GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Master Review: Soaring High With Rocket Lake
by Gavin Bonshor on April 28, 2021 1:00 PM ESTBoard Features
The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Master is an ATX motherboard and it represents a bridge between the mid-range and the flagship models. It's based on the Aorus series which is primarily targeted at gamers, but it also includes plenty of premium controllers and features for multiple areas of users such as content creators and enthusiasts. It uses a lot of Intel's 11th generation Rocket Lake and Z590 features, including two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that can operate at x16/x0 and x8/x8, with a third full-length slot locked down to PCIe 3.0 x4. In regards to storage options, the Z590 Aorus Master has three M.2 slots, including one with support for PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe and two with support for PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA drives, as well as six SATA ports that include support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Memory support is also impressive with supported speeds of up to DDR4-5400 when combined with Rocket Lake, with a combined total of 128 GB available across four memory slots. There's also plenty of options for cooling including ten 4-pin headers, with one dedicated to a CPU fan, one for an optional CPU fan and water cooling device, four for chassis fans, and four additional 4-pin headers for chassis fans or water pumps.
| GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Master ATX Motherboard | |||
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
| Product Page | Link | ||
| Price | $410 | ||
| Size | ATX | ||
| CPU Interface | LGA1200 | ||
| Chipset | Intel Z590 | ||
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 128 GB Dual-Channel Up to DDR4-5400 |
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| Video Outputs | 1 x DisplayPort 1.2 | ||
| Network Connectivity | Aquantia AQC107 10 GbE Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E |
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| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220-VB ESS Sabre ES9118 DAC |
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| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 4.0 (x16, x8/x8) | ||
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||
| Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 (Z590) | ||
| Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA |
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| Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps) | N/A | ||
| USB 3.2 (20 Gbps) | 1 x USB Type-C (Rear panel) | ||
| USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) | 5 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 1 x USB Type-C (One header) |
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| USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) | 4 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) |
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| USB 2.0 | 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) | ||
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin Motherboard 2 x 8-pin CPU |
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| Fan Headers | 1 x 4-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin Water Pump/chassis 4 x 4-pin Chassis 4 x 4-pin Chassis/Water pump |
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| IO Panel | 2 x Antenna Ports (Intel AX210) 1 x DisplayPort 1.2 Output 1 x USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C 5 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 4 x USB 3.2 G1 Type-A 1 x RJ45 (Aquantia) 1 x Q-Flash BIOS Flashback button 1 x Clear CMOS button 5 x 3.5 mm audio jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Optical output (Realtek) |
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The Z590 Aorus Master has one of the best-equipped rear panels on Z590. This includes one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. Networking support is premium with one Aquantia AQC107 10 GbE controller, with an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi offering both wireless and BT 5.2 connectivity. Looking at the onboard audio solution, GIGABYTE includes a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec and an ESS Sabre ES9118 DAC pairing which drives five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, while a DisplayPort 1.2 video output allows users to run a system from Intel's integrated UHD graphics.
Test Bed
With some of the nuances with Intel's Rocket Lake processors, our policy is to see if the system gives an automatic option to increase the power limits of the processor. If it does, we select the liquid cooling option. If it does not, we do not change the defaults. Adaptive Boost Technology is disabled by default.
| Test Setup | |||
| Processor | Intel Core i9-11900K, 125 W, $374 8 Cores, 16 Threads 3.5 GHz (5.3 GHz Turbo) |
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| Motherboard | GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Master (BIOS F4) | ||
| Cooling | Corsair iCue H150i Elite Capellix 360 mm AIO | ||
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum 850 W | ||
| Memory | G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 CL 14-14-14-34 2T (2 x 8 GB) | ||
| Video Card | MSI GTX 1080 (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
| Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
| Case | Corsair Crystal 680X | ||
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit: Build 20H2 | ||
We must also thank the following:
| Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Noctua Coolers |
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39 Comments
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Richy65 - Sunday, June 6, 2021 - link
Not sure if this is normal (never seen it with anything from ASUS) but when the board is powered on and you press DEL to enter BIOS it takes up to 35 seconds before it actually opens the BIOS application. Then, unless I enable "Fastboot (Not Ultra Fast) it can take 38 seconds before Windows starts loading. something seems amiss here.meacupla - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link
If I understand this correctly, if Gigabyte had chosen not to go with the plastic cover over the I/O and VRM area, they could have gone with passive cooling for the 10Gbe NIC?:thonk:
abufrejoval - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link
While a cover without a fan is probably a bad idea, a cover with a fan is likely to make cooling more efficient.The PHY part of the AQC-107 needs quite a bit of power when it operates at 10GBit/s speeds sustained across a 100m CAT7 cable without EEE or green Ethernet coming to the rescue. I've never been able to find a number, only that Aquantia was proud to use significantly less then the >10Watts that the 10Gbase-T competition required at the time.
Their PCIe NICs have a significant passive heat sink which does get hot under load.
I guess I'd also prefer a large passive heat sink because I use big slow fans on my cases to create airflow. But with these Rocket Lake aberrations gamers may resort to water cooling and that would leave too little of an airflow around the AQC107 to work properly... A variable speed fan might just keep things safe... until it's clogged by dust. But by then the warranty has most likely expired.
gizmo23 - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link
"users looking to overclock Rocket Lake ... will need ... premium cooling"Understatement of the year!
Linustechtips12#6900xt - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link
I do have to ask, do you think you could get the same power draw/ clocks on something like a 9900k compared to a 10900k or 11900k "ik the 11900k is a new achritecture" cause frankly I don't see the point to buy a 11900k over something like a 9900k other than PCIe gen 4 and maybe integrated 10gb lan but I can get a 60$ adapter anyway.Oxford Guy - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link
Premium tinnitus.Linustechtips12#6900xt - Wednesday, May 19, 2021 - link
makes senseOxford Guy - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link
'When we overclocked the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Master'1) Intel just recently eliminated its overclocking warranty program.
2) Overclocking an already inefficient CPU (Rocket Lake, given its 14nm construction) seems even more unwise than overclocking in the first place (given today's sophisticated boost algorithms and the lack of headroom).
Richy65 - Sunday, June 6, 2021 - link
The App Centre software is riddled with Trojans (28 found by MBAM), it is a piece of garbage and will disable Windows Update and totally screw up your system. Starting SIV for whatever reason invokes Windows Update, then disables it, you can no longer get updates and the process - windowsupdate is no longer visible under services. It has so much bloated malware running in the background that my i7 11700K is at 14% CPU load when I am doing nothing. Temperatures for the CPU sit at high 60C- mid 70C. Uninstall all Gigabyte software . malware and my PC is back and running at 40-50C. Also, the BIOS, unless Fastboot is enabled, it will sit there for at the POST screen for 38 seconds before even attempting to start Windows, I thought Asus made some junk, but Gigabyte leave them way behind, the worst garbage bundled with a motherboard ever, they even have the APP CENTRE configured to be downloaded and installed by default via the BIOS, never seen anything like it with any other motherboard. Disgusting for a product costing this much.