Review Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro Review: Mid-Range, Full-Featured

[Admin]

The Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro adds more capable 90A VRMs, four M.2 sockets, an upd audio codec, and loads of USB. $329.99 isn’t cheap, but this board checks all the boxes for a solid Z690 system foundation.

Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro Review: Mid-Range, Full-Featured : Read more

 

[wifiburger]

this model also supports DDR4, I wish the review also included DDR4

Some are saying DDR4 overclocking is really bad on Gigabyte Z690 boards.

 

[-Fran-]

The rambling that matters:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uux-qGheBk


Also, a "mid range" $330 motherboard... What a crazy time, geez.

Regards.

 

[BILL1957]

this model also supports DDR4, I wish the review also included DDR4

Some are saying DDR4 overclocking is really bad on Gigabyte Z690 boards.

They are making a ddr4 version of the PRO board but it is not the same board the ddr5 is on. As of now all mb's on the market are ddr specifi EITHER DDR4 OR DDR5 and the memory standard must be chosen at the time you purchase your mb.

 

[Udyr]

Also, a "mid range" $330 motherboard... What a crazy time, geez.

My thoughts exactly. I would have added this as an "against": "Expensive for a mid range"

 

[BILL1957]

My thoughts exactly. I would have added this as an "against": "Expensive for a mid range"

Most good mid range boards have been floating around the $300 mark for a while.
You do have to remember these boards are all premium z690 chipset boards.

The cheaper lesser chipset boards will not release until q1 2022.

These boards seem to be up about 40-50 dollars over previous boards.
Whether that is because of the new tech or for months we have been hearing about copper prices and raw material prices going up by double digit increases and so has the cost of shipping so these price increases may partly be because of that as well.

I bought one of these boards and it is equivalent to the boards I usually buy for my builds and still in roughly the same $300 give or take price range as well.

 

[Udyr]

Most good mid range boards have been floating around the $300 mark for a while.
You do have to remember these boards are all premium z690 chipset boards.

The cheaper lesser chipset boards will not release until q1 2022.

These boards seem to be up about 40-50 dollars over previous boards.
Whether that is because of the new tech or for months we have been hearing about copper prices and raw material prices going up by double digit increases and so has the cost of shipping so these price increases may partly be because of that as well.

I bought one of these boards and it is equivalent to the boards I usually buy for my builds and still in roughly the same $300 give or take price range as well.

I understand, but in previous generations all these "premium" so called "mid range" were $150-200 and high end were $200+, with enthusiast level boards going for $350+

 

[BILL1957]

I understand, but in previous generations all these "premium" so called "mid range" were $150-200 and high end were $200+, with enthusiast level boards going for $350+

I paid $300 in the fall of 2020 for my ROG strix -e z490 mb for my 10 series build and that board and this board are pretty comparable .
So I am going to have to disagree with you on the mid range prices.
The top end extreme boards continue to go up way above what used to be considered a top end board pricing but what I consider to be mid level is still mostly in the same ball park of a $300 price point.

 

[Udyr]

I paid $300 in the fall of 2020 for my ROG strix -e z490 mb for my 10 series build and that board and this board are pretty comparable .
So I am going to have to disagree with you on the mid range prices.
The top end extreme boards continue to go up way above what used to be considered a top end board pricing but what I consider to be mid level is still mostly in the same ball park of a $300 price point.

2020 was yesterday and prices were already on the rise. I'm talking about pre-pandemic/crazy high prices.

You don't have to agree with me. The price history is out there, and I'm sure that's what @Yuka referred to as well.

 

[LolaGT]

Yes, this is anything but mid-range priced, by $100 at least.

 

[-Fran-]

I paid $300 in the fall of 2020 for my ROG strix -e z490 mb for my 10 series build and that board and this board are pretty comparable .
So I am going to have to disagree with you on the mid range prices.
The top end extreme boards continue to go up way above what used to be considered a top end board pricing but what I consider to be mid level is still mostly in the same ball park of a $300 price point.

It is only the generation after PCIe3 that is priced ridiculously high from top to bottom due to needing more layers on the motherboard PCB.

My Asus Crosshair VII Hero WiFi (X470) was ~$300 (maybe a tad more) and that was top dog with Zen2 launch days. The same board for X570 jumped almost $100, but still under $400 in most places. So, at least on the AMD side, prices are not as bonkers as Intel's. The only 2 exceptions from the X570 chipset are the "Godlike" and EVGA motherboards, which are niche IMO.

EDIT: I went to double check my memory and there's one version from Asus which is $700+, so there's 3 exceptions XD

Regards.

 

[escksu]

USD329 board mid-range.....lol....

But I do agree. PRices of boards are ridiculous now. The most expensive consumer mainstream board in history is now the Asus Z690 Extreme glacial..... Cost over USD2000....Why do you need a 2K board for a CPU thats less than 1K???

Do note that alderlake is not considered HEDT CPU (only threadripper is HEDT).

 

[Deleted member 2783327]

For Australians; A$599.
Everything is expensive here, so $600 seems to be too common for mid-range boards
I have seen a X299 motherboard retail at most places for around A$400 - A$450 and Amazon were selling it for A$1600 (The ASRock X299 Taichi IIRC).
The most expensive motherboard I've seen was an ASUS board at nearly A$4000 back in early 2019 (on Amazon of course). Can't find the ad now.

Hardly full featured. Did I read it right, 2 USB 3.x and 2 USB 2.x on the back?
ALC4080 is a USB audio codec. There are no drivers out there that include the Realtek HD Audio Manager for this chipset. I ended up returning my motherboard that had ALC4080 for one that had ALC 1220

 

[PapaCrazy]

I understand, but in previous generations all these "premium" so called "mid range" were $150-200 and high end were $200+, with enthusiast level boards going for $350+

There is no denying that board prices have gone up steeply. Some of this is due to tariffs, some of it due to rising costs of components, and some of it due to feature creep. The mid-range boards of today, in VRM, audio chips, and convenience features like post codes, BIOS reset, etc. seem more like the enthusiast level boards from 5+ years ago. CPU power requirements, particularly on the Intel platform, have also skyrocketed and forced mobos to pick up the slack.

In comparison to the wildly expensive Asus boards, the Gigabyte boards are better priced for what you get. And they can fit Noctua coolers, which Asus' Strix boards are incompatible with. Though I don't like the price increases either, this Aorus Pro is actually one of the best options on the market right now.

USD329 board mid-range.....lol....

But I do agree. PRices of boards are ridiculous now. The most expensive consumer mainstream board in history is now the Asus Z690 Extreme glacial..... Cost over USD2000....Why do you need a 2K board for a CPU thats less than 1K???

Do note that alderlake is not considered HEDT CPU (only threadripper is HEDT).

$2k is grossly unreasonable. I was always a fan of Asus, but they have become the Apple of the PC components world. They seem to be targeting a demographic that simply doesn't care about value, even on their mid-range Strix boards.

At one point Asus' engineering was uncompromising, and one could argue was worth a relatively small "Asus tax". But after VRM debacles and recent incompatibility with Noctua coolers, it seems their engineering competency has vanished along with their semi-competitive pricing.

 

[escksu]

There is no denying that board prices have gone up steeply. Some of this is due to tariffs, some of it due to rising costs of components, and some of it due to feature creep. The mid-range boards of today, in VRM, audio chips, and convenience features like post codes, BIOS reset, etc. seem more like the enthusiast level boards from 5+ years ago. CPU power requirements, particularly on the Intel platform, have also skyrocketed and forced mobos to pick up the slack.

In comparison to the wildly expensive Asus boards, the Gigabyte boards are better priced for what you get. And they can fit Noctua coolers, which Asus' Strix boards are incompatible with. Though I don't like the price increases either, this Aorus Pro is actually one of the best options on the market right now.



$2k is grossly unreasonable. I was always a fan of Asus, but they have become the Apple of the PC components world. They seem to be targeting a demographic that simply doesn't care about value, even on their mid-range Strix boards.

At one point Asus' engineering was uncompromising, and one could argue was worth a relatively small "Asus tax". But after VRM debacles and recent incompatibility with Noctua coolers, it seems their engineering competency has vanished along with their semi-competitive pricing.

Guess what??? ITs still sold out!!

https://www.newegg.com/asus-rog-maximus-z690-extreme-glacial/p/N82E16813119519

 

[vmylo81]

The Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro adds more capable 90A VRMs, four M.2 sockets, an upd audio codec, and loads of USB. $329.99 isn’t cheap, but this board checks all the boxes for a solid Z690 system foundation.

Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro Review: Mid-Range, Full-Featured : Read more

$330 for a motherboard is definitelly not mid-range. I personally consider motherboards above $200 high end.

 

[Geezer760]

Geez, $330 for a mid range, dang what are you planning to do with such expensive boards, "HACK THE PLANET" or just play a $59.00 game just for those few extra fps, or to overclock a bit more, ridiculous prices, all these companies are just laughing all the way to the bank overcharging and filling their bottomless greedy pockets, as if they aren't making billions all ready, the greed never ends. But hey "JUST BUY IT".

 

[ocer9999]

I just find Buildzoid sometimes doesn't really make much sense, sometimes the board is great like the Z690 Taichi, but he's complaining about only having X amount of USB ports, and I quote: "Everything else is border line irrelevant to me" which when you are evaluating a motherboard, alot of people is looking for features other than USB ports.

Also he forgets besides 6 USB ports there's also the internal ones that connect to the chassis, which I find hard to believe anyone would use all 8 USB ports...

On the pricing, well like everything else on the market, from GPUs to motherboards, cars, toilet paper... that's what we call inflation, sucks but I don't think it's going away anytime soon :/

 

[Co BIY]

This looks like a very solid board and it is not down to the price level where real compromises have to be made. This is the level that is a totally safe purchase.

I look forward to the low-mid range reviews. In a lot a ways they are more interesting because of tradeoffs and compromises. There the companies are in a dog fight for your money.

 

[PapaCrazy]

Guess what??? ITs still sold out!!

https://www.newegg.com/asus-rog-maximus-z690-extreme-glacial/p/N82E16813119519

SMH. The bling-bling builders are surprisingly numerous.

 

[jtcmedia]

Unfortunately, it is a waste of time to review DDR5 motherboards now. There's a 35 week lead-time for a chip that they require which means DDR5 won't be available till Fall 2022. Source: https://www.techspot.com/news/92281-global-chip-shortage-now-impacting-ddr5-manufacturing.html

 

[BILL1957]

Unfortunately, it is a waste of time to review DDR5 motherboards now. There's a 35 week lead-time for a chip that they require which means DDR5 won't be available till Fall 2022. Source: https://www.techspot.com/news/92281-global-chip-shortage-now-impacting-ddr5-manufacturing.html

A 35 week lead time from the time the order is placed does not mean that many of these manufacturers did not place orders for a supply chips to build product with 25-35 weeks ago and those chips would be arriving be much sooner and more ddr5 could be hitting the shelves very soon .
That 35 week lead time would be for an order for chips placed today then you are looking at fall of 2022.

Also with only Alder Lake builds using the ddr5 and even many Alder Lake builders also are opting for ddr4 memory instead of ddr5 that should help limit the demand and perhaps more ddr5 will be seeing the shelves soon.

I say that hopefully as I sit here with an Alder Lake cpu and a ddr5 mb waiting to find the ddr5 memory for the build! lol!

 

[sonwon1]

The Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro adds more capable 90A VRMs, four M.2 sockets, an upd audio codec, and loads of USB. $329.99 isn’t cheap, but this board checks all the boxes for a solid Z690 system foundation.

Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro Review: Mid-Range, Full-Featured : Read more

Seriously after the way Gigabyte handled their power supply fiasco? This looks bad in my opinion!

 

[BILL1957]

Seriously after the way Gigabyte handled their power supply fiasco? This looks bad in my opinion!

Many times a large corporation works as somewhat independent companies concerning its different divisions within itself.
Granted the PSU fiasco was not a good look for the brand nor the way it was handled but just because they made a bad PSU does not mean their motherboards are the same.
Gigabyte has been known to make a pretty solid MB in the past and no reason to suspect this series will not be the same.

Also many companies could do a better job with their customer service or rma policies, Gigabyte surely is not alone here.

Trying to use the PSU issue to reflect on the completely different product line mb's quality is what is a bad look honestly.

 

[sonwon1]

Many times a large corporation works as somewhat independent companies concerning its different divisions within itself.
Granted the PSU fiasco was not a good look for the brand nor the way it was handled but just because they made a bad PSU does not mean their motherboards are the same.
Gigabyte has been known to make a pretty solid MB in the past and no reason to suspect this series will not be the same.

Also many companies could do a better job with their customer service or rma policies, Gigabyte surely is not alone here.

Trying to use the PSU issue to reflect on the completely different product line mb's quality is what is a bad look honestly.

I respectfully disagree. I was not speaking to the quality of the product just the way they handled customer service and how they attempted to cover up the whole mess. In my opinion a reputable company would admit they made a mistake and then make a correction without needing to be exposed. I think this speaks to a serious lack of ethics inside the company and they can no longer be trusted. They could turn that all around with a proper admission of guilt and taking steps to make sure it never happens again. I have not seen that happen and will gladly change my opinion if it does.

Also we are not talking about other companies we are talking about Gigabyte. I have no doubt there are other scoundrels out there that need to be called out. And I will hope Tom's Hardware will do so in the future!