Gigabyte Z690 AORUS ULTRA (DDR5) Motherboard Review

Features

• Supports 12th Gen Intel^®  Core™ Series Processors
• Dual Channel Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR5, 4 DIMMs
• 16+1+2 Phases Direct VRM Design with 105A Power Stage* and Tantalum Polymer Capacitor
• DDR5 XTREME MEMORY Design with SMD DIMM and Shielded Memory Routing
• Advanced Thermal Solution with Fully Covered Thermal Design and Fins-Array II
• WIFI6 802.11ax 2T2R & BT5 with AORUS Antenna
• Hi-Fi Audio with ALC4080 and WIMA Audio Capacitors
• Fast 2.5GbE LAN with Bandwidth Management
• Four 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

Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Ultra – THE NEW KING OF GAMING

Rule supreme with the Z690 AORUS gaming motherboards. The new king of gaming platform continues the legendary AORUS bloodline with the most robust power delivery and dominant thermal design, glorified with the complete memory overclocking technology to crown your PC with the best Alder Lake’s performance in all its gaming glory.

Full overview can be found here … https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z690-AORUS-ULTRA-rev-1x#kf

Specifications

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

  * Please refer to “CPU Support List” for more information.

• Chipset
  1. Intel^® Z690 Express Chipset
• Memory
  1. Support for DDR5 6200(O.C.) / 6000(O.C.) / 5800(O.C.) / 5600(O.C.) / 5400(O.C.) / 5200(O.C.) / 4800 / 4000 MHz memory modules
  2. 4 x DDR5 DIMM sockets supporting up to 128 GB (32 GB single DIMM capacity) of system memory
  3. Dual channel memory architecture
  4. Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
  5. Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules
  6. Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

  (Please refer “Memory Support List” for more information.)

• Onboard Graphics

  Integrated Graphics Processor-Intel^® HD Graphics support:

  1. 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.)

• Audio
  1. Realtek^® ALC4080 CODEC
  2. Support for DTS:X^® Ultra
  3. High Definition Audio
  4. 2-channel analog output
  5. 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
  1. Intel^® 2.5GbE LAN chip (2.5 Gbps/1 Gbps/100 Mbps)
• Wireless Communication module

  WIFI Module

  1. WIFI a, b, g, n, ac, ax, supporting 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band
  2. BLUETOOTH 5.2
  3. 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. 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. 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
  1. Support for AMD Quad-GPU CrossFire™ and 2-Way AMD CrossFire™ technologies
• Storage Interface

  CPU:

  1. 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280/22110 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2A_CPU)

  Chipset:

  1. 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2C_SB)
  2. 2 x M.2 connectors (Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280/22110 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2P_SB, M2Q_SB)
  3. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors

  Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
  * Refer to “2-8 Internal Connectors,” for the installation notices for the M.2 and SATA connectors.
  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. 2 x USB Type-C^® ports, with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support (1 port on the back panel, 1 port available through the internal USB header)
  2. 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) on the back panel

  Chipset+2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Hubs:

  1. 6 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)

  Chipset+2 USB 2.0 Hubs:

  1. 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. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
  2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  3. 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
  4. 1 x CPU fan header
  5. 1 x water cooling CPU fan header
  6. 4 x system fan headers
  7. 2 x system fan/water cooling pump headers
  8. 2 x addressable LED strip headers
  9. 2 x RGB LED strip headers
  10. 4 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors
  11. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  12. 1 x front panel header
  13. 1 x front panel audio header
  14. 1 x USB Type-C^® header, with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support
  15. 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
  16. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
  17. 1 x noise detection header
  18. 2 x Thunderbolt™ add-in card connectors
  19. 1 x Trusted Platform Module header (For the GC-TPM2.0 SPI/GC-TPM2.0 SPI 2.0 module only)
  20. 1 x power button
  21. 1 x Q-Flash Plus button
  22. 1 x reset button
  23. 1 x reset jumper
  24. 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  25. 2 x temperature sensor headers
• Back Panel Connectors
  1. 2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R)
  2. 1 x USB Type-C^® port, with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support
  3. 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red)
  4. 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
  5. 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  6. 1 x DisplayPort
  7. 1 x RJ-45 port
  8. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  9. 2 x audio jacks
• I/O Controller
  1. iTE^® I/O Controller Chip
• H/W Monitoring
  1. Voltage detection
  2. Temperature detection
  3. Fan speed detection
  4. Water cooling flow rate detection
  5. Fan fail warning
  6. Fan speed control
     * Whether the fan (pump) speed control function is supported will depend on the fan (pump) you install.
  7. Noise detection
• BIOS
  1. 1 x 256 Mbit flash
  2. Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
  3. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0
• Unique Features
  1. 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
  2. Support for Q-Flash Plus
  3. Support for Q-Flash
  4. Support for Xpress Install
• Bundled Software
  1. Norton^® Internet Security (OEM version)
  2. cFosSpeed
• Operating System
  1. Support for Windows 11 64-bit
  2. Support for Windows 10 64-bit
• Form Factor
  1. ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm

More information on Gigabyte’s website.