mobo PCB Breakdown: Gigabyte Z690 Aero D

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#Gigabyte #Z690 #motherboard #intel

[@cldpt]

Thunderbolt is really important for the target audience of this board. It also opens up a lot of possibilities which also negate the lack of USB-A: - they can be used as USB-A with cheap adapters - they probably conform to USB 3.2 Gen2 (likely 2x2) - both ports are virtually 2 DisplayPort out for full DP bandwith at the latest spec - they can expand networking further, to use external 10Gbps or even larger throughputs (through very expensive kit) - they can be used to directly connect two Thunderbolt devices in a 40Gbps link up to 2m distance using an active cable - they allow Thunderbolt storage which is basically 2 more m.2 PCIE 4.0 x4 via also expensive Thunderbolt adapters - ...and probably other niche uses Another important mention of something I like on this board: the WiFi is upgradeable, which is nice given 6e is out there and WiFi 7 is around the corner. Boardmakers should take a page from this decision

[@Sebyllis7350k]

Corrections: 1. Thunderbolt typically does not support 20 Gbps USB speed. 2. Thunderbolt cannot do PCIe 4.0 x4 whatsoever. The physical speed of it is 3.0 x4. Additions: 1. A common use case for Thunderbolt in PC space is to connect to a display, USB devices and stuff that are in another room with a 50 metre optical cable. 2. Some sound cards require Thunderbolt interface. 3. Most DAS (direct attached storage) use Thunderbolt.

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

well I suck at research the board is available in stores now. It's around 420USD. EDIT: also first

[@youssefatmane6321]

😳

[@marsowl69]

Hmm, somehow i cant find this board to buy in europe... Is it end of production already or diddnt it launch jet?

[@christopherjackson2157]

It really feels like you get a lot more features for your money with the "creator" boards. Across all the manufacturers.

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

well that's kinda the point of the creator boards.

[@cldpt]

Indeed, and the fact this creator motherboard also has some nice overclocking feature is a nice gesture from Gigabyte, who knows creators are savvy enough to do their own overclocking when push comes to shove

[@abheekgulati8551]

@@cldpt Yeah but don't expect nice gestures from them should you ever need warranty support

[@cldpt]

@@abheekgulati8551 well, it's not like you can really break things that easy with standard overclocking (protections kind of work and software OC'ing is made for them to work), but most importantly there isn't really a way for board and chip manufacturers to blame you for overclocking. If they burnt a fuse for accepting the overclocking warnings on BIOS and/or official tweak tools (XTU os Ryzen Master), the market would respond in kind by not purchasing kit that loses warranty on day 1.

[@timotmon]

I find it funny how little Buildzoid knows about the amazing capabilities of Thunderbolt considering how he's a total genius on everything else.

[@bourne_]

The Thunderbolt allows you for a 1-cable monitor solution.

[@cldpt]

while it does, I doubt many monitors being used with this board only require 60W, and I also believe most monitors don't accept USB-PD input, only output. At least from the top of my head I don't recall (non-external) monitors being powered by USB-C at all, because it's a pretty stupid decision given monitors should always alway multi-inputs, and manufacturers know chances of a user having 2 USB-PD outputs that conform to their power spec is VERY unlikely.

[@christopherjackson2157]

@@cldpt I think the Asus proart monitors can run off the single usb-c. They mention something about it in the marketing materials. I've never personally tried dit

[@Johns-lp9en]

Please share with Gigabyte that your in-depth review and insights helped me decide to purchase this board over many other Z690 boards. Thank you and please keep great reviews like this coming.

[@WizardTim]

I bought the AM4 X570S AERO G board last year, it's quite a nice MB for doing real work, although unfortunately my version doesn't have 10 GbE so I need added it on a PCIe card, good to see they added on this board (hopefully with a good thermal solution). Something people who buy either the X570S AERO G or the Z690 AERO D should know is that the chipset heatsink design was heavily influenced by the marketing department and as a result has a metalized plastic sticker covering the fins. Upon removing this sticker I got 5 - 10°C lower chipset and SSD temperatures, I would advise others to do the same unless the style is more important. The USB C 3.2 Gen 2 port with 60 W USB PD is great for charging a phone or camera while downloading files off it or for single cable pen display tablets among other things.

[@Sebyllis7350k]

Genuine question: what's the point of X570S board when B550 Vision D-P is cheaper? Cuz the X570 board doesn't really offer more connectivity (if not less when you consider the fact that the B550 board has dual 2.5GbE).

[@WizardTim]

@@Sebyllis7350k The main thing is the X570S AERO G has more SATA and M.2 but most importantly for me the M.2 slots are all PCIe 4.0, the B550 only has two, the second of which is limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds. I also don't think the B550 VISION D-P was released yet when I bought my system either. I imported my X570S from the USA just after it launched and got a Rev. 1.0 PCB which has a design flaw involving an SMBus address conflict for the 3rd DIMM slot so RGB doesn't work on that stick.

[@__aceofspades]

IMO the 6 USB ports get a pass since they are all USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), and a lot of boards in this price range will have a mix of gen 1 (5Gbps). Also most cases end up with another 2+ front USB ports. If you know you need a lot of USB ports and dont want a hub, sure 6/8 might not be enough. But for me on my Z490, I have 9 rear USB-A, and only use 3-4, but wish I had more than one rear USB-C. So id be pretty happy with this board's feature set.

[@cldpt]

and the thunderbolts likely also work as Gen2x2 which is 20Gbps. This needs to be verified since 2x2 is optional though in Thunderbolt 4 spec.

[@TheWarmestFuzzy]

This is the most thorough breakdown of a motherboard I've ever seen. Thanks man! I recently completed a build with this and have been looking for resources with info on it. My only niggle is that with all that space on the rear I/O I why isn't there a clear cmos button or a bios button to enter bios? That seems like such an oversight. I don't mind pushing a button on the board itself, but I have to remove my side panel. Inconvenient.

[@Torbjorn.Lindgren]

Pricing: Newegg (US) has this for $420, that's Sold by Newegg (always check this option or pricing can be wildly off) so that should be the US MSRP. Which in the Gigabyte ranges slots this motherboard in between Aorus Ultra ($330) and Aorus Master ($470). ASUS's ProArt Z690-Creator which I assume is the intended competition (specs seems to be very similar) comes in at $480, so $60 more. OTOH MSI appears to have totally lost their mind and wants $600 for what I think is their "Creator" motherboard with x8+x8 PCI-e 5.and 2xThunderbolt, the MSI MEG Z690 ACE. And it only has 2.5+2.5G networking compared to Gigabyte and Asus's cheaper motherboards with 10+2.5G! The MSI does have 5 M.2 instead of "only" 4, but that seems very bad trade-off even if it had cost the same, at $180/$120 extra it comes over more as an insult! Usually it's Asus that comes in at "a bit extra for the same" (and it is more expensive than Gigabyte), but apparently MSI has gone completely bonker with their pricing in this segment. And yes, I agree that they should have just filled that empty space with 4xUSB, even USB2 would have been useful (who doesn't have a bunch of low-bandwidth devices like keyboard, mouse, webcam and so on these days!). The 60W USB-C port anc in theory be used for single-cable monitor connection, where the PC provides video, USB and *power* to the monitor via a single cable!

[@rstidman]

newegg wants to steal from you

[@Torbjorn.Lindgren]

@@rstidman Doesn't matter when used AS A GAUGE FOR MSRP!

[@taipeitaiwan10]

It's $445 here in Taiwan, and that includes VAT.

[@stigi3849]

Buildzoid and I ARE best friends :)

[@dakata17819132]

the 60w thunderbolt is probably for driving a monitor and powering it too

[@cldpt]

I'm more inclined to powering docks or powering laptops such as Apple M1/Pro/Max while also using TB4 networking to dump files from an on-the-go device to a main workstation, a pretty common use case for video editors who record around a laptop, do some touching up while traveling, and then render and back up on their main workstations

[@Hogdriva]

My MSI Z690 pro-a goes brrr thanks for the rec buildzoid

[@stigi3849]

Takk!

[@rRefuseToSelfCensor]

mvp

[@Sgt.WookieNuts]

Woot, another breakdown

[@daslolo]

Also the board has issues of no posting. Either it's the PCB that's soo flexible around the RAM or something to do with signal integrity with 2x cards in the pcie gen5 cpu slots.

[@crf637]

Yeeees! Saturday saved

[@Pabula]

Really nice mobo, only two downsides for me, its the the soundcard only one 3.5 out.... and too little USB3, i mean its a $400+ board should have at least 4 more.

[@SolarianStrike]

You can use those front USB headers though, it has plenty of those. You can also get those pci brackets to route them to the back if you want.

[@BAPAVEDIO]

This board is great value for money, seriously considering this for 13900k,4090 build. Has anyone tried 13900k?

[@user-wo4xz6ri4s]

I got a bundle deal for a gigabyte gaming oc 4090 and this board. The included gpu bracket blocks the type-C front panel socket on the mb. Ddr5 oc is not very friendly as the lastest bios doesnt include hynix a-die xmp profile. Other than that, this board is fantastic. Thunderbolt 4 is a god send. I will be doing some ram manual overclock on this board later. I wonder if the stable frequency would be higher if i am using native 5600mts ddr5. Will update once i muster the strength for trouble shooting and oc it.

[@user-wo4xz6ri4s]

Btw my bundle consist: 1. fsp 1000w (non-atx 3.0) fully modular psu 2. Aero D 3 gigabyte gaming oc 4090 $ 2110 USD. What a deal

[@BAPAVEDIO]

I am running gskill 6000 cl32 no issues, built my setup a couple of weeks back, but my 13900k is unable to boost even a single core to 5.8 while gaming (tested on both linux and windows) but then again I am using a AK620 air cooler.

[@PolskiJaszczomb]

There is a shop in Poland that had a placeholder Z690 Aero D, that costed slightly above 220 dollars. And the price looks a bit too low imo, no idea wth, since on newegg it's 420.

[@ecolus23]

Love your videos! Watch them all the time trying to learn more! So I've been wanting to try something probably very stupid and need some advice! Flashing my R9 390 into an RX 480 is how bad of an idea?!

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

it won't work

[@Wasmachineman]

Completely different card. Flashing a RX480 to a RX580 though, that'll work.

[@timotmon]

You can run USB-C through the TB ports.. so it's sort of like having 8 USB ports.

[@FractilOpacity]

Random OC question - is having threads fail in Prime95 a sign of a bad OC? I've been running my 6700K 4.7ish and ive never had a BSOD, but Prime soft crashes and workers die due to rounding errors.

[@user-wo4xz6ri4s]

When you made this video, hynix a-die 5600mts hasnt come out yet. Would your prediction 6200mts change with this native 5600 variation came out?

[@reinn_0]

It looks like Maximus XII formula on Z690 from Gigabyte

[@Wasmachineman]

Z690 Tachyon PCB Breakdown when BZ :^)?

[@denios36]

All these features, and still no angled 24-pin connector

[@subroy7123]

From the price range I've seen, this is *definitely* is under 500. It's 400 on Amazon without shipping. I don't know the Newegg price.

[@snake3276120]

$529 CAD😓😤 and out of stock too

[@1186291]

Hi, thank you for the breakdown. Do you think this will be good for running two rtx 3090 gpus?

[@justinbroniszewski]

Any issues with coil whine on these Aorus/Aero Z690 boards in your experience with them? I wish the Aorus Pro had a DDR4 variant. /S I'm talking to you, Gigabyte. Where is it? Is it coming to the U.S. or not?

[@ignatgrz]

I wonder whether all those pcie lanes from the z690 chipset can be used for x8 or x16 slots as I've seen them used mostly for m.2 ports. I recently bought a PC for multicam live production and the high input count DeckLink cards tend to use x8 connectors (the quad 2 and probably most FullHD ones need just 2.0 speeds, so for z690 even 2 wouldn't be limited by the chipset). Given my budget I was designing between b550 Vision D and ProArt Creator and Gigabyte lost, as the chipset pcie slot is only x2, because of the Wi-Fi

[@ignatgrz]

In short: I want something cheaper than threadripper with 3 pcie x8 slots. If the first one is 4.0 the others can even be 2.0, with 3.0 being all I would need.

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

AFAIK the chipset lanes can only be used for x4 connectors.

[@jayadasvasuleela4832]

Hello .. Gigabyte Z690 AERO D and Asus Z 690 Pro Art , which one is better for creator, pls explain to me

[@yooanto9465]

I'm between this amazing mobo msi carbon and Auros pro? Help me decide will use. 5200mhz Kingston 2*16gb. With 12900k.

[@willjohnsonjohnson]

I just want a board with 7 PCIe slots. Will such a thing ever exist again?

[@zacharytaylor8523]

Not on mainstream platforms Threadripper Pro boards often have 7 slots, many of them full 16x PCIe

[@willjohnsonjohnson]

​@@zacharytaylor8523 The closest non workstation/server board I can find is the CVN X570 Gaming Pro V14. 3 1x slots, 3 x16 slots ( at 8x 8x 4x). Sadly it's got a mediocre vrm for the cpu, and RAM only 4000Mhz. None of the 1x slots support longer cards without modification.

[@3dpixel583]

1:16 Can anyone explain to me why is this board so huge? E-ATX width is normally 305mm, this board is 327mm width. To me, the TB4 ports are the only ports that matter. 😂

[@Star_Sn1per]

2x usb c ports in rear i/o is just stupid

[@yooanto9465]

There is no way Z690 performance is same as Auros z690 Master has more usb better vrm better cooling as whole, backplate 8 pcb. So from experience z690 master will last and keep performance better than z690 D. I had asus black rampage which was expensive but last for 8 years so high end well build mobo pays off.

[@eliotrulez]

Do you plan to do a PCB breakdown of the Gigabyte Z690 Tachyon?

[@stevewatson6839]

$420 on Newegg - if u r prepared to trust the fcukers with your money. We can even buy them here through Newegg but that would just be daft.

[@angellike2234]

£407.00

[@Marc_Wolfe]

x8 + x8 booo, boo. x8 + x4 + x4 ... Boot straight to BIOS? FUCK YES... by default though... by default. Boot to BIOS with "safe settings" but keep you're configured changes... by default; I could go for that.. Quick question, who the fuck uses an ordinary hardware reset button? Serious question.

[@rafakal9823]

How is it that I cant find any video on the Gigabyte z690 aorus ultra ddr5? Is it the crap version that no one wants to hear about? Lol

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

it's just a more expensive version of the Z690 Pro DDR5.

[@rafakal9823]

@@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking thanks for the answer man loving your channel

[@NormanPAquino]

Seventh.

[@eddieespinoza7636]

Hello I have a Z690 Aero G, 12700K n Team Xtreem cl14 Dimm, I'd like to pay you to overclock my system I don't know how else to contact you or get a hold of you . I hope I can receive a response of a sort thank you. @Actually Hardcore Overclocking