Aorus Z690 Elite AX DDR4 Edition Motherboard Review

Z690 Aorus Elite AX DDR4 – Z690 Chipset
Intel Core i7 12700k (3.2Ghz) Sixteen Core 12+12 32KB L2 Cache 9+9 x 1.25MB L3 Cache 25MB 
Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux
1x nVidia RTX 2080 Super
2x GSKill TridentZ PC4-27700 8GB DDR4 (16-18-18-38)
Patriot P200 512GB SSD
HP dvd1260i Multiformat 24x Writer
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
Windows 11 Pro 64bit 

Z690 Aorus Pro Gaming – Z690 Chipset
Intel Core i7 12700k (3.2Ghz) Sixteen Core 12+12 32KB L2 Cache 9+9 x 1.25MB L3 Cache 25MB 
Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux
1x nVidia RTX 2080 Super
2x Crucial PC5-4800 16GB DDR5 (40-39-39-76)
Patriot P200 512GB SSD
HP dvd1260i Multiformat 24x Writer
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
Windows 11 Pro 64bit 

Aorus Z490 Master – Z490 Chipset
Intel Core i9 10900k (3.7Ghz) Deca Core 10 x 32KB L2 Cache 10 x 256KB L3 Cache 20MB 
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme
1x nVidia RTX 2080 Super
2x Thermaltake ToughRAM PC4-44000 8GB DDR4 (19-25-25-45)
Patriot P200 512GB SSD
HP dvd1260i Multiformat 24x Writer
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
Windows 10 Pro 64bit 

Our motherboard testing suite has been compiled to subject the system to a variety of different scenarios that help uncover some of the subtle differences in motherboard design.  Normally these differences are driven by the processor and BIOS programming but with the advent of an IMC and PCI Express moving to the CPU we have discovered that raw performance numbers are virtually identical across most systems using the same processor.  

Our new approach is to look at total system performance and minimize the variances.  The results will tell us how the system responded as a total package and also give us something to use in our comparisons.

As with most new processor and chipset releases we will be comparing the current system to previous products not only to see how they stack up but, to better understand how much of an increase we are getting by upgrading.