We’ve already seen what ASUS and MSI has in store for us when it comes to their Z490 boards, but in the latest leak we get to see what Gigabyte has ready for Comet Lake-S. At least 14 boards have been leaked and detailed from Gigabyte, many of them from their AORUS line. One interesting thing about these boards is that they will be compatible with PCIe 4.0 devices, but the functionality is limited. It is unknown as to what this limitation is, but we have our ideas. It is more than likely that when Rocket Lake-S processors come out they will offer PCIe 4.0. So these boards are made ready for that. Rocket Lake-S will come after Comet Lake-S as either part of the 10th Gen Core series or as 11th Gen Core later this year. Here is what Gigabyte says about the PCIe 4.0 design…
– 2x PCIE 4.0 Slot (Reinforced PCIe 4.0 x16 or x8/x8 with lower impedance)
– M.2 PCIe 4.0 Slot (M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 slot with lower impedance)
– PCIE 4.0 Turbo B-Clock (External clock generator for PCIe 4.0 overclocking)
– PCIE 4.0 Switches (Switch PCIe 4.0 x16 into PCIe x8/x8)
– PCIe 4.0 Re-driver (Boost & strengthen PCIe 4.0 signals to longer lengths)
– 3.3x Slot Signal Stability
– 4x Lower Low Signal Loss PCB
Now taking a look at the boards which we do have leaked photos of first there is the Z490 AORUS XTREME Waterforce. This board will have built-in water blocks for the CPU, VRM, and chipset. Gigabyte has changed the design of these from the previous Z390 AORUS EXTREME Waterforce.
Next up is the Z490 AORUS Master, which has a newer design as well. The big thing that stands out on this board is the I/O cover that says AORUS Z490 Master. This board has three M.2 slots, all of which have integrated heatsinks which line up with the chipset heatsink.
Moving down you have the Z490 AORUS Ultra, which is a slight step down from the Master.
After that is the Z490 AORUS PRO AX. The top M.2 slot does not have a heatsink.
On the Mini-ITX side of things there is the Z490I AORUS Ultra, which will pack a lot into a mini-ITX motherboard.
A new-comer to Gigabyte’s line of motherboards is the Vision line, which is aimed at creators. It would seem this line would be replacing the Designaire line. The Z490 Vision G has a sort of steel color design, which reminds me a lot of ASRock Steel Legend series.
VideoCardz has put together a nice graph of Gigabyte’s Z490 Motherboards and their features.
Via VideoCardz, BenchLife
