GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO Wi-Fi (Intel LGA1151/Z390/ATX/2xM.2 Thermal Guard/Onboard AC Wi-Fi/RGB Fusion/Gaming Motherboard)

I will start this review at 5 stars simply for the fact that I plugged everything in and booted up. It booted up no problem and windows adjusted to the new motherboard (been waiting for that for like 15-20 years and was promised before now and it never worked). Then I reset it and set my XMP profile to on and it has run my RAM at speeds without any issue at all. I am actually kind of amazed.So I've never had an easier install. First boot up the CPU was at 28c with a Deepmax 400 HSF. Last I saw it was 30-32c, which is still acceptable, and it's brand new so needs time to adjust to the paste. So far I am loving it. Need to ensure all my drivers are up to date and that I have all that Gigabyte has to offer software wise so I can see if any of it is useful, which they install CPUZ, Cfos, and Smart fan, which are all items I always have or don't mind having when a motherboard reminds me they exist (cfos).Layout is nice, and the added heatsinks for your m.2 drives is bad a$$. I was sad I had to rip off my 970 + 960 sticker so I could make sure the heat film touches the chips and not the sticker, but I placed them on the outside of the heatsink so it works out. I was able to screw in all screws without too much hassle. My last mobo in the same case was more difficult due to the placement of stuff. This one, not so much.Overall I am amazed and absolutely love this mobo, but time will tell if this changes.As I own this thing I will come back if any stars need to be removedIf you have specific questions add a comment and I can try to answer.

It was just under $200 when I purchased it. It's a great motherboard, but it is NOT for beginners. I have been using this motherboard since October 2020 and it has been smooth sailing.A few notes I had to learn the hard way since it isn't well documented...- The board IS Windows 11 compatible. You have to go into the BIOS settings, activate TPM, and then Windows 11 can be installed without issue- It is ARGB compatible, but the instructions are... confusing to say the least, in the instruction manual.- Gigabyte is not known for having robust or stable firmware, but it can still be a worthwhile experience if you know how to manage itAs I mentioned, this is not a board for beginners. There are certain caveats to consider when purchasing a performance-oriented, but budget-friendly board, that can be easily overlooked if you don't know what you are doing.Even so, for the features and performance alone, it is definitely a 5-board for PC builders with a bit of experience.

After researching the top 3 brands of motherboards (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte), I decided to go with the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi board for my Intel i7-8700K. I was looking for certain features including a board with WiFi and the latest M.2 NVMe Technology, and not too much bling with lightsSo far, I am very pleased and happy with this board because I wanted to use Samsung's 970 EVO 500 Gb M.2 NVMe SSD. And so far, the stick is working smoothly with Windows 10 installed. The board instantly recognized the stick without doing any setting in the BIOS. Just make sure you only have this SSD installed when first installing Windows 10 if you want the OS on this SSD (or else you may have issues)I currently have 4 sticks of 3200 RAM CORSAIR Vengeance RGB 8GB DDR4 3200MHz C16 installed on the board along with a GPU EVGA 1070Ti FTW2 - the board booted up the first time it was turned on going straight to the BIOS screen and instantly recognized my Corsair fans, AIO Cooler, M.2 Samsung Drive and EVGA GPU card without any tweaking in the BIOS. A lot of people say the BIOS interface is not the best; but, being a first time PC building, the BIOS has an EASY Mode for a newbie like to me navigate through. However, the board defaults at the 2133 Mhz for any RAM over 2133; you'll have to go back into the BIOS...easy mode...enable XMP...then reboot to get it to change automaticallyYou also can get a 3 year warranty with Gigabyte if you register your motherboard

Built another system for myself-my ASUS mobo arrived DOA, and after months of fighting I gave up on them. Found this board-was a little apprehensive, as this was the first time I used something other than ASUS in over a decade. I'm pleasantly surprised. This board has delivered well in every area. Designed well, plenty of extra connectors, all the USB support I like, even wifi support built in as an added plus. The bios isn't as intuitive as the ASUS boards, but I had no trouble with it as I'm used to tweaking settings-a novice user might have some difficulty.The only thing that I would consider to be a negative is the placement and direction of the SATA connectors, but many board makers seem to favor this approach. The connectors are bundled together and face towards the drive stacks. The bigger problem is if you have a large video card (I had an ASUS DUAL-RTX2080-A8G I had to cram in there). Mine completely obstructed the SATA ports which made plugging in anything to the SATA ports impossible. I had to take out the video card just to plug something into the SATA ports. This was a minor issue though, and compared to the rest of the perks of the board, really inconsequential. Just install your SATA cables first. ;)