Gigabyte Z490 AORUS Master

[Black Haru]

Featuring 90 amp power stages and a trademark finned heat sink alongside Dual BIOS and Q-Flash, the Z490 AORUS Master from Gigabyte promises a feature-rich overclocking experience without compromising creature comforts. Let's see how it stacks up against the competition!

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[gamefoo21]

One thing that drives me insane with these boards is the design of the m.2 heatspreaders.

To install a m.2 drive you have to pull your add in cards. If you have water cooling, you are draining the loop.

Asrock is a great offender here.

The rest of the review is great.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Fat_Rambo_82]

Great review, currently using this board. Been stable so far.

 

[mouacyk]

One thing that drives me insane with these boards is the design of the m.2 heatspreaders.
To install a m.2 drive you have to pull your add in cards. If you have water cooling, you are draining the loop.

Ar...more!!!

Was fortunate I didn't need to do that at all on my mobo. This board does have 1x m.2 above the top PCIe slot, which may be easier to get at.

 

[Caring1]

Was fortunate I didn't need to do that at all on my mobo. This board does have 1x m.2 above the top PCIe slot, which may be easier to get at.

It's fiddly but can be done, but it's much easier to remove the GPU from the top slot if you have one.
Unless you have the GPU as part of a L.C. loop, then it sucks to be you. (not you personally)

 

[mouacyk]

Beautiful VRM heatsink... but what was once old is now -- expensive!

 

[AddSub]

I just bought this and compared to my "old" Z390 Aorus Master there are some nice improvements, some of the nice things carry over... and a few downgrades, in addition to a few so-so "things" being carried over as well.

The Good/Improved:

1 --- Debug readout is finally up on top which was on the bottom on the Z390 Master. Bottom mounts of the debug displays on high-end boards were bizarre choice for Gigabyte. Everyone else has been doing top-mounts (ASUS!) for ages on their flagships. Matters a lot since some of us still run SLI/Crossfire and multi-GPU setups pretty much cover or obscure bottom mounted readouts. (Depending on the case and cable management naturally)

2 --- RAM overclocking seems to be better although that is very CPU/IMC dependent. I'm using a 10700k on Z490 Master and 9600k on the Z390 Master. That said, using the same RAM kit (16CL 3200, 64GB, 4x16GB T-Force kit) as on my Z390 Master I was able to get up to 4100 with somewhat loose timings and not a lot of voltage. On the Z390 Master/9600k combo, 3600ish was the limit no matter the voltage or timings.

3 --- VRMs seem to be cool as heck, I mean that literally. After a 12 hour overclocking/torture session just this past weekend and both rows are sitting in upper 30s! As per internal probe readouts. Confirmed with externally mounted probe to the vertical VRM heatsink, that showed only about 11-12C deviation from min-to-max. In other words, throwing stupid amounts of overclock and voltage at the motherboard/CPU and VRM barely got tasked at all. That said, I experienced similar things with the Z390 Master, so at least that has not changed.

4 --- Backplate! While it adds quite a heft, I think that is part of the point. Much like my Z390 Master, the backplate adds some nice structural rigidity. Making adjusting and full swaps much easier, not to mention bench testing a breeze. A nice carryover.


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The BAD?

1 --- USB 3 plug mounting and general visual obfuscation scheme of all USB plugs. Not a whole lot they can do about some of it, I guess, since the USB Consortium has their own specs on how/where the plug has to be positioned, but they (Gigabyte) literally camouflaged the pins of their USB ports. Here is a comparison between cheapo ASUS Z490 Strix and higher-end Z490 Master USB3 plugs (my Z390 Master has the same issue, more about that below). Gigabyte on the left, ASUS on the right.

<Gigabyte--------------ASUS>

As you can see, actual pins are masked by the "mil-spec-cool" lettering Gigabyte uses on the inside of their plugs. (USB 2 plugs have the same issue on Gigabyte Z390 Master / Z490 Master) Where problems occur is with the USB 3 plug mostly, since cheapest and thinnest plastic is used for the plug edges and combined with vertical mount of the actual port.... well this is a dangerous combo, especially since USB3 cables are thicker and more rigid than their USB 2 counterparts.

Long story short I lost a few pins and edges of the USB3 plug on my Z390 Master after only after a few swaps! Mounting the USB 3 plug sideways (which some manufacturers are doing, like EVGA) would relieve the tension on the actual pins. Something I rectified with $5 USB 3 elbow adapter on the Z490 Master. Lesson learned from Z390 Master issues. Also, the "visual camo" Gigabyte has introduced with their "cool" lettering actually obscures any bent or angled pins.


2 --- Lack of any additional PCIe x1-x4-x8 slots vs. the Z390 Master which had three additional x1 slots. Now lot of this has to do with the new Intel chipset I'm guessing, and all of the high end Z490 competition (Godlike, Hero, MEG, Taichi) have the same issue, but here Gigabyte lost a chance to differ from their competition. Everyone is trying to stuff as many M2 ports as possible, so real estate for additional PCIe slots is lost BUT on the Z390 Master, Gigabyte managed three M2 plugs AND three additional x1 PCIe slots in addition to three x16 slots. Now on the Z490 we are down to three x16 slots and that's it. Depending on your mGPU setup this might leave you with no expansion at all. Call me a boomer, but I like to have my separate sound audio solution. Motherboard/onboard audio has improved, but not really. Realtek audio hardware is still Realtek audio hardware, marketing mumbo jumbo and re-brandings aside, Realtek gear was and still is mostly on the "barely-good-enough" level. So, a definitive downgrade from Z390 Master.



All in all, a nice little sidegrade to my Z390 Master (which I'm still playing with). I wanted more cores while preserving the gaming performance Intel still offers, and it was either a 9900k or a 10700k. Was it worth it as far as the motherboard/platform was concerned? Yes I think so. Mounting my SB RX on the bottom most PCIe-x16 on the Z490 Master worked out kinda. But I had to delete my USB 2 card with XP compatible drivers for Z390/Z490. So now when I do HWbot intensive stuff I have to delete my sound card on the Z490 master in order to get into the other OS. Not a major inconvenience, but that top mounted debug read out makes up for it.

Oh yeah, Gigabyte, FIX YOUR USB STUFF!


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[Caring1]

The BAD?
1 --- USB 3 plug mounting and general visual obfuscation scheme of all USB plugs. Not a whole lot they can do about some of it, I guess, since the USB Consortium has their own specs on how/where the plug has to be positioned, but they (Gigabyte) literally camouflaged the pins of their USB ports. Here is a comparison between cheapo ASUS Z490 Strix and higher-end Z490 Master USB3 plugs (my Z390 Master has the same issue, more about that below). Gigabyte on the left, ASUS on the right.
View attachment 165356<Gigabyte--------------ASUS> View attachment 165357

As you can see, actual pins are masked by the "mil-spec-cool" lettering Gigabyte uses on the inside of their plugs.

In your opinion.
The way I see it, the USB sockets on the board are clearly marked making it easy to find, connect and recognise the standard ie USB 3.0, USB 3.1, USB 3.2.
ASUS clearly failed in that department.
Location of the socket is also up to the board manufacturer, there is no set standard given by the "USB Consortium".

 

[AddSub]

In your opinion.
The way I see it, the USB sockets on the board are clearly marked making it easy to find, connect and recognise the standard ie USB 3.0, USB 3.1, USB 3.2.
ASUS clearly failed in that department.
Location of the socket is also up to the board manufacturer, there is no set standard given by the "USB Consortium".

Not just my opinion it turns out. Apparently Gigabyte knows this and has made it an additional feature set. If you upgrade to the Gigabyte Z490 Xtreme you not only get properly side mounted USB 3 port, but visually improved kind as well:

Photo of Gigabyte Z490 Xtreme below, notice the plug "side-ness" and lack of visual labeling pin camo :

That said, Z490 Master is decent. Using a system running it, right now, to type this. But other than support for new LGA1200, this motherboard is a side-grade that slopes into a downgrade over my Z390 Master. (less expansion features, same design issues remain).

To be brutally honest, if EVGA could ramp up their production, I would have never purchased a Z490 Master... or Z390 Master. (EVGA boards were unavailable at both times I was buying those). I guess, wide availability is another plus for this board. They had probably solid 12 to 15 Z490 Masters on display at my local Micro Center when I got the Z490, and if I remember correctly, there were massive amounts of Z390 Masters when I bought that motherboard, at the very same Micro Center. So yeah, another plus as far as US of A is concerned, Gigabyte Z490 is pretty easily obtained.


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[skizzo]

One thing that drives me insane with these boards is the design of the m.2 heatspreaders.

To install a m.2 drive you have to pull your add in cards. If you have water cooling, you are draining the loop.

Asrock is a great offender here.

The rest of the review is great.

Keep up the good work.

I have the Z390 version that has 3 M.2 ports and I am able to remove/install M.2 drives on the top two ports even with a hard line water loop. Top is easy peasy, no obstruction at all. Middle is a challenge let me tell you, but it is doable. Bottom one, I'd have to drain my loop and pull GPU. This is only because my GPU is positioned vertically. I imagine if it was in the traditional horizontal orientation I could access all M.2 ports fine with a water loop even.

 

[gamefoo21]

I have the Z390 version that has 3 M.2 ports and I am able to remove/install M.2 drives on the top two ports even with a hard line water loop. Top is easy peasy, no obstruction at all. Middle is a challenge let me tell you, but it is doable. Bottom one, I'd have to drain my loop and pull GPU. This is only because my GPU is positioned vertically. I imagine if it was in the traditional horizontal orientation I could access all M.2 ports fine with a water loop even.

On my Taichi which share a similar design to that plate, I can't remove the plate as long as the GPU is in the top x16 slot.

 

[quickquestion12345]

Hi guys,
A question for ya'.

As I see it, m.2 slots are hidden beneath the radiator plate. How much space is there for the drives? If a nvme drive is just a board, no problem. What of the ones with addictional radiators like Gigabyte AORUS M.2 Gen4 PCIe X4 NVMe 1TB? Will it fit or is it too thick?