Gigabyte Z790 AORUS PRO X Motherboard Review – $279 US With Premium White Aesthetics

Gigabyte Z790 AORUS PRO X - Unboxing & Close Up Inspection

The Z790 AORUS PRO AX motherboard comes in the standard cardboard package. The front is themed in white which is part of the new "ICE" series. You can also note the AORUS Eagle logo on the front which looks great. The front side also lists down support for Intel's 14th generation Core processors while the motherboard is clearly labeled as a gaming product.

The backside of the package lists the specifications and special features of the motherboard such as the 18+1+2 Phase Digital VRM Solution, VRM Thermal Armor Advanced heatsinks, a DIY-Friendly design, Ultra Durable PCIe UD Slot X, and WiFi 7 + Ultra-high gain antenna.

The motherboard itself is packaged in an anti-static wrap and held in a foam package which keeps it stable during shipping.

Inside the package is another box that contains the accessories and is located right below the box holder for the board itself. It is very easy to access and Gigabyte has included separate sections to make sure that the accessories remain tidy during shipping.

Following is the full list of accessories in the package:

• Quick Installation Guide, User's Manual
• 2 x SATA Cables
• 2 x Thermistors
• 2 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
• 2 x Standoffs for M.2 Sockets
• 1 x Gigabyte G-Connector
• 1 x Antenna (WiFi)

With all the accessories done, it's time to put that box aside and take the motherboard out of its package.

Gigabyte has been nailing the looks of its latest AORUS motherboards with a more futuristic theme approach. The Z790 AORUS PRO AX is now exception, offering a superb design based on our first glance at this ATX offering.

The Gigabyte Z790 AORUS PRO AX is the creation of the "AORUS Design Lab" and features a very nice white theme with a white-colored PCB, white heatsinks and a ceramic silver look on the back side of the PCB too. There are several silver and gray accents on the front IO plates and heatsinks.

The board uses the LGA 1700 socket to support Intel Core processors. The socket is compatible with Intel's 14th, 13th & 12th Generation core family. The socket has a protective cover on top of it that points out the exclusivity with Raptor Lake 13th Gen & Alder Lake 12th Gen CPUs, refraining users from running older 11th and 10th generation CPUs as they won't fit in the socket at all and forcing them in the socket is only going to cause permanent damage to your motherboard. For its AORUS X series, you don't need to upgrade your BIOS as a prerequisite to installing a 14th-generation CPU as it already comes with the latest one out of the factory.

Next to the socket are four DDR5 DIMM slots that can support up to 192 GB of dual-channel (24/48 GB modules) memory.

These slots are rated to support XMP profiles up to 8266 MT/s (OC Plus). Each slot is labeled, making it easier to install DIMMs in the proper orientation. DDR5 memory comes with a different latch position so forcing a DDR4 module into a DDR5 slot will cause permanent damage. Each slot is also combined with a reinforced design to make sure signal integrity remains good while keeping the slots durable for long-term usage.

The Z790 AORUS Master X features an 18+1+2 (VCore/ VccGT/VccAUX)  phase digital power delivery that utilizes the Renesas 229130PWM controller and Renesas ILS99390 (90A) MOSFETs for the VCore. The Vcc GT MOSFET (DRPS) uses the Renesas ILS99360 (60A) chip.

The VRMs receive ample cooling from the VRM Thermal Armor Advanced heatsinks which features an integrated thermal heatpipe to transfer heat across the two large blocks.

The CPU is supplied power through an 8+8 pin power connector configuration. This will feed the CPU with up to 300 Watts of power. The Intel 14th 13th & 12th Gen Unlocked CPUs are very power-hungry with the maximum turbo power rated at 253W for the Core i9-14900K and more if you are planning to overclock these chips.

Getting a closer look at the VRM heatsinks reveals an aluminum fin design on both heatsinks. Each heatsink has thermal pads located underneath for efficient transfer of heat. The thermal pads on the Gigabyte Z790 AORUS PRO AX motherboard are rated at 7w/mK.

According to AORUS, the heatsinks on the PRO AX feature a 4x larger surface area, a multi-cut design that enhances airflow, and an 8mm heatpipe.

Expansion slots include three PCI Express x16 (1 x Gen 5.0 x16/8 / 1x Gen 4.0 x4 / 1x Gen 3.0x4) and five M.2 slots.

Gigabyte uses the PCIe UD Slot X and Memory UD Slot D5 design which includes metal shielding on the sides of all expansion and DDR5 DIMM slots, providing extra protection and durability. It adds more load-bearing capacity to protect that can sustain the load of modern-day graphics cards and also protect the PCB of your card from scratches. The DIMM slots provide a 1.3x increase in anti-plate bending and also offer reduced signal degradation through the use of SMD technology. The PCIe slot further comes with an EZ latch click feature which lets you remove the graphics card from the PCIe slot with relative ease.

All five M.2 slots are cooled off by the thermal pad and aluminum baseplate cooling which is part of the M.2 Thermal Guard design. This will ensure stable operation for M.2 storage devices. The thermal adhesive has a plastic cover over them which needs to be removed before using them with the storage devices. The topmost heatsink has the bulkiest heatsink as part of the M.2 Thermal Guard XL and it also incorporates the M.2 Thermal Guard backplate which ensures up to 9x heat dissipation. The AORUS PRO AX M.2 slot also has an M.2 EZ-Latch Plus design for easy removal. Even the large M.2 heatsink and front cover plate can easily be removed with the M.2 EZ-Latch Click feature.

The entire front M.2 cover can be removed by simply moving the latch. There are two magnetic locks on the end facing the PCH heatsink which further lock in the cover to the motherboard. It's simple yet very DIY-Friendly.

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• CPU:
• - 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 25110/2580 PCIe 5.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2C_CPU)
  - 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 22110/2280 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2A_CPU)
• Chipset:
• - 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 22110/2280 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2Q_SB)
  - 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2P_SB)
  - 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2280 SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2M_SB) (M2M_SB)
• - 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
• RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID5, and RAID 10 support for NVMe SSD storage devices
• RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID5, and RAID 10 support for SATA storage devices

The Z790 PCH is housed beneath a large heatsink with the AORUS Eagle logo etched over it, offering a reflective surface.

The PCH cover and the AORUS logo on the I/O cover have an RGB accent plate that can be adjusted through the Gigabyte RGB Fusion software and there are plenty of ARGB/RGB headers that can also be used to adjust the appearance of the LEDs within your PC.

Storage options include four SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support 4 different storage devices at once. There are also 3 USB 3.2 front panel connectors (1 x Gen 2x2 + 2 x Gen 1). 2 USB 2.0 front panel connectors are also included.

Gigabyte is using a 7.1 CH HD audio design with the latest Realtek ALC1220-VB CODEC.

AORUS has a massive amount of fan headers however, there are no diagnostic features such as a DEBUG LED or Power On/Off & Reset buttons on the motherboard. The diagnostic LEDs are there to help users out but for a premium design like this, we would have liked to see some focus here.

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The full list of connectors on the motherboard is listed as follows.

• 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
• 2 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connectors
• 1 x CPU fan header
• 1 x CPU fan/water cooling pump header
• 4 x system fan headers
• 2 x system fan/water cooling pump headers
• 3 x addressable RGB Gen2 LED strip headers
• 1 x RGB LED strip header
• 5 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors
• 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
• 1 x front panel header
• 1 x front panel audio header
• 1 x USB Type-C header, with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 support
• 1 x USB Type-C port (DisplayPort), with USB 2.0 support (Only available with the Intel® HD Graphics Processors.)
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
• 1 x noise detection header
• 2 x Thunderbolt™ add-in card connectors
• 1 x Trusted Platform Module header (For the GC-TPM2.0 SPI/GC-TPM2.0 SPI 2.0/ GC-TPM2.0 SPI V2 module only)
• 1 x Q-Flash Plus button
• 1 x reset button
• 1 x reset jumper
• 2 x temperature sensor headers
• 1 x Clear CMOS jumper

AORUS is using Intel's WiFi 7 MediaTek MT7927WiFi Module to power wireless connectivity with up to 5.8 Gbps data transfer rates, up to 320 MHz bandwidth, and Bluetooth 5.3. In terms of Ethernet, there is a single 5GbE LAN port powered by a Realtek controller. Other revisions of the board come with Qualcomm QCNCM865 (v1.2) and Intel BE200 (v1.1) controllers.

The motherboard comes with the following I/O connectors:

• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R)
• 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
• 1 x DisplayPort In port
• 1 x HDMI port
• 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red)
• 1 x USB Type-C® port, with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 support
• 1 x USB Type-C® port (DisplayPort), with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support
• 1 x RJ-45 port
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 2 x audio jacks

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