WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...

> Z690 or Z79

> Budget Build Nee

> Turbo Build Wan

> SK hynix lows

Missing Motherboard

I’m trying to build the ‘budget' Intel build from the Blueprints section in the January 2023 issue of your great magazine. I’ve bought and received all the ingredients, apart from the ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4/D5 ATX LGA1700 motherboard. The problem is, it’s on back order and has been for about a month now from retailer NewEgg.

I’m wondering if you could recommend a similarly capable DDR5 motherboard. I can go up to a Z790, but I do not want to go backward.

–Dan

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GUY COCKER, RESPONDS: Thanks for the heads up on the stock shortages—I’ve updated Sam Lewis, who puts that section together. Having looked into this myself, it’s still difficult to find an ATX LGA1700 DDR5 board for less than $200, which I assume is an important consideration in your budget build, and quite a bit more than the $156 board we recommended in the Jan issue. The only real candidate at the time of writing is the ASRock Z690 Steel Legend/D5 at $200, and currently available at the retailer you mentioned, NewEgg.

I can’t personally recommend it as we’ve not reviewed it or used it in any of our builds, but as you were looking at an ASRock board anyway it will probably fit the bill. The comments I found online were pretty positive about the quality of the board, and it’s a good deal cheaper than its Z790 equivalent, which is $290. On a personal note, I’ve been putting together an Intel build myself this month, and having spent a lot on the Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU, I was keen to save a bit of money on the motherboard. I decided to go with the Gigabyte Z790 GAMING X AX at $240, which supports DDR5 and has the newer Z790 chipset.