- ASRock X570 PG Velocita Motherboard Review
