Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Master: Excessive in a good way

[@KitGuruTech]

Z690 in your shopping cart for 2022? which one? let us know.

[@swizzler8053]

I would pick the gigabyte. I have the X570S version and it's amazing. It's so beefy and the temps in my custom loop are great. Keep up the great work you guys and stay safe.

[@ikjadoon]

Waiting on the Z690I Aorus Ultra DDR4 to return to stock...Gigabyte sold like 20 and then, as if they shut down production, zero stock at any US retailers for 2+ weeks (besides a one-off few minutes at Newegg which I'm almost sure was just someone's RMA).

[@kpv123]

Maybe. It's a tight race between this and one of the Asus boards, especially the rog strix Z6 90-E

[@Miskatonik]

Went again with Asus Maximus Hero for my 12900k, ticks all the boxes with USB 4.0 PCIe 5.0, and would miss their bios and software otherwise. Had the same with my 9900k. Asus tax is unacceptable this gen, very overpriced, but caught a good Amazon deal and got it for 450 Eur. I've seen the Master for 350 Eur as well. Cheers.

[@tristan9489]

Can you compare z690 aorus ultra and master please. I have bought the ultra, and am not sure if I should upgrade

[@tradcatpat2385]

Love the review(s), very helpful. Thanks Leo & team! I just got this board installed last night (Feb. 8). It initially wouldn't boot. No matter, I'd read online that it had a weak initial BIOS (not at all uncommon), used QFlash to flash to BIOS F7c. Then it was stuck in a cycle bouncing between Post codes 28 and 54 before rebooting and cycling back to the same point interminably. Shut down, cleared BIOS by shorting the two pins. Nope. Well then, post code 2x range seemed to be memory initiation issue. Pulled both sticks of Adata 4800, re-seated them. No good. Moved two sticks to A2/B2. No good. Re-seated one stick to A1, removed the other stick. Finally it booted. Progress. Shut down, seated 2nd stick of RAM in B1, said a prayer, rebooted. Yay, now it booted and showed all 32Gb of RAM. After that hour long adventure, it has been rock solid and got through an hour of Prime95 without issue. It's a gorgeous board, photos don't do it justice. The onboard sound is top notch. The only enduring quirk I've found is that XMP is unavailable on my RAM, even though the BIOS clearly set the timings to the correct XMP profile, so it seems to be reading XMP just fine. Anyway, very glad I got it, having a ton of fun so far.

[@wilteduk007]

I've an older Z390 Aorus Master and highly rate it. I'll be getting another Aorus Master when the time comes.

[@akmarksman]

I've got a Z390 Aorus Ultra and I love it. I'm sticking with Gigabyte. I prefer ATX size boards, so the Master boards are out for me.

[@enigmatistic8470]

@@akmarksman I have an X570 Aorus Master and it's ATX. This Z690 is the first Master board to be E-ATX I believe.

[@elonmusket6178]

@@akmarksman I also have an z390 Aorus Ultra. Pretty solid board, but the RGB/ARGB headers are a nightmare. I gave up on getting them to reliably turn on/off. Other than that the board has been stable and reliable.

[@quoththekraven5911]

Just got this exact build today. Wild. First PC ever and I'm pretty pumped.

[@ashleybunker8904]

I have this motherboard for few weeks. Had to update the BIOS for RAM but was easy with q-flash

[@yooanto9465]

Hi I would like to know how is your experience with Master? Any problems with gpu or nvme?

[@ashleybunker8904]

@@yooanto9465 everything seems OK was getting few windows errors but I update the BIOS again to newest version seems to have fixed the issue

[@yooanto9465]

@@ashleybunker8904 today Im ordering the master auros or asus z690 hero. Just want to make sure everything is stable with your z690. Can you installed " latencymon" software it's very light and it will measure if there is any conflicts between windows and motherboard.

[@yooanto9465]

@@ashleybunker8904 can you install latencymon and run it for 5 min. See how it goes. If it all green and low then you got no issue at all.

[@Justin_80]

I know its older, but would love to get your take on the MSI MEG B550 UNIFY-X.

[@t3rb0rg]

Just picked one of these up for $235USD open-box (in perfect condition with all accessories). Can't wait to Q-Flash this and put in a Raptor Lake -and since it should support the 14th-gen as well, I'm very pleased with all I've gotten for the price.

[@patrickjvanhuffel]

Nice

[@t3rb0rg]

@@patrickjvanhuffel With an i5-13600k, I'm really pleased with it. I have it in a Lian Li O11 Air Mini case, with a mixture of Noctua and Be Quiet! Lightwings fans, a Be Quiet Pure Loop 2 FX 280 AIO, G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5, three NVMe SSDs, and an EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 and while it was a complex build, now that it's together I love the board.

[@Annihilation99]

Great board and supporting the 14th gen will be no probkem with this board at all. Power delivery is extremely overkill on this specimen.

[@luckyknot]

I just would like to add a bit annoying con is there are no thunderbolt ports and i'll need to get a pci card for it.

[@paolocoletti3424]

1.59_Regarding lane sharing, I believe actually: The RHS x4 PCIe 4.0 M.2 socket shares with the bottom stacked pair of SATA ports The LHS x4 PCIe 3.0 M.2 socket shares with the top x4 PCIe 3.0 card slot Thank you for an amazing review btw even 1 year on, finally sold me on the GIG Master in early 2023 🙂 Literally the ONLY thing on my wish list I could have wanted extra was a remote GPU release as per the ASUS Q release button/system.....but alas you cant have everything

[@Cloneufc]

I just bought one! I have not bought another motherboard since 2012, I was due for an upgrade.

[@yooanto9465]

Do you like it? Any problems

[@frijin490]

If the second cpu 8-pin supplements extra power to the pci-e, it's pretty useful.

[@KitGuruTech]

It certainly doesn't do any harm and it looks good but unless you're feeding 400W+ to your CPU it won't be necessary

[@christopherjackson2157]

I wonder where the USB ports are powered from. Some devices will try and draw 60+ watts through USB c

[@KitGuruTech]

@@christopherjackson2157 That would be the 24-pin connector and yes it can be a sizeable amount of power

[@bcal_t1]

I could find in Gigabytes specs, does the board prefer single channel or dual channel on the DDR5 slots? Does it matter anymore with ddr5s having their own voltage control?

[@thorstenh.7789]

A fantastic video. This is exactly what I was looking for. And then the comparison to the MSI. These are exactly the two boards I had in mind. Super. Thank you very much!

[@扯古]

brand new is now 250 usd

[@anthonywebb6479]

Excellent review, really enjoyed it. As for sarcasm, Steve from GN still has a great deal more to learn from the master of understated sarcasm. The most brutal form of this style of wit.

[@KitGuruTech]

We Heart GN Steve

[@anthonywebb6479]

@@KitGuruTech never miss a video he posts. But he's not British, thus will always struggle with higher end wit delivery. 🤣

[@Shatterstar4]

Hi there! I just installed my Z690 Aorus Master, on a 12900K and 32Gb in 6200mhz, except that I have the Wifi crashing (error code and yellow triangle on the device manager) when I install the Aorus or Intel drivers. When I uninstall, and reinstall the drivers via Windows Update it works fine. Tested on W10 and W11 Bios up to date though...

[@KitGuruTech]

Well that's weird. I didn't have any Wi-Fi problems but most likely relied on Windows 11. I have forwarded a note to our Gigabyte contact to let him know what you said. Leo

[@Shatterstar4]

@@KitGuruTech Hello, Thank you for your answer, yes I would love your feedback to help me know what the exact problem is.

[@yooanto9465]

How is it right now any problems?

[@kurthugger9107]

Is there a DDR 4 version of this board?

[@mrlmaokun]

Bit weird since most other Gigabyte Z690 boards have both a DP and HDMI - including the ITX board.

[@bravium]

Amazing work in here, thanks

[@DJDANY_IN_THE_MIX]

This motherboard not have pcie x1, i can use x16 for another device, ethernet or tv tuner? Not first slot it is for video card

[@pblogic007]

What is the cool looking RAM heatsink/rgb think in some of the photos? And where do I get it?

[@ΓιώργοςΒ-μ6γ]

Hello. Just bough this amazing motherboard. I am about to use 2 M2 SSDs. One for the system (OS) and another one for big files. Which of these two should I install on the top M2 slot? What is your recommendation?

[@British-Dragon-Simulations]

I would install the OS SSD to the top one that is linked to the CPU. At least that is what I am doing when I get mine tomorrow.

[@lummoxicide1502]

That was very interesting results with removing the VRM shroud, who would have thought

[@luckyknot]

Amazing review man thanks a lot!

[@icarusgeo]

Thanks for the video. Does anyone know how to activate SPD Write on Aorus bios? I have a z690 Aorus Pro DDR5, and my Corsair Dominator RAM's RGB won't work unless I enable SPD Write on the bios, except the option is nowhere to be found...

[@aurieladovas6669]

Z690 AORUS MASTER is this extended motherboard or like same in z590 and 490z?

[@kv70]

Great review. Thank you!

[@am16162]

Excellent review, I have this motherboard 🥰💯👏

[@KitGuruTech]

Good choice!

[@kpv123]

Downright excellent review of the motherboard. I liked your comparison with the MSI. Do you have one with the Asus Z 690e. Those would be two excellent motherboards in that same price range. I would welcome your opinion on those.

[@johnsmith-qz4bv]

i have the gigabyte z590 elite ax with intel i3 10105 cpu...can i run windows 11 with this..?..

[@OwenPrescott]

What's a comparable MB with two ethernet inputs?

[@sabishiihito]

Gotta do manual settings if you want 7K on your Hynix-based DDR5!

[@bcal_t1]

Hey do you have any recommendations? I just got single channel 32gb hynix 6400s that I want to OC on this board to 7k! Appreciate it

[@lokiloki2940]

Why you dont show whats in the box?

[@johnsteburg5880]

I have been planning out my next build which will be Intel this time. I look for durability mainly and how future proof the board is going to be. ( I build a new rig every 3 to 4 years ) From Leo's review the Gigabyte Z690 Master most likely is going in the cart.

[@yooanto9465]

Which motherboard you have right now?

[@johnsteburg5880]

@@yooanto9465 I went with the Gigabyte Z690 Master. It's over engineered for a motherboard. Just remember to flash the bios on it and it's been solid running for the last 3 months.

[@rhymingbecktionary]

Sure would be nice if any of the DDR4 Aorus Z690s had niceties like power buttons or boot displays. Seems only Australia got the Pro in DDR4. Kind of scummy of Gigabyte to do that imo when there's seemingly no reason to switch to DDR5 yet.

[@JynxedKoma]

Hiya KitGuru, I've been with the Z390 Aorus Master since it's launch and have finally gotten a Z690 Aorus Master, 12900KF and a Corsair RM850x and was hoping if you could tell me if I should use just x1 CPU 8 Pin connector or x2? I shall not be overclocking the CPU or any other component at all and shall be using it purely for gaming and 3D rendering. Thanking you!

[@TheSidorak12]

it doesnt matter either way, if youre not planning on overclocking then dont plug the second one in, but at the same time it doesnt hurt to plug it in just in case you do decide to overclock, the board wont draw more power just from it being plugged in

[@JynxedKoma]

@@TheSidorak12 Thank you!

[@sabishiihito]

2:32 those are Thunderbolt headers.

[@JonToyCars]

I couldnt find the AHCI settings on this board in the bios ...

[@KitGuruTech]

What are you trying to change in your storage settings?

[@JonToyCars]

@@KitGuruTech The Sata mode, to be ahci, rather than Ide. The way the storage communicates with the motherboard... although, maybe because the system has Nvme drive the Sata mode setting doesnt appear, as that setting should be only for Sata drives. Even so, i thought it would be there in the bios, somewhere!

[@DeusMachina71]

I wouldn't touch a Gigabyte product with a 10 foot pole.. I bought the Z690 pro.. first mb came with broken pins on the cpu socket right out of a new box, returned to Amazon. Second board has random reboot issues.. swapped psu, memory and cpu! It definitely the mb and dealing with Gigabyte tech support takes days between each correspondence.. poor quality control, bad tech support.. totally not worth the headaches to save a few bucks on their boards.

[@duelsy]

I know this is obviously called a DDR5 MB but does it also support DDR4? I'm upgrading now and just want to know whether to order new RAM too, thanks in advance.

[@simm815]

It's only DDR5. The pin arrangement of DDR4 and DDR5 are different so physically itself, DDR4 won't be compatible.

[@kpv123]

No motherboard does both DDR4 and DDR5. As sim M just stated they are physically different. You want ddr5 anyway to future-proof your system

[@duelsy]

Hi both - thanks for the info. I've already built the new system, including DDR5 :) - Was just double checking at the time. I got this MB but returned it as BIOS was awful and had some QA issues. Picked up an ASUS equivalent and very happy :)

[@TheBarnaclesHunter]

I bought this one last year but I still haven’t ended building my rig yet lol

[@Crossfire2003]

Great video. Great motherboard. I don't think that those "cons" mentioned in the video are very important. (I, actually, prefer DP over HDMI).

[@kuvyoghmoobamelica6883]

This is an AORUS motherboard, we need to see what it looks like in the case.

[@djashjones]

No thunderbolt, shame.

[@movies1yt]

Aorus master z690 or msi carbon z690

[@darknessblades]

Not overkill enough, it misses a dedicated AIO header

[@sakidickerson]

What did you plug yours into?

[@jacobl1702]

It actually has two, both in the upper right hand corner of the board.

[@planetfabulous5833]

Wish he would show the RBG lights on the motherboards he reviews. Ugh

[@vollhorst140]

No bifurcation on the 16x slot(8x/8x) ?! Totally a no go, waste of money. I am out. Gigabyte you have to do better.

[@KitGuruTech]

That begs the question, what would you do with x8/x8 ? surely not dual grpahics cards so what is your plan?

[@vollhorst140]

@@KitGuruTech first, I don’t like losing features. Bifurcation is a standard feature on higher end mobos for at least a decade. Removing it is simply saving manufacturing cost. This is not a cheap ass 80£$€ board, it’s 450€ here. In this price range, it should have everything. I’m using atm 5x m2 drives with my x570 ultra (bifurcation 8x4x4x ). slot in a capture card and the board is fully loaded to the brim. The part which bothers me is removing possibilities and features. BTW I appreciate you reading the comments. The videos on the channel are great, even if I don’t like this particular board.

[@Miskatonik]

CON: Gigabyte's RAM OC is 💩💩💩

[@KitGuruTech]

XMP works out of the box and the board was stable. That's enough to keep me happy in the mian and when we're talking about a new memory standard it seems bold to risk your luck. Leo

[@ejer.]

Video is great, but this mobo is a piece of xt.

[@synthetic144]

Done with gigabyte.. software is trash.. bios hit and miss… too much voltage to amd chips for sure .. customer support slow and robotic

[@naor9792]

469$ and it won't support 5.0 ssd trash board

[@KitGuruTech]

Leo here. Damn, I misread the original post and thought the OP was talking about Gen 5 graphics and not Gen 5 storage. snip We seem to have a misunderstanding. The primary graphics slot is PCIe Gen 5.0 however we do not currently have Gen 5 hardware hence the Gen 4 GPU you see in the BIOS. snip

[@naor9792]

@@KitGuruTech what? I just said this board not support gen 5 ssd and for its price its should have support it

[@KitGuruTech]

@@naor9792 Leo here: Ok, now we have that clear, surely the only way to support PCIe Gen 5.0 storage is to take lanes from the graphics? This board is clearly focussed on the main graphics slot so that wouldn't really be an option.

[@khalednafea8512]

what do you think of the asus strix b660-i fir mini itx with 12700k would it perform good overall i can depend on it or should i got with anything upper in vrm and what else ? @kitgugutech