GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS Elite AX (LGA 1700/ Intel Z790/ ATX/ DDR5/ Quad M.2/ PCIe 5.0/ USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C/Intel WiFi 6E/ 2.5GbE LAN/Q-Flash Plus/PCIe EZ-Latch/Gaming Motherboard)

EDIT: After some testing with new parts and tinkering with settings, I've figured that the main issue stemmed from the RAM, not the motherboard. I've never used DDR5 before so maybe it's something to do with that, but I've found it impossible to use at full speed and have it be stable. Never ever use XMP. I've learned my lesson there. Also fixed my issue with boot up times/lighting not starting properly by messing with ErP and Fast Boot settings in the BIOS. Glad I get to use this board, it's got wonderful I/O and it's simple enough for what I need.ORIGINAL: Just built my new PC and this motherboard has given me the most issues out of any parts by far. To start off with the bad, it has some power issues, fan lights will often not turn on or off alongside the PC, it takes a while to start up most of the time, and I can not use my RAM to its fullest speed. Using the motherboard's built in XMP with 4x16GB DDR5-6400 MHz RAM causes only crashes when using the PC. (memtest shows 0 errors with the RAM itself.) Games will crash quickly and sometimes the entire system just blue-screens or freezes, and every time it's related to the XMP, and I know this because going to a lower XMP profile, it works fine. Still a few crashes but it's never anywhere near as bad as using it at full speed. This motherboard also just has some build quality issues. USB-3 plugin came off with the connector, making the pins exposed. Thankfully it still works, but that's definitely not reassuring when it comes off that easily.As for the good, this motherboard has a lot of I-O. 4 USB 2.0 ports on the back for your keyboard, mouse, etc. is always nice. Lots of USB 3.0 ports and also tons of slots on the motherboard itself. The NVME storage is very nice and has a good built-in heatsink for them. The motherboard itself also looks super clean, and is incredibly simple to install.This motherboard definitely has a lot of potential, it's possible I got a faulty board, and if I get more problems I'll definitely end up getting a new one from a different brand. But, if you wanna take a chance, then this one could definitely work. For now, I think there's a lot of issues that need ironing out and if you plan on getting high-end parts, you may want to look for something with more assured quality.

Excellent board. Pretty much plug-and-play, no manual needed. It applied proper RAM timings, comes with some easy overclocking options, and has great features built onto the board like WiFi 6E, GbE, and Optical Audio out. It has been rock solid through all games and testing I've thrown at it. Would definitely buy it again. My only complaint is some of the software inside the OS - GCC is helpful to install proper drivers but is too buggy to leave running.

New rig put together with this as the base for everything. It has plenty of M.2 slots and connections for RGB and other devices/parts. Solidly made and stable with no issues with the DDR5 ram and everything booted up just fine.Gotta spend some time playing around with the BIOS and settings but doing good so far and things are plenty fast enough with default settings.

I have 11 PC builds under my belt, never have I encountered more issues than I have with this MOBO.Motherboard BIOS has a really nasty habit of failing to restart after tweaking BIOS settings, even when just loading the default configs.I hate to say but the BIOS also has very unintuitive post beep codes which makes troubleshooting needlessly difficult. For example, the motherboard uses the exact same post beep code to indicate both a CPU failure and also a "monitor not recognized" error. If you're not savvy or dont google the error codes and just go off of what the MOBO manual says you could very easily assume your CPU is DOA when in actuality it's just an incompatible monitor.Another thing, its very picky about peripherals. If you don't have a very new monitor or keyboard, expect to have issues. I found the onboard display port to be more reliable than the HDMI. I have a Gigabyte brand 1440p monitor from 2020 that it still wont recognize despite my other PCs using it fine. A 2024 Samsung monitor hooked up via DP was much more cooperative.Next to address are the network interface drivers. This MOBO is equipped with a very fancy 2.5Gbs Ethernet port and it uses the Intel Ethernet Controller (3) I225-V driver. This driver is notorious for having problems and mine was no different. I thought a discrete network card would do the trick but it did nothing to rectify the stuttering and intermittent toggling between 1000Mbs mode and 100Mbs mode. I tested the cables, modem, router, WIFI drivers, different versions of windows, even bought two new Cat8 cables, everything I could think of and nothing has helped this issue. There are quite a few others on forums that have this issue too so it's not unique to me and I had a control PC to test against so I'm very confident the issue is here on the MOBO.I could go on, but everything except the actual physical install has been a migraine.To add insult to injury they dont include a physical manual, MOBO speaker or driver CD so you better have all those things prepared before attempting a build with this MOBO. I know other manufacturers are moving toward this practice as well but Its such a minor thing that helps so much with builds that I can't help but feel very disappointed with what you get in the box, especially at this price point.In conclusion, I really cant recommend this motherboard.If it were just bad components then that could be solved with a RMA, but a lot of my frustrations came from deliberate design decisions and I would be lying to say I wasn't let down.

Powered by a Seasonic Vertex PX-1000, with Intel i7-12700KF, Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX 6900 XT Xtreme Waterforce, 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 6800 MT/s, WD Black 1TB SN850X NVMe and cooled with a custom loop, this is a nice motherboard. Some reviews suggest some fuss about it, but mine was plug & play, updated all the drivers as well as BIOS just fine. Memory overclocked and CPU undervolted with no problems. Fusion works great with both the GPU and RAM. One review noted the "WiFi kit" wasn't aesthetically pleasing, which seems unfounded since there is no "kit" with the board I purchased, it's just an antenna that looks fine, I like it. Out of the box, these boards have unlocked power to high draw components, and so it needs good, stable power. I read a review for the GPU used in this build that stated the "GPU died" and "took the PSU with it", which was funny b/c that's an under-powered PSU problem, not a GPU one.