Future AORUS board could be tied to Intel Z990 and Nova Lake-S
GIGABYTE shows unnamed Intel motherboard with three EPS 8-pin connectors.
GIGABYTE has shown an unnamed motherboard at Computex, and the company is not sharing platform details yet. According to BenchLife, the board was presented as a future product, with no model name or chipset information confirmed on the show floor.
The CPU socket was fully covered, so the socket type could not be identified. BenchLife speculates that this could be an Intel Z990 motherboard, based on the timing and board design. Intel’s Nova Lake-S desktop platform is expected to use a new socket and new 900-series chipsets, including Z990 and Z970.
Lots of power needed
The board uses three EPS 8-pin CPU power connectors. This is uncommon for current desktop motherboards, but it may fit the expected power requirements of high-end Nova Lake-S processors. Previous reports have suggested that Intel’s next desktop CPUs could scale up to 52 cores, with 16 P-cores, 32 E-cores and 4 LP E-cores.
Source: Benchlife
The board still uses four DDR5 memory slots. GIGABYTE also added a magnetic external fan for memory cooling. The fan attaches without a bracket, but it still requires a cable connection. BenchLife notes that a POGO PIN design would have been cleaner.
The expansion layout includes two full-length PCIe x16 slots. The primary slot is reportedly PCIe 5.0 x16 and uses GIGABYTE’s PCIe EZ-Latch UP quick-release design, which the company introduced with X870 AORUS INFINITY. The board also includes updated M.2 EZ-Latch and M.2 EZ-Match mechanisms for screwless SSD installation.
The rear I/O shows four USB-C ports. If this is a Z990 motherboard, BenchLife expects two of them to support Thunderbolt 5. The board also uses GIGABYTE’s magnetic Wi-Fi antenna design, another feature previously shown on the X870 AORUS INFINITY series.
The company has not confirmed when the Z990 will be available.
Source: Benchlife
