Gigabyte’s Aorus brand is planning to make its flagship Z390 Aorus Xtreme motherboard even more extreme by pairing it with a RGB LED-lit perspex monoblock that covers the processor and PCH areas. The aptly named Z390 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce is an E-ATX form factor motherboard for 8th and 9th Generation Intel Core processors (LGA 1151) that comes packed with overclocking features and a plethora of I/O and expansion options.
The Z390 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce is powered by two 8-pin CPU power connectors, a right angle 24-pin ATX, and a six pin PCI-E input for extra PCI-E slot power delivery. The LGA 1151 socket sits front and center up top with four DDR4 memory slots off to the right of it. Power delivery is handled by a 16 phase PowIRStage digital VRM. Below the CPU sit three PCI-E x16 slots (which run at x16/x8/x4), two PCI-E x1 slots, and three M.2 slots with heatspreaders. There is also a mini PCI-E slot but it comes with an Intel wireless card pre-installed. Additional expansion options include six SATA 3 ports. The Gigabyte motherboard includes 10 sensor points and eight hybrid fan headers. It also supports Smart Fan 5 and RGB Fan Commander software tools as well as support for external RGB LED strips and addressable LEDs via headers (RGB Fusion). The Aorus board also supports OC Touch which offers physical buttons and switches for adjusting overclocks without needing to go into the UEFI BIOS.
Audio duties are handled by the Realtek ALC1220-VB codec along with ESS Sabre ES9018K2M DAC, LME 49720 dedicated analog power delivery, Ti OPA1622 Op amp, and several WIMA and Nichicon audio capacitors. The reported 127 dB SNR audio also supports “Amp Up” which can automatically adjust to various headphones. Networking on the Z390 Xtreme Waterforce is handled by Intel (CNV1) for 802.11ac Wave 2 2×2 wireless and Gigabit Ethernet and by Aquantia for the 10 GbE.
Rear I/O on the flagship motherboard shouldn’t disappoint with:
- 2 x SMA antenna connectors (Wi-Fi)
- 2 x Thunderbolt 3 40 Gbps
- 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
- 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 2 x USB 2.0
- 1 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet
- 1 x 1 Gigabit Ethernet
- 1 x HDMI
- 5 x Analog audio
- 1 x S/PDIF audio
The Aorus All In One Monoblock is the star of the show though as it is what differentiates it from the normal Z390 Aorus Xtreme board. The monoblock uses standard G1/4” threads and uses dense copper fins to help heat transfer to the water loop. Water flows over the CPU, VRM, and PCH areas to keep everything nice and cool even when overclocking. According to Gigabyte there is a leak detection circuit that will shut down the PC if a leak in the waterblock/loop is detected to protect your components. The downside to the monoblock is, of course, the added complexity to the build process, it certainly looks nice though so some enthusiasts may well find it worth it.
Gigabyte has not yet released pricing or availability information, but it’s going to come at a premium price. The Z390 Aorus Xtreme (sans waterblock) has a MSRP of $549.99, for example, and the addition of the Aorus RGB monoblock could add another $50 to $100 to that price.
The reviews on this board and the monoblock should be interesting. While it may be expensive, I'm sure that some watercooling enthusiasts will find uses for it in all-out "cool all the things" builds!
Gotta say, that thing looks
Gotta say, that thing looks amazing.
Yeah, the way the water flow
Yeah, the way the water flow goes through the block should look pretty cool with the right fluid and lighting effects!
What would be really cool
What would be really cool (hah) is something like this without all the RGBs and the WiFis.
I think that all PCIe lanes
I think that all PCIe lanes are required to drive the RGB.
Give me a break. I like clean systems, I like watercooling, I like working on projects, but this. I feel sick just at looking at photo.
I dream of a mobo
I dream of a mobo manufacturer one day deciding to start a retro look line of boards. Its getting harder and harder to find parts without RGB ????
YES!!!! That’s something of
YES!!!! That’s something of an idea there…. Bring me back to them awful browns and weirdly placed blues on a board for me with exactly no rhyme or reason. Almost like those manufactures were using b stock leftover or something at the time.
RGB-infused gaming delirium
RGB-infused gaming delirium much?
Who in their right mind would buy a motherboard the size of the Netherlands for gaming/a home PC these days? Perhaps you are renovating a house, and gaming motherboards happen to be cheaper than drywall when bought in E-ATX size packs…? Who knows…
Still not sure how this
Still not sure how this acrylic is supposed to hold up as the warping/cracking temp of most is around 50ish Celsius. Why I prefer pom-acytal over cracking acrylic blocks for the win.
There’s a reason XSPC stopped sales on their acrylic triple Lian-Li DDC pump tops….. They all will fail over a period of time. I can attest to this first hand as I’ve had three tops fail on three seperate occasions. All in the same exact respect to one another. Just glad my pumps are set off to the side in their own fashion, so a leak isn’t quite detrimental to the hardware. Except when there’s a pressurized pin hole spraying across the room and i just happened to have the case panel off for whatever reason at the time.
Couldn’t be happier with my BitsPower Pom-acytal pump tops. Just had to get three of them and run them in a series with some XSPC 5mm male to male rotary fittings and all has been gravy since!
Acrylic is no friend of varying temps like this block is sure to see. Then again how else is one supposed to get all of that LED bling without it….. *shudders* thinking of them hairline cracks forming at the screw holes for the fittings.
Hey Ryan can we get this
Hey Ryan can we get this loser Keith Tox off of here with their BS about these sites and other garbage they’re rambling on about here.?!?!?!?!
He’s spamming this comment section with garbage…..
Ryan doesn’t work for PCPer
Ryan doesn’t work for PCPer any more sir….
What the what!!!?!?!?
What the what!!!?!?!? Where’d Mr Shrout go if you don’t mind. Damn been outta the loop for quite some time myself.
I only wish they put more
I only wish they put more effort on the bios than these rgb. I purchased the Aorus Master z390 motherboard just so it can go into a bios reboot freak out forcing me to send it back. I ended up grabbing a Asus Rog Maximus Formula z390 instead and it is still working like a charm. I would had love to grab the extreme or this board but the bios scared the hell out of me. Lol
Hmmmm I wonder if it has a
Hmmmm I wonder if it has a plx chip if not it is pointless it’s younger brothers Cpu phases are the most efficient period and can function without a heatsink quite fine even when overclocking Cpu. Check out buildzoids break down on YouTube.
What you’re asking for is the
What you’re asking for is the main reason i stayed away from the 115X setups at all. That PLX chips throughput is simply abysmal when compared to that of native PCI-e throughout.
Simply put this system could not run a single GPU at 16x while having a capture card (X4) and then two M.2 SSD’s in a raid/normal setup. Thats to say it’ll work and all, but your throughput isn’t even enough to satiate the bandwidth of one M.2!! DUMB….. Stay away from these boards from Intel needing these PLX chips for added throughout. Unless its X299 and then you had better be ready for more money to be spent buying one of their “keys” to enable raid configs.
Does this MB come with a
Does this MB come with a velvet pimp hat with feather because that would go good with this SKU, my gaming bros!
I want mines in black velvet with a leopard skin hat band and peacock feather!