The Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice motherboard is a standout addition to Gigabyte’s impressive range of products, designed specifically for creators, gamers, and PC enthusiasts who demand both performance and aesthetics. Packed with a variety of robust features, seamless design, and modern connectivity options, this motherboard aims to be a top contender in 2024. Whether you’re building a high-performance gaming rig or a powerful workstation for content creation, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice promises to meet your needs. In this review, we’ll take an in-depth look at its specifications, design, and usability to help you decide if this motherboard is worth its $300 price tag.
Design and Build Quality
The Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice combines a sleek white and silver design, making it an excellent choice for users looking to create a clean, modern aesthetic for their white PC builds. Its visual appeal is complemented by impressive functionality, featuring robust heat sinks and high-quality components. Notably, the motherboard incorporates a 16+1+2 twin digital VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) design, which ensures efficient power delivery, catering to the needs of both content creators and overclockers. To enhance cooling, heat pipes are integrated across the VRMs, improving thermal performance and ensuring stable operation even under heavy workloads.
Equipped with an LGA 1851 socket, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice supports Intel’s latest Core Ultra processor series, providing cutting-edge performance for gaming and content creation. Additionally, Intel has introduced a reduced load mechanism (RLM) for this socket, addressing previous concerns with CPU bending during installation. This feature ensures a safer installation process, improving the overall user experience by preventing damage and making it easier to handle the hardware. This combination of aesthetic appeal, powerful components, and enhanced usability makes the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice a standout motherboard for high-performance builds.
Connectivity and Headers
The Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice motherboard is loaded with a variety of connectivity options and headers, making it highly versatile for different use cases and ensuring a smooth, organized build process.
- Power and Fan Headers: The motherboard layout includes 8-pin EPS connectors for reliable power delivery, along with CPU fan headers and additional fan headers strategically placed for optimal cable management. This thoughtful placement allows for a cleaner, more efficient build while ensuring proper cooling for the system.
- RGB and ARGB Headers: For users who want to customize their build’s aesthetics, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice features multiple 5V ARGB and 12V RGB headers. This gives users the flexibility to set up custom lighting systems that can be synced with other components, creating a visually striking PC build.
- USB Headers: The motherboard also includes a front-panel USB-C header that supports USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, offering speeds of up to 20Gbps for rapid data transfer. Additionally, there are USB 2.0 and 3.2 headers, providing ample connectivity options for various peripherals and ensuring fast, convenient data access.
With its thoughtful array of connectivity options, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice ensures that users can easily integrate their components while maintaining an organized, high-performance system.
Additionally, the motherboard includes unique features like a built-in microphone sensor and temperature headers for better system monitoring and noise reduction.
Storage Options
Storage is where the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice motherboard truly stands out. Equipped with five M.2 slots, it is an ideal solution for creators who demand substantial storage capacity for large files, high-resolution videos, and extensive projects. The top M.2 slot supports PCIe Gen 5, offering blazing-fast speeds for the most demanding applications, while the remaining four slots are PCIe Gen 4, still providing excellent performance for a variety of storage needs.
The installation process is incredibly user-friendly, as the motherboard employs a screwless design for M.2 drives, simplifying the setup. To ensure that your SSDs remain cool even during intensive workloads, thermal pads and heat sinks are strategically placed on both the top and bottom of the slots. This thoughtful cooling solution ensures optimal performance and longevity, even under high-performance tasks like 4K video editing, rendering, or large-scale data processing. Whether you’re a gamer or a content creator, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice’s storage capabilities make it a standout option for building a high-capacity, high-performance system.
PCIe Slots and Expandability
The Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice excels in expandability, providing ample room for future upgrades and additional components to enhance your system’s performance.
- PCIe Gen 5 x16 Slot: The top PCIe Gen 5 x16 slot is reinforced for added durability, ensuring it can handle even the heaviest and most power-hungry GPUs, such as the NVIDIA RTX 5090. This ensures that your graphics card will run smoothly, even with the most demanding games or creative applications.
- Additional PCIe Slots: The motherboard also offers a PCIe Gen 4 x4 slot and a PCIe Gen 4 x1 slot, providing flexibility for add-on cards like capture cards, network cards, or additional storage controllers. These extra slots make the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice a highly versatile option for users looking to customize their build with a variety of components.
With these expansion options, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice ensures that your system can grow and adapt as your needs evolve, whether for gaming, content creation, or other high-performance tasks.
Audio and Networking
Audio quality is a key focus with the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice motherboard, which features high-quality audio capacitors and noise-reduction technologies to deliver superior sound performance. It also includes an optical-out port, allowing for enhanced audio output, which is particularly beneficial for audiophiles or those who need high-fidelity sound for gaming, streaming, or content creation.
When it comes to networking, this motherboard is built with future-proof capabilities. It supports Wi-Fi 7, offering faster and more reliable wireless connectivity, and includes a 2.5Gb Ethernet port for lightning-fast wired connections. Additionally, Bluetooth 5.4 ensures seamless and stable connections with peripherals, allowing you to easily pair your devices without interruptions. These advanced networking features make the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice a highly capable option for gamers and creators who require robust and reliable connectivity.
Rear I/O Ports
The rear I/O of the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice is thoughtfully designed to accommodate a wide range of setups and ensure seamless connectivity for various peripherals and devices.
- USB Ports: The motherboard offers a generous selection of USB ports, including four USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.2 ports (with two supporting speeds of 5Gbps and two at 10Gbps), and a Thunderbolt 4 port for ultra-fast data transfer. These options provide versatility for connecting everything from basic peripherals to high-speed external drives and devices.
- LAN and Wi-Fi: For networking, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice includes a 2.5Gb LAN port for wired, high-speed internet connections, as well as built-in Wi-Fi 7 for fast and reliable wireless connectivity. Whether you prefer a wired connection or need the flexibility of wireless, this motherboard has you covered.
- Audio Ports: The rear I/O also features a range of audio ports, including mic, line-out, and optical-out ports, giving you the flexibility to set up a versatile audio system. Whether you’re connecting speakers, headphones, or external audio equipment, these ports ensure optimal sound performance for gaming, content creation, or entertainment.
With its extensive rear I/O options, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice provides excellent connectivity and ease of use, making it an ideal choice for users with diverse needs.
Interestingly, the traditional video outputs have been moved from the rear to internal headers, aligning with Gigabyte’s focus on gaming setups that incorporate in-case displays.
Enhanced Features for Creators
For content creators, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice brings impressive features, including support for high-speed DDR5 memory, which significantly enhances overall system performance. It ensures improved memory compatibility and offers robust overclocking potential, making it an excellent choice for performance-intensive tasks like video editing, 3D rendering, and multitasking.
Another notable feature is the inclusion of HDMI headers within the case, allowing users to easily connect internal displays for monitoring system stats. This feature is becoming increasingly popular among gaming PC builders and enthusiasts, as it streamlines the setup by eliminating the need for additional external monitors, making the overall build cleaner and more efficient. Whether you’re tweaking system performance or simply keeping an eye on critical stats, this thoughtful addition enhances the motherboard’s versatility.
Verdict: Is It Worth $300?
The Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice provides outstanding value at its price point. Combining a premium design with a robust feature set and future-proof connectivity, it proves to be an ideal choice for both gamers and content creators. With the integration of PCIe Gen 5, multiple M.2 slots, and DDR5 memory support, this motherboard ensures top-tier performance and relevance for years to come.
Whether you’re assembling a high-performance gaming rig or a workstation for demanding content creation tasks, the Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice offers exceptional versatility and reliability. Its well-rounded capabilities and forward-thinking features make it a standout option in 2024, solidifying its place in the market as a powerful and future-ready motherboard.
