Waterblock Unboxing and Closer Look

Two separate boxes are inside the big box of this Z690 AORUS Xtreme WaterForce; one for the monoblock and the other for the motherboard. Open the one labeled "AORUS All-In-One Monoblock" and you'll find this massive monoblock inside protected by foam padding and plastic to avoid it being damaged during shipping.


Removing the monoblock and laying everything out, Gigabyte has gone above and beyond by including extra screws and thermal pads for later use. The monoblock also has pre-applied thermal pads. It might not seem like a big deal, but cutting everything to size can be tedious work, and if you are paying this much, it is nice to have small things like this taken care of out of the box.


The monoblock is made by Bitspower. If you had any doubts, not only is there a little sticker, it reads "Bitspower" on a barcode as well.


The Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Xtreme WaterForce is a limited production run of only 200 units. My investigations suggest that review samples come from the same retail pool, so the total units available for sales is less than 200. In some ways, this makes it even more exclusive, with the drawback for those who can afford it being less opportunities to purchase it.


Here is a perspective shot to illustrate how thick the acrylic is. The monoblock is heavy and this is partly why.


While the overall build quality of the monoblock is good, I ran into an issue during testing. The problem was that the leak detection kicked in and refused to boot even without a visible leak. That having been said, it is good to know that it works before water gets everywhere. However, I could not figure out why it was triggering the detection at first. After some investigation, I found the problem. Both the inlet and outlet are slightly inset with a metal ring around the outside as a leak detection method. The problem is that when using certain fittings, they will not lay flush, which leaves a small gap that may cause leakage. Without fittings of a smaller diameter on hand for this review, the only option was to make sure the fittings were as tight as possible. It still leaked occasionally, which meant every bit of testing was done with a watchful eye. Even the power was unplugged when not in use.

This leads to two possible solution I could think of—buy fittings with a diameter of 20 mm or less or extra thick o-ring with longer threads. Otherwise, the rubber gasket may not be pushed down far enough to make a proper seal, which will cause leaks around the threads.


An assembled shot of the monoblock installed. Being that it is an all-in-one waterblock, the chipset and M.2 sockets are also covered for a unified presentation.


When the system is powered up, a small OLED screen will give a real-time water and CPU temperature readout—a nice little touch from Gigabyte.


If you wondered how the monoblock could communicate with the motherboard, it's through this USB-C header. Leave it unplugged and leak detection stops. You also lose the OLED screen and RGB lighting.