Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Master Motherboard Preview
Peter Donnell / 3 years ago
There are a lot of Z690 motherboards about to hit the market, and you can bet that Gigabyte will have their name on quite a lot of them. However, while the Gigabyte range of boards will range from affordable to their high-end gaming motherboards, their AORUS branded hardware is truly next-level. They only put the AORUS branding on the best of the best hardware, and that’s certainly true of the Z590 AORUS MASTER, one of their most extreme options for the new Intel Alder Lake launch. Of course, flagship hardware certainly won’t come cheap, but if you’re wanting to build a powerful gaming system, workstation or just get the most out of the latest Intel CPUs for any reason, then the AORUS MASTER has a lot to offer.
Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Master
Overclocking certainly won’t be an issue for the Z690 AORUS MASTER, thanks to its powerful 19+1+2 Digital Phases design, which should be more than enough to get some record-breaking performance from the new CPUs. Add to that a lot of flagship features, such as a PCIe® 5.0 x16, giving you some future-proofing, and also a pair of PCIe® 3.0 x4 for additional hardware. There’s also DDR5 support, for speed around 4800-5600MHz, but keep in mind, some Z690 boards only use DDR4, some only DDR5, so be sure not to mix them up. You get extremely fast networking here too, with the class-leading AQUANTIA 10 GbE LAN, paired with the fantastic Intel WiFi 6E 2.2 802.11ax hardware.
Features
- 19+1+2 Digital Phases (SPS 105A)
- 1 * PCIe® 5.0 x16 / 2 * PCIe® 3.0 x4
- PCIe 5.0
- 4 x DDR5 4800-5600
- 4 * Gen4 +1 Gen3 M.2
- ATX Form Factor
- AQUANTIA 10GbE LAN
- Intel WiFi 6E 2×2 802.11ax
- ALC 1220 + SABRE 9118EQ Audio
Check out the official Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Master product page here for more information.
Packaging & Accessories
The box looks fantastic, it’s nice and durable too, which is a good thing as my first impression was that it’s also heavy, which I suspect is mostly the motherboard within.
You can clearly see on the box, it’s an LGA 1700 motherboard, With PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support. However, the back of the box really cuts into the good hardware details quite quickly, showing you what you have, where it is and what it does, making it easy to find out what the board has to offer in a retail setting.
In the box, you’ll find all of the usual documentation, as well as that awesome collection of stickers.
All of the components are individually wrapped, which seems a bit wasteful to me. However, you’ve got some quality SATA cables, RGB extensions, M.2 screws, WiFi antenna, etc. Basically, everything you need to get set up and rocking with your new motherboard.
Motherboard Overview
This is easily one of the better-looking motherboards I’ve seen. It still has some design traits of the older Z590 Master, but this is clearly a lot more high-end, more robust, more… everything really. The heatsinks alone, especially the one to the left of the CPU, is significantly bigger. Plus, while there’s still a two-tone design, it’s basically black and slightly darker black now, vs the much lighter greys of the older models.
Getting the most out of the new Intel LGA 1700 CPUs shouldn’t be too difficult with this motherboard, as it features an impressive 19 VCORE Phases, 1 GCCGT Phase, and 2 VCCAUX Phases, running a 105A Power Stage with Tantalum Polymer Capacitors. Overall, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this board setting some serious performance records. Plus, with their NanoCarbon Fins-Array III heatsinks, which certainly look great, but really offer some serious cooling performance to that powerful VRM configuration.
Power is obviously a big focus here, and you’ll find two shielded and armoured 8-pin PSU headers, ensuring you get more stable voltages to the CPU.
Keep in mind, not all Z590 motherboards are DDR5, some stick with DDR4. However, DDR5 does seem to be on pretty much all the high-end solutions, such as those from AORUS. All four slots are armoured and come with the latest XMP 3.0 support. Furthermore, in the top right corner, you’ll find a master power button, as well as a handy little BIOS Debug LED.
There’s quite a lot of heatsink on this motherboard, with this larger section running all the way from the bottom right, covering the main chipset, right up to the M.2 heatsink below the CPU and pushing up against the VRM heatsinks at the top left. It’s a lot of raw materials, and it certainly adds a lot of weight to the board, but that mass will soak up a lot of heat and radiate it away from your hardware. The M.2 block at the top has an even larger cooler, with Thermal Guard III, while further M.2 mounts are located under the shroud between the PCIe slots. There’s a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot at the top, with a pair of armoured PCIe 3.0 slots at the bottom for additional connectivity.
Interestingly, there are five gold-plated jacks for audio, as the AORUS Pro and XTREME have a more focused Line Out and Mic In only. However, much like the other AORUS boards, USB connectivity is extremely robust, with 11 UYSB 3.2 ports including those USB Type-C ports. Networking is fantastic too, with the blistering speed of the AQUANTIA 10 GbE LAN combined with the extremely fast Intel WiFi 6E 2×2 802.11ax wireless.
Finally, all that heatsink on the front is one thing but add in their NanoCarbon Baseplate and this huge slab of metal around the back. While this does improve the cooling performance, it keeps the motherboard rigid, allowing them to attach all that heavy metal on the front, without breaking the whole thing in two under its own weight.
Price and Availability
At the time of writing, pricing was not available, but we expect some early pre-orders may appear. Of course, we’ll update you with full retail links and pricing information in our full reviews. However, you can check Amazon UK for stock of the latest Z690 motherboards here, as well as the latest Alder Lake series of processors from Intel here. Alternatively, you can check Scan Computers here. Keep in mind, they may not be in stock just yet, so keep checking back around the time of launch.
My guesstimated price for this motherboard is – EXTREMELY HIGH
Overview
The latest Intel CPUs are almost here, and of course, that means this motherboard, along with many others from all the major brands and a few of the minor ones, are about to hit the market. While I can’t give you too many details right now due to the various NDA’s that we have to comply with, I do hope these previews give you some idea of what to expect, or at least, some indication of which board you may want to purchase on launch day. Of course, when the NDA passes, which is very soon, I might add, we’ll have full written and video reviews of all the boards we’ve previewed, and perhaps a few surprises beyond that too.
Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake
Of course, to use these new motherboards, you’ll need a new Intel 12th Gen processor, better known as Alder Lake. These will launch in the usual K and KF variants, although many more are expected to launch between now and the first part of 2022; no doubt after CES 2022 in Las Vegas, where Intel will undoubtedly have a strong presence. Of course, we’ll have reviews of the appropriate CPUs alongside the launch of these motherboards.
DDR4 or DDR5?
Well, this is an interesting one, as while you absolutely will need a new CPU, you may or may not need new memory. Out of the 90+ Z690 motherboards hitting the market this year, some of them will stick with the well-known DDR4 memory format. However, many of the more enthusiast and high-end performance motherboards will adopt DDR5 instead. Interestingly, some motherboards may be available with a choice of one or the other, making for a pretty interesting transition between the two technologies. Be sure to check this specification when ordering, as it’d suck if you had the wrong memory! Of course, you can expect us to push forward with DDR5 reviews in the near future, too.
Show Me More!
Want to find out more about the upcoming Z690 products? Here’s a complete list of all the previews we have available for you right now! Plus, if there’s a preview of it, we guarantee there will be a full review with performance figures come launch day. Enjoy!
ASUS
- ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME Motherboard Preview
- ASUS TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 Motherboard Preview
- ASUS ROG Z690-I Gaming WiFi Motherboard Preview
- ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO Motherboard Preview
Gigabyte
- Gigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME Motherboard Preview
- Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Master Motherboard Preview
- Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Pro Motherboard Preview
MSI
Intel
- Intel 12th Gen CPUs, Z690 and DDR5 Preview
