Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Xtreme Review

Introduction

The third of our Z490 launch day motherboards - not in opinion, just in order I'm writing them - is the Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme.

The Aorus range has been a spectacular success for Gigabyte. They took stock of the things they were doing well, the things that could be improved and the trends in the market to sit down with a fresh outlook and redesign their range, grouping all their high-end products under the Aorus banner. Whether it's the eye-wateringly high-end Waterforce models, or the performance heavy ones, anyone who has been seeking a new product to buy in recent times will have looked at the Aorus range and put it on their shortlist. They combine excellent looks with a lot of performance and plenty of desirability.

It's no surprise at all then that when we heard there was going to be an Aorus Xtreme take upon the new Intel Z490 chipset we just had to get one in and find out whether this Aorus range continues to knock it out of the park now that it's settled down a little. It's very easy for a manufacturer to find the enthusiasm to go all out on a new range of products to establish they brand, but keeping that attention to detail and enthusiasm as the brand has made it's mark is something that not everyone has managed successfully.

Without further ado, and because we know we have a lot of content for you to read through today, let's run over what you get and how it looks before we get down to the business of finding out whether the performance backs up those gorgeous looks.

Technical Specifications and Fans

Rather than dryly go through the specifications point by point, we've always preferred the show and tell approach as regular readers will know. We're a site for enthusiasts, by enthusiasts after all. So rather than bore you with how interesting RAID10 isn't let us move straight on to the pictures and we can point out what the Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Xtreme brings to the party as we go. Naturally we'll leave this lengthy spec table up for those of you who, more realistically, care about how many USB sockets are available for your plethora of peripherals.

Certainly, like all the flagship motherboards we're reviewing today, no matter how demanding you are you'll be satisfied by what the Aorus Xtreme brings to the party.

With the design of the Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Xtreme motherboard being so careful to hide everything nicely away on the side, it's difficult to get an 'at a glance' view of all that there is available to handle your cooling needs. Fortunately this picture nicely ticks all the boxes for those of you who prefer not to look at all our carefully taken photographs and concisely written wording.