Packaging and Accessories

The Maximus Z690 Extreme comes in a big and heavy box and being an ROG product it does, of course, have their black and red theme with a flat black background and the red trim at the bottom as well as on the ROG logo in the top left corner. Asus has used glossy black and some dark grey on top of the flat black finish to put multiple ROG logos and sayings in the background as well as a large logo up in the top right area. But the model name itself has a holographic reflective finish on it for it to stand out. Then down along the bottom, they have the Asus logo and a few badges to give hints at some of the features like the WiFi 6E logo and the required stuff from Intel to show which CPUs it supports. Then around on the back, they have the black background again with red as accents around multiple pictures. They have a photo of the entire Maximus Z690 Extreme as well as closer zoomed-in pictures of different features. There is also a partial specification listing here as well to give you a hint as to what the board has to offer. 

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The box opens up and has the ROG logo featured with “for those who dare” under it. Then right on top, you can see the Maximus Z690 Extreme sitting under a clear plastic cover. I dig how they showcase the board and you get a proper unboxing experience by being able to see it right away rather than having it in a static bag. The board sits in its cardboard tray which you can pull out and under that, there are multiple compartments where Asus has tucked away all of the accessories and documentation that come with the Maximus Z690 Extreme, and trust me there is a LOT of stuff here.

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For documentation, there is a whole stack of papers. You get a thick user's manual of course. Along with it, there is an installation guide for the included ROG fan controller. You have a legal information page with the legal details and then a card welcoming you to the world of ROG. The user manual also has a full sheet of stickers tucked away inside as well. These have a reflective like finish and there is a whole variety of variations on the logo.

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There is a whole stack of small baggies. Four of them have small one-pin wires for the ROG True Voltician. There are a few with standoffs and screws for the M.2 slots and you even get an ROG logo-shaped case badge.

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The next big bundle of cables which was in its own section gets you the SATA cables of course which are all blacked out and have a weave sleeving over them. The sleeving is a big upgrade over the standard cheap SATA cables you get with most boards. The bag on the left has a few different addressable RGB cables. The Maximus Z690 Extreme comes with a few aRGB splitter cables as well as an extension cable as well.

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This is the ROG True Voltician that I mentioned before and this is an oscilloscope which can check and through the software display real-time voltage waveform curves. You can use the USB header on the side to plug it right into a header or the micro-USB plug to use a cable to put it to use.

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They have included some ROG swag for Maximus Z690 Extreme owners. You get a high-quality ROG keychain and a metal ROG branded GPU stand which is adjustable and has a padded tip on it.

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There is one section in the bottom half of the Maximus Z690 Extreme box that had foam with cutouts to hold the most delicate accessories. One of those is the wireless antenna which is the TUF style that I’ve seen with the last few generations of Asus motherboards that have onboard wireless. The antenna flips up and the base has rubber across the entire bottom to keep it from moving around too much. It also has a magnet built-in as well to stick it to your case if it is steel.

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Here is a look at the rest that was in the foam compartment. This section has an ROG screwdriver as well as the ROG branded USB drive which comes with the software and drivers installed.

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The device with a short cord is a DAC which is an interesting addition on top of having great onboard on the Maximus Z690 Extreme. The DAC has a Type-C connection and the sleeved cable. Then the plastic housing has ROG branding embossed all over it and a light-up RGB logo as well. It can work with your PC or with a mobile phone which is what the switch on the side is for. Then on the end is the standard 2.5mm headphone jack for headphone and microphone hookup.

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The Maximus Z690 Extreme of course comes with a DIMM.2 riser card and this is a newer version that supports PCIe 4.0 on both of its M.2 sockets. This version also comes with a thick blacked-out aluminum heatsink as well to keep everything matching once you install your M.2 drives. This installs in a slot on the Maximus Z690 Extreme that is similar to a RAM DIMM but is designed for the Dimm.2 and the riser card gives the Maximus Z690 Extreme two more M.2 slots on top of the three other M.2 slots on the board.

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Last up is the ROG fan controller but it does more than add additional FAN headers. It has a black metal housing with the ROG logo on top and has connections running up both sides. Every other plug is a PWM fan header and the connections between those are all addressable RGB headers which adds an impressive amount of lighting if you should need it. On the end, there is a USB plug and the power connection as well as one ARGB-in header. Then the two small two-pin connections are both for thermistors. For those really crazy builds this is a cool addition, the Maximus Z690 Extreme itself already comes with 8 fan headers on the board, three addressable RGB, and three thermistor headers so it’s going to take some crazy builds for this to come into play at all.

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