10GbE Rounds Out A Premium Board

The most recent motherboard to grace our take a look at bench is the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp, which hails from its Aorus gaming sequence and sits only one step under its Aorus Xtreme fashions. A few of its most notable options embrace 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-FI 6E networking, USB 3.2 G2x2 connectivity, in addition to loads of storage capability consisting of 5 M.2 slots and 6 SATA ports. The Aorus Z690 Grasp additionally boasts assist for DDR5-6400 reminiscence and a formidable 20-phase energy supply designed for overclockers trying to squeeze out further efficiency. Does the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus have sufficient about it to justify the $470 price ticket? We goal to search out out in our newest Z690 motherboard evaluate.

Throughout GIGABYTE’s many alternative sequence of motherboards for Z690, together with the Aorus for fans and gaming, the Gaming sequence for players on a tighter funds, the Aero for content material creators, and the UD (Extremely Sturdy) sequence for the entry-level. GIGABYTE, usually, has an excellent diploma of separation for its product ranges, which makes it simpler for shoppers to differentiate between every of its fashions from the gorgeous giant stack of Z690 fashions it has. Every of its completely different sequence occupies a unique worth level and comes outfitted with a various stage of options.

GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp Overview

Specializing in the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp motherboard, it is essentially the most premium of the corporate’s Z690 fashions, save its flagship Xtreme sequence duo, the Z690 Aorus Xtreme, and the water block inclusive Z690 Aorus Xtreme WaterForce. Because the Grasp sequence is a premium mannequin, it is outfitted with an equally premium-looking aesthetic, with waves of black heatsinks protecting the all-black PCB, in addition to a number of areas of built-in RGB LED lighting. It has a typical Aorus theme all through, which hasn’t modified all that a lot during the last couple of years.

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp has tons to supply customers in search of a high-end Z690 motherboard, together with assist for the most recent DDR5 reminiscence. This consists of speeds of as much as DDR5-6400 supported out of the field, together with 128GB throughout 4 reminiscence slots. Storage assist can also be equally spectacular, with assist for as much as 5 M.2 slots (4 PCIe 4.0 x4 and one PCIe 3.0 x4), in addition to six SATA ports which can be able to putting in RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Regardless of its premium design, GIGABYTE consists of only one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with two full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slots, as a substitute of providing the aptitude for PCIe 5.0 x8/x8.

GIGABYTE additionally makes use of the Z690 chipset’s native assist in different methods, together with assist for 2 USB 3.2 G2x2 Kind-C ports (one rear panel, one header), in addition to a complete of 11 USB ports on the rear panel (two Kind-C, 9 Kind-A) which is ideal for customers with a number of USB units. Additionally featured is a top quality networking array, together with a single 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller, together with an Intel Wi-Fi 6E CNVI that helps each the 6 GHz band and BT 5.2 units. The onboard audio resolution additionally consists of a premium Realtek HD audio codec and ESS DAC chip, and a single DisplayPort 1.2 video output for customers planning to make use of Intel’s built-in Xe Iris graphics.

Designed with efficiency in thoughts, GIGABYTE advertises a big 20-phase energy supply break up right into a 19-phase direct design for the CPU with 105 An influence levels and a single-phase 70 An influence stage designated for the SoC. That is greater than sufficient for overclocking Alder Lake to its limits, with the Aorus Grasp being designed to supply enthusiast-level efficiency mixed with its Aorus ‘gaming’ options.

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp present process our VRM thermal testing

Rapidly analyzing the uncooked efficiency of the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp, it confirmed its competitiveness in opposition to different Z690 fashions in all three of our major testing areas, together with system, compute, and gaming efficiency. In our overclock testing, the Z690 Aorus Grasp displayed true character with very tight VDroop management on the CPU VCore voltage at full-load, and it was equally spectacular in our VRM thermal testing.

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp has an MSRP of $470, and on the time of writing, it’s out there at Newegg for this worth. Because it stands, there’s some competitors on the worth level, together with the ASRock Z690 PG Veloctia ($470), the ASUS ROG Strix Z690-E Gaming WIFI ($470), and the MSI MEG Z690 Unify ($490), with every of all of them deserving of advantage in their very own means. The benefit that GIGABYTE has over the fashions above is that it consists of 10 GbE, which is a function that is sometimes reserved for the (very costly) flagship Z690 boards. With its spectacular array of options, functionality, and premium design, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp ticks many packing containers for below $500, however can it stroll the stroll? That is the most important query that we intend on answering on this evaluate.

Learn on for our prolonged evaluation.