Gigabyte Z490I AORUS Ultra Motherboard Review

It seems with every generation we see fewer and fewer mini-ITX motherboards, which is a real shame, as I absolutely love them. Then again we see even fewer mATX motherboards now, which is also a real shame. Thankfully, AORUS has a heck of an answer with their Z490I Ultra motherboard, which comes packed with incredible features for such a compact motherboard. Not least the ability to handle the new flagship CPUs from Intel and deal with their increased overclocking requirements.

Gigabyte Z490I AORUS Ultra Motherboard

While it’s only mini-ITX, it still manages to pack in a pretty impressive Direct 8 Phase Digital VRM design with 90A Smart Power Stages. That’s met with larger MOSFET heatsinks and a durable PCH. They’ve not cut on the other features either, with 2.5GbE LAN and Intel WiFi 6 included. You also get the fantastic AMP-Up Audio Hardware with ALC1220-VB, HDMI 2.0 support, RGB Fusion 2.0, Smart Fan 5 and so much more.

Features

• Supports 10th Gen Intel^® Core™ Series Processors
• Dual Channel Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR4, 2DIMMs
• Intel^® Optane™ Memory Ready
• Direct 8 Phase Digital VRM Solution with 90A Smart Power Stage
• Extended MOSFET Heatsink and Multi-Layered PCH M.2 Heatsink with Heatpipes
• Onboard Intel^® WiFi 6 802.11ax 2T2R & BT 5 with AORUS Antenna
• Blazing Fast Intel^® 2.5GbE LAN with cFosSpeed
• AMP-UP Audio with ALC1220-VB for Rear 120dB SNR
• HDMI 2.0 supports Premium 4K
• Dual Ultra-Fast NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 with Thermal Guard
• RGB FUSION 2.0 with Addressable LED & RGB LED Strips
• Smart Fan 5 Features Multiple Temperature Sensors and Hybrid Fan Headers with FAN STOP
• Q-Flash Plus Update BIOS without Installing the CPU, Memory and Graphics Card

What AORUS Had to Say

“Z490I AORUS ULTRA is a mini-ITX motherboard perfect for building a small form factor PC for people who demands higher performance but also cares about aesthetics. The compact yet powerful pc delivers amazing performance with the latest 10th gen CPU, dual slots graphic card and blazing-fast connectivity. It also equips with comprehensive thermal solution to keep it cool under heavy workload. Performance is not compromised by its size.” – AORUS

Z490 Motherboard Reviews

Of course, today is the launch of the new Z490 motherboards as well as the new 10th Gen CPUs from Intel. Check out all of our Z490 reviews below.