Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite AX DDR5 ATX Motherboard
A high-end Z790 ATX board with four M.2 slots, six SATA ports, a 20Gb/s USB-C port and Wi-Fi 6E for overclockable 12th, 13th and 14th Gen Intel processors.
The Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite AX DDR5 is the board Punch would suggest for a serious Intel gaming or creator PC that needs room to grow. The Z790 chipset unlocks CPU and memory overclocking on K-series processors, and the four DDR5 slots take up to 256GB at speeds up to 7600 MT/s with XMP. A reinforced PCIe 5.0 x16 slot with EZ-Latch quick release handles the graphics card, and twin 8-pin CPU power connectors feed a Core i9 under sustained load. Punch can build it into a complete high-end system.
Storage and expansion
Four M.2 slots are provided: one from the processor and three from the chipset, all at PCIe 4.0 x4 and accepting 22110 or 2280 drives, with the fourth also supporting SATA M.2. Six SATA 6Gb/s ports with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 support are more than most ATX boards offer. Two further PCIe 4.0 x16-length slots wired at x4 suit capture cards, 10Gb network adapters or a Thunderbolt add-in card via the two on-board Thunderbolt headers.
Connectivity
The rear panel provides a USB Type-C port at 20Gb/s (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2), two red USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, three USB 3.2 Gen 1 and four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.2, a Realtek 2.5Gb Ethernet port, two SMA antenna connectors, optical S/PDIF out and two audio jacks. Wi-Fi 6E with Bluetooth 5.3 is fitted (Intel AX211 or Realtek RTL8852CE depending on PCB revision). Front-panel headers add a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, two Gen 1 and four USB 2.0 ports.
Cooling and control
Six fan and pump headers with water-flow detection, two addressable and two RGB LED headers, on-board reset, Q-Flash Plus and Clear CMOS buttons, and a TPM header make it easy to build, tune and recover.
Ideal for
- Core i7 and Core i9 K-series gaming PCs with overclocking
- Creator workstations that need four NVMe drives and six SATA ports
- Builds that want 20Gb/s USB-C, Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5Gb LAN on the board
Specifications
- Chipset: Intel Z790 Express
- Socket: LGA1700, Intel Core 14th, 13th and 12th Gen, Pentium Gold and Celeron
- Form factor: ATX, 30.5 x 24.4 cm
- Memory: 4 x DDR5 DIMM, max 256GB (64GB per DIMM), up to 7600 MT/s (OC), dual channel, XMP
- Expansion slots: 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 (CPU), 2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 at x4 (chipset)
- M.2: M2A_CPU PCIe 4.0 x4/x2; M2P_SB and M2Q_SB PCIe 4.0 x4/x2; M2M_SB SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4; all type 22110/2280
- SATA: 6 x SATA 6Gb/s, RAID 0/1/5/10
- LAN: Realtek 2.5GbE
- Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E 2.4/5/6GHz 160MHz up to 2.4Gbps (Intel AX211 rev 1.0/1.1 or Realtek RTL8852CE rev 1.2), Bluetooth 5.3
- Audio: Realtek high-definition audio codec, 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel, S/PDIF out
- Rear USB: 1 x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2×2, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 4 x USB 2.0
- Video outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1 (4096 x 2160 at 60Hz), 1 x DisplayPort 1.2 (4096 x 2304 at 60Hz)
- Other rear I/O: 2 x SMA antenna connectors, 1 x RJ-45, optical S/PDIF out, 2 x audio jacks
- Internal USB: 1 x USB Type-C header (3.2 Gen 2), 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header (2 ports), 2 x USB 2.0 headers (4 ports)
- Fan headers: 1 x CPU, 1 x water cooling CPU, 3 x system, 1 x system/pump
- Power: 1 x 24-pin ATX, 2 x 8-pin ATX 12V
- Lighting: 2 x addressable LED headers, 2 x RGB LED headers
- Other: 2 x Thunderbolt add-in card connectors, TPM header, reset, Q-Flash Plus and Clear CMOS buttons
