Through the years, motherboard producers have persistently pushed the bounds on top-end motherboards with hanging designs and PCBs crammed to the brim with the most recent controllers and have units. Though these usually include a excessive worth premium, these ‘flagships’ signify the most recent parts, designed to function the quickest processors to ship modern efficiency whereas providing one of the best controllers obtainable on the time of manufacture.
One such mannequin is the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme, which is the direct successor to the Z690 Aorus Xtreme, and boasts a premium characteristic set, together with assist for DDR5-8000 reminiscence, twin Thunderbolt 4 Kind-C, in addition to 10 GbE and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity. Sitting on the high of GIGABYTE’s Z790 vary of motherboards, the Z790 Aorus Xtreme is designed for Intel’s thirteenth (and twelfth) technology Core sequence processors, and as such, advantages from developments resembling PCIe 5.0, native USB 3.2 G2x2 connectivity by means of a entrance panel header, and 10 x USB 3.2 G2 Kind-A ports immediately positioned on the again panel.
In a market with a large alternative of motherboards, the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme has loads of bells and whistles and appeals to customers in search of one of the best motherboard designs and know-how. Regardless of not being low-cost, GIGABYTE, during the last couple of generations on each AMD and Intel chipsets, has supplied good ranges of worth whereas providing stable efficiency ranges. At this time we’re taking a better have a look at the Z790 Aorus Xtreme to see the way it stacks up towards different LGA1700 motherboards with our Intel Core i9-13900K and if there’s any worth available amid the stable and premium characteristic set supplied by GIGABYTE.
GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme Overview
With loads of choices for customers and catering to all budgets, GIGABYTE has a various alternative of Z790/LGA1700 motherboards to go well with a particular person’s wants. For the entry-level and extra typical desktop programs, GIGABYTE’s UD or Extremely Sturdy sequence provide a stable but simplistic set of options appearing as an entry level onto Intel’s thirteenth/twelfth Gen Core sequence, whereas for content material creators, GIGABYTE additionally affords a lot of Aero branded fashions which focus extra on premium connectivity and networking choices.
The GIGABYTE Aorus sequence primarily targets players however consolidates all the greatest options and controller units into many choices from the mid-range to the high-end, and the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme falls into the latter class. Sitting on the high of GIGABYTE’s Z790 motherboard stack, the Z790 Aorus Xtreme has all the greatest controller units and options that GIGABYTE has to supply, together with a mix of some options to make cable administration simpler for customers, in addition to a big and highly effective energy supply designed to run Intel’s thirteenth and twelfth Gen Core sequence processors to their limits.
Trying nearer on the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme motherboard, it has a big E-ATX-sized PCB, permitting GIGABYTE to implement extra controllers and options onto the board itself. Taking a look at an total view of the board from a birds-eye view, the Z790 Aorus Xtreme is predominately coated by waves of Aorus-inspired armor, which additionally contains a big steel chipset and PCIe armor cowl throughout the middle of the PCIe slot space, in addition to a big rear panel cowl. Apparently, the rear panel cowl contains a 2.8-inch digital LCD monitor, which shows real-time system data resembling CPU temperature, CPU clock pace, reminiscence clock pace, and VRM temperatures. Sometimes a characteristic on high-end premium fashions resembling this, the LCD show is a pleasant contact, nevertheless it does require a chassis with a transparent windowed aspect panel to reap the benefits of this.
Touching extra on GIGABYTE’s implementation of cable administration, the Z790 Aorus Xtreme, throughout the edging of the board, options right-angled headers, connectors, and energy inputs. Designed to permit customers to plug a cable in at a proper angle, this makes it simpler because the cables do not immediately stick out and might seamlessly be directed by means of the grommets inside a chassis for a extra uniform and fewer cluttered look. GIGABYTE additionally contains PCIe and M.2 EZ-latches, which means PCIe and M.2 drives are simply put in and re-installed into the chassis on the faucet of a change or the flick of a thumb.
Eradicating the big steel mid-plate throughout the center of the PCIe slot space and the CPU drive PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot reveals the majority of the board’s M.2 slot array. The plate itself acts as a big PCIe M.2 heatsink for the three central PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, in addition to a canopy for the chipset heatsink. In whole, the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme has 5 M.2 slots, with one PCIe 5.0 x4 fed from the CPU as talked about with a big heatsink masking it, three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots sandwiched in between the highest two full-length PCIe slots, and one PCIe 4.0 x4/SATA M.2 positioned under the chipset heatsink. For SATA, GIGABYTE contains 4 right-angled SATA ports that are able to supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays.
Relating to PCIe slot assist, apparently, GIGABYTE opts for only one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots working at x4 and x1. Having fewer PCIe 5.0 lanes designated to full-length slots offers advantages and drawbacks, however given many aftermarket PCIe add-on playing cards cannot use the immense bandwidth of PCIe 5.0 at current apart from NVMe SSDs, the bandwidth, and the following lanes could be directed to different areas resembling controllers. Different customers might argue that having two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots can ship further lanes to sooner PCIe M.2 storage gadgets by means of a multi-M.2 slot adapter, however with 5 M.2 slots built-in onto the board, there’s nonetheless loads of scope for storage right here.
Specializing in the ability supply on the Z790 Aorus Xtreme, GIGABYTE has gone for a big 20+1-phase design, with premium componentry anticipated from a board of this caliber. For the CPU, GIGABYTE has included 20 x Renesas RAA22010540 105 A sensible energy levels, which function in a teamed configuration and are pushed by a Renesas RAA229131 PWM controller. There’s additionally a single RAA22010540 150 An influence stage for the SoC. Apparently, GIGABYTE has employed a teamed setup for the VRM and never a full 20-phase direct configuration, however the output equates to a most of 2100 A for the CPU to play with, which is overkill.
Protecting the ability supply cool is a really giant pair of heatsinks interconnected by a single 8 mm thick warmth pipe with a nanocarbon-coated fin array. GIGABYTE claims that utilizing a 22-micrometer thick nanocarbon coating on the thins can cut back VRM temperatures by as much as 10%. Trying on the indentations throughout the 12 W/mk thermal pads utilized by GIGABYTE, the heatsink makes good contact with the vast majority of the ability levels and chokes, which is an efficient indicator that contact and thermal dissipation must be, in principle, optimum.
On the premium Z790 motherboards resembling this, we usually see assist for a lot sooner reminiscence, and the Z790 Aorus Xtreme isn’t any exception. GIGABYTE helps as much as DDR5-8000 (OC) reminiscence in a twin channel (1DPC) configuration, with as much as 192 GB supported throughout 4 slots. The slots characteristic a one-sided latch mechanism to put in the DRAM, and CPU cooler assist, particularly of the air-cooled selection, is determined by the peak of the DRAM getting used.
Spearheading the onboard audio resolution on the Z790 Aorus Xtreme is a Realtek ALC4082 HD audio codec with an ESS Sabre ES9280AC DAC and two ESS E9080 DAC chips. Because it stands, this is among the most high-end built-in audio options we have seen on a motherboard exterior of these bundled with an exterior PCIe sound card. Though the Realtek ALC4082 HD audio codec and ESS DACs aren’t complimented with any EMI shielding, GIGABYTE does cowl the audio PCB with a skinny sheet of steel armor, so regardless of no EMI shielding to talk of, it not less than appears good and clear to take a look at.
On the rear panel of the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme is all kinds of premium connectivity and networking obtainable for customers to sink their tooth into. Beginning with essentially the most premium enter and output, GIGABYTE features a Thunderbolt 4 controller, which incorporates two Kind-C connectors that may double up as DisplayPort inputs for appropriate shows. Different USB connectivity contains ten USB 3.2 G2 Kind-A ports, whereas the Realtek ALC4082 and the three ESS DACs drive the 2 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output.
The networking array on the Z790 Aorus Xtreme is high-end, with one Marvell AQtion AQC107 10 GbE controller, a second Ethernet port powered by an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller, whereas a Killer AX1690 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi offers each 6 GHz band entry and assist for BT 5.3 gadgets.
As is when taking a look at a flagship motherboard such because the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme, these do include a usually larger price ticket than standard mid-range motherboards. Regardless of the extra value, these are offset by that includes premium controllers resembling 10 GbE, Thunderbolt 4, and extra bells and whistles. As of its preliminary launch, the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme prices $800, which aligns with present pricing relying on the retailer of alternative. As such, as with inventory degree fluctuations, costs might fluctuate. In comparison with the competitors, MSI’s flagship MEG Z790 Godlike has comparable high-level options however prices $1200, whereas ASUS’s flagship, the ROG Maximus Z790 Excessive, can be feature-rich and equally expensive at $999.
At current, and never together with ASRock’s Z790 Taichi and Taichi Cararra (<$500), that are their top-tier Z790 boards, they're technically religious of being a real flagship or halo mannequin, the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme is at the moment the most cost effective flagship Z790 board on the time of writing. Even coming with a excessive worth of $800, the pricing is sort of actually subjective, and on paper, the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme is a really high-end instance using a lot of what Intel's Z790 chipset has to supply.
In fact, as we prefer to say, efficiency is the important thing ingredient (together with options) during which customers buy motherboards, in addition to pricing and the way a lot worth could be had from any explicit motherboard. With that being mentioned, learn on for our prolonged evaluation.
