Review on 💻 GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO Wi-Fi Motherboard - Intel LGA1151, Z390, ATX, 2xM.2 Thermal Guard, AC Wi-Fi, RGB Fusion by Tyler Blake

First of all, this is not a complete review, I just want to say right away. The box it came in was unsealed. In fact, it wasn't even sealed with tape, and corrosion is visible on the VRMs. The Gigabyte MB box came in a larger box from Revain along with a few other boxes. Not only was the box containing the Gigabyte product opened and not sealed or sealed in any way, it appeared to have been opened and closed multiple times as you can see from the wear on the box in my picture. All parts and paperwork, as well as my Aorus decals, are included and have protective bags and plastic wrap, although the protective plastic looks suspiciously generic and not factory new. Maybe it's just Gigabyte's way of cutting costs, I don't know. The MB anti-static bag was sealed with tape and when I took out the board I immediately noticed the curved VRM modules, which are clearly visible in the picture. I'm not too attached to it, as long as it's hard soldered and working well I still won't see it, but I mean, hey, is it supposed to be a bright WTH backlit LED board? There is also discoloration on the VRMs, which I believe is due to them being in air conditioned storage in an unsealed box (there is no silica gel packaging anywhere). I checked the CPU socket pins and they seem fine, so at least they are. I had a 2GB MB that lasted over 8 years and moved several times from Guadalajara, Mexico (3 years) to NH and NY for a year, Houston Texas for 3 years and now California for 2 years and just started now Problems with the Z77 Board. My Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4 is still doing great with heavy overclocking and lots of different hardware changes, so I'm expecting BIG THINGS from this latest Z390 board. So far I am NOT impressed and have decided if I made the right choice. As it's sold and shipped by Revain (Prime) I'm not sure whose fault it is if it doesn't work properly. ***UPDATE 07/17/19*** So I installed the board. The first issue I had was the extra height of the I/O shield, there is a fan and heatsink on the back of my case and the board was very difficult to put back in place, it barely fits so be aware . fan connectors! Wow! And the advanced fan controls seem to work beautifully, goodbye my old SpeedFan friend! Yes, and they are all 4-pin PWN/Volt and each can be assigned to work individually as a PWN or voltage rate control. The lighting is cool, but I haven't played around with it yet. offers you basic sound field elements such as equalizer and selection of ambient effects. But it's pretty basic and my speakers don't sound nearly as good as they did with my SoundBlaster Z card, I'll miss it. Seems to run much cooler than my Z68 board, my office is considerably cooler. I haven't tried overclocking yet, I'm waiting to get used to it. The settings in the advanced part of the BIOS are very detailed and rather cryptic, gigabyte-like. ASUS has a much nicer and friendlier BIOS, but this Gigabyte Aorus Pro Wi-Fi is generally rated to perform better with the performance needed by the i9-9900k and offer some extra features for a lot less money. TLDR: Pros: Cheap, high power handling, decent looks, nice lighting, lots of fan headers, each individually controllable, lots of temperature sensors, all addressable, 2 m.2 ports, each with a nice heatsink, reinforced PCIe x16 ports and x8. lousy, there are few SATA ports, the sound is not as good as they say