Review EVGA Z690 Classified Review: Declassified Class

[Admin]

The EVGA Z690 Classified sports three M.2 sockets and eight SATA ports, a last-gen premium audio codec, Intel-based 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 6E. Priced at $629.99, it’s capable, but other less-expensive options may be better.

EVGA Z690 Classified Review: Declassified Class : Read more

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Along the right edge, we run into eight SATA ports, which is one area where this board has more than most of the competition. The Classified supports RAID0/1/5/10 modes for SATA if you’re looking for redundancy or striping (or both). In all, you can run all eight SATA ports and all three M.2 sockets concurrently (you just lose the bottom PCIe slot).

Am I the only one who just doesn't understand why 8 or even 6 SATA ports are included on motherboards, especially higher end motherboards, in 2022? If you're going to buy a $600+ motherboard, you likely have a pair or triplet, or even a quartet, of high capacity NVMe drives and probably don't have any SATA drives. Seems to me that bandwidth could be put to better use...