This Z690 Motherboard is nuts! EVGA Z690 KINGPIN 

the yellow audio capacitors are a flex and are much appreciated. also, they're one of the only components that make it still look like a motherboard with all the beauty plates on boards these days. in guitars and amps foil caps and orange drop caps are juicy. they're using actual nice caps!

I think the two 90' power adaptors with the cables going up and down a couple inches in perfect parallel alignment would be way cool looking. You're missing an opportunity here, Jay.

When I started building my own pc's it was with Athlon, yes a long time ago, and I bought a DFI Lan Party which was considered top end at that time. That board is still brought out and used every now and again for projects. These high end boards LAST, their value is in the buyers eyes and the use they will be put into. I could never afford a board of that class these days but, I do appreciate the value and intellectual commitment that goes into producing them. Terry from Australia.

Hi Jay, I have the EVGA Z490 Dark and it's very good. Having the blank stand off PCB is very handy as well. Just using it without the stand offs is helpful. It's much easier to see what and where everything is on the actual board and it can be tentatively mounted in the PC case to see clearances and exactly how radiators, fans and everything is going to lay out on installation. My next PC will also have an EVGA Dark board.

Glad EVGA are back with the Classified series but the kingpin one is just insane. I love EVGA stuff ❤️

Ran an original SR-2 back in the day (on channel), then an EVGA X79, and now an X299 Dark. They've been just absolutely rock-solid, awesome boards. Not only in build quality but in 24/7 EVGA technical service should I ever have to call them plus accessories provided and quality manuals. I've also been a fan of ASUS stuff too but all personal boards have been EVGA for awhile now. Glad to see them continue this tread of just making awesome stuff!

I love the detail of the removable covers for unused slots, but for how fancy this mother board is I wish they'd come up with something a little more satisfying than 1980s era DIM switches and dirt cheap bios ones.

T|n is no longer part of EVGA and hasn’t been for years after he moved from Taiwan to USA. T|n was an incredible asset for K|ngp|n products.

I have been debating building a new rig. What I'm using right now is six years old, but it holds up like it's brand new. I ... was excited with all of the new dropping throughout the year, making for a prime time to upgrade, but I may end up just waiting. Used my last rig for 10+ years. This one will likely last that long (or longer) if I let it.

I've had EVGA mobo's, PSU's, and GPU's for the last 10 years. Never had a bad componenent out of the box, customer support bar none has been the best. I love the options they give OC'ers and the sheer quality of components they use in their components.

I just bought an ROG z690 F and is by far the most expensive MoBo I’ve ever owned. It’s crazy what EVGA and ROG have come out with for the z690 chipset and having a 2k or more mobo is just nuts. If your not an experienced knowledgeable OCer then there’s just no rhyme or reason to get a mobo at this price point

I can't wait to see the next gen Amd boards . Going to be absolutely amazing !!!

I love the look of the EVGA boards, but they're a bit out of my price range. By "a bit" I mean a lot. I think the most I've spent on a MB is $130. Then again, I don't overclock, so I really don't need all the extra features.

And there is it in the background, star wars rebel build. One or two steps before completing the build, he ditched the project and never come back to finish it. But it stands in background of almost every video to remind us

I am so envious right now! What a beautiful set of boards. I’ve always loved EVGA stuff

The only thing it is missing is the PCI express quick release button - then it would probably be as perfect as it gets. I am very happy with my MSI B550 Unify x board - so I will hopefully stick with that for another few generations. These EVGA motherboards are really looking nice though.

Hey Jay! I got the Classified board a few weeks ago and am waiting to pick up some ddr5 for it then I should be able to start up my new build. I decided ultimately that I was gonna go with an EVGA build knowing that they have some of best looking and some of the best preforming products on the market so I went with the EVGA Z690 Classified like I mentioned before, a brand new but formerly discontinued EVGA DG-85 Case, EVGA 1000W G5 PSU, EVGA 360mm CLC, and Intel i9-12900k. For Mouse and Keybaord I went with EVGA's X20 Gaming Mouse and Z20 Gaming Keybaord. Parts left to be picked up are GSkills 2x16GB 6400mhz DDR5, a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro, 8x Lian Li Uni SL140 Fans, and finally for the mean time until 40 series hits I'm going to pick up EVGA's 3090ti FTW series card and i'm not sure whether or not I'll go with the Black series or Ultra series cards I have yet to decide!

If I would buy a motherboard in that pricerange i would go for the classified because as you said, the kingpin one is built for overclocking, and although i like the idea of it I'm not an overclocker myself. That being said I highly agree on the black and gold color-combination, it's s3xy af

I bought a $1400 motherboard end of last year. Expandability was my primary purchasing factor. My previous one was a server board for the number of SATA and memory ports, but I didn't want to go dual processor again. You're right - prices are insane.

I wouldn't doubt that those yellow caps are for the audio. If they 4 on the kingpin and 2 on the classified, you know someone is an audiophile that worked on that board. (Is the EVGA CEO a huge audiophile?)

I wish the DFI Lanparty boards were still around and building at this level

Perfect timing, need to upgrade my pc and love getting reliable input from seasoned and knowledgeable experts who know how to present.

"...the one thing we can't translate through video, is weight" it's called a scale.

My favorite & most stable PC builds through the years have been on EVGA motherboards. Watching closely for when I move away from X570

I bought the Aorus Tr40 Xtreme for threadripper but I needed the dual 10gbps, expendable 8sata and all those nvme slots. which was around 1k USD at the time I bought it, so yes expensive motherboards makes sense when they do. Those are really orientated towards professional overclocker, even enthusiast won't shell that much money unless they really are well-off. Those are limited runs motherboards really meant for 1 specific market. The only reasons I would buy those boards are for how high quality they are build, they are sure guaranties of lasting with those board in normal scenarios and they look really nice. But I would not be giving it justice.

Things I look for in a board 1. No RGB. 2. Ridiculously overkill power delivery. 3. Proper IOMMU isolation. 4. Plenty of fan headers. 5. Debug LEDs & Bios flashback. 6. Easy to use bios. 7. Long term reliability.

I followed Buildzoid's advice and went for the cheapest motherboard that still did what I wanted, so I ended up with a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro (this was before the Gigabyte PSU clusterf*ck btw). With that said, I wouldn't turn down an EVGA X570 Dark if it somehow found its way into my hands.

10:00 "No one should be using HD Audio" I use the HD Audio connector because that's what my case (Corsair Graphite 760T) has for the front panel headphone/mic ports instead of on the front panel pins. And looks like their current 4000/5000/7000 models are the same.

Still got my X58 classified board in the original box, was from my very first "all out" build.

I love that EVGA boards plug in from the side instead of facing up, it makes builds look soooo much cleaner, please don't make them change that!

That's a real juicy piece of hardware. Yet I feel I've become too old for this. All the work you put into your rig is rendered moot very quickly, and for a fraction of the price you get almost the same performance. I kinda envy everyone who (still) has the time and nerve for tinkering and otimizing. 'Good enough' has become the new optimal for me. Damn it.. age.. 😂

I have the Z690 Dark Kingpin. It’s an absolute monster of a board.

Out of interest I just checked on the price of this thing. The first site I saw (UK) had that Asus board at £1719 ($2155) then I checked this one and it was £668 ($839) and I though that's not too bad. Now I'm deciding which rock to use to beat my head against because I suddenly remembered that I was comparing motherboard prices! Buying the Kingpin board for anything other than it's intended purpose is just a waste of the guys design skills. A vanity build using that board would be a slap in the face to Vince and Tin.

I kinda wish I had the 90 degree wiring. My case is built in a way that would make it a lot cleaner with that set up.

I'm actually shocked at the Kingpin's price. Not that it's NOT EXPENSIVE, but with the Classy already being a $600 board I was fully expecting this at a $1000+, not to come in cheaper than both the ROG APEX and ROG Extreme. This price point and guaranteed quality of the Kingpin I'd definitely choose this over the competition.

Those look like Bennic caps. They are the best as far as I am aware. I work for an automotive speaker company that makes branded systems, we only use Bennics because they are the best. And they definitely will do caps in whatever color you want, we get them in different colors according to value. The yellow is either because EVGA is cheapening out (I doubt it would cost them any more for different colored caps) or they want them in yellow to show them off more.

I personally love the 90-degree 24-pin power connector. In fact if I had my choice, I would have EVERY motherboard have the power connector that direction. It just makes much more sense from a cable management perspective. Who would really choose a 24 pint connector sticking strait up out of the board just to loop back through a grommet than something that is much flatter laying? And, hell if someone was running custom water cooling pipes, that gives so, so, so much more room off to the right side of the board to run loops. Speaking of, I've always been baffled why GPU's stick their power connectors on the front-face of the cards, so now you have to run their power cables underneath and they just dangle under your card. I get they dont want to put them on the end of the long-edge of the board because if your case isn't deep enough, those cables might be hitting the front of your case and even get into your front fans/radiator. But hell I would stick them like underneath the board, way on the back edge where you can barely see them, the connectors sticking strait down, so like you can just quickly run the cables behind a grommet and you barely see them. I fucking hate cables and the less of them I see, the better. I dont care if they are braided and "pretty", I want them out of sight as much as possible!

I LOVE the look of the Kingpin. I don't really OC, but I'm tempted to get it for looks alone LOL.

Love EVGA boards. I have a Z97 Classified and an X99 Micro2 that I could still run, but I'd like to get a new Classified board to run with at some point. Pricing means maybe it'll be a b-stock pickup or near the end of the production life for the classifieds. Would LOVE an AMD classified option if EVGA is listening!

not to mention turning the sockets 90 degrees allows for better _(unobstructed, front to back)_ airflow.

I do like the Classified series myself! I still have the original Dark, the X79 Dark! Great board! Running a Xeon E5-1680-V2 @4.8GHZ all core!

We need another Overclocking competition with Steve and Paul, please Jay, that was a fun series on all 3 channels.

Jay, of course you can convey the weight of components. Just use a scale... But not any old bathroom scale! Do something cool, like an old-tyme merchant's scale. That way you can compare say, ridiculously massive gpu to another comparably girthy graphics card. Heck, you could even cross weight garden variety AIOs to see who's the whimpiest.

I was initially going to go with a Gigabyte X570 Xtreme board for my rebuild as I wanted to upgrade from my X470F-Gaming board from ASUS since I got a great deal on a 5800X. But after the whole Gigabyte exploding PSU issue and how they handled it....I dediced to go back to EVGA as well. But I picked up the X570 FTW board....and honestly, I could NOT be happier with my choice. It fits my needs and isn't too much board for me, and the EVGA service and ordering experience has been top notch!

High end mobo VRM is weird. Tons of phases and a giant heatsink when in reality with the amount of phases it has. You dont need a massive heatsink for it

Okay, so I'm still with EVGA CLASSIFIED SR-2 dual-socketed supermobo which made my decade and saved me the trouble of upgrading during all this time. Thinking about my next rig I couldn't help looking up what EVGA has to offer this time. Aaaand bingo, looks like I'm sticking with EVGA mobo for another (hopefully) ten years. Great board, offering great opportunities. Well said, you get what you pay for - for EVGA it's 100% true.

As an aside, TiN left EVGA in like, late 2019? No input past z490, I wanna say?

4:00 You could add an 90° Adapter onto the 90° 24 Pin to make a immediate 180° from the board

Thank you for the work that you do. You make is possible for many tech heads and gamers, to make something they can be proud of.

I currently have a Z590 MEG Unify (yes, 11th gen please don't judge me LoL) but it's the most expensive motherboard I've ever purchased for myself. I thought the $249 pricetag I paid on that was going "all out." These enthusiast boards are just beyond my reach.

this is clearly way too overkill for me, but i sure do love to see these over the top Designer Motherboards ...if it wasn't because the engineering required is most likely not worth it whatsoever, it would be neat if the boards allowed you to swap/install your choice of Conectors for these "F*ck you i have too much monney, time & know how" boards

Totally agree with you about the 90° ATX connector. At work we've been using the X299X Aorus Master. I really enjoy working with that board, the quality isn't always the best. But one of the main complaints that we had when using it was the difficulties our builders had in connecting the ATX power connector because of the difficulty in getting the connector bent into the routing grommets. However, since we have our cases custom fabricated for us, we just went back to the manufacturer and asked them to enlarge the hole to make it a little bit easier to run the ATX cable. It was a good solution for us, but it's definitely not one that most cases are built around. Especially in the EATX form factor

I'm so excited about all the upcoming products. I can't wait to see AMDs answer to Intels 12th gen. Then the new gpus launching. I hope AMD and Nvidia go in to a full blown gpu war. I think AMD is going to have a few tricks up their sleeves this year. It's going to be a great year for pc enthusiasts even if prices are high. I'm waiting until everything is out so I can choose the platform for my next build.

I'd buy it, along with a beautiful display case, wall mount it. Then just sit back and admire the craftsmanship. Imo those boards are just plain beautiful in there own sense.

if EVGA start producing Mini ITX version of such boards for both AMD & Intel platforms then I will 100% switch to EVGA.

yellow audio capacitors are baller! I love how excited people get over a $5 cap vs 10 cent cap.

EVGA boards always make me think "cool, but how about one that doesn't cost a small fortune?"

I love the EVGA stuff, and also love there doing AMD these days, but I really wish they would do itx boards more

There definitely is nothing wrong with being a fan of a brand! Blindly following and believing a brand that won’t admit to its faults and doesn’t handle customers issues with competency.

i love the m.2 layout. need more company to do this.

This is absolutely a beautiful motherboard, in fact its the only motherboard I have seen that makes me want to do a black PC build. This with an RTX 30/40 FE card would look amazing.

had the 980ti classified back in the days... i am super pumped about to the mobo to buy, a classified mobo loved that this is "back to the future" stuff.... hope EVGA is getting back to the roots with classified stuff......

Hope EVGA expands into ITX mobos in the future.

At first, when I saw those yellow capacitors in the photos, I thought it didn't match the board. But after receiving my Z690 Kingpin I've changed my mind. It's like a muscle car with fancy racing brake calipers I really liked the yellow accent on the board.

This is one sexy mobo. I used to buy cheap mobos until I finally forked out for higher end. My first foray into this "luxury" was an MSI Meg Ace Z390. Clearly not the best but sooooo much better than entry level boards. Beside looking fairly nice, it overclocks with ease, never runs too hot, and XMP actually works like it's supposed to (until this MOBO, XMP was mostly sketchy for me). I specifically bought used RAM, rated for very high clocks, that was panned in reviews for not actually overclocking automatically under standard XMP profiles. The person I bought it off of sold it to me for next to nothing because they could never get it to clock to it's max XMP rating. It worked on the MSI Meg, first try, and still running like clockwork after 3-years.

Holy crap, has technology taken flight. Just two years ago I upgraded to a 3950X with a 2070S. Different toggle switches for bios and different settings, the power ports have been relocated, this is pure insanity and I love it

You should do more of the LN2 chasing it was fun to watch. Even if you don't break any records or reach top score you never know what may happen. It's just fun to watch.

jay i really wish you would go back to LN2 over clocking. i really miss that content

What a beast, a beautiful board that I'll never be able to afford. Please put it through its paces so we can live vicariously through you Jay!

I still have an EVGA X58 Classified board running an i7 920 overclocked to 4.2 ghz all core (60% increase in core clock!). Thing is bullet proof been running that OC for almost 10 years. Just can't get rid of it. I don't use it for much anymore, other than mining and storage. Still one of the best boards I have ever owned and best PCs I have ever built.

For a 90 degree angle connector I would go ribbon connector style. Off the plug direct into ribbon. Just fold it to the direction(s). Hides away from cables and form fitting. We've been using them for decades.

Please give us an enthusiast level motherboard without a sound section for those of us who use external DAC's! All we need is a high quality USB audio passthrough. EVGA is a great company. I hope they make more motherboards.

Would be nice if rotated socket became standard as having the dimms above there would mean instead of blocking the CPU cooler fan and having front air just slam into them the air could slip between them and you could have bigger fans on lower height coolers, would also improve airflow over mobo for front intake. I think it would work as ITX only has 2 ram slots so wouldn't change height and for taller boards you could usually move the PCIEslots + CPU socket lower (maybe sacrificing one) without choking GPU or limiting compatibility too much (except I guess for expansion card andy's like me because I didn't get a built in wifi mobo)

The yellow caps is what sold the look for me hehe...looking forward to see which Z790 models come out

Absolutely I would buy that board. I've been looking at it a few times a week since it dropped, and now after this video I will start massaging the budget to allow for it. Amazing board

Often people have used right angle connectors when they felt they needed to in order to get by in tight layouts or corners.. and you can do the same there.. using a right angle connector could make it so the cables go right out the grommet holes..

They finally made a board pc builders have been wanting for years

With the customizable sleeves and lengths you can get for your power supply cables just have some one make you some 90° plugs for that motherboard. That would avoid the issue of case compatibility

I love the fact that this is the near future of all boards

I bought an Asrock motherboard that was over $600 US dollars, the Z270 Supercarrier. Supercarrier board in same sense as a Kingpin board. Basicly, like being the best of the best of all motherboard. Unfortunely, havn't seen any new Supercarrier board since the Z270. Hoping Asrock makes one with the Z670, or wait till Z770 to come out with a new one. I'm pretty sure you can still find this board on YT. I still own and use this board

Due to budget constrains high end motherboards like that are not possible for me. I stick to air cooling and running standard out of the box timings. Except for the memory, I set the bios to the correct speed and best timings for the memory. I feel the parts last longer. And i need a computer that is easy on the electricity. I will get the best pro-forming parts I can afford.

I can't wait to see what Evga has in store for AM5... It'll be a couple of years before I jump from AM4 since I still have a CPU upgrade (R-3000 to R-5000) possible, but I'll avoid the BIOS beta testing this time :)

Just ordered one yesterday, can’t wait for it to arrive. Going to be a huge upgrade over my 14 year old x58 motherboard with a i7 990x.

Nice to see the Classified name come back and expand on features, maybe its time to get a upgrade from my z87 classified

I have something you can test. I have both the Z690 Dark Kingpin, and a Z690 ROG Apex. Sadly, like most Apex owners have a bad memory slot that will only run under 6600. So I picked up the Dark Kingpin. The DKP has amazing memory overclocking, and I had no issues running my off the shelf g.skill kit at 7000C32 1T, but for whatever reason, I require much higher core voltages to run my 12900KS at the same clock speeds. I am not talking about a little change in voltage either; where I had no issue passing my CPU binning test (2 back to back passes CB R23; again, just is just for binning, not for stability) running 5.5/4.3/4.5 on the Apex at 1.32v bios for 1.27v under load, on the Z690 DKP I can't run 5.5 at all; at any voltage and 5.4/4.3/4.5 requires 1.312v under load to pass the same test. 40 mv of additional voltage for 100mhz lower P core clocks. Keep in mind, this is the exact same CPU, exact same memory (test is run at memory defaults), running the exact same test. Only thing that changed is the motherboard. Maybe you could test and ROG Apex / and the Z690 dark to see if your board has the same increased voltage requirements as my board. ~cheers

I miss my X299 Dark board. Epic board.

I went AMD/Asus Strix as it was what I could find in stock a year ago. That being said, this motherboard is awesome for the Intel CPUs for sure.

Can you make a video with normal boards wich are the best ones for amd and intel

JAY !!!!!! I AM SO HAPPY YOU MENTIONED THAT ONE DIMM PER CHANNEL IS THE MOST COMPATIBLE CONFIGURATION FOR OVERCLOCKING MEMORY!!! I HAVE BEEN TELLING THIS TO EVERYONE I KNOW FOR YEARS AND THEY ALL THINK I AM CRAZY!!! 😡 I AM SOOO HAPPY YOU BROUGHT THIS UP!!! 😎😎

Genuinely appreciate the work channels like yours put into this community. I learned everything I needed to know to make my current build from your videos and LLT. Thanks.

If both mobos were the same price & feature set … I’d go with the “Classified” aesthetics 🥰👍😇 over the Dark 😁🤩

I have been out of the scene for a bit. Building a 13th Gen system. Going i5 13600KF. Noticed this was on sale. Picked it up Tuesday. Feels good. I was initially going to get an ASUS board but after seeing EVGA cut ties with NVidia and the b.s. with the AM5 voltage issues/warranty/BIOS shenanigans, I decided to go back to my roots and support EVGA instead.

Heck yes As Soon as it hits Australian Shores I'll be all over it, Im about to build a new PC so Im happy to wait till it hits Australia to build it

I wish EVGA would make more budget Motherboards!!!

EVGA SR2, built in 2012, 1600W power supply, two Xeon 5690's, bricked a whole processor side by breaking one of the leaf pins the processor lays on during construction, Oh God that one did hurt. One, Quadro 5000 and a Tesla 2050 still kicking it with one 5690, 6 core, 12 thread running with 24G of ram. All inside a Lian Li case. Now It might be time to upgrade. Where are the PCIe lanes on the Kingpin for plugging in an Nvidia Volta and an RTX 8000?

I wish they made smaller format motherboards. I bet people would love mAtx and mini-Itx boards from Eva that also go ham on specs.

I would consider this board except that corsair dominator plats would have the "dominator" text upside down which at this price point is already sufficient to remove the board from further consideration.

but having the dimm slots at the top is really going to affect most cases especially if you like fitting radiators at the top with rgb fans

Kingpin wow thats cool. When he's not plotting against Spiderman he's making motherboards

Wow what a nice board. I love those yellow caps on the bottom left of the board!!