Intel W680: Now with Official Overclocking Support for CPU & Memory
On the whole, there isn't much difference between the W680 and Z690 chipsets when comparing technical specifications. This includes package size (both are 28 x 25 mm), USB, PCIe, and storage support, but interestingly there's a new addition to Intel's latest desktop workstation chipset. This 'new' inclusion is official support for overclocking, which is something both of the previous W-series chipsets – W580 and W480 – omitted.
While the last couple of W-series chipsets allowed users to overclock the memory on supported processors, Intel has opened this up to unlocking the core frequency when combined with its K-series processors on W680. And while this functionality is appreciated, it's admittedly unlikely users will want to significantly overclock an already hot running and high-powered Alder Lake processor, especially on a motherboard that doesn't have a robust power delivery system like Z690 motherboards do.
The point to this is Intel is giving users a choice, and while it sounds nonsensical in practice, it's a pretty big move for conservative Intel.