10GbE Rounds Out A Premium Board

The most recent motherboard to grace our check bench is the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp, which hails from its Aorus gaming collection and sits only one step beneath its Aorus Xtreme fashions. A few of its most notable options embody 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 powerful 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 seek out out in our newest Z690 motherboard evaluation.

Throughout GIGABYTE’s many various collection of motherboards for Z690, together with the Aorus for fanatics and gaming, the Gaming collection for players on a tighter price range, the Aero for content material creators, and the UD (Extremely Sturdy) collection for the entry-level. GIGABYTE, usually, has a superb diploma of separation for its product ranges, which makes it simpler for shoppers to tell apart between every of its fashions from the gorgeous massive stack of Z690 fashions it has. Every of its totally different collection 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 probably the most premium of the corporate’s Z690 fashions, save its flagship Xtreme collection duo, the Z690 Aorus Xtreme, and the water block inclusive Z690 Aorus Xtreme WaterForce. Because the Grasp collection 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 over the past 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 newest 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 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 might 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 an alternative 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 Sort-C ports (one rear panel, one header), in addition to a complete of 11 USB ports on the rear panel (two Sort-C, 9 Sort-A) which is ideal for customers with numerous USB gadgets. Additionally featured is a high 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 gadgets. The onboard audio answer 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 cut up right into a 19-phase direct design for the CPU with 105 A energy levels and a single-phase 70 A energy 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

Shortly analyzing the uncooked efficiency of the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Grasp, it confirmed its competitiveness towards 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 obtainable 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 approach. The benefit that GIGABYTE has over the fashions above is that it consists of 10 GbE, which is a characteristic 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 containers for below $500, however can it stroll the stroll? That is the largest query that we intend on answering on this evaluation.

Learn on for our prolonged evaluation.