Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX Ice

Listing for $269.99 and found, at this writing, for $10 less via Amazon and Newegg, Gigabyte’s Z790 Aorus Elite AX Ice gets you a lot (but not everything!) for your money in a standard ATX-size motherboard. This LGA 1700 effort is a budget-class board built on Intel’s flagship Z790 chipset. Expect plenty of storage options, including four M.2 sockets (though they max out at PCIe 4.0 instead of 5.0) and six SATA ports, as well as fast networking with integrated Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5Gbps Ethernet, a budget audio solution, and power delivery capable of supporting Intel’s flagship-class processors. You can find more expensive and cheaper Z790 alternatives, but the Ice blends in well with similarly priced options.

Board Design, CPU, and Memory

The Z790 Aorus Elite AX Ice’s claim to fame is its white/gray PCB and heatsinks. I’ve seen more and more white-colored boards lately, but black still dominates the market. The board sits on a six-layer PCB featuring large VRM heatsinks with a brushed aluminum finish. You’ll find Aorus branding on the VRM heatsinks and the Aorus Falcon flexing proudly on the chipset/M.2 heatsink. The only RGB lighting area sits just below that. Most of the slots and connectors are black, contrasting the lighter-colored board for style points. In all, it's a pleasing midrange design that should look appealing inside most chassis, fitting in with a wide variety of build themes.

The Z790 Aorus Elite AX Ice supports Intel’s 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen LGA 1700 processors. If you manage to get one of these boards with an older BIOS, it does support BIOS flashback, so you’re set with any of the processor generations. Power delivery consists of 16 phases with 90-amp SPS MOSFETs dedicated to the processor, enough to get the most out of any CPU. The large VRM heatsink does a decent job of keeping the power-delivery temperatures within specification, even during our stress test. By default, the Perf Drive functionality is set to “Optimization,” which sets all cores to the turbo max clock. Commonly, you’re limited by the CPU cooling before the motherboard gets in the way, which also holds here. Of course, the better the cooling, the more you’ll get out of your processor.

(Credit: Joe Shields)

Memory support is listed up to DDR5-7600 (OC), which should be plenty for most users buying a budget motherboard. The sweet spot for this platform and today's DDR5 pricing is still around the DDR5-6400 mark, so you'll find a lot of headroom left. Those who are into memory tweaking have plenty of options in the updated UEFI BIOS. The four un-reinforced DRAM slots support up to 192GB of RAM for users after additional quantities versus faster speeds.

(Credit: Joe Shields)

Our Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 and TeamGroup T-Force DDR5-7200 kits worked by simply enabling the XMP profile on the sticks. This is the expected result, considering they are on the memory QVL list and well below the board’s limit.

Layout and Internal Connectors

Starting at the top left corner, you'll first spy the dual 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor. Surrounding the power connectors is the VRM heatsink. The gray brushed finish and Aorus branding look sleek against the matching PCB, but, more important, the VRM was effective in our testing. Moving past the socket, you'll run into four DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides.

Above these are the first two (of six) 4-pin fan/pump headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices, outputting up to 2 amps/24 watts, which should be plenty, even when powering a custom water loop. (Do not overload them, as it can cause permanent damage.) Control over the attached devices comes from the BIOS or within the Fan Control portion of the Gigabyte Control Center (GCC) app.

Next is the first sign of RGB headers. Here, we have one 3-pin ARGB and one 4-pin RGB. You’ll find the rest of the headers, one more of each, along the bottom edge of the board. The lighting from RGB is subtle compared with other boards, hidden under the chipset heatsink, but the light is saturated and looks decent overall. Control over the integrated and attached RGB devices is handled through the RGB Fusion application in GCC. It has plenty of canned patterns and allows users to customize the modes.

(Credit: Joe Shields)

Rounding the corner and heading down the right edge, you'll run into the standard 24-pin ATX connector to power the board. This is followed by two USB headers: a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) header and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-C, both for the front panel. Last in this area is the Status LED feature. These four LEDs, labeled CPU, DRAM, VGA, and BOOT, light up during the POST process. If a problem occurs in one of these areas, the corresponding LED remains lit, giving you an idea of where the issue lies.

Audio, Expansion, Storage, and Rear I/O

Gigabyte's audio section sits in the bottom left-hand corner of the board. A budget-grade Realtek ALC897 codec, which is acceptable for most users but isn’t designed for audiophiles, manages the audio output. Below the Faraday-cage-covered audio chip are four WIMA audio caps (red) and other capacitors (yellow) dedicated to the audio section. I would like to see the 12xx series codec used, but this solution should be acceptable.

Three full-length PCIe slots and four M.2 sockets sit in the middle of the board. Starting with the PCIe slots, the top slot uses Gigabyte’s UD (Ultra Durable PG5, a piece of metal that surrounds the PCIe slot and mounts to the board), protecting the primary graphics slot. That slot sources lanes from the CPU and runs up to PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds. The bottom two PCIe slots connect through the chipset and run at PCIe 4.0 x4.

(Credit: Joe Shields)

All four M.2 sockets on the board support up to 110mm modules and run up to a maximum of PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds. M2M_SB, the bottom socket, also supports SATA-based modules. I want a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 socket, but the four PCIe 4.0 x4 sockets should be fast enough for most users.

Cruising past the chipset, along the right edge of the board are USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 headers (for add-in cards), and the reset and clear CMOS buttons. Six Serial ATA ports supporting RAID 0/1/5/10 modes are between these two simple buttons. You get plenty of storage options on this board.

Several headers are lined up along the bottom edge of the board. Moving left to right you'll find the front-panel audio, two RGB headers (one 4-pin, one 3-pin), a TPM header, two USB 2.0 headers, a QFlash Plus button, four 4-pin system-fan headers, and the front-panel header.

(Credit: Joe Shields)

The rear I/O area uses a pre-installed I/O plate with a white background and dark gray labels on the ports. In total, this section has 10 USB ports: Four of them are USB 2.0, three are USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps), two are USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), and one is USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps) Type-C. This array of USB ports should be plenty for most users. In the middle, you’ll find the fast Wi-Fi 6E antenna connections, the 2.5GbE port, and the DisplayPort and HDMI ports for integrated video. Last, the audio stack contains two 3.5mm analog plugs and the S/PDIF output.

A Brief Tour of the UEFI BIOS and Utilities

The UEFI BIOS on the new Z790 Aorus Elite AX Ice uses Gigabyte’s updated and more user-friendly UEFI. You still start with a reconfigured Easy Mode that’s informational, listing the status of the CPU, RAM, fans, peripherals, and more. The color scheme on this board matches the ice theme with a white background and black labeling, with hints of the Aorus Orange highlighting we’re more familiar with. Along the bottom are several options to enable, including memory tweaks and QFlash. It is easy to read, laid out logically, and more pleasing to the eye than many.

(Credit: Gigabyte)

Inside the advanced portion of the BIOS is the standard configuration with major headings across the top, including Favorites (customizable by the user), Tweaker, Settings, and System Info. (The Boot controls are also here.) You’ll find all the advanced functionality in this much more comprehensive mode.

(Credit: Gigabyte)

The Tweaker section contains all the options to tweak and overclock your system. Here, you can adjust voltages, RAM speeds, and timings, as well as delve into the overclocking options for the CPU.

(Credit: Gigabyte)

Inside the Settings section are several sub-headings where you can adjust platform power, configure I/O ports, and view a PC Health summary, which displays system information, including voltage and temperatures. Here, you’ll find options to enable or disable audio and integrated graphics, enable Resizable BAR, and configure USB, NVMe, SATA, audio, and network hardware.

(Credit: Gigabyte)

Gigabyte’s UEFI is laid out logically and is easy to get around. The Z790 version, like the X670, has a full array of tweaks, including overclocking the CPU and RAM. Unlike some other BIOSes, though, you cannot play with the RGB lighting from here—that will have to be done through Windows and the GCC app. Overall, it provides all the options you need, and my version (F4) was stable during my time with the board.

On the software side, Gigabyte’s Control Center houses Windows-based monitoring and control over RGB lighting, fans, driver updates, and performance and overclocking. It’s a lightweight app that matches the black-and-orange Aorus theme and is easy to work with. Additionally, on startup, it polls the system for software and driver versions and updates or downloads them as needed, with your approval. The screenshot below shows the landing page, all the hardware it can control on our test system, and the functions (such as fan control and RGB).

(Credit: Gigabyte)

For motherboard control from GCC, you will see options to control RGBs, fans, and overclocking performance. The RGB Fusion software includes eight LED effects (Static, Pulse, Flash, DFlash, Cycle, Wave1, Wave2, and Off), as well as options to change the brightness and speed of the effects.

(Credit: Gigabyte)

Fan control, meanwhile, has three canned options (Silent, Normal, and Full-speed), as well as the ability to adjust manually and make custom curves. The software read all our test system’s fans (PWM and DC alike) and controlled them without issue.

(Credit: Gigabyte)

Overclocking the processor and memory through the software is straightforward. You’ll see dropdowns to select the CPU multiplier (for “P” and “E” cores; BCLK is not available), as well as memory speed (but not timings) and voltage.

(Credit: Gigabyte)

Verdict: A Mainstream Board That’s Iced Right

Gigabyte’s “iced out” PCB and overall appearance set the Z790 Aorus Elite AX Ice apart from most motherboards donned in the common black theme. For $269.99, you get a cool white look, an updated UEFI BIOS, capable power delivery, an integrated Wi-Fi 6E radio, and ample storage options (six SATA and four M.2). Audiophiles and those looking for a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 socket need not apply, as Gigabyte's more basic audio implementation will disappoint, and the four M.2 sockets max out at PCIe 4.0 x4. Still, most users should be pleased with what it provides for the price.

Performance in our testing was overall average, mixing in with the competition. The BIOS default settings allowed the Core i9-14900K to flex its muscle with pleasing results in games and productivity, matching more expensive offerings. You can get more out of it with a simple toggle in the PerfDrive section of the new UEFI if your cooling is up to it. In all, you wouldn’t be able to tell by performance numbers, as even much more expensive options have similar default performance profiles.

(Credit: Joe Shields)

The Aorus Elite AX Ice is a worthwhile option in the Z790 motherboard market. You get 14th Gen support (not native), an updated UEFI BIOS, and EZ latches on all M.2 sockets, the last of which makes adding or removing some parts more manageable. You'll find a lot of competition for the price, but none stands heads above the rest. Still, if you’re looking for a rare white/gray-themed motherboard and don’t want to pay the premium for a refreshed board with the new Wi-Fi 7 (which you likely can’t utilize yet, anyway) and native 14th Gen support, the Z790 Elite AX should be on your shortlist.