ASUS TUF Gaming Z690-Plus LGA 1700(Intel12th Gen) ATX Motherboard(PCIe 5.0,DDR5,4xNVMe SSD,14+2 Power Stages,WiFi 6,2.5Gb LAN,Front USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Ports,Thunderbolt 4)

I’ve always been a fan of ASUS, they know what they’re doing. I tried MSI and a few other brands and they were all awful. MSI gave me a nice catch 22 where I couldn’t leave bios if I had a GPU plugged in and if I did plug it in I would get an infinite black screen, spent 4 days and like 30 different methods to try to fix it, couldn’t get it to work. Returned and bought this instead, took me less than 10 minutes to get everything up and running. ASUS BIOS 10/10, lots of helpful YouTube tech support if you do have issues as well. The 4 M.2 slots is amazing as well, only downside is CPU cooler placement, the top left and right are really tight, you can really only put the cooler hose on the bottom, beside that it’s an amazing MB!

My previous computer was from 2012 (although significantly upgraded). I always prefer a computer I build myself as I can select components that allow maximum upgradability over time. This MB seems to be working great. Wifi if I need it (although it wouldn't work until drivers were loaded, so it was not usable for the initial windows install which is when I most would want it as it was not at my desk yet), room for a couple more NVME drives for down the road, seems well built. The heat sinks for all components are pretty good sized. Overall the build went pretty well and I'm very happy with it. This uses DDR4 RAM, which is one reason I picked it as just as I finally decided to buy a 12600k processor, DDR5 RAM had disappeared from stock with no signs of returning. I decided to save the money and go with DDR4 and this MB offered everything I wanted.

This thing is a beast has everything you need and has been a workhorse for about 3 years now

Since DDR5 is still ludicrously expensive I went with DDR4 to pair with my i9-12900k. Checked most options and was deciding between this and the ASUS Prime, but eventually ended up on this one due to some reviews on Prime claiming detection issue with multiple NVMes. Have been using this card at full capacity with all NVMe, RAM, and SATA slots occupied for a month without issue. BIOS is up to date and post out of box without any issue.Note for regular GPU configuration it does limit the height of the heatsink of the secondary NVMe slot, as it sits directly under the GPU using first PCIe lane.RGB is not really a huge deal personally but the MB could use some more ARGB headers. It does push you to use Armoury Crate software for hardware monitor and variation configuration options, it is fine. I still prefer iCue over it but at the same time it is annoying none of these companies can agree on a single standard.While ATX is a set standard with defined outer dimension, but would be nice if we can widen the distance between CPU socket and RAM slots, as even small AIO pump tubes are still having clearance issue with that mounting position. It doesn't make any sense when AIOs are showing such orientation as default but MB design restrict this configuration. It's been an issue kind of just got ignored for quite some years now.

Update: the onboard wifi 6 is not so great as I stated below. After a short time the high speed tests disintegrated. Not that my speeds weren't still generally high, but rarely at their max of 375 mbs. Disabled it in bios and went back to my pcie card. Better.Love that it has all USB 3.2 ports: 4 first gen and 2 second gen. Also two USB C ports. The internal wifi 6 is excellent. Had problems with HDMI port using I7 12700K CPU with internal graphics. However, don't know if the problem is with the port or the internal graphics.This MB would not power up with a Radeon RX560 card installed in PCIEX16 slot 1. Consulting with ASUS via chat the tech said it should work, but didn't. Could not test the card in slot 2 because that slot is too close to my PSU to allow installation of a GPU with left side fans. Just no room, so that slot has no utility in my PC case, at least not for a decent GPU. However, all is well that ends well and this MB has no problem with NVIDA's Geforce series.Overall, so far, I am not displeased with this MB, and hopefully it will continue to serve well as my latest upgrade.Oh, also like that it will run both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM. As of now I am running 32 gig DDR4 brought over from my previous build. That saved money on the upgrade and serves well as a potential future upgrade of RAM if ever desired.ASUS support:For the time spent waiting on a tech to pick up the phone, and then getting cut off with no call back from the tech, you can get through via chat faster and will likely have a better experience than with a tech on the phone. At least I did. A tech who I was not confident from the get go she was going to be able to communicate with me in any meaningful or knowledgeable way. That she ensured she had my call back number in case of a dropped call, and then did not call back when the call got dropped (very early before we even got far into my trying to explain the problem), makes one wonder, did she drop me on purpose? More than hurt my feelings, I'll tell ya.Also the phone had a very bad connection.

Never had a single problem with the mb and after intalling the cpu and gpu it worked first try without me having to go out of my way, only downside is the pcie to nvme expansion card I have didn't work out of the box with this specific model of mb but still the best mb i've had in a long time.