Gigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME Motherboard Preview

Gigabyte is one of the biggest names around, so it’s going to come as no surprise to learn they’ll have a sizable range of motherboards available for the Z690 launch. While I can’t confirm the whole range right now, it’s obvious they’ll vary from their more affordable series for standard consumer builds, up to their gaming focus mid-range boards, and right through to their flagships, which will likely cost well over £1000. So really, there should be something for everyone. However, when it comes to their AORUS series, things are strickly in the highest-end of the range. Of course, with a name like XTREME, it’s obviously out to impress with its performance and features.

Gigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME

For starters, the new Intel CPUs are rumoured to be pretty power-hungry, which is not surprising given preview generations. However, with a 20+1+2 Power Phase design, which is able to push a staggering 105A, getting that power where it needs to be should be a breeze. This board is fully DDR5, and PCIe 5.0, in fact, it has two full-speed PCIe 5.0 slots, which could lead to some impressive builds! Add to that four M.2 drive mounts, dual super-fast LAN options, flagship WiFi hardware, impressive audio from the SABER DAC, and even a pair of Thunderbolt ports. Really, there isn’t anything out there that this motherboard could handle. I dread to think what it’ll cost to take advantage of everything it can do in a single build.

Features

• 20 + 1 + 2 Digital (SPS 105A) Phases
• DDR5
• 1 x PCIE 5 x16, 1 x PCIe x8 and z x PCIe 3.0 x4
• 4 x DDR5 4800-5600
• 4 x M.2
• E-ATX Form Factor
• AQUANTIA 10 GbE + Intel 2.5 GbE
• Intel WiFi 6E 2×2 802.11ax
• ESS9280 + 2 * ESS 9080 Audio
• 2 * Thunderbolt

Check out the official Gigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME product page here for more information. (Link may not be available at the time of writing).