Hardware manufacturer Gigabyte has launched a new ITX motherboard for small-form-factor Intel 12th Gen builds.
The Gigabyte Z690I Aorus Ultra Plus, as its name implies, is based on a Z690 chipset from Intel, providing overclocking support on ‘K’ Intel Alder Lake processors such as the expansive Core i9-12900KS, or the more reasonable i5-12600K.
To ensure enough power is fed to the CPU at any time, Gigabyte settled on a 10+1+2 direct digital VRM design using 105A smart power stages, premium chokes and capacitors on a 2X copper PCB. The ensemble is cooled by a sturdy-looking heatspreader.
As is often the case during this transitionary period, Gigabyte’s board is available in both DDR5 or DDR4 variants. The former supports up to 2x32GB of DDR5-6200, whereas the latter tops out at 2x32GB of DDR4-5333. Other than this, both motherboards are identical.
For expansion slots and storage, we have a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, alongside two PCIe 4.0/3.0 x4 M.2 connectors with Thermal Guard III heat spreader, two SATA 6Gb/s, and two DIMM slots for DDR5 or DDR4 depending on model.
At the rear, we are pleased to see a rather rich I/O with seven USB Type-A ports of varying standards as well as a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2. On the video output side, we have an HDMI and a DisplayPort, and in the networking department the board touts 2.5GbE LAN, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5. Not to forget the customary 3.5mm audio jacks.
On a side note, Gigabyte has informed owners of the Z690i Aorus Ultra (non-Plus) that they are eligible for an upgrade to this new model following reports of system instability and WHEA PCIe errors when paired with some PCIe Gen4 graphics cards.
The Z690i Aorus Ultra Plus should be available soon, but pricing information sadly wasn’t available at the time of writing.
