Gigabyte recently announced their new Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce motherboard, which includes a Liquid Cooler AIO 360 in its package. This is designed to work more with 10-core K series Intel 10th Generation Core processors.
With the AORUS Master Waterforce, its 14 phase digital power design can have up to 90 amps per phase. This power design allows for extreme performance on the installed Intel processor through overclocking. Memory has some speed boost as well through XTREME MEMORY technology. XTREME MEMORY technology, cancelling interference on memory modules; therefore stabilizing performance during overclocking. Other innovative features of the Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce include top-of-the-line audio, integrated I/O shield, and a wide array of I/O ports.
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Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce Made for Liquid Cooling
The Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce motherboard focuses on Intel’s 10th Gen processors, which sport up to 10 cores, 20 threads and 20MB of total cache. During overclocking, resulting performance boost with default TDP can ramp up to 125Watts. This can lead to excess heat more when overclocking on all cores. And in order to effectively dissipate excess heat, most builders/users turn to liquid cooling solutions to manage it.
However, most liquid cooling solutions only cover the CPU of the motherboard. This leaves out the motherboard VRM to use passive cooling most of the time to control its temperature. While cooling solutions for VRM are available; they are currently limited to specific models or brand. To answer this problem, Gigabyte released the Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce with its Liquid Cooler design that covers not only the CPU, but including the VRMs as well.
Easy Installation
The Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce has an easy implementation for its cooling system. Simply install the processor, mount the mono-block, and attach the screws. Installation is easy, similar to installing an AIO liquid cooler.
Liquid Water Cooling for Processors and VRMs
The cooler’s mono-block includes a direct-touch heat-pipe and new generation 7.5 W/mK LAIRD Thermal Conductivity Pad. This increases contact between the VRM and the thermal pad for superior thermal conduction. Compared to non liquid cooled designs, Gigabyte notes that there’s a 23% drop in heat. Heat from both the VRM and Processor moves into the block and passes through the pipes to the radiator for cooling. To move heat away from the radiator, the package includes three 120mm dual ball bearing fans. For design, the AORUS Falcon logo with RGB lighting lights up the mono-block, and digital LED lights on the fans.
Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce Motherboard Features
As mentioned earlier in this article, the motherboard comes with a 14 phase digital power design, which allows for stable overclocking. Solid power pin connectors with Tantalum Polymer capacitors improve transient response of the VRM; reducing voltage wave by 22%. This provides overclockers a level of stability from overclocking failures from unstable power.
Each DDR4 DIMM slot can support up to a maximum of 32GB memory stick. The XTREME Memory technology, reduces electromagnetic interference which provides protection for overclocking. It will enable RAM overclocks to up to DDR4 5000MHz speeds, or higher based on Gigabyte’s test results.
Gigabyte future proofed the motherboard by supplying it with PCIe 4.0 grade PCBs, PCIe slots, M.2 slots and controllers. To avoid bottleneck or throttling issues when M.2 drives run hot; Thermal Guard II metal heat sinks phase heat from the drives. This provides adequate cooling and prevent thermal throttling.
Aside from the large mono-block for cooling; included are Intel 2.5Gbps Ethernet and Wifi6 802.11ax network adapter for networking. For audio, it has an ALC 1220-VB audio engine, which has WIMA FKP2 studio grade audio capacitors.
Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce Onboard Features
For its onboard features, the Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce have RGB Fusion for custom lighting. It has Smart Fan 5 for controlling case fans, and USB TurboCharger for charging phones. The GIGABYTE BIOS has a revamped graphical interface displaying all hardware information a user needs. Q-Flash allows builders/users to update the BIOS using a USB drive. It removes the need to install a CPU/RAM/GPU in order to update the BIOS.
Z490 AORUS Master Waterforce Availability
The Gigabyte AORUS Master Waterforce is now available globally, but for the Philippines, it’s best to check with your favorite reseller to see if they are now carrying it.
