Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master X – Preview
Around the Board
Around the Board
At the top left of the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master X we find a tight squeeze between the VRM heatsinks with the two braced CPU power inputs and two – count them – system fan headers. Plenty of cooling possibilities is going to be a running theme here.
The top right corner gives us a closer look at the Nanocarbon coating on the VRM heatsink, as well as showing off the three fan headers that sit above the DIMM slots. Above the 7 Segment display is an ARGB header for the RGB Fusion ecosystem, whilst there is also a power button for easy testing.
Below the ATX 24 pink we find a front panel Type C USB connector as well as two of the more common USB 3.2 Type-A front panel connectors. Below those is the button which allows you to easily remove your graphics card from the primary PCI Express 5.0 slot without needing to poke a lollipop stick into the guts of your rig. It’s an excellent innovation and one we’re pleased to see on an increasing number of motherboards.
Next to the EZ-Latch that holds the heatsink in place are the four SATA ports for those of you with more cost-effective storage solutions, as well as two further fan headers and the Thunderbolt add-in card connector.
The bottom edge has a ton of things going on. There are the front panel connectors which attach all the important parts of your case to the motherboard and all you to bring it to life by pressing the switch. Hopefully in a Frankenstein manner with lightning going on outside. Along from that are some more fan headers including one that doubles as a pump header. Lastly in this picture the USB 2.0 headers that are mainly used to give you software control over the lighting on your AIO or other RGB devices.
Moving along we have another fan, a noise sensor, two ARGB headers as well as a regular RGB header, and the front panel audio for the ALC1220 and ES9118 audio solution built into the Z790 Aorus Master X. Above those it’s worth noting that all the PCI Express slots are braced, and the bottom two on this particular motherboard are PCI Express 4.0 ones. Excellent.
Underneath the spreading chestnut tree heatspreader we find four of the five total M.2 slots available on the Master X. Four of them are the already swift PCIe Gen4, whilst the other beneath the monster heatsink in the middle is the Gen 5 one, with performance that was, only a few short years ago, the stuff of science fiction.
With any high end motherboard it has to be able to support the flagship model of the processor, and the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master X has more than enough power to handle whatever the next gen CPU can demand of it. Power phases are a 20+1+2 arrangement, with 20 105A SPS VCORE phases, 1 105A SPS VCCGT phase and 2 VCCAUX phases. If you need more than that you’re probably not finessing things properly.
It might be a small thing but we have to confess that we’re really pleased with how Gigabyte have designed the M.2 cooler that sits bestride the top M.2 slot with the famous Aorus wordmark. It’s attention to detail such as this that was absent from the Gigabyte range of products for a long time, but since the introduction of their Aorus range they’ve come on in leaps and bounds. We can’t wait to see if the Aorus Master X continues their upward trend.
It is amazing how long the Nanocarbon Coating has been on Gigabyte products, particularly when you consider how relatively recent the technology behind this chemical covering was perfected and utilised. If you’ve never felt it before then you owe it to yourself to run your fingers across one when next you get the opportunity. It’s both rough and smooth at the same time, and perfect for heat dissipation.
Whilst you await our full review of the Next-Gen capable Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master X, and we try and mop up the drool, you can discuss it on the OC3D Forums.
