(Image credit: Gigabyte)

The Aorus Master has always been a motherboard visually appealing, and the Z890 is no slouch. We see great heat sinks, with Aorus branding on the top, illuminated by RGB LEDs. The underside of the board uses a large plate-style heatsink with a brushed finish and some reflective chrome highlights on the chipset heatsink, which bears Master branding and Aorus’ motto, “Team up, Fight On” etched into those shiny bits.

The first M.2 PCIe 5.0 socket uses a much larger single cooler, while the rest employ a simple plate cooler, all using EZ clips for easy removal. The Aorus Falcon sits proudly between the PCIe slots, while another RGB strip lights up the underside of the board. In short, we love what we see, and the improved aesthetics are a welcome addition to the motherboard. adapts to most building styles. 🔥

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

The first element we find on the top left are the two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor. Next to them is the first header of fan 4-pin headers, with another nine (yes, nine!) above the RAM slots and along the bottom edge. Each header supports devices controlled by PWM and DC, with a smooth power output of 2A/24W. The 10 fan headers are the most I've seen on a consumer board, and there's power to spare! 🔋 Control of these headers is handled via the BIOS or the application Gigabyte Control Center (GCC) Fan Control.

Next up we find the four RAM slots with locking mechanisms on either side to secure your kit. memory. Gigabyte offers support for up to 256GB and speeds up to DDR5-9500(OC), one of the fastest we've encountered for the platform. We had no trouble running the faster kits (DDR5-8200) without issue, and on paper at least, there's plenty of room for improvement. Above this are four more fan headers, and just to the right of them are the first (of two) 2-pin thermistor headers.

In the right corner, we see the first two (of four) 3-pin ARGB headers, with the other two located along the bottom edge. There is also a 4-pin RGB header on the bottom. Control of the onboard and connected RGBs comes from the GCC and the application RGB Fusion. There are several preset LED effects, many of which you can adjust in speed and colors to your liking, or simply turn them all off whenever you want. 💡

Moving to the right edge, we find the two-character debug port and the four-LED POST debugger, which help to identify problems during the POST. Just to the left are the convenient power and reset buttons. Next, we find the 24-pin ATX connector for powering the board, a front USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) Type-C header, and two 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports for the front panel. If the 14 USB ports on the back aren’t enough, there are also additional ones for the front panel.

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The VRM of the Z890 Aorus Master consists of 21 phases, 18 of which are for Vcore, which will easily support any processor that you put in. Astute readers may notice that this is less than the previous generation, but these processors are more efficient. Power comes from the two 8-pin EPS connectors, then passes through the familiar Renesas RAA229130 PWM controller. From there, we find the 18 Renesas R2209004 SPS MOSFETs, each rated for 110A in a 'twin' configuration. Again, there's power to spare, even when overclocking the flagship processor like ours. Core 9 Ultra 285K. The temperatures of the CPU They will limit you before the delivery of energy. 🔥

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

On the underside of the board, hidden under the metal casing, we find a high-quality audio solution using the Realtek ALC1220 codec and an ESS SABRE9118 DAC. It is a premium-class audio solution that should, overall, satisfy most users. Although this is one of the best audio solutions, we would like to see a more recent codec, as used by its peers. 🎶

In the middle, there are three full-length PCIe slots, all using some form of reinforcement. The top slot features Gigabyte's UD Slot X reinforcement and a PCIe EZ Latch button for easy card removal. This connects through the CPU and is the only slot PCIe 5.0 x16. Using a lower UD Slot reinforcement (without X), the two lower slots are connected through the chipset and operate up to PCIe 4.0 x4 and x1 speeds (mid and lower).

There is a bit of lane sharing. When the M2D_CPU (the second M.2 5.0 x4 socket) is occupied, the top/CPU-connected slot drops to x8 speeds. Other than that, everything runs smoothly.

Five M.2 sockets are hidden beneath heatsinks on the underside of the board, each using the M.2 EZ Latch system to secure your device without those tiny screws. You get two PCIe 5.0 x4 (128Gbps) sockets and three PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gbps) sockets. If you own or plan to purchase a SATA-based M.2 module, you’re in luck, as one of the sockets, M2M_SB, supports both PCIe and SATA devices. In case your use case requires redundancy or additional storage speed, the Aorus Master supports RAID0/1/5/10 modes on NVMe drives.

Moving past the chipset, along the right edge, we see an HDMI port that can monitorear the system with the Sensor Panel application (monitor required). Below are four SATA ports (supports RAID0/1/5/10) and two additional 4-pin fan headers.

Along the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You'll find the usual stuff here, including extra USB ports, RGB headers, and so on. A full list is below, from left to right.

• Front Panel Audio
• (2) 4-pin RGB headers
• 3-pin RGB header
• DB sense
• TPM header
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• (3) system fan headers
• 2 pin temperature sensor header
• Clear CMOS jumper
• reset jumper
• front panel

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

One of the first things you'll notice about the rear IO is that it's packed with USB ports - 14 in total! You have two Thunderbolt 4 ports (40 Gbps) that also serve as video outputs, six USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (20 Gbps, all Type-A), four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (5 Gbps), and two USB 2.0 ports. On the left are the Clear CMOS and Q-Flash Plus buttons for resetting or update BIOS (even without CPU).

On the right are the Marvell 10 GbE port, the quick antenna connectors for Wi-Fi 7 and a basic audio stack with line out, microphone and SPDIF optical out. Outside of the number of USB ports and some drains for the VRMs, there's nothing really extraordinary here.