For Intel Alder Lake CPUs, all top motherboard manufacturers have prepped up at least one Z690 board that costs north of $1000 US, for ASRock, it's their Aqua series.
ASRock Z690 Aqua Series Motherboards Hit Retail For Over $1000 US, OC Variant Costs $1399 US
The ASRock Z690 Aqua has been listed for a retail price of $1299.99 US while the OC variant which has more tuning options for enthusiasts & overclockers is priced at $1399.99 US. Both boards are outfitted with a custom water block which should provide better cooling performance however, it also adds to the cost of each board. With that said, ASRock's Aqua series features the lowest price of all flagship water-block-equipped motherboards. Competitors such as the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme Glacial and Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Xtreme Waterforce cost $1999.99 & $1899.99 US, respectively.
Even non-water block Z690 motherboards, such as the MSI Z690 GODLIKE, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme cost north of $1000 US but it's the GODLIKE that wins the round for being the most expensive Z690 motherboard of all time with a price tag of $2099 US.
Both Aqua series motherboards are factory fitted with the latest overclock-ready BIOS for the Intel Core i9-12900KS which will push performance further through the Enhanced Thermal Velocity Boost technology. The Intel Core i9-12900KS will be the fastest Alder Lake CPU with a maximum core clock of 5.5 GHz and 5.2 GHz across all P-Cores. Overclockers are really going to push the Intel Alder Lake CPUs to the next level using the ASRock Z690 Aqua OC motherboard. The standard Aqua is expected to launch on 28th January while the Aqua OC variant will be launching on the 4th of February. Currently, both of these motherboards are available for pre-order through various retail outlets such as Newegg. You can check out more information regarding ASRock's Aqua series motherboards here.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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