Today we have for you the Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Pro WiFi. Gigabyte has long made motherboards for consumers and also pushed the limits for the overclocking/XOC community with a staff of well adept overclockers at their disposal. Gigabyte has made arguably some of the most top-tier boards in both the mainstream and HEDT platforms of varying success and design over the years. Gigabyte has really stepped up their game on the recent chipset generation from what I’ve seen with some very overbuilt power circuits but carrying with that note some questionable product positioning as far as feature sets go.
The Z390 like most recent chipset/CPU generations is such that most all boards you will see are within a few percents of each other if tested properly which means this becomes a features race where you as a consumer must look at what each board offers in accordance with your needs to see which board will meet or exceed your needs. What this means is that each board you see today will perform roughly within the margin for error of each other if tested side by side. Unless of course, you are pushing the limits with sub-ambient cooling which is where you may see some other tangible differences that may help push you toward a specific board model or series to better serve your needs.
The board we are testing today carries the AORUS branding which has been earmarked as the Gigabyte gaming brand. But now the Aorus Master and Extreme boards which are targeted at Extreme users muddies the waters a bit as normally you will see an extreme OC board with the LN2/Force moniker.
Here we see the AORUS Pro WiFi in all of its minimalistic glory.
That’s right, the board we have today is not the über high end like we saw with the Maximus XI Extreme. That being said, you can buy roughly 3 of these boards for what one of the Extreme board would cost. However, do take note that this could quickly change dependent upon the upcoming tariffs as this could severely change the overall landscape of motherboard offerings and pricing.
Here are the boards we will be testing:
ASUS Maximus XI Extreme $599 *coming soon*
MSI MPG Z90 Gaming EDGE AC $189.99 (Source: )
Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi $191.04 (Source: )
Yes, as mentioned before that’s a massive price delta, and we are not expecting the gigabyte Z390 AORUS Pro WiFi to stack up against the Extreme board in terms of feature set but we want to see how it performs, what are the takeaways and how well can it keep pace with its much higher cost competitor.
Now let’s look at the specs.
CPU
Support for 9th and 8th 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 LGA1151 package
L3 cache varies with CPU
Chipset
Intel® Z390 Express Chipset
Memory
4 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 64 GB of system memory
Support for 11ac 160 MHz wireless standard and up to 1.73 Gbps data rate
* Actual data rate may vary depending on environment and equipment.
Expansion Slots
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
* The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot operates at up to x8 mode.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
3 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All of the PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
1 x M.2 Socket 1 connector for an Intel® CNVi wireless module (CNVI)
Storage Interface
Chipset:
1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) (M2A)
1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA and PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) (M2M)
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
* Refer to “1-8 Internal Connectors,” for the installation notices for the M.2 and SATA connectors.
Intel® Optane™ Memory Ready
Multi-Graphics Technology
Support for NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ and 2-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ technologies
Support for AMD Quad-GPU CrossFire™ and 3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire™ technologies
USB
Chipset:
1 x USB Type-C™ port with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support on the back panel
1 x USB Type-C™ port with USB 3.1 Gen 1 support, available through the internal USB header
2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) on the back panel
5 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (3 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
Chipset+USB 2.0 Hub:
8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
Internal I/O Connectors
1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x CPU fan header
1 x water cooling CPU fan header
4 x system fan headers
2 x system fan/water cooling pump headers
2 x digital LED strip headers
2 x digital LED strip power select jumpers
2 x RGB LED strip headers
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
2 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x S/PDIF Out header
1 x USB Type-C™ port, with USB 3.1 Gen 1 support
1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x Thunderbolt™ add-in card connector
1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header (2×6 pin, for the GC-TPM2.0_S module only)
1 x Clear CMOS jumper
2 x temperature sensor headers
Back Panel Connectors
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R)
1 x HDMI port
1 x USB Type-C™ port, with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support
2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red)
3 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
1 x RJ-45 port
1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
5 x audio jacks
I/O Controller
iTE® I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring
Voltage detection
Temperature detection
Fan speed detection
Water cooling flow rate detection
Overheating warning
Fan fail warning
Fan speed control
* Whether the fan (pump) speed control function is supported will depend on the fan (pump) you install.
BIOS
2 x 128 Mbit flash
Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
Support for DualBIOS™
PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0
Unique Features
Support for APP Center
* Available applications in APP Center may vary by motherboard model. Supported functions of each application may also vary depending on motherboard
specifications.
3D OSD
@BIOS
AutoGreen
Cloud Station
EasyTune
Easy RAID
Fast Boot
Game Boost
ON/OFF Charge
Platform Power Management
RGB Fusion
Smart Backup
Smart Keyboard
Smart TimeLock
Smart HUD
System Information Viewer
Smart Survey
USB Blocker
Support for Q-Flash
Support for Xpress Install
Bundle Software
Norton® Internet Security (OEM version)
cFosSpeed
Operating System
Support for Windows 10 64-bit
Form Factor
ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
Remark
Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website.
Most hardware/software vendors may no longer offer drivers to support Win9X/ME/2000/XP. If drivers are available from the vendors, we will update them on the GIGABYTE website.
Yea I know that’s ALOT of data but I want to make sure you have every bit of information provided which is why I copy it here and same with the next page where I copy and discuss their chosen marketing features.
I’ve already ordered this board, but was wondering about two things.
For one, it was really hard to get my hands on a piece, most shops have discontinued it, even on Amazon DE it was not available. Would you have any idea about the reason?
The second is about the WiFi card: On the lower end GAMING 3 WiFi it is an Intel 9560, but could not find any information on it’s, even the schematics positioned the “card” or a built in chip(?) under the shield. So do you know what model is it?
Well, to be fair.. Both MSI and GBT showed higher turbo duration than ASUS in this case. It is technically “breaking intel guidelines” but that is not a hard set rule, more where they suggest it be. It does net higher performance in some scenarios but also as you said potentially higher power draw and thermals.
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SiC634 is for VCORE
Awesome catch, thank you for that… when I imaged it I got my notes mixed vs the 632A for the GT Core power. Updated.
I’ve already ordered this board, but was wondering about two things.
For one, it was really hard to get my hands on a piece, most shops have discontinued it, even on Amazon DE it was not available. Would you have any idea about the reason?
The second is about the WiFi card: On the lower end GAMING 3 WiFi it is an Intel 9560, but could not find any information on it’s, even the schematics positioned the “card” or a built in chip(?) under the shield. So do you know what model is it?
I wont be buying that POS. Who do they think they are not following the Intel spec and creating more heat and power consumption, a backwards step imo.
Well, to be fair.. Both MSI and GBT showed higher turbo duration than ASUS in this case. It is technically “breaking intel guidelines” but that is not a hard set rule, more where they suggest it be. It does net higher performance in some scenarios but also as you said potentially higher power draw and thermals.