Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Xtreme WaterForce

[ir_cow]

Gigabyte's flagship motherboard, the AORUS Xtreme WaterForce, features an all-in-one monoblock for top-tier cooling. Designed for those who command excellence, Gigabyte packs in 10 Gb LAN, Thunderbolt 4, and a unique 90-degree layout for cabling. It is definitely a sight to behold, so follow along as we dive into this motherboard and check out everything it has to offer!

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[P4-630]

Nice board, but no liquid cooling for me....
I like my Z690 Aorus Master which comes with about the same features.

 

[cellar door]

$800 usd would be a reasonable price for this feature set. But I guess there are people buying boards like this for Gigabyte to be releasing them.

 

[ir_cow]

But I guess there are people buying boards like this for Gigabyte to be releasing them.

Are they though? Xtreme and WaterForce use the same MB, but how many units are actually sold? Trade secret and I think really all these high end MBs are just one production run and for mostly show. A marketing expense and a company write-off. I'm not saying its a bad option, but surely Gigabyte isn't making money from this SKU.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah I don't see how they come up with this price tag

Buyers are giga executives and their squeezes

 

[Palladium]

Hi,
Yeah I don't see how they come up with this price tag

Buyers are giga executives and their squeezes

I always get a chuckle when I see smart people who sells their used uber flagship mobo for what I paid for my new 5600 + B550 + 2TB NVMe + 32GB DDR4-3600 combined.

 

[ir_cow]

I always get a chuckle when I see smart people who sells their used uber flagship mobo for what I paid for my new 5600 + B550 + 2TB NVMe + 32GB DDR4-3600 combined.

Yeah but it doesn't look as cool. No one buys a Rolex just to tell the time.

To this day I remember going with a friend to his buddies house. The living room was a actually home theatre. 100k in mcintosh amps and maybe another 100k in speakers. We go upstairs and this guys computer is topped out. Quad-SLI and whatever was the best at the time. Yeah I still beat him in Quake 3 with my PC at home, but I was still jelous of his setup.

 

[Mistral]

Just think of this as a piece of art...

 

[R0H1T]

Yeah but it doesn't look as cool. No one buys a Rolex just to tell the time.

Yeah but this isn't a Rolex, Rolex's got a history which isn't really comparable to (mother)boards

Besides there's already "arguably" better/cheaper alternatives like the Asrock Aqua line which are truly limited(?) edition!

 

[ir_cow]

Besides there's already "arguably" better/cheaper alternatives like the Asrock Aqua line which are truly limited(?) edition!

Yes the only other officially limited run is Asrock is AQUA and AQUA OC. These are limited to 500 units each, but they aren't full board waterblocks. ASUS Extreme Glacial is the only other full-board one like Gigabyte's WaterForce. Than you have MSI on the other hand that decided to skip the Monoblock completely and went with a bunch of OLED screens for $2,000. De8auer ripped MSI a new one on his YT and I haven't seen any other media getting a sample since

 

[maxfly]

I have to admit, that's a badass set-up. The price of course is stoopid but expected. Can't say I would buy it based on principle alone but it sure be purdy.

 

[kinjx11]

I've had this mobo for 3 months now moving away from Asus, cooling is amazing while playing 4k gaming using 12900kf/water cooled rtx 3090, the mobo for the 1st 90 days was a bit of a mess because of the bios acting up because of memory OC but now it's runs 6400mhz with a click, highly recommended for watercooling the system and hiding 4 M.2 SSDs inside the board ( yeah i have 4 installed )

 

[ir_cow]

I've had this mobo for 3 months now moving away from Asus, cooling is amazing while playing 4k gaming using 12900kf/water cooled rtx 3090, the mobo for the 1st 90 days was a bit of a mess because of the bios acting up because of memory OC but now it's runs 6400mhz with a click, highly recommended for watercooling the system and hiding 4 M.2 SSDs inside the board ( yeah i have 4 installed )

@kinjx11 Do you have the CPU overclocked at all? Im curious to know if just my sample was defective.

Yes BIOS for most Z690 was trash at launch. So many updates in the first 90 days. But it seems to solve all my memory problems.

Also what brand and type of fittings are you using?

 

[ZoneDymo]

imagine putting all this together only to find you forgot the Thermalright/DerBauer support bracket

 

[kinjx11]

@kinjx11 Do you have the CPU overclocked at all? Im curious to know if just my sample was defective.

Yes BIOS for most Z690 was trash at launch. So many updates in the first 90 days. But it seems to solve all my memory problems.

Also what brand and type of fittings are you using?

Yes, 5.3ghz all cores using easytune app with disabled E-cores, my fittings are EK, pretty old ones too but they stuck with me

 

[Ferrum Master]

I still cannot see the exact problem with the Monoblock mounting pressure. Provide exact torque pressures you used.

 

[The red spirit]

Just think of this as a piece of art...

It's gonna look tacky as hell in few years. It already does to me.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Hi,
Yeah I don't see how they come up with this price tag

Buyers are giga executives and their squeezes

Not available in Taiwan.

Only the Asus ROG Maximum Z690 Extreme Glacial is and that goes for about US$2,040.

 

[ThrashZone]

Not available in Taiwan.

Only the Asus ROG Maximum Z690 Extreme Glacial is and that goes for about US$2,040.

Hi,
So you don't think the big dogs live other places in the world ?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Hi,
So you don't think the big dogs live other places in the world ?

Not the Gigabyte ones, no.

 

[Mussels]

I started writing a post here about what software is required for all that crap like the OLED display to run and what breaks or fails to work without the bloated gigabyte software installed, and it got so long i'm tidying it up and moving it to the feedback section as a ponderance for future reviews

 

[ir_cow]

The OLED screen doesn't require any windows software to run which is nice.

If a leak is detected the motherboard turns itself off. Still not sure how it is programmed in. Next time you boot the BIOS will give you a message about a leak detection.

I think the only thing you lose is RGB control without installing GB software. I guess the overclocking tools as well in the software.

However, XOC software works so no need to install anything else for CPU overclocking. Now it won't save your overclock once you reboot. So thats a benefit GB has that the OC profile can be automatically applied upon booting into Windows.

 

[Assimilator]

800 bucks and the monoblock doesn't fit properly? Yikes...