Motherboards

NZXT N5 Z690 Motherboard Review

Intel‘s latest Z690 chipset brought a revolutionary set of technologies to market and proved a step in the right direction after the frankly lacklustre Z490 and Z590 product lineup and gave the likes of AMD some real competition again, while also putting them at the forefront of the market in terms of futureproof features. Not only did Z690 bring a variety of new technologies with it; to go along with the new chipset, but we also saw a unique set of brand new Intel processors with hybrid core technologies. We also saw these processors becoming the first available to market with support for DDR5; the fastest memory we have ever seen but it comes at a price, and this is why, even though Z690 has support for DDR5, it isn’t limited to it and plenty of boards are still using DDR4. One such board is the new N5 Z690 from NZXT.

NZXT N5 Z690

The NZXT N5 Z690 is the first of its kind amongst the rest of the motherboards sold by NZXT. This board is the first time we have seen a lower tier board compared to other boards they’ve previously released which have been typically seen as part of the “N7” line-up with the most notable feature being the clean shielding that covers pretty much all of the board and matches perfectly with NZXT’s own brand of cases. This newer N5 approach from NZXT forgoes the shields and instead focuses on making a board simplistic, full of features and as easy to build with as possible.

The N5 of course would be a pretty pointless product if it was the exact same as the N7 but with less stuff. so what makes this board different? There are actually a few things about this board that make it stand out. One worth noting is the power delivery, where this board features fewer phases for the CPU power compared to the N7, which may or may not end up providing differing results. However, comparing the two boards may prove somewhat unfair as they’re going to be aimed at slightly different audiences.

So where does this board sit in the market? To properly find out we are going to have to have a look at the kind of performance we see out of this board and how that places it compared to other boards. The price will also be a large contributor here and for me personally, I want to see if this lower end model in NZXTs lineup gives a compelling argument for buying it over the more premium boards, especially if you’re trying to save a buck and still get all the performance you can along with the features you crave.