The Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer BIOSTAR, positioned in the budget segment, has entered the market with an interesting offer. The buyer is presented with the Z690A-SILVER motherboard for the LGA1700 socket. The company claims that the motherboard will fully unlock the potential of Intel Alder Lake.
MB Biostar Z690A-Silver for LGA1700 Socket – Specifications
| Socket | LGA1700 |
| Chipset | Z690 |
| Graphics Interface | PCIe 5.0 |
| RAM Slots | 4x DDR4 (up to 128 GB, max 5000 MHz) |
| Network | RJ-45 1 Gb/s (Realtek RTL8125B) and WiFi 6 |
| Video Outputs | DVI-D, DP-Out, HDMI 2.0 (4K video output) |
| Wired Interfaces | 1x USB 3.2 (Gen2) Type-C, 5x USB 3.2 (Gen2), 2x USB 2.0 |
| PS/2 | Available, 1 universal for mouse or keyboard |
| Technologies | Dr.MOS, Digital PWM – power device protection |
| Lighting | Yes, RGB, customizable via Vivid LED DJ software |
| Price | No information available yet |
There are doubts whether a motherboard supporting DDR4 will interest anyone at all. It somehow doesn’t fit into the picture of PCIe 5.0 data transfer speeds up to 128 Gbps with an old memory interface. The main factor here will be the price. The MB Biostar Z690A-Silver for LGA1700 socket should cost no more than $150. It’s still not Asus or MSI, which have a longer lifecycle and more features. Remember that upgrading to socket 1700 will also require other components.
