PCWorld finds AORUS Z990 PRO label on GIGABYTE’s hidden-socket Intel board
GIGABYTE’s mystery Intel motherboard from Computex may not be an AORUS MASTER model after all. PCWorld has published more footage from the GIGABYTE booth and managed to capture the label on the back of the PCB.
The board is identified as “ AORUS Z990 PRO ,” according to the footage. This is the same board we covered earlier, where GIGABYTE kept the CPU socket hidden and did not confirm the chipset or platform. The board was already believed to be tied to Intel’s next desktop platform called Nova Lake-S on LGA-1954.
The board has a large chipset heatsink, several M.2 slots and GIGABYTE’s EZ-Flex backplates for all M.2 positions. Uniko’s Hardware notes that this is not the case for current X870E AORUS PRO X3D or Z890 AORUS PRO ICE boards, which do not use these backplates across all M.2 slots.
Source: PC World
The large PCH heatsink may also be linked to PCIe Gen5 storage from the chipset. Earlier Intel 900-series chipset leaks listed chipset PCIe 5.0 lanes only for Z990, Q970 and W980, while Z970 and B960 were shown without them. That would line up with a Z990 board carrying more direct chipset storage support than current mainstream platforms.
Source: PC World
The rear I/O also appears more advanced than current AORUS PRO boards. Uniko’s Hardware points to dual LAN and a full set of 10 Gbps USB Type-A ports at the back, while current X870E AORUS PRO X3D and Z890 AORUS PRO ICE boards use a single LAN port and still include 5 Gbps Type-A ports. The board also has multiple rear USB-C ports, which may point to Thunderbolt 5 support, although GIGABYTE has not confirmed this.
The Intel 900 motherboard launch is probably months away. However, this is a first confirmation that Z990 is out there already waiting for Intel’s new CPUs. The only question is, after only having one Core 200 lineup for the entire socket generation, how likely are current users to upgrade?
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