Following our recent preview of this motherboard, Z690 is finally here! And it’s ushering in new 12th Gen Intel processors and a huge wave of new features from both. Gigabyte already has an impressive launch lineup of motherboards, but the most exciting are under its enthusiast-focused AORUS brand. The new Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Pro isn’t the most extreme of the bunch, that would literally be the Z690 XTREME. However, the Pro represents something of an advanced level, albeit the entry level of extremely expensive ultra-high-end gaming and overclocking motherboards. With that in mind, you should get most of the excitement of your much more expensive models, without going overboard.
Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Pro
It’s hard to believe that this isn’t one of the more extreme boards in the range, as it’s barely feature-rich. you get a powerful 16+1+2 direct VRM design with 90A power stage and those lovely tantalum polymer capacitors throughout. This is likely to be enough when it comes to driving the Max Boost speeds of Intel’s latest CPUs. You get the latest DDR5 memory support, huge heat sinks on all the vital hardware, but especially the VRM. There’s the latest Intel WiFi 6, as well as speedy 2.5GbE LAN that takes care of all your networking needs. Storage is upgraded to the latest PCIe Gen 4, so you can take advantage of the fastest SSDs on the market. Graphics cards get a boost from the latest PCIe 5.0, which offers huge increases in bandwidth and some future proofing for future hardware. There’s also the fantastic Q-Flash, which allows you to update your BIOS without installing the CPU, memory and graphics card; that saved my butt several times, that’s for sure!
Characteristics
Supports 12th Generation Intel® Core™ series processors DDR5 Dual Channel Non-ECC Unbuffered, 4 DIMM 16+1+2 Direct Digital VRM Design with 90A Power Stage* and Tantalum Polymer Capacitor MEMORY Design DDR5 XTREME with SMD DIMMs and Shielded Memory Routing Fully Shrouded Thermal Design with High Coverage MOSFET Heatsinks Intel® WIFI 6802.11ax 2T2R and BT5 with AORUS Antenna High Fidelity Audio with ALC4080 and WastIMA Audio Capacitors with Bandwidth Management Ultra-fast 4x NVMe PCIe 4.0*/3.0 x4 M.2 with extended thermal protection SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen2x2 TYPE-C delivers transfer speeds of up to 20 Gb/s RGB FUSION 2.0 with multi-zone addressable LED light show design,supports addressable LEDs and RGB LED Strips Smart Fan 6 features multiple temperature sensors, hybrid fan headers with FAN STOPQ-Flash Plus Update BIOS without installing CPU, memory and graphics card.
- To ensure:
- In the packs with lot number 744 (of November), 745, 746 and higher, also 80x lots, they all only have this plate.
- In packs from Lot 744 (October) and earlier, this plate can be found mixed with packs that have a Zephyr plate.
- ELITES with manufacturing date from October (included) onwards, all with Falcon license plate.
FALCON V2 PLATE:
- It takes a little modification. the memories that it has below the board disappear completely and the memories above it gain twice the capacity, with this what is done is to reduce the components and thereby reduce the heat they give off. In other words, it goes from having 8 memories above and below the board (64mb each), to having 4 memories only above the board (128mb each).
- From the grill opposite the hard drive you can see 6 capacitors (one group of 4 and one group of 2).
- To ensure:
- From lot 825 to 830 (If the box label indicates team ADUE, you can mark the box with a lot higher than the one it really belongs to. Look at the lot at the end of the serial number. This is always the real lot –> XXXXXXXXAAAXX – -> AAA=actual batch).
- In lots 831 to 833 the majority are FalconV3 but in between there are some FalconV2.
Z690 and 12th Gen Reviews
Intel 12th Gen Core i5-12600K, i7-12700K and i9-12900K CPU Review ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME Motherboard Review ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO Motherboard Review ASUS TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 Motherboard Review Review ASUS ROG Z690-I Gaming Motherboard WiFi Review Gigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME Motherboard Review Gigabyte Z690 AORUS MasterMSI Motherboard Review MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 Motherboard Review MSI MPG Z690 Motherboard Review Carbon WiFi MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY Motherboard Review
