Gigabyte Z690 AORUS ELITE AX DDR4 Motherboard Review

Features

• Supports 12th Gen Intel^® Core™ Series Processors
• Dual Channel Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR4, 4 DIMMs
• Direct 16+1+2 Digital VRM Design with 70A Power Stage* and Tantalum Polymer Capacitor
• Shielded Memory Routing to Avoid Interference
• Fully Covered Thermal Design with High Coverage MOSFET Heatsinks
• Onboard WIFI 6 802.11ax 2T2R & BT5 with AORUS Antenna
• AMP-UP Audio with ALC1220 and WIMA Audio Capacitors
• Fast 2.5GbE LAN with Bandwidth Management
• 4x Ultra-Fast NVMe PCIe 4.0/3.0 x4 M.2 with Enlarged Thermal Guards
• SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen2x2 TYPE-C^® delivers up to 20Gb/s transfer speeds
• RGB FUSION 2.0 with Multi-Zone Addressable LED Light Show Design, Support Addressable LED & RGB LED Strips
• Smart Fan 6 Features Multiple Temperature Sensors , Hybrid Fan Headers with FAN STOP
• Q-Flash Plus Update BIOS without Installing the CPU, Memory and Graphics Card

Specifications

CPU

• LGA1700 socket: Support for 12th Generation Intel^® Core™, Pentium^® Gold and Celeron^® Processors*
• L3 cache varies with CPU

Chipset

• Intel^® Z690 Express Chipset

Memory

• Support for DDR4 5333(O.C.)/ DDR4 5133(O.C.)/DDR4 5000(O.C.)/4933(O.C.)/4800(O.C.)/ 4700(O.C.)/ 4600(O.C.)/ 4500(O.C.)/ 4400(O.C.)/ 4300(O.C.)/4266(O.C.) / 4133(O.C.) / 4000(O.C.) / 3866(O.C.) / 3800(O.C.) / 3733(O.C.) / 3666(O.C.) / 3600(O.C.) / 3466(O.C.) / 3400(O.C.) / 3333(O.C.) / 3300(O.C.) / 3200 / 3000 / 2933 / 2800 / 2666 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules
• 4 x DDR DIMM sockets supporting up to 128 GB (32 GB single DIMM capacity) of system memory
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
• Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules
• Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

Onboard Graphics

• Integrated Graphics Processor-Intel^® HD Graphics support:
  • 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@60 Hz
    * Support for HDMI 2.1 version and HDCP 2.3.
    ** Support native HDMI 2.1 TMDS compatible ports.
  • 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2304@60 Hz
    * Support for DisplayPort 1.2 version and HDCP 2.3

  (Graphics specifications may vary depending on CPU support.)

(Supported graphics specifications may vary depending on CPU or graphics card used.)

Audio

• Realtek^® ALC1220-VB CODEC
  * The back panel line out jack supports DSD audio.
• High Definition Audio
• 2-channel analog output
• Support for S/PDIF Out
• 7.1-channel digital signals
  * Actual output of digital signals may vary depending on the playback content and software used, and an external DAC is required.

LAN

• Realtek^® 2.5GbE LAN chip (2.5 Gbps/1 Gbps/100 Mbps)

Wireless Communication module

• Intel^® Wi-Fi 6 AX201:
  • WIFI a, b, g, n, ac, ax, supporting 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band
  • BLUETOOTH 5.2
  • Support for 11ax 160MHz wireless standard and up to 2.4 Gbps data rate
    * Actual data rate may vary depending on environment and equipment.

Expansion Slots

• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
  * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
  (The PCIEX16 slot conforms to PCI Express 5.0 standard.)
• 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x4 (PCIEX4_1, PCIEX4_2)
  (The PCIEX4 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)

Multi-Graphics Technology

• Support for AMD Quad-GPU CrossFire™ and 2-Way AMD CrossFire™ technologies

Storage Interface

• CPU:
  • 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280/22110 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2A_CPU)
• Chipset:
  • 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2M_SB)
  • 2 x M.2 connectors (Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280/22110 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2Q_SB/M2P_SB)
  • 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  • Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
  • Intel^® Optane™ Memory Ready

* System acceleration with Intel^® Optane™ Memory can only be enabled on the M.2 connectors supported by the Chipset.

USB

• Chipset:
  • 1 x USB Type-C^® port on the back panel, with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support
  • 1 x USB Type-C^® port with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support, available through the internal USB header
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) on the back panel
  • 5 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (3 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
• Chipset+2 USB 2.0 Hubs:
  • 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)

Internal I/O Connectors

• 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
• 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
• 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
• 1 x CPU fan header
• 1 x water cooling CPU fan header
• 3 x system fan headers
• 1 x system fan/water cooling pump header
• 2 x addressable LED strip headers
• 2 x RGB LED strip headers
• 4 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
• 1 x front panel header
• 1 x front panel audio header
• 1 x USB Type-C^® header, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
• 2 x Thunderbolt™ add-in card connectors
• 1 x Trusted Platform Module header (For the GC-TPM2.0 SPI/GC-TPM2.0 SPI 2.0 module only)
• 1 x reset button
• 1 x Q-Flash Plus button
• 1 x reset jumper
• 1 x Clear CMOS jumper

＊All fan headers are subject to support AIO_Pump, Pump and high performance fan with the capability of delivering up to 2A/12V @ 24W.

Back Panel Connectors

• 1 x USB Type-C^® port, with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support
• 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red)
• 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
• 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R)
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 1 x RJ-45 port
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 2 x audio jacks

I/O Controller

• iTE^® I/O Controller Chip

H/W Monitoring

• Voltage detection
• Temperature detection
• Fan speed detection
• Water cooling flow rate detection
• Fan fail warning
• Fan speed control
  * Whether the fan (pump) speed control function is supported will depend on the fan (pump) you install.

BIOS

• 1 x 256 Mbit flash
• Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
• PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0

Unique Features

• Support for APP Center
  * Available applications in APP Center may vary by motherboard model. Supported functions of each application may also vary depending on motherboard specifications.
• @BIOS
• EasyTune
• Fast Boot
• Game Boost
• ON/OFF Charge
• RGB Fusion
• Smart Backup
• System Information Viewer
• Support for Q-Flash Plus
• Support for Q-Flash
• Support for Xpress Install

Bundle Software

• Norton^® Internet Security (OEM version)
• LAN bandwidth management software

Operating System

• Support for Windows 11 64-bit
• Support for Windows 10 64-bit

Form Factor

• ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm

* The entire materials provided herein are for reference only. GIGABYTE reserves the right to modify or revise the content at anytime without prior notice.
* Advertised performance is based on maximum theoretical interface values from respective Chipset vendors or organization who defined the interface specification. Actual performance may vary by system configuration.
* All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders.
* Due to standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount.

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