Review on 🎮 GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS ELITE Gaming Motherboard with Triple M.2, PCIe 4.0, USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C, and 2.5GbE LAN (LGA 1200/ Intel Z590/ ATX) by David Causillas

Contrary to a disturbing previous review, this board uses Realtek 2.5Mbps Ethernet instead of 10Mbps. And it works great and there are drivers for Windows 10. I've used this chip on several boards and it's always been fine. It's not uncommon, but it works. People also complain that the PCIe m.2 CPU slot doesn't work with 10th Gen processors, but that's true for all Z590 boards. This was particularly the case with the Gigabyte Z490 boards, whose m.2 CPU slot was marked as "reserved for future use". The extra 4 PCIe lanes connecting it to the CPU are not present on 10th Gen processors. This is a great Z590 board for the money, with a VRM reliable enough to overclock an i9 11900k or i9 10900k fairly aggressively. 12 phases with 60A power levels is good for pretty much anything in the real world, but extreme overclockers may find enough value in higher end products with more phases and/or 70-90A to spend more. I am using i9 10900k. at 5 GHz x 10 at just under 1.3 V, and the VRM hits 75 °C in AVX2's long torture test. I'm using a Meshify 2 Compact chassis with an EK 360AIO in the front, a 120mm exhaust in the back and two 140mm outlets on the top bar. My 4x8GB Ballistix Elite DDR4-4000 kit works fine over XMP. This board features strong USB support with a 3.2gen2x2 Type-C (20Mbps) connector on the back panel and an internal 3.2gen2 Type-C (10Mbps) connector for connection to the Front. . There are also 8 other Type-A ports of various types on the back. The only thing I don't like about this board is the location of the first m.2 slot, which protrudes above the chipset. It sits right under the heatsink of any dual-slot graphics card, meaning you can't run an efficient heatsink on an SSD without hitting the graphics card. The screeching heatsink that comes with the board for that slot is so inefficient that combined with the graphics card's tendency to block airflow and heat up SSDs with its own radiant heat, those placed in that slot get very hot. In fact, it is a 1m2 board with 10th generation processors. But better packaged boards in this price range tend to have weaker VRMs and sparser features, so I went with this and a 2TB NVMe SSD in a good m.2 slot. The BIOS is stable and fully functional, and the built-in audio is excellent. 6 fan headers are conveniently located, and all can switch between PWM and voltage control, respond to any temperature sensor, and support fan stop. The minimal RGB lighting can be easily switched off without software and the build quality is excellent. For my needs, there's no good reason to spend more on a Z590 board, but if you need Wi-Fi, the $10 AX version is a no-brainer. more.