mobo PCB Breakdown: Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Master

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#Z690 #Aorus #alderlake #intel #motherboard #Gigabyte

[@YTHandlesWereAMistake]

SPDIF is optical out for connecting media centers rear is for rear speakers (left/right), c/sub is for central / subwoofer (for extra low notes) mic is obvious Line out: front speakers / headphones go here Line in is for line-level input, extremely simplified: it's to get signal from already amplified sources, i.e. a cd player or some music instrument without midi, etc. (where one would output via line out, basically)

[@LawrenceTimme]

"Post codes are dead" - buildzoid 2021 😐

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

well bellow the 400USD price point that's actually mostly true.

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

first

[@Lars19945]

Why :(

[@aegis7272]

lol

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

@@Lars19945 ENGAGEMENT

[@itsblados]

Always enjoy these videos.

[@realabpc1883]

One small correction: You mention (@ 4:08) "If you want more PCIe slot flexibility, the Aero D exists; if you want 10 gig LAN and a bunch of M.2 drives, the Master exists." The Aero D has the *same Aquantia10 gig LAN* as the Master (as well as an Intel 2.5Gb LAN!). Contrary to my previous thinking, the AORUS Pro *isn't* the cheapest Z690 MoBo with a POST display; it's the Aero D @ under $290! EDIT: Oops. That $289 price tag is for the *DDR4* version. (Apparently it, and the Aero G are available in either DDR4 or DDR5 memory configs).

[@ckleuserful]

I have this board. Thanks for the breakdown! Good stuff!

[@bcal_t1]

Would love to see a bios run through on these z690 on what you think about setting voltages for VRMs etc... Auto still seems over powered

[@KelvinKMS]

10Gb port is the best part !! Everyone loves 10Gb LAN port as default Internet port !!

[@KelvinKMS]

@@dnthrx Backup huge amount of media data from iPhone 4K videos or DSLR to NAS.

[@lilytheghost7608]

Please do z790 mobo tear downs I seriously don’t know which to buy for my 13700k and I’m waiting cause I really love your breakdowns and trust your judgement.

[@th3Tyk3]

Tbh I understand the decision to skip the second 8x Port. SLI is dead and storage is often becoming an issue with the size of modern games. And I guess the target group is high end/enthusiast gamers.

[@vcjester]

I'm seeing people asking about a Z690 roundup video, do you have one planned? Contracted out to do one for GN?

[@tanishqbhaiji103]

Probably

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

got to love all of these Ultra-High-Watt M.2 NAS system boards, lol. Do they know they sell PCIe cards that can fit 2x or 4x M.2 drives in the space a single M.2 eats up on the motherboard, lol. I would rather be able to use my Mackie equipment than have more M.2's on the motherboard, lol.

[@Codec264]

That's probably why they do it, m.2 slots are technically fairly easy to design and soak up mobo space and make it look like you're getting better value for money.

[@unitedfools3493]

I'm glad they used Displayport instead of HDMI 1.4 finally. Unfortunately the USB 3 headers looks the same as previous Masters. This is bad because I've broken them after bending the cable to fit into cable management. I usually do this and haven't broken them on any other board. Would have been really easy to use right angle connectors or reinforced plugs.

[@Miskatonik]

On the contrary, I use the iGPU HDMI to output sound to my AVR separately from my NVIDIA GFX and that DP really pisses me off, will look for another model with an HDMI

[@Ab-ru1ew]

This is the only brand that got it right with PCIE 5.0 placement. Non reference video cards are massive these days and with this board you will not lose two PCIe slots, are you listening MSI and Asus? kudos to Gigabyte.

[@fy7589]

9 USB Type A ports, 8 layer pcb. Postcode and even more ridiculous VRM than the other two motherboards. I'll take the cheapest one.

[@asterisk4424]

YES, this is the one I wanted to see

[@TheQuentincc]

Do you have any thoughts about removable post code card ? Like plugging one on the PCIE slot ?

[@aubit6489]

Love these in depth videos, any desire to do the Z690 Formula in this style?

[@iankemp2627]

Motherboard manufacturers have gone insane. Why do they keep building their boards for overclocking levels that nobody using them will ever reach, with the result that said boards end up costing insane amounts of money? This board is a testament to this. A single RAA220105 costs $7.50 which means you are paying $142.50 of this board's price for the CPU VRM alone. Cut that down from 19 to 8 stages and you immediately cut a whopping $82.50 off the cost of the board. In other words, if Gigabyte built this same board with the same feature set, but trimmed the number of power stages from 19 to 8, they could sell this board for under $400 - and I'm willing it would still be able to handle any overclock on any 12-series CPU that any ordinary user would be able to sustain. If the manufacturers stopped with this asinine MOAR VRM race to the top, they'd be able to build boards cheaper, sell them for less, and as a consequence sell a lot more of them - which would make them more profit in the long run.

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

IDK where you got the price for the RAA220105 but generally speaking motherboard vendors generally get their parts with huge bulk discounts.

[@fleurdewin7958]

Profit margins are increasing I bet. In the past, all the enthusiast chipset Aorus Master had SLI license and PCI-e switches for x8,x8 mode ,dual LAN and Gigabyte signature dual BIOS with manual switch . This Z690 doesn't. Those stuff already saved Gigabyte a lot of cost.

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

@@fleurdewin7958 the only sub 400USD 8layer board I can think of is the Crosshair V Formula.

[@pacificdrum0301]

@@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking Crosshair VIII launched at $380, X570 PRO WS was also 8 layer :) *went as low as 199 USD for a few days on amazon because no one was buying it. Avg price has remained in the low to mid 300s~

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

@@pacificdrum0301 AFAIK the C8H and C8DH are 6 layers and on the formula is 8

[@fracturedlife1393]

Looks...fully featured bar the pcie stuff. Maybe in a few years when pricing isn't completely dumb for a new system. Maybe get a few more years out of AM4 if the zen3d stuffs good.

[@revyYT]

6:39 foreshadowing modern motherboards

[@davidpeterson6147]

and now they are on sale for $299. I have one of the way, thank you Z790 release.

[@Bobzillaaaful]

also everyone needs to remember that all gigglebite bios are a state of mind :)

[@Borednerds]

Great review. Is it possible we can see the new ASUS Maximus z690 Extreme ($1099) review? Thanks!

[@NotThatGuyJD]

Pulls 2000A through VRM. 12900k approachs the temperature of the sun.

[@ConChimBayXa]

Good video

[@mastercrafter2980]

Does it have an external clock gen tho ? Cuz of non-k OC ?

[@korencek]

Can it run four DDR5 sticks at 5600 MT/s? no? thanks.

[@Codec264]

Onboard audio- 3 ports are two channels of 7.1, and one port is microphone. Normal boards just have two plugs, 2.0 and microphone. The weird connector is toslink (s/pdif), optical digital audio datastream. Honestly like 90% of people are using just 2.0 (headphones and speakers) unless they have a proper setup, in which case they're probably using s/pdif (or should be using spdif) or USB audio. Mobo audio is dumb.

[@bryantallen703]

Yeah, all the Mater Boards including The Aorus Gaming 7/Pro boards all have a built-in 32bit ESS SABRE qDAC. It does make a difference, in audio quality and Ω range.

[@T.R.A.N.C.E]

it's a tiny difference, not worth talking about. I have the Sabre dac in my MSI X570 Ace and it sounds barely better than the Realtek output. That's why I use an external dac/amp.

[@PwadigytheOddity]

Cool, will recommend/buy this or the Ao Pro

[@spewp]

How much do we need donate on patreon for you to get a camera that takes good enough photos for us to read the chips?

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

that's just straight up not happening. The pictures are so that I can point to what I'm talking about. Having the pictures with lighting and resolution setup for component level legibility is not something I care about(because it's really hard to do).

[@thepenguin3493]

Don’t think it’s fair to ask for better content with money.. If you want to support him more, support him more! Don’t expect him to upgrade his camera so you can read the fuckings chips

[@sagerdood]

Douceeeeebaaaagggg

[@localguide5471]

Awesome videos man. Is the Aorus Elite DDR4 a good board? Do you know any Z690 DDR4 that have post codes display? Thank you so much BZ.

[@TheQuentincc]

Aorus pro DDR4 have a post code

[@anthonycarvalho4613]

Hi buildzoid. Assuming that you make a z690 board overview, could you compare usc-c port, usb-c internal header, usb4/tb4 support. Thanks

[@tinyredgiant9915]

Nice video.

[@DESYNC-47]

Will u be doing the Asus Z690 hero ? Just got mine a few days ago

[@GranadaBashlav]

I recently did a build with this MOBO, 12900k, 5600mhz ddr5, 4x evo nvme m.2, RTX 3080ti, and 1kw gold psu. I could not get a post in any configuration, never once did the display for trouble codes even light up. Do you think the board was bad? I am currently still waiting for the replacement board to show up.

[@AC-io8qs]

Neither the Z690 Aorus Elite AX DDR4 nor this board shipped with a functional BIOS from the factory, and somehow the Elite AX's F1 BIOS destroyed my CL16 3600 TridentZ kit in the process. I'm generally a fan of Gigabyte but it seems like a their recent boards need a bit more development time.

[@reinn_0]

Will you do Z690i strix breakdown?

[@de4ler]

yess another one

[@LedNe0nDevil]

OMG I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS

[@plonk420]

noice! LOTES socket. will have to go back to see if the Pro has one...

[@ogapadoga2]

I have the aero g which is a lower model than pro and it has a lotes socket

[@Airwave2k2]

I think no mobo vendor wanted to have a disaster like back in the Z-170/270 introduction phase, when Intel CPUs got even more cooking plates compared to the VRM than Haswell/Brodwell was. And since some Boards got so bad Reviews not providing the power needed, we now have a overreaction, especially that with the 12XXX CPU generation powerlimit has not the TDP 125W limiter, but is roughly max wattage within holding the clocks defined by the the top end. Also mobo designers don't have the most binding to what the market may want. Only because The chipset support WiFi many many buyers don't need the extra. The thing is where is the Essential class of Mobos: beafy VRM like a 8phase 6 doubled up to 12 or 16 phase maybe with ~75A or 90A power stages and a finestack heatsink, a passive cooled chipset, postcode, dual bias, 2 internal USB3.2, saveboot button 4sata ports, 2 or 3 USB2 internal ports Headers for Coolers two to three M2, only 2 DDR Ram Slots and a couple pci-e slots for extension cards no rgb, At the back, a display port, a C-Type USB, 6-8 USB A a 2.5 or 5 gb lan, audio. $200 to 250 dollars deal.

[@fleurdewin7958]

Because Haswell use FIVR , the VRM is integrated into the CPU itself. The motherboard VRM is to provide fixed 1.8V VCCIN to the CPU . Thus, Z87,Z97 can run with junk VRM because the current is low . In the Z170 days, good power stages didn't exist I bet. I still remember when I bought my Z390 Aorus Master to run my i9-9900KF, that board was expensive but it only had 12 units of 40A power stages to feed the CPU . Compare with today's motherboards, 40A power stages look puny.

[@zacharytaylor8523]

Even if I wanted 10G LAN I sure as fuck wouldn't pay a premium for it on a motherboard 10G LAN cards are $100, if you skip RJ45 and go the SFP+ route you can halve that price even. Even without high-end features though motherboards are getting higher and higher in price Is selling every single GPU you make not enough for these companies?

[@neeteshsharma6938]

Hi, could you please do the PCB breakdown for the Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Hero please or maybe help me with to understand where we have the CMOS pins to short them so I can get the BIOS reset back to the default. The reason being, the system post the BIOS update, is stuck in POST loop and does not proceed further. I am looking for on the internet but do not find much. Since I have seen your videos of PCB breakdown, so I request you for this.

[@wailcastenburger4914]

Hey, would you say 16x 60A (Gigabyte Gaming z690) is enough for a i9 12900k? What about a 16x 70A (Gigabyte Aorus elite)? Or do you really need 16x 90A like the Pro, which I can't buy here yet.

[@xflamousz]

The difference between 70 and 90a Power stages really isnt as big as the naming suggests, unless you Plan on exotic cooling OC, 16x70a is plenty, 16x60a likely will be fine too.

[@wailcastenburger4914]

​@@xflamousz 'likely' not really the word you want to hear when it comes to power delivery. €30 extra to go from 16x60a to 16x70a I guess is reasonable. Thx for reply :)

[@AC-io8qs]

@@wailcastenburger4914 I originally bought a Z690 Aorus Elite AX DDR4 when I first built my system due to the unavailability of DDR5 and when running 1.3vcore, 1.1vccsa for a 5.1GHz all-P 4GHz all-E, I saw VRM thermals in the 55-60C range, nothing crazy. I now have this board and VRMs do not budge more than 10C above ambient (~20C).

[@ufsteropolstero6014]

As someone who used to build PCs since the early 2000s, someone who used to buy the flagship chipset motherboards starting from $120-130, the current prices of motherboards are ridiculous to me. Even adjusted for inflation, these boards would be $200 tops these days, like the DFI Lanparty SLI-D/DR, best motherboard for the fastest platform back in the day and it cost $150-170.

[@CodeSyphonYT]

Yea I remember like 3ish years ago you can get a flagship motherboard for 400 or 500 max. Now just to get a board with some features would be 300$

[@ogapadoga2]

Will you be doing Z690 Aero G? Thank you

[@billschannel1116]

Is there a reason not to connect the two 8 pins? I always hear the "You don't need to" but I don't see a good reason not to. (With a power supply with 2 8 pins)

[@KalasTheLion]

So only Asus has the possibility of putting a lga 1200 mount for cooling right? If you buy this one you need lga1700 obligatory?

[@evilsatorii]

height of LGA 1700 CPUs is lower anyway

[@KalasTheLion]

@@evilsatorii so put lga 1200 even in asus ones is incorrect?

[@evilsatorii]

@@KalasTheLion from what I have seen I think you will need new cooler with LGA 1700 support or LGA 1700 mounting kit for your old cooler, if available

[@EvanidusEvan]

Cześć. Pozdrawiam serdecznie mistrzu.

[@Empyre47AT]

How can one tell if a particular motherboard's memory layout is daisy chain or T topology?

[@Kenshiken]

is Gigabyte Tachyon z690 any good too?

[@tanishqbhaiji103]

Probably gonna be great

[@Gamingtechgg]

should be yes with 2dim for memory overclocking

[@reijhinru1474]

Pls can u make a video about z690 Asus rog strix a-gaming ddr4 board? Would be very nice to see :)

[@stigi3849]

Buildzoid and I ARE best friends :)

[@zookmcgee2930]

This board appears to have two different fan controllers but I can't make sense of how to tell which controller is associated with which physical fan headers. One allows pmw control and one does not it appears locked to bios curves. If you have the board still any chance you could provide a breakdown.

[@zookmcgee2930]

External pmw speed control * via a program like fan control

[@AdaaDK]

could you test the Aorus Elite AX DDR4 board ?

[@martinskoog1777]

gigabyte brakes their bios to make the hardware better. they are sick. i love them.

[@tevee5591]

having watched this and the Aorus Pro video, I feel pretty good about going with the Pro.

[@Bojcha76]

Full test of gddr5 needed

[@Barryhick186]

what's ddr4 overclocking like on 12th gen? is the imc better or worse

[@jaygallagher9195]

I’ve got this and it seems good, I’m prob not making the most out of it 😂

[@josecastaneda9252]

thats gonna be me soon lmao

[@fluttuers2820]

Yo zoid. What do you recommend for a valuefriendly i5-12600k build (no oc)?

[@ogapadoga2]

Elite

[@fluttuers2820]

@@ogapadoga2 The Aorus Elite AX DDR4? That's a nice looking board. Is there going to be a ddr5 version of that ?

[@ogapadoga2]

@@fluttuers2820 What will you be doing with your computer? Gaming, 3D rendering, video editing, web surfing etc

[@fluttuers2820]

@@ogapadoga2 Just gaming mostly. Little bit of music production with ableton and browsing/discord mostly.

[@ogapadoga2]

@@fluttuers2820 Elite AX DDR4 is enough. DDR5 is new tech and very expensive. I have seen benchmarks where DDR5 have no difference compared to DDR4. If you want to go DDR5 Aorus Pro is the best. I don't overclock too and i bought Aero G because i use it as a workstation to edit videos.

[@NotThatGuyJD]

What happened to "BZ is my best friend" guy?

[@bene5431]

still here, for me he's a couple comments above yours

[@S4SK__1]

this is the perfect board tbh, especially for that price all the other 700€+ options look like a bad joke

[@sagerdood]

It is a sick board... i have it.

[@naor9792]

@@sagerdood its bad it wont support gen 5 ssd

[@AsmrDreamerzz]

@@naor9792 it doesn't?

[@JCustom]

When you call this board expensive for what it is. Just remember the hero is 600 and it’s worse than this board

[@Gamingtechgg]

asus taxe

[@naor9792]

its bad it wont support gen 5 ssd

[@Demonfrompripyat]

Я такую себе прикупил.

[@ScreamerRSA]

With this and the Aorus Pro will the DDR4 variants be the same?

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

there's no DDR4 variant of the master.

[@ScreamerRSA]

@@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking Ah OK thanks

[@andytroo]

you should build a dummy cpu - the power pins are known, and just see how much power you can get out of the socket :)

[@emperorSbraz]

even plain mosfets say "70A" but it's actually way less depending on the cycle i wonder what could be a good normie napkin maths formula.. "stage nominal current * number of phases / [from 2 to 3]" perhaps?

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

you can get discrete fets rated for well over 100A if depending on what you need them for.

[@PanaehaliTut]

Nice MoBo, but quick look at DDR5 prices aaand Im not interested. No matter how good/bad it actually is. We need something decent at 200-300$ range with DDR4 slots. That would be perfect imo.

[@LedNe0nDevil]

We just need to wait, I'm still in a '09 core i7. And at this point intel is losing in desktop at an amazing pace, specially with their laptop small/big core in desktop form. We all need to turn to AMD for desktop in the future.

[@GregorMima]

Considered Z690 but by the looks of it you get only DDR5 on the better boards. Sorta epic fauilure for me, DDR4 still is so much cheaper/more stable - and yes i need at least 64G for my workstation, if not 128. ... DDR5 maybe will be for 13xxx, but for 12xxxx it´s a waste. Guess will grab one of the last solid AM4 boards.

[@proesterchen]

Have KZbin banished you to 360p-island?

[@Saltssaumure]

takes a while for HD version to process, we're just here too early

[@thatguy7595]

I think his channel might not have a very high transcoding priority. Also I've seen some smaller channels with long uploads be stuck at 360p for days.

[@cristiant6566]

didnt gigabyte ship this board with a fucked bios that cant see nvme drives?

[@BAJF93]

The platform cost is just insane. Luckily it isn't 12V0. It would only make the motherboards more expensive.

[@logical9779]

Remember this boards has another generation to support so technically it’s just. Furture proving

[@naor9792]

No this board will not support gen 5.0 ssd

[@1Patient]

Morning 🌞

[@TheoneD11]

10:10 Thanks

[@ewardw6062]

I can't stop 🤤 😂

[@AgentLokVokun]

Giving Gigabyte one more moment of limelite is bullshit. After their XOC faked results and their poor ass track record of mostly everything and their unwillingness to change needs to end. Give them one more time or second of air time means you support their shenanigans. When they down right like and deceive for marketing. Bah -- Give it up BZ you're better then this.

[@Wasmachineman]

i'd love to see that happen but BZ needs to create content, he doesn't give a damn about some XOC drama or GB's piss poor track record of their products. Not to mention BZ is basically sponsored by GB at this point.

[@AgentLokVokun]

@@Wasmachineman I'd hate to be that person but that makes him a "sellout" or "a shill" in the eyes of many XOC-ers Using totally fabricated/fake/misleading marketing and supporting those decisions makes you a shitty person. HICookie is also a raging POS who is in it for the money. Less we forget about the exploding PSUs? Or the server bullshit? Or the *rambles*

[@Wasmachineman]

​@@AgentLokVokun Who is supporting what decisions? BZ himself is quite clearly saying he condemns GB's practices in the video he uploaded earlier today where he roasts GB for pulling a stunt like that. also, "XOC" and "in it for the money" no shit! the XOC hobby basically is who has the fattest wallet and the most company contacts. Imagine if I had contacts within Dell that supply me with Precisions to -break- overclock and bench.

[@AgentLokVokun]

@@Wasmachineman Wow it's like you're using a video that came out AFTER i made my comment as if it was available when i made the OP. The BS was out there and he never once even made a side line comment about such until the video titled "No Gigabyte did not overclock a 12900K to 8GHz" was released.

[@guerillaco1159]

Good vids but you're really biased to personal preferences. Give some feedback on why the things you don't want are good for people that may need them. Be really helpful seeing as you know your shit!

[@quasaristmagnetar2658]

for non-english viewers, the talking is too fast!!😅🙏🏻

[@ThaexakaMavro]

10 thousand phase lol

[@benchosei9878]

Only 480p? I guess it is a yt thing... EDIT: SOLVED

[@naor9792]

its bad it wont support gen 5 ssd

[@aaronjessome1032]

20th!

[@Saltssaumure]

second