The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined

GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Elite AC

Moving onto the entry-level Aorus branded model, the GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Elite AC, it includes a standard Intel 802.11ac wireless interface with Realtek's 2.5 G ethernet controller, and three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots. This model is also available without Wi-Fi, and uses a direct 12-phase power delivery and comes with a more simplistic look from other Aorus Z490 models. This is the only model from GIGABYTE's Z490 Aorus line-up to use a Realtek 2.5 G opposed to the rest of the stack which uses Intel's I225V 2.5 G controller.

Opting for a basic look, the GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Elite AC benefits from three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, with the bottom two coming with its own heat sink for use with hot running NVMe based drives. It has six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays, and provides support for up to 128 GB of DDR4-4800 memory. For the power delivery, the Z490 Aorus Elite and Elite AC use a 12-phase power delivery for the CPU, with 60 A power stages and an ISL69269 PWM controller. Providing power to the CPU is an 8-pin and 4-pin 12 V ATX CPU input pairing. There is also two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16/+4, with three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. 

On the rear panel is two USB 3.2 G2 10 Gbps Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. On the AC model, GIGABYTE includes an Intel 802.11ac wireless interface with BT 5.0 support, while both models come included with a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 G Ethernet controller. The five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are powered by a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec, while the board also includes a single HDMI video output.

The GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Elite and Z490 Aorus Elite AC both target the mid-range Z490 motherboard segment and is represented with an MSRP starting at $219. It includes a basic set of features, two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots with heatsinks, with a third without, and six SATA ports which is standard for an ATX sized model. It neglects any USB Type-C connectivity, which other vendors have included from top to bottom (MSI), but this makes for a lower cost product. It also uses a slightly lesser spec HD audio codec to most boards in its product stack, but still provides support for 7.1 HD audio.

This page will be updated when more information becomes available to us.