$350 or bust

That VRM section with no doublers is freaking lovely overkill. Looks like 12 phases plus 2 phases for the SOC. This board should handle a ton of power for overclockers.

This looks like the mboard for me, most likely. I really like the bios-backup and the *switches* thereof--will be leaving MSI this time around because of that bios feature--the lack of it--why, oh why, can't MSI at least socket the bios chip and include a spare with its more expensive--read x370. x470, x570--mboards? Seems like a no-brainer--but right now it seems like Aorus/GB might be the lone "brain" in the bios department! I had at first been tempted by the MSI Godlike, but the quoted price is a strong negative--but even if the Internet gossip is wrong and the Godlike costs less than $749, it loses out on the backup-bios & switch feature, thus far. Not to forget the voltage-delivery characteristics! The Master looks very nice at the reported $350--will be a big plus in Aorus/GB's favor if it ships for that. Feature-set wise, Aorus looks to have a big winner with the Master x570, provided something very dumb isn't lurking inside...;)

The only thing concerning me and that actually bothers me is why the hell do they have so "little" rear usb ports. Maybe is just me but m/k, usb cord extension, game controller and one usb stick and I´m already at 5 ports used, and I´m pretty sure this is just from a casual pc user. This motherboard for sure is for people with plenty more gadgets, just a legit question is that really enough? I remember my crosshair iv extreme having more connections (not just usb but external sata and IEEE) than these nowadays "high-end" motherboards, the only thing they´ve added is the wifi, and idk why they do not include anymore built-in Bluetooth dongles.

Buildzoid did a good prereview of this board. Also the BIOS is supposed to improved from a usability perspective which has been my biggest issue with gigabyte. This is a really nice board much higher quality than anything I have seen from Gigabyte prior. [youtube=Lz4_stcf__0]

hijodeosiris:

The only thing concerning me and that actually bothers me is why the hell do they have so "little" rear usb ports. Maybe is just me but m/k, usb cord extension, game controller and one usb stick and I´m already at 5 ports used, and I´m pretty sure this is just from a casual pc user. This motherboard for sure is for people with plenty more gadgets, just a legit question is that really enough? I remember my crosshair iv extreme having more connections (not just usb but external sata and IEEE) than these nowadays "high-end" motherboards, the only thing they´ve added is the wifi, and idk why they do not include anymore built-in Bluetooth dongles.

This motherboard has 10 USB ports on the back, most people only need 2, and can sometimes use more if their microphone is USB, headset is USB, game controller, and the random USB stick. I rarely see anyone using all of their USB ports unless it's an OEM model with like....3. But this specific motherboard has 10 USB ports on the back, plus the 2 that are typically in the front of the case, there's not many reasons to need more..... Sure, my crosshair VI Hero has 14 USB ports on the back, but again, what's the point? And again i'm not saying SOMEONE doesn't need more then 10+2, but realistically if they need that much more, even if they have a low end motherboard with not a lot of USB ports, they can always get USB expansion hubs, USB PCI-Express expansions, etc. Most things you do with USB don't need even the full USB 2.0 bandwidth, so unless you are using a ton of USB ports for high-speed USB drives or USB HDDs/SSDs and constantly transfering data with them, an USB expansion hub is cheap and effective, and if not, USB PCI-Express expansion slots are relatively cheap still. And i didn't even mention the 5.25 USB front panel case media center decks that typically have an additional 2-4 USB ports along with the media card ports as well, sometimes even e-sata. There's a lot of options out there that not everything needs to be piled onto the motherboard and make it more expensive for the very select view who use more then 5ish USB ports.

Seems we won't be seeing gen 2x2 untill late 2019? Meanwhile usb4 is expected to arrive late 2020 so 2x2 will only last for a year?

That's one sexy motherboard.

Gigabyte really improved with thier boards lately. This is probably too costly.

self-nuked...;)

JamesSneed:

Buildzoid did a good prereview of this board. Also the BIOS is supposed to improved from a usability perspective which has been my biggest issue with gigabyte. This is a really nice board much higher quality than anything I have seen from Gigabyte prior. [youtube=Lz4_stcf__0]

Yes, and he was looking at images of an engineering sample, too...so probably some things will come with the board that just weren't on the board pics he used. I like Buildzoid stuff alright--it's not bad--but he spends too much time on the VRMs, imo--repeats himself like 20 times, maybe...! But in his defense it is a sample mboard so it's missing features he could talk about if they had been present...;)

Aura89:

This motherboard has 10 USB ports on the back, most people only need 2, and can sometimes use more if their microphone is USB, headset is USB, game controller, and the random USB stick. I rarely see anyone using all of their USB ports unless it's an OEM model with like....3. But this specific motherboard has 10 USB ports on the back, plus the 2 that are typically in the front of the case, there's not many reasons to need more..... Sure, my crosshair VI Hero has 14 USB ports on the back, but again, what's the point?

Agreed--good point! If I need more, well, usb hubs are ubiquitous and a dime-a-dozen practically. I can recall actually using a usb hub several years ago--but haven't needed one in recent years. Even my monitor can serve as a hub--but don't need it.

Taste

insp1re2600:

Taste

The rainbow?

hijodeosiris:

The only thing concerning me and that actually bothers me is why the hell do they have so "little" rear usb ports. Maybe is just me but m/k, usb cord extension, game controller and one usb stick and I´m already at 5 ports used, and I´m pretty sure this is just from a casual pc user. This motherboard for sure is for people with plenty more gadgets, just a legit question is that really enough? I remember my crosshair iv extreme having more connections (not just usb but external sata and IEEE) than these nowadays "high-end" motherboards, the only thing they´ve added is the wifi, and idk why they do not include anymore built-in Bluetooth dongles.

Thats why im not buying this and I been I had 2 masters before z390 Master and z370 Aorus Gaming 7 [the previous name for master series] I did some research and Gigabyte is fcking is up, x570 platform has TWELVE UBS 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps ports across its CPU + Chipset + extra on board 4 USB 2.0 ports for water cooling, power supplys and otehr stuff Asus Hero and Formula Gives us all the ports we paid for: x8 10Gbps Ports at Rear + x1 10Gbps Front Panel Port, so thats 9 out of 12 10GBps ports: the Three 10Gbps ports are split into Six more 5Gbps ports: Four 5Gbps ports at rear + one Internal 5Gbps connector for Front panel So we have 12 total rear USB ports x8 10Gbps + x4 5Gbps + x2 Front Panel Ports, one of each + two internal USB 2.0 connectors so thats + 4 USB 2.0 ports if you need Also these ASUS boards give you 8 SATA ports Gigabyte Master whic his top end mainstream board and compared to ASUS Hero price-wise and market positioning has: x4 10GBPS Rear ports + x2 5Gbps Rear ports + LOL x4 USB 2.0 rear ports [They give us USB 2.0 trash on a platform that has 12 10Gbps ports by design] x1 Front Panel 10Gbps Port, x4 Front Panel 5Gbps Ports [Two On board connectors], x4 Front Panel USB 2.0 Ports [Two On board connectors] So in total on Gigabyte Master we have: just x5 10Gbps ports + x6 5 Gbps ports + x8 USB 2.0 ports [the total amount of used USB 3.0 Gen 2 ports was 8, so where extra 4 ports?, they turned 4 10Gbps ports into 4 USB 2.0 ports???] And it has 3 m.2 connetors with one shared [asus has just 2 none shared] and 6 SATA ports