Aorus Z490 Master Motherboard Review

Motherboard designs have changed a lot over the years and while the extensive and decorative coverings do little to enhance overall performance they are great at giving the product some curb appeal.  Not long ago I reviewed the TRX40 Aorus Master motherboard which was a Threadripper based design from Aorus (Gigabyte) and was honestly one of the more tastefully designed boards I had seen in a long time. 

In this review I’ll be going over the Z490 Aorus Master motherboard for the latest generation of Comet Lake processors.  For those who do not know, Aorus is the gaming brand under Gigabyte that combines features from many of the previous product lines together to create a super motherboard for the aspiring gamer, weekend overclocker and system builder looking for a universal platform to handle it all.

There are a number of Aorus Gaming Z490 motherboards in the product lineup and the Aorus Master is one step down from the halo Z490 Aorus Xtreme and Z490 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce (yum).  Visually the Aorus Master is almost identical to the Xtreme with a few changes mostly with the RGB implementation and several on board components.

CPU: Support for 10th Generation Intel Core i9 processors/Intel Core i7 processors/Intel Core i5 processors/Intel Core i3 processors/Intel Pentium processors/Intel Celeron processors in the LGA1200 package

Chipset: Intel Z490 Express Chipset

Memory: Support for 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(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) / 2933 / 2800 / 2666 / 2400 / 2133 MHz

Onboard Graphics: Integrated Graphics Processor-Intel HD Graphics support:: 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096x2160@30 Hz

Audio: Realtek ALC1220-VB codec / ESS ES9118EQ DAC chip / Support for DTS:X Ultra / High Definition Audio / 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel / Support for S/PDIF Out

LAN: Intel 2.5GbE LAN chip (2.5 Gbit/1 Gbit/100 Mbit)

Wireless: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201: WIFI a, b, g, n, ac with wave 2 features, ax, supporting 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band / BLUETOOTH 5.0

Expansion Slots: 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)

Multi-Graphics Technology: Support for NVIDIA Quad-GPU SLI and 2-Way NVIDIA SLI technologies / Support for AMD Quad-GPU CrossFire and 2-Way AMD CrossFire technologies

Storage Interface: 3x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) / 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors / Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

Chipset: 2 x USB Type-C ports, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support / 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports / 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports / 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports

Form Factor: ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm