Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master Review

Up Close continued

At the top right we have the onboard power and reset switches, as well as BIOS selectors, monitoring points for your voltages and the all important cooling headers.

  

The ATX power has remained – similarly to the Xtreme – in a horizontal mount, infinitely better for keeping the inside of your case looking as clean as possible, which has additional benefits to airflow and thus the temperature of your system. It’s just better all round.

  

You need all the SATA ports you can get, so thankfully the Aorus Master has eight giving you plenty of flexibility. It’s a word that often springs to mind when looking at the Aorus Master. Options.

  

At the bottom right there are yet more pump and fan headers, as well as a sensor for the noise level of your fans if you prefer to keep your system silent at all times. The USB header on the left we’ll look at below.

  

At the bottom edge we find the usual collection of USB extension headers, here in two USB 3.2 forms alongside the more usual USB 2.0 headers. On the far left you can see two more pump and fan headers, giving you plenty of cooling flexibility.

  

At the bottom left hand corner we find the ALC4050H and ALC1220-VB combination that supplies your audio. We always feel that the quality of onboard audio is taken for granted these days. It wasn’t all that long ago that “onboard audio” was a pejorative term that guaranteed crackly, gutless miserable listening and was instantly replaced by a genuine soundcard. These days the audio is so good that nobody thinks twice about using it.

  

Lastly around the back we have all the input and output options a modern user requires from USB 3.2 Gen2 to CMOS clearing and dual LAN ports sitting alongside the Intel WiFi 6 802.11ax wireless antennae. There is even a little bit of mesh to exhaust some of the heat from the monstrous power phases.