GIGABYTE Z790M AORUS Elite AX ICE LGA 1700 Intel Z790 M-ATX Motherboard with DDR5, Triple M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C, Intel Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, EZ-Latch Plus

Putting together a computer can involve accidental abuse of components. You slide around the motherboard trying to get it lined up, you press a little too hard in some areas, you exert too much pressure trying to get the CPU cooler on. You screw things in too tight. Stuff happens. Installing this thing, I was a bit rough, but this thing didn't even care. It took the punishment and worked great first try. I wanted to do a q-flash plus on it before first boot because I'm running an i9-14900kf. So it was only barely half assembled when I pushed the q-flash button. I half expected it to not work at all, but it worked first try! Aaaand then after the flash it tried to boot, which was only bad because I hadn't installed the CPU cooler yet, but hey, the bigger take away is that technically it booted first try. So then I assembled everything else, again I was a bit rough in the process. Again it worked first try when it was all finished. Build quality is really good, this is clearly a premium board. It auto detected and set up all my fans and my pump, which was nice. I wasn't sure how the pump thing was going to work. I plugged my AIO pump into the system fan/pump connector, and it just worked first try, no setup required. That's what you get when you pay for a board like this, it actually works first try with no setup. Aesthetically it looks nice in person, but maybe not as nice as the back mount boards, but still nice. The connectors for fans and power and all that run along the bottom which is okay I guess, although it made cable management a little weird. In terms of value for money, this thing does cost a lot of money, so I wouldn't call it a value, but I will say you are getting what you paid for. You're paying for a $300 motherboard, and you're getting a $300 motherboard, it is exactly what you're paying for, it is quality, and you're paying for that quality. It is very nice, and I have no regrets.

Absolutely fantastic motherboard. Easy to quick tweak settings in BIOS or go all out with access to complete voltages and timings. I am all about performance and this board has it. Im using a Ultra 265k and one bench is using a 5070 card and the other 2 are using a 5070TI for reference. Great quality board and another great board from Gigabyte. To be fair, I am a Gigabyte only person anymore. Easy to set up and configure. I will say that I did not see any performance decrease when using the GPU in gen5x16 with a Gen5 NVME. The newer Ultra chips have more PCI lanes so you dont have to worry about any performance caps when using both. This is a solid board with great performance, lots of fan headers and ARGB connectors as well as a built in Thunderbolt 4 which can also provide a 20Gb network connection. Everything is solid and works great.

EDIT: After some testing with new parts and tinkering with settings, I've figured that the main issue stemmed from the RAM, not the motherboard. I've never used DDR5 before so maybe it's something to do with that, but I've found it impossible to use at full speed and have it be stable. Never ever use XMP. I've learned my lesson there. Also fixed my issue with boot up times/lighting not starting properly by messing with ErP and Fast Boot settings in the BIOS. Glad I get to use this board, it's got wonderful I/O and it's simple enough for what I need. ORIGINAL: Just built my new PC and this motherboard has given me the most issues out of any parts by far. To start off with the bad, it has some power issues, fan lights will often not turn on or off alongside the PC, it takes a while to start up most of the time, and I can not use my RAM to its fullest speed. Using the motherboard's built in XMP with 4x16GB DDR5-6400 MHz RAM causes only crashes when using the PC. (memtest shows 0 errors with the RAM itself.) Games will crash quickly and sometimes the entire system just blue-screens or freezes, and every time it's related to the XMP, and I know this because going to a lower XMP profile, it works fine. Still a few crashes but it's never anywhere near as bad as using it at full speed. This motherboard also just has some build quality issues. USB-3 plugin came off with the connector, making the pins exposed. Thankfully it still works, but that's definitely not reassuring when it comes off that easily. As for the good, this motherboard has a lot of I-O. 4 USB 2.0 ports on the back for your keyboard, mouse, etc. is always nice. Lots of USB 3.0 ports and also tons of slots on the motherboard itself. The NVME storage is very nice and has a good built-in heatsink for them. The motherboard itself also looks super clean, and is incredibly simple to install. This motherboard definitely has a lot of potential, it's possible I got a faulty board, and if I get more problems I'll definitely end up getting a new one from a different brand. But, if you wanna take a chance, then this one could definitely work. For now, I think there's a lot of issues that need ironing out and if you plan on getting high-end parts, you may want to look for something with more assured quality.

Used in my recent XMAS Silverstone GD11 HTPC build its running excellent. It has a very strong Bluetooth connection as I can walk to the other side of my house without losing my apple air-pod connection! As others have mentioned I did get a Version 1.0 printed in the corner. Stock Bios was V3 and after Windows 11 pro install there is a very nice software suite that I downloaded from Gigabyte that does an auto review of MOBO required drivers and also reported a new Bios version V6 available. I downloaded and installed, very easy even a novice like me can do this upgrade. I think many of the 1-star reviews are maybe the result on not doing this Bios upgrade! Enabled XMP in the Bios and new Corsair CMK32GX5M2B7000C40 VENGEANCE DDR5 32GB 2x16GB 7000MT/s RAM is showing a speed of 7000! I don't have a WiFi-7 router so no way to check this function! Here are my picked parts for this build: Silverstone GD 11B Case Intel - Core i9-14900K 14th Gen Raptor Lake 24-Core Processor GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X WIFI7 LGA 1700 MoBo Corsair CMK32GX5M2B7000C40 VENGEANCE DDR5 32GB 2x16GB 7000MT/s Seasonic Focus PX-850, 850W 80+ Platinum Full-Modular P/S Samsung - 990 PRO 1TB Internal SSD PCle Gen 4x4 NVMe SSD MSI SHADOW GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GDDR7 PCI Express 5.0 Video Card Cooler Master 240 Atmos Stealth High Performance Close-Loop AIO Liquid Cooler Noctua NF-A8 PWM Chromax Black (3 ea) 30cm PC Motherboard Front Audio Extension Cable - Male to Female

I tore apart a perfectly working beautiful MSI Z890 Pro Wi-Fi ATX build because I wanted a smaller case. I thought this board was an upgrade. It is far from an upgrade. I fell for the hype, the weight, the look of this board, the fancy reinforcements, fancy heat sinks, white PCB. None of that crap matters if the board doesn’t work well. Navigating the BIOS was difficult. There is lag between mouse movement and the cursor. I had the system online for about 15 minutes when the Realtek Wi-Fi adapter left the chat. I mean it’s just gone. One minute it was there, the next minute it was not. I couldn't get my Lenovo webcam to work for Windows Hello. I did a complete reset and reinstallation of Windows 11, keeping nothing. Fresh install, I reinstalled all the correct drivers and still no webcam or hello, error messages in device messenger, just a frustrating mess. I was up until 4am trying to troubleshoot this thing before giving up, disgusted that I'd ruined a perfectly good PC. The BIOS was such a disappointment compared to other brands. This board does not come with Wi-Fi drivers. If you don't have access to a wired connection, good luck, the Wi-Fi doesn't work when installing Windows 11, if you can even get the WIFI to work at all. There are two versions of this board, each with different WIFI modules. I tried drivers for both, neither worked for me. Update, I replaced this board with a MSI Pro B860M-A WiFi ($61 less!). Wow what a difference! The new board started and EVERYTHING WORKED right out of the gate, requiring no driver downloads for Wi-Fi or Windows Hello even running on the previous Windows install from the Gigabyte board. I still did a complete system reset and finished setting up Windows 11 in no time flat. Zero errors, no issues, all drivers downloaded automatically with the MSI app. Installing MSI motherboards is like driving a Mercedes, while this Gigabyte was like driving a broken Yugo dressed up like a Lamborghini. Save your money and buy something that works.

I bought this motherboard for an Intel i7 13700K CPU and installed 64 Gigs of memory. If you plan to use XMP to automatically overclock your memory, I've read that you will have MUCH BETTER luck by using only 2 RAM sticks and not installing 4. So get as much memory as you need in two sticks. Sometime down the road, Gigabyte may issue a bios update that solves this, but I never count on companies fixing their issues promptly. For those looking for fast memory that looks amazing (RGB) and works 100% with this motherboard, try these: CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 RAM 64GB (2x32GB) 6000MHz CL30 Intel XMP iCUE Compatible Computer Memory - White (CMH64GX5M2B6000C30W) Excellent for overclocking, I achieved 6Ghz, but I backed it down to 5.8Ghz for longevity. I tend to build a new PC every five years or so, and I was happy with my last build, which had an Aorus motherboard, so I decided to stay brand loyal. So why four stars and not 5? Because Gigabtye (makers of Aorus products) has decided to skimp on the sound. If you have surround sound speakers, they want you to disable your mic input and your front headphone jack, and stretch wires from the rear of your case to the front, and to top it all off, the sound is horrible! So I had to spend extra on a sound card, and of course, I went with a tried and true Sound Blaster model that was white and looks amazing. Now my sound is perfect, and if this becomes a trend on future motherboards, I can bring my sound card. I was a little leery of buying this during Black Friday sales week because there was only one review, and they gave it 1 star for no reasoning. But I looked at the non-ice" model (meaning it is not white/silver like this one), and it seemed pretty solid. You will note the motherboard is NOT pure white, like the case, fans, or liquid cooler, but is more silver/white. I knew this going in, and I am okay with it. I think it reflects the RGB fans I put in my case nicely. My last Aorus motherboard (z370, btw) had many more RGB colors, but the only thing that lights up on this motherboard are the four small lights under the chipset. They have another ICE board with more RGB if you want to spend twice as much money. (Motherboards are already overpriced these days) Regarding M2 slots, put your fastest NVME in the top slot, just under the CPU. The motherboard provides a nice heatsink for it here, but it's all passive, as there is no fan on it. You have three more slots for a total of 4 M2s, of which I have filled all of mine, and this is my first PC without a single hard drive installed or a 2.5-inch Sata SSD. According to the book (which does NOT come with the motherboard; you need to download it from their website. Prices are up on motherboards, and they cut the sound and don't give you a driver disc or a booklet, go figure), NOTE: Only one slot (nearest the bottom) allows for SATA m2. The others are all NVME only. This worked out perfectly for me, as I had 3 Samsung NVME (990 PRO, 980 PRO, and 960 EVO) and one Samsung 860 EVO, which is sata3.

I am very satisfied with this motherboard. Gigabyte has given it plenty of bells and whistles. Connectivity options are more than what I need. It's design and materials are robust and well laid out. I haven't down any overclocking yet but I'm confident that this board will handle that well. It is attractive without being overdone. I have run stability test on the CPU and GPU, the board didn't flinch. I would buy this board again and will recommend it to my friends. This is mu second Gigabyte board and I don't see myself going with any other brand.

GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS Elite X WIFI7: A Brief Review The GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS Elite X WIFI7 is like that dependable friend who always shows up with a surprise dessert at your dinner party. It combines some serious tech muscle with a dash of elegance, making it a worthy contender in the Intel Z790 lineup. The Good Stuff: Native Intel 14th Gen Support: This motherboard gives your shiny new 14th Gen Intel processor a warm welcome. It’s like rolling out the red carpet for your CPU—no BIOS flashing required. 🌟 Integrated Wi-Fi 7: Say hello to the future of wireless connectivity! Wi-Fi 7 (also known as 802.11be) brings faster speeds and better efficiency. Whether you’re streaming cat videos or conquering the gaming world, this board has your back. 📶 Updated Audio Codec: The onboard Realtek ALC1220-VB audio chip delivers crisp sound. Imagine hearing that headshot in your favorite FPS game with crystal clarity. 🎧 20Gbps USB-C Port: At the rear, you’ll find a USB-C port that’s faster than a caffeinated squirrel. Plug in your external drives, peripherals, or even your coffee warmer (okay, maybe not the last one). ☕ M.2 Sockets with EZ Latch/Click: Installing those speedy M.2 SSDs is a breeze. No tiny screws to lose—just latch and click. 🚀 The Not-So-Good Stuff: No PCI Express 5.0 M.2 Sockets: If you’re craving the absolute bleeding-edge speed, you won’t find it here. But hey, most of us won’t notice the difference unless we’re benchmarking like mad scientists. 🔬 Slight Price Hike: The Z790 AORUS Elite X WIFI7 isn’t exactly budget-friendly. But hey, quality costs, right? Plus, it’s like investing in a solid pair of sneakers—you’ll appreciate the comfort during those marathon gaming sessions. 👟 Final Verdict: The GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS Elite X WIFI7 is like that well-balanced meal—it satisfies your hunger for performance, connectivity, and aesthetics. Whether you’re building a gaming rig, a content creation beast, or just showing off to your tech-savvy friends, this motherboard won’t disappoint. Remember, my digital compadre, every component in your PC is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. And the Z790 AORUS Elite X WIFI7? It’s the corner piece—the one that sets the foundation for the whole picture. 🧩