Aorus Z390 I Pro WiFi Mini-ITX Motherboard Review
Peter Donnell / 6 years ago
A Closer Look
My first impression of this motherboard is a very good one, as it’s clearly very nicely designed. I wouldn’t expect anything less either, given how the Aorus z390 ATX models we have reviewed were some of the best looking and best performing models out there. Just like the bigger models, the MOSFET and VRM heatsinks are pretty hefty, and there’s also a huge M.2 heatsink on the lower section of the motherboard.
The CPU uses a 6+2 Power Phase design, but there’s quite a lot of capacitors all over this motherboard. It looks like the RAM, the M.2, the PCIe, and pretty much every power route on this board is filtered, reinforced and tuned for stability and overclocking. Of course, that’s no bad thing, this motherboard looks properly robust for a mini-ITX model.
Connections
Tucked up on the top row, you’ll find a USB C header, the CPU power connection, and a nice bundle of 4-pin fan headers for your cooling needs.
The right sides not exactly lacking in connections either. Here you will find the usual 24-pin power connection, front panel USB 2 and 3, and plentyy of SATA ports too. There’s also an addressable RGB header tucked in there too.
More Metal!
Modern GPUs are super long and heavy, so I’m always happy to see a metal reinforce PCIe bracket. The motherboard can only take so much strain, and this will prevent a lot of that flexing happening. Of course, the DIMM slots are reinforced too, which is great. Not only do these improve reliability, I think they look pretty fantastic too.
The audio hardware is pretty much as good as it gets too. You’ll find the award-winning and fantastic sounding ALC1220 chipset onboard, as well as some Nichicon Gold Capacitors driving the audio.
On the rear I/O, you’ll find five standard audio jacks, as well as the optical out. Of course, there’s more here than that, with a bank of USB 3.0 ports, as well as a Gen 2, and a Type-C. There’s also Gb LAN, Wi-Fi, HDMI, and DP.
