12th Gen Intel Core processors use the LGA 1700 socket, so you'll need the best Intel LGA 1700 motherboard to match, which also includes Z790 whilst being compatible with 13th and 14th Gen as well. That means a lot of choice and room for future upgrades. Here's a roundup of the best LGA 1700 Z690 motherboards available in 2024 with a broad selection for your Alder Lake CPU, from money-saving budget options to high-end premium performance and a mixture of RAM support.
Best overall
This is a killer board from MSI and comes highly rated by Windows Central. Simple overclocking in the BIOS means pushing your Alder Lake CPU to its limits. On top of two PCIe Gen5 slots and five M.2 sockets, it has DDR5 memory and Wi-Fi 6E support.
Hidden Gem
In what looks like one of the cleanest all black motherboards out there, the MSI MEG Unify Gaming on the Z690 platform has it all. An aluminum cover, VRM heat pipe and double-sided M.2 Shield Frozr for an outstanding cooling solution. There's a whopping five M.2 slots along with an abundance of I/O, Wi-Fi 6E and dual 2.5G LAN. The perfect board for future 13th/14th Gen upgrades and at a fantastic price. It really doesn't get much better than this.
Best alternative
Dropping to Wi-Fi 6 instead of 6E, the AORUS Pro is a great alternative. Supporting DDR5 memory and sporting four M.2 sockets, this is another board well suited for overclocking with reliable VRM temperatures. Coupled with 13 USB ports total, the AORUS Pro is feature-rich.
Compact contender
ASUS includes Wi-Fi 6E, PCIe 5.0, and two M.2 sockets in this fantastic Mini-ITX motherboard, plus two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports for faster-than-ever external storage devices. Standing tall next to its larger counterparts, this is a great compact option.
Budget alternative
A space-saving budget option from Gigabyte that also sticks with DDR4 RAM support, but you still get an M.2 SSD socket and a 2.5G LAN port. It's a barebones but reliable board that'll handle an entry-level PC built around an LGA 1700 socket CPU.
All-rounder Z790
If you'd rather go for the latest features such as WiFi 7, front and rear USB-C 3.2 and lots of I/O, then this Z790 board will be right up your street. Featuring twin 16+1+2 phases digital VRM solution and four PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives, this motherboard supports 12th/13th/14th Gen Intel CPUs out of the box.
Choosing the best Intel LGA 1700 motherboard
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12th Gen Intel Alder Lake CPUs have, of course, been around for a couple of years now, but the LGA 1700 chipset has been used in the motherboards for their 13th Gen Raptor Lake and 14th Gen Meteorlake CPUs. This offers a great upgrade path if you're looking at buying a Z690 motherboard for the 12th Gen in 2024, but you need to choose the right motherboard if you want to take full advantage of those upgrades.
Included in this list is a solid all-rounder Aorus Elite X Z790 motherboard for those definitely looking at a later CPU upgrade or those after the niceties such as WiFi-7 and extra I/O. A higher-end Z690 will still be the better option if you want to have fun with overclocking or running some other intensive productivity task. It's still one of the best motherboards available, but there are more Z790 alternatives to look at if you so wish. This is a reminder as well that Intel's next gen CPUs arriving in 2024 will not be supported on LGA 1700 chipset motherboards.
