MSI Pro Z690-A DDR5 Motherboard

The MSI Pro Z690-A D5 Motherboard supports Intel LGA 1700 for 12th Gen Core, Pentium Gold and Celeron processors, features up to 4 x DDR5 memory slots, PCI-E 5.0, 3.0 compatible expansion slots, 4 x M.2 slots, 6 x SATA ports (6GB/s), 8 x rear USB ports (1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 4 x USB 2.0), Intel I225V 2.5G LAN, 8-Channel 7.1 HD audio codec and an ATX motherboard form factor.

Warning: This product contains a button battery - If swallowed, a lithium battery can cause severe or fatal injuries with 2 hours. - Keep batteries out of reach of children. - If you think batteries may have been swallowed or placed inside any of the body, seek immediate medical attention.

Features

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User Friendly Design

MSI motherboards feature tons of convenient and smart design for DIY users, countless system tuning and troubleshooting tools are at your disposal to push your system to new heights and satisfy even the most demanding tweaker. Makes it so easy to install your own motherboard without any issue.

Cooling

Extended Heatsink Design - Thermal Solution for More Cores and Higher Performance

With more cores’ processors, thermal and power design is more important to make sure the temperature keeps lower. MSI extended PWM heatsink with 7W/mK thermal pad ensures even high-end processors to run in full speed with MSI motherboards.

M.2 Shield FROZR

World’s fastest SSDs can start to lower performance when getting hot. Part of the motherboards heatsink design, M.2 SHIELD FROZR is the next generation M.2 thermal solution to avoid this by offering the best thermal protection to make sure that SSD maintains maximum performance.

With MSI M.2 Shield Frozr

• Prevents throttling
• Maximizes drive performance
• Higher maximum SSD speeds

Fully Fan Control - Fully Controllable in BIOS and Software

MSI motherboards let you manage speeds and temperatures for all your system and CPU fans. Total Fan Control allows you check your primary system characteristics in a simplified graphical interface. You can also set up to 4 temperature targets for CPU and motherboard, which will adjust the fan speeds automatically.

Autodetect DC or PWM Mode with Hysteresis

MSI fan headers automatically detect fans running in DC or PWM mode for optimal tuning of fan speeds and silence. Hysteresis also makes your fans spin up fluently to make sure your system stays silent, no matter what.

MSI:

• Smooth fan speeds
• Smooth sound levels

Others:

• Spiking fan speeds
• Annoying sound levels

FROZR AI Cooling

Detecting CPU & GPU temperatures and automatically adjusting fan duty of system fans to a proper value by adopting MSI AI ENGINE.

• Performance mode
• Silent mode
• Manual mode

Pump Fan Ready - Optimized for Water Cooling

Designed to support the most popular All-In-One & customized water cooling solutions on the market, a dedicated water pump PIN header gives you full control of the water pump speed. A clearly marked ‘keep-out-zone’ allows for easy and safe installation and a perfect fit.

Design

EZ Debug LED

Ran into trouble? Onboard LEDs for key components will indicate the source of the problem so you know exactly where to look to get it up and running again.

XL Clip

The enlarged PCI-E clip helps you swap or remove your devices easier. Keep the PCI-E slot stronger and safer.

EZ M.2 Clip

MSI innovative EZ M.2 clip assist you install an M.2 SSD quickly and effortlessly.

Keep Out Zone

MSI motherboards circuitry ensure the case standoff keep out zones are pure and clean, preventing any component contact or damage to the motherboard.

Avoid Collision Notification

Protective paint is printed around each screw hole to prevent parts from being scratched.

* Please ensure to remove the unnecessary mounting stand-off when installing the motherboard into the case.

Atypical PCB - Easy to Arrange Your Cables

Not clever at cable arrangement? MSI Atypical PCB design not only the identity of stylish but also makes SATA and USB cable routing easier. Arranges cable neatly even you are not familiar with system build.

Compatibility

• 12th Processors Support
• Extreme Stability & Compatibility Testing for Memory
• Windows 11 Certified

Reliable Components

PCB Design

The PCB design has been optimized for higher bandwidth and faster transfer speeds, which is also beneficial for reliable circuit transmission.

• 6 PCB layers
• IT-150 Server-grade PCB material
• 2oz Thickened Copper

Steel Armor - Fortify Your System with PCIe Steel Armor

MSI PCI Express Steel Armor slots are secured to the motherboard with extra solder points and support the weight of heavy graphics cards. When every advantage in games counts, Steel Armor shields the point of contact from electromagnetic interference.

Double ESD Protection - Ultimate Motherboard Protection

Double ESD protection doubles up the grounding layer around the mounting holes, preventing static discharge surges from damaging the motherboard.

Connectivity

The most important thing of DIY is expandability. MSI PRO series motherboards feature plenty possibility for prosumers' need. Stable LAN, faster storage and USB transfer speed and other expandable connectors are ready to enlarge your flexibility.

LAN

2.5G LAN - High-Bandwidth and Low-Latency Network

2.5Gbps LAN provides incredible data transfer speed faster than general Gigabit LAN. This is a premium solution for demanding users.

LAN Manager - Optimize Online Gaming Traffic for Lower Latency!

MSI LAN Manager automatically classifies and prioritizes the latency-sensitive applications, giving you the best online experience with low latency.

• Allows you to change applications' traffic priority
• Allows you to customize bandwidth for each application

Lightning Speed

SMT PCIe 5.0 Slot

MSI motherboards adopted the advanced SMT(Surface Mount Technology) PCI-E slot to diminish interference and electrical noise, fully supporting higher bandwidth and faster transfer speeds of PCI-E 5.0 signal.

Lightning Gen 5 PCIe

MSI Lightning Gen 5 PCI-E represents the bandwidth of a x16 interface to 128GB/s, which is double of the speed of the previous generation.

Storage Overview - Fast and Future-Ready Storage

MSI PRO series motherboards support all the latest storage standards, which allows users to connect any ultra-fast storage device. Higher efficiency makes your work easier.

Optane

Optane - Boost Your HDD to Perform Like an SSD

PC Enthusiasts can now enjoy the performance of an SSD on their HDD by coupling it with the new Intel® Optane™ Memory device. Intel® Optane™ technology provides an unparalleled combination of high throughput, low latency, high quality of service, and high endurance.

USB

Lightning USB 20G - Maximize Your USB Device Performance

Read and write your files over USB faster than ever. MSI PRO series motherboards offer a wide variety of options to connect and boost your USB devices, delivering 20Gbps transferring speed by reversible Type-C.

USB Front Type-C

MSI motherboards support USB Front Type-C that allows gamers to connect with the latest USB devices. Built up a system with MSI PC case to have the most convenient experience.

Other Expansion

Synchronize with Ease

Extend Your RGB Experience with Ease - Mystic Light Extension

Add more colour if you want! Mystic Light Extension pin header provides an intuitive way to control additional RGB strips and other RGB peripherals added to a system, without needing a separate RGB controller.

• JRGB
• JRAINBOW

Extend Your RGB Experience with Ease - Ambient Devices Support

Wireless devices are also controllable by using MSI Centre. Ambient Link perfectly synchronizes MSI Mystic Light products with on-screen gaming and scenarios, as well as the compatible lighting accessories. Bringing you the most immersive and realistic experience.

Experience More

MSI PRO series motherboards are designed to satisfy any professional workflow. Elevate your listening pleasure and enjoy extreme sound quality. Moreover, with years of experience in creating performance enhancing tools that are easy to use, only the highest quality applications are at your disposal. The extensive features let you fine-tune your system to deliver reliable maximum performance.

Performance

14 + 1 +1 Power Design

Unleash and sustain maximum performance with an aggressive VRM design built with a total of 14 digital CPU power phases. Combining 2x 8-pin power connectors and exclusive Core Boost technology, PRO series motherboard is ready to sustain heavy daily work.

• 2x 8-Pin - CPU Power connectors
• 14 - Duet Rail CPU Power System
• 1 phase - GT Power
• 1 phase - AUX Power
• Digital PWM IC
• Load-line Calibration
• Overvoltage Protection

DDR5 - Latest DDR5 Memory

MSI OC LAB does not merely work hard on extreme overclocking. The XMP memory profile has great improvement on performance and efficiency for Z690 . Easy to enable XMP profile with auto power settings to get the best memory speed and stability.

SMT Slot - SMT DDR5 Memory Slot

The advanced SMT(Surface Mount Technology) welding process reduces the defect rate of slot solder joints, electromagnetism, and interference. Combining with exclusive Memory Boost technology allows MSI motherboards to deliver the clean and pure high-frequency DDR5 signal.

Core Boost

Core Boost technology combines MSI's premium layout and optimized power design which allows for faster and undistorted current delivery to the CPU at pin-point precision. Not only supporting multi-core CPU, also creating the perfect conditions for your CPU overclocking.

Audio

Audio Boost

• Dedicated High Definition Audio Processor - Make sure you enjoy the purest sound quality in both stereo and surround sound.
• High Quality Audio Capacitors - A high fidelity sound experience with exceptional acoustics and realism for studio level headphones is ensured.
• HD Audio Connectors - Keep you sound perfect by transmit your audio with pure digital signal.

Isolated Audio Signal

• Isolated Audio Design - Like a dedicated sound card, audio components and circuits have been laid on a reserved motherboard section and electrically isolated.
• Separated Audio Layers for Clean Left & Right Channels - Using separated layers in the PCB ensures equally pristine sound quality for both left and right audio channels.

De-POP Protection

Audio Boost protects your ears by eliminating those annoying loud popping sounds when you plug/unplug devices or turn your PC on/off.

BIOS & Software

MSI Centre

MSI brand new MSI Centre unifies a suite of MSI software utilities into a single centralized application. Take control of advanced motherboards features and unleash endless possibilities.

• Mystic Light - Create your own colourful masterpiece with ease. Splash any colour you want with just a few clicks!
• True Colour - Optimized monitor’s brightness and colour in several modes for different situation, you can also customize by yourself.
• Live Update - Never miss out on important updates. MSI Live Update automatically downloads and installs the latest drivers, BIOS and software so you can focus on your work.
• User Scenario - One click for setting your computer, even customize own profile as your preference.
• Hardware Monitoring - Get immediate access to your critical hardware information in real-time.
• Profile Setting - Tune select motherboard settings in the Profile Setting menu, where options to boost core performance and optimize system cooling are presented in an intuitive interface.
• Fan Centre - Assume complete control of your fans with Fan Centre. Set up to four CPU temperature targets and the motherboard will adjust fan speeds automatically.
• System Diagnosis - Restore and backup your MSI storage devices in one click to provide stable system usage, you can even monitor the storage status to prevent system crash or data missing.

Click BIOS 5

• EZ-Mode
• Advance Mode

Get more from a loaded BIOS designed for ease of use. Fine-tune the motherboard for gaming performance, efficiency, or overclocking world records!

• XMP- Choose from a preset XMP profile and automatically overclock compatible DDR memory.
• Creator Genie - Quickly overclock your CPU with a single button for more performance.
• M-Flash - Conveniently flash or upgrade the BIOS in a few minutes from the CMOS Setup Utility.
• Hardware Monitor - Get immediate access to your critical hardware information in real-time including temperature, memory capacity, clock speed, and voltage.
• Memory Try It - Get extreme speed out of your system memory and get more performance.
• Search & Favourites - A permanent search & favourite option in the top right corner moves you through the BIOS menus quickly.

Resizable BAR (Re-Size BAR)

Resizable BAR (Re-Size BAR) is an advanced PCI Express feature that enables the CPU to access the entire GPU frame buffer at once and improve performance.

*Function may differ due to version change. Please update the latest VBIOS/BIOS/Driver through MSI official website or consult service centre.

Security

System Safety

All MSI PRO series motherboards have SECURITY function in BIOS to protect every private files for no matter business or daily use.

Secure Boot

Secure boot is a security standard to make sure that a device boots using only software that is trusted. When the PC starts, the firmware checks the signature of each piece of boot software, including UEFI firmware drivers, EFI applications, and the operating system. The PC boots while the signatures are valid.