Leading motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte recently launched a pre-order page for their X299 motherboards. The X299 chipset is used Intel’s high-end desktop platform and delivers the fastest performance on any system yet. The Gigabyte motherboards themselves were unveiled at Computex a few weeks ago to the press. Three boards are listed on the pre-order page and they are all from the high-end Aorus line. Additional bonus gifts are available for those who pre-order including a HyperX Cloud headset, a Steam voucher code or CPU bundle discounts. The best part is that qualification is automatic upon pre-order. Users must purchase any of the AORUS X299 motherboards between June 19th to June 25th to qualify.
The Gigabyte X299 AORUS Gaming 3 motherboard is the entry level model. That does not mean that it lacks features however, since the AORUS brand is a high-end label after all. Plus, the X299 platform is for high-end use, so it comes at a premium. During our visit to Computex, Gigabyte mentioned that all three motherboards share the same digital VRM design. All three boards also utilize 25KV ESD and 15KV surge LAN protection.
The Gaming 3 has the usual RGB Fusion support, now with added digital LED and RGBW compatibility. Two PCIe x16 slots are re-infroced with shielding and have RGB LEDs. It has two M.2 slots supporting NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 and USB 3.1 Gen2 via ASMedia 3142. Networking is by an Intel Gigabit LAN controller and audio is handled by a Realtek ALC1220. The audio subsystem itself uses Nichicon and WIMA audio capacitors.
The X299 AORUS Gaming 7 takes the features of the Gaming 3 and improves upon it further. It adds Killer Gigabit Ethernet and Killer 2×2 802.11ac Wireless AC1535. This is in addition to having an Intel GbE LAN gaming network. The dual Killer solution also adds Killer DoubleShot Pro support, teaming the two for faster and more efficient network performance. All the DIMM slots and the PCIe x16 slots have armor and RGB LEDs. The audio solution is also upgraded further with the addition of an ESS SABRE reference DAC and independent analog power. All the analog audio jacks have also been upgraded with gold plating to resist oxidation over time.
The flagship X299 AORUS Gaming 9 takes all the features of the Gaming 7 and takes it to 11. All M.2 slots now have heatsinks and there are three of them available. One is directly below the CPU socket, one is below the PCIe slot and one is below the chipset heatsink. The audio subsystem is also further improved. A Texas Instruments Burr-Brown Audio OPA1622 and 3x LE49720 with a Savitech auto impedance sensor are onboard. Left and right analog signals are processed separately for optimal transmission and stereo sound quality. A Texas Instruments TPS series regulator is also used for providing clean power and an NEC UC2 anti-pop relay is also added to the circuit.
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