GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS PRO AX (Intel LGA1200/Z490/ATX/Intel 2.5G LAN/Direct 12 Phase Digital Power/Dual M.2/SATA 6Gb/s/USB 3.2 Gen 2/Intel WiFi 6/Fins-Array II/Gaming Motherboard)

Been a couple of weeks since I was finally was able to put my build together and its been a good ride so far with a small bump or two.Firstly initial setup went fairly well, ram (16gb @3600) seated with out issues, cpu (i7 10700k) went in good although the chip slightly slipped in my fingers and i had to quickly save it; luckily none of the pins were damaged so a HUGE sigh of relief when it POST'ed. The m.2 heatsinks are hefty and have a good solid feel to them and i haven't had any of the issues others have had with the m.2 slots. Note; the very top uncovered m.2 slot is not functional and is reserved for when 11th gen cpu's with gen 4 m.2/PCIe support launch so people should be happy that the board has a gen 4 upgrade path without having to replace the board.Once everything posted and after a bios update (q-flash was very handy) it came time to deal with the only real issue Ive had with the board. Trying to set up both m.2 nvme drives (SN750's) in RAID 0 is not straight forward at all and your gonna have to look up how to do it (involves enabling RST on both drives first in a menu separate from ez raid, then using ez raid) and gigabyte should try to streamline this process more since nvme's are becoming more mainstream now. Once that issue was solved everything else ran smoothly. The cpu was OC'd a bit and PCH temps rarely went over 55c even in hour long benchmark tests and i was able to get a rock steady 5.0ghz i7 10700k @1.28v (do plan on upping it to 5.1 so ill update this review once those results get in).Other notes; the RGB on the board its self is minimal but that doesn't really bother me since i have a windowless fractal r6, on that same note i cant comment on gigabytes RGB software either since I don't care much for pretty lights. There are RGB strip headers on the board so you do have that option. Keep all of this in mind if RGB is important to you.The built in WiFi receiver was a godsend when setting up windows due to the fact the the Ethernet plug is non-functional until you update the drivers (which you cant really do unless windows is installed first) so make sure you have a wifi connection or you will run into some issues and will have to dowload all drivers on a seperate computer/laptop and then install them on the new pc (if it is a fresh build of course).Using the top covered m.2 slot disables SATA ports 4 & 5 but this is a chipset restriction if I'm not mistaken (who needs more than 4 ports anyway?).I would comment if there were any issues with any of the PCIe x16 slots but I'm holding out for and RTX 30xx (or big navi if the rumors are true) so ill come back and update once i get my hands on a gpu.Overall this is a great board if your looking for a minimalist look paired with ample enough features that make this a very competitive Z490 board, especially in the sub $300 range. I would highly recommend especially if RGB isn't your thing.

Most people do not need a +$700 motherboard, and while $270 is a bit on the pricey side, this board sits comfortably in the middle of the Aorus line up, having the necessary amount of the premium features and qualities that the more expensive boards have while also still feeling premium. Almost no space on the rear i/o is wasted as you get 9 USB ports, 4 USB 2.0 and 5 USB 3.2 ports +1 USB 3.2 type c. This motherboard is handling a 1.3v, 5.0ghz all core overclock perfectly on my i7 10700k. idle 30-35C and 60-67C gaming load on my Dark Rock Pro 4 cooler. Unlike other motherboards at this price range, this board has 3 M.2 slots instead of 2, including one that is reserved for pcie 4.0 support with 11th gen intel. That promise is extended to two pcie expansion slots. If Intel delivers on the pcie 4.0 promise with 11th gen then this will be a very good future proofing board if you are on Intel. The Ultra model, one tier above this, has M.2 thermal shields for each slot, while this one has two. If you must have a shield for each slot, I would recommend that model as it does not cost too much more than this. Personally, I prefer that the Pro AX's M.2 shields are detached unlike the Ultra which has the bottom two attached to each other. A lot of the Aorus boards promise DDR4 5000mhz xmp profile which is quite impressive.With all the positives out of the way let me address an issue I came across. I must caution you, if you are using Western Digital SN750 nvme SSD's you may run into an issue where your computer will not boot if you are installing it into the bottom (M2M_SB) M.2 slot. This is my second Z490 Pro AX board, and ran into this identical problem on both boards where my 1 TB and 500gb models of Western Digital's SN750 ssd's (one with heatsink, one without) would only work with the middle M2A_SB slot and would not boot on the other M2M_SB slot. I thought that part of my motherboard was dead. It wasn't until I got into a long back and forth with Gigabyte customer support where we exhausted almost all possible options except testing another manufacturer's nvme ssd. I tried the HP EX920 M.2 256GB ssd in the M2M_SB slot and surprisingly the slot began working properly. IT now works with my WD SN750 drives normally in both slots. You may not run into this problem like I did, but if you do, you can learn from my experience and avoid this issue altogether by using my fix or buying another brand of nvme SSD. The choice is yours.If you are on more of a budget, the Gigabyte vision g is a great alternative that is offered at a more entry-level price. It includes many of the same features as this board including the same power phase delivery, pcie 4.0 future support, 3 M.2 slots and 5000mhz capable xmp profile. However, I do not recommend going any lower if you plan on overclocking a 10700k or 10900k. The positives of the Pro AX outweigh my rare negative now that I have it totally resolved.

To start, the board is physically solid, and the quality is unquestionable. The VRM heatsinks around the socket are incredible at their job, which is absolutely supported by the heatpipe spanning from one heatsink to the other. There’s thermal pads all over the VRMs as well, and while you might not notice them, you’ll absolutely feel the effects if you’re pushing lots of power to your CPU. The BIOS is the best in the industry, no misspelled descriptions, 8 overclock profiles, a favorites page where I keep things I’ll regularly play with, and while OCing my memory and CPU, not once did I have a boot error. Every time I tried an unstable OC, the board will reset to defaults or the last known working profile 100% of the time. I may be lucky, but after 2-3 restarts it always comes back and I’ve never had to clear CMOS to boot. For connectivity, this falls in the mid-upper range, you get more USB ports than you know what to do with, same with PWM fan headers and RGB headers (2x RGB, 2X ARGB) as well. This board let me push my 10600K to 5.1GHz stable, which I couldn’t reach without blue screens on my MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Edge Wifi. There’s absolutely better boards out there if you want to spend your money elsewhere, but if you like overclocking, and appreciate a comprehensive BIOS, you cannot go wrong with an Aorus.

I have had great luck with Gigabyte boards over the years and the Z490 + 10th Gen Intel i7 has been just as good. 4/5 because Gigabyte still needs to work on improving their software. But in terms of hardware this is 5/5.