Gigabyte AORUS Z490 Motherboard Preview

How Much Does it Cost?

Right now, the prices are still in flux, as is always the way pre-launch. AMD will no doubt counter with some sort of launch, and even that may cause Intel to be more flexible with their prices, and board partners will follow suit. These three from AORUS aren’t going to be cheap though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the prices were drastically different. I suspect around £300 for the “entry-level” enthusiast boards, and I fear you may be looking closer to £1000 for the absolute top-end stuff. That’s before you dive into the cost of the CPU too.

Overview

Overall, these are three very sexy looking motherboards. For most PC gamers and even enthusiasts, the Z490 AORUS PRO AX Gaming will likely tick all the right boxes. It looks great, it has good features, a competent VRM, and should be somewhat affordable.

The Z490 AORUS XTREME is about the best looking motherboard I’ve ever seen, albeit, you’ll see there are some other strong contenders coming throughout this motherboard launch. It’s insane how well made this thing is too, the engineering alone goes a long way to justifying the inevitably enormous price tag. However, for sheer hardware bragging rights, I think this board is going to set a few records.

Personally, I’d buy the Z390 AORUS Master. I suspect it’ll still be uncomfortably expensive, but nothing like the XTREME. However, it still offers extreme competent VRM hardware, good overclocking potential, great connectivity and it looks pretty stunning too.

Of course, we’ll bring you a more detailed look, performance figures, pricing and more as soon as we’re allowed!

More

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• ASUS Z490 Motherboard Preview