Published: April 30, 2020 | Source: Gigabyte | Author: Tom Logan

Gigabyte Z490I Aorus Ultra Preview

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Up Close in Detail

Naturally things are a little tighter on an ITX motherboard, but with so much on the CPU and Chipset these days there is a lot more room for the designers to place things in useful spots, and the Aorus Ultra ITX is a perfect example of this. Starting off with an 8 pin CPU power input right next to the CPU fan header.

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Moving along and we have three fan headers, all with extra cables as you can see in the second of this pair of photos. You can also see how close to the edge the ATX 24pin is. Not a millimetre spared.

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We usually mark motherboards down if they have vertical SATA ports, but ITX boards get a pass for simple space reasons. Squeezing four on, in these ‘all the USB headers and some RGB’ days is a good effort. On that subject, USB 3.2. But you’ve already read that haven’t you.

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Whoo for the modern, and infinitely more user-friendly new style USB header. No bent pins. No wiggling about. Click, go. The R&D people don’t get nearly enough credit for making USB so damn simple.

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Wrapping up the tour, even if the Aorus Ultra ITX is almost entirely visible in every photograph, with the braced PCI Express slot at x16, sitting next to the Realtek ALC1220-VB audio with DTS:X Ultra support.

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The chipset heatsink which also shows off the Aorus logo in the photo above has this sitting below it. No comment.

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Although we’ve mentioned it briefly before, beneath that monster of a heatsink is the Direct 8 Phase Digital VRM with 90A Smart Power Stage and Tantalum Polymer Caps. Impressive for such a little motherboard. Little jockey, big whip indeed.

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