Agent47 Posted November 18, 2021 Posted November 18, 2021 We’ve tested a couple high-end boards for Intel’s brand-new Alder Lake platform so far. But now we get to dive deep into the first mid-range Z690 board, Gigabyte’s Z690 Aorus Pro. Priced at $329.99, it’s one of the less expensive offerings in the Z690 universe (although there are boards priced as low as $200), but it still has a long feature list enthusiasts should love. There are a whopping 13 total USB ports, 2.5 GbE and integrated Wi-Fi 6 for fast networking, four M.2 sockets, a premium Realtek audio codec, overbuilt VRMs, and an updated appearance. The new look may be polarizing, with its grey-on-black heatsinks, but overall we like what the Aorus Pro delivers as a package very much. Since this is our first Gigabyte Z690 review, we’ll briefly cover the product stack. The Gigabyte website has a mind-blowing 25 models listed, across the Aorus, Aero, Gaming X, and UD families. The Aorus line has 15 boards, from the halo product Aorus Extreme Waterforce (and non-watercooled Extreme), Tachyon (overclocking centric), Master, Ultra, Elite, and Pro boards. There’s even a Mini ITX board, the Z690I Ultra. The Aero line consists of three boards (Aero D, Aero G, and Aero D DDR4) that sport a different design aesthetic (white) with hardware geared towards content creators. The Gaming X family has two boards (one DDR5, the other DDR4). Finally, the UD series makes up the budget end of things with five SKUs, including DDR4 options. On the design front, the Z690 Aorus Pro changed things up, going with less coverage on the shrouds and heatsinks due to PCIe slot placement. The M.2, chipset and top VRM heatsink are all grey, providing a rather stark contrast against the black PCB and other heatsinks. Personally, I prefer the old style that covers more of the board and uses grey more sparingly (like the Z690 Aorus Master). That said, this is still a good-looking board and makes a great focal point for your Z690 build, though the lack of RGB lighting elements may be a turnoff for some. Looks aside, the Z690 Aorus Pro performed well, mixing in with the other two Z690 DDR5 boards we’ve tested so far. The board led a few benchmarks, including Handbrake (x264), Cinebench R23, POV-Ray, and did a clean sweep in the Procyon Office tests and Photo Editing. RAM bandwidth and latency were spot on with the other results and so were our gaming tests. Power use was also in the middle of the Z690 boards tested so far. Overall, the Z690 Aourus Pro is a complete package that isn’t too hard on your wallet (by current motherboard standards). Read on for additional information on features, overclocking, and takeaways from our time with the board. Before we do that, here’s a complete list of the Z690 Aorus Pro’s specifications, direct from Gigabyte. Inside the Aorus Pro’s box are several accessories, including SATA cables, a Wi-Fi antenna, and screws. We didn’t find a disk/USB stick with drivers, but that could be a review sample omission. Worst case scenario, you’d have to download the drivers from the website, but that’s a good idea anyway, to make sure you have the most up-to-date software. Although the accessory list is a bit sparse, most of what you need to get started is here. Below is a complete list of the included extras. User’s Manual Installation Guide (4) M.2 screws (4) SATA cables (2) Temperature sensors RGB extension Microphone Wi-Fi antenna G-connector Taking a closer look at the Aorus Pro, we see a matte-black PCB, along with some grey lines stenciled on the board matching the heatsinks and shrouds. The VRM heatsink sports the Aorus branding, while the chipset has an Aorus Eagle on with a mirror finish. The black-and-grey board uses reinforcement on the primary PCIe slot and all four DRAM slots to mitigate EMI and and extra support for heavy graphics cards. Overall, I like the design, but the contrasting grey heatsinks are polarizing. Looks are subjective, but I would like to see more black instead. There’s less heatsink coverage here generally, due to the PCIe slot design and how close the chipset-fed slots are, but that does expose more of the motherboard. On the RGB front, you’ll have to add lights yourself. The board does not include any, much like the MSI MEG Z690 Unify we recently reviewed.
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