Gigabyte’s New Intel Z790 “X” Motherboards
Gigabyte was showcasing four of their new Z90 “X” motherboards at this event. These are not all of the boards you’ll see from Gigabyte for the upcoming Intel refresh.
Gigabyte Z790 AORUS XTREME X
The highest-end board we were shown was the Z790 AORUS XTREME X. This board will make use of a 24+1+2 power phase design that is cooled by Gigabyte’s Fins Array III heatsinks. When it comes to connectivity you are going to get 10G LAN, 2.5G LAN, and WiFi 7 which of course includes the ultra-high gain antenna. You also get Dual Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 Type-C ports on the rear I/O and dual front USB-C 20 GB/s headers. Things are really easy with this board as it features both PCIe EZ-Latch Plus and M.2 EZ-Latch Click.
Storage will include five M.2 slots including a PCIe 5.0 x4 slot. This is going to be the top slot in the board and will come with Gigabyte’s M.2 Thermal Guard XTREME, which is their most powerful M.2 heatsink. Let’s just say it’s BIG! Gigabyte’s testing with this M.2 cooler gave an average temperature of 50C when running a Gen 5 NVMe SSD at full speed!
This board is also going to include Gigabyte’s LCD Edge View display which is a 5-inch LCD that can display CPU temperature, VRM temperature, CPU voltage, CPU clock speed, memory clock speed, and fan / pump speed in real time!
Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Master X
A step down from the Z790 AORUS XTREME X is the Z790 AORUS Master X. This board is going to have a 20+1+2 power phase design, 10G LAN, and WiFi 7 with the included ultra-high gain antenna.
This board also is going to feature five M.2 slots with one of them being PCIe 5.0 x 4. The PCIe 5.0 x4 slot makes use of their M.2 thermal guard XL that offers 9x the dissipation surface of normal M.2 heatsinks. This heatsink as well as the lower heatsinks have the M.2 EZ-Latch Click system so installing your M.2 drives is going to be simple!
You are also going to get USB 3.2 gen 2×2 connectivity on both the front (header) and rear of the board. When it comes to RGB lighting you are going to get lighting on the rear I/O cover.
Gigabyte Z790 AORUS PRO X
Gigabyte is bringing back their Pro series with the Z790 AORUS PRO X. This is going to be their all white board and they are really stepping things up with an all-white PCB! They actually had the board in a white-themed system so we could see what an all-white build would look like using the board. This system had a sensor panel display and one of the cool things about this board is that it has a sensor panel link connection on the board so no more routing cables from outside your system back in to your display!
The board itself will feature an 18+1+2 power phase design, five M.2 slots with one of them being a PCIe 5.0 x4 slot. This board also has the M.2 thermal guard XL, in white of course! Connectivity includes 5G LAN and WiFi 7 with the ultra-high gain antenna, as well as front (header) and rear USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 connectivity. You are also going to get RGB lighting on the rear I/O cover.
Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE X WIFI7
The last board we were shown was the Z790 AORUS ELITE X WIFI7. This board will give you a 16+1+2 power phase design and a subtle look. While you will get a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot for your graphics card all four of the M.2 slots on this board are Gen4. The top M.2 slot does have the M.2 thermal guard L on it, which is a bit smaller than the XL version.
Connectivity will include 2.5G LAN and WiFi 7 with the ultra-high gain antenna as well as front USB 3.2 gen 2 headers and rear USB 3.2 gen 2×2 Type-C ports. There is also a slight bit of RGB lighting on the bottom corner of the larger M.2 heatsink.
Expect to see an official announcement from Gigabyte about these motherboards as we get closer to the Intel Raptor Lake refresh launch.
