Board Features, Test Bed and Setup
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Board Features
The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon is an E-ATX motherboard designed primarily for enthusiasts and extreme overclockers, with plenty of functionality for regular users such as gamers and content creators. Included in the feature set are four full-length PCIe slots, with two operating at PCIe 4.0 x16 and x8x/8, and two at PCIe 3.0 x4 and x1 respectively (top to bottom). For storage, the Tachyon has three M.2 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4, and two PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA, with eight SATA ports in total. Six of the SATA ports are controlled by the chipset with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10, while the other two are driven by an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller. The Z590 Aorus Tachyon has two memory slots, despite being a larger E-ATX board, which is purposely designed to enhance the overall memory performance, including latency and frequency overclocking. Both slots officially support up to DDR4-5333, with capacities up to 64 GB in total. Users looking to use extensive cooling options can do so through eight 4-pin headers. These headers are split into one for a CPU fan, one for a water cooling CPU fan/pump, four for chassis fans, and two that can either be used for water pumps or chassis fans.
| GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon E-ATX Motherboard | |||
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
| Product Page | Link | ||
| Price | $530 | ||
| Size | E-ATX | ||
| CPU Interface | LGA1200 | ||
| Chipset | Intel Z590 | ||
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Two DDR4 Supporting 64 GB Dual-Channel Up to DDR4-5333 | ||
| Video Outputs | 1 x HDMI 2.0 | ||
| Network Connectivity | Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E | ||
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220-VB | ||
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 4.0 (x16, x8/x8) | ||
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1 | ||
| Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 (Z590) Two (ASMedia) | ||
| Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA | ||
| Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps) | N/A | ||
| USB 3.2 (20 Gbps) | 1 x USB Type-C (Rear panel) | ||
| USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) | 4 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 1 x USB Type-C (One header) | ||
| USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) | 4 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 2 x USB Type-A (One header) | ||
| USB 2.0 | 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) | ||
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin Motherboard 2 x 8-pin CPU | ||
| Fan Headers | 1 x 4-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin Water Pump/chassis 4 x 4-pin Chassis 2 x 4-pin Chassis/Water pump | ||
| IO Panel | 2 x Antenna Ports (Intel AX210) 1 x HDMI 2.0 output 1 x USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C 3 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 4 x USB 3.2 G1 Type-A 1 x RJ45 (Intel) 1 x Q-Flash BIOS Flashback button 1 x OC Ignition button 1 x PS/2 Keyboard port 1 x PS/2 Mouse port 5 x 3.5 mm audio jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Optical output (Realtek) | ||
Despite the Tachyon being focused on performance for extreme overclockers, it does include a varied selection of connections on the rear panel. Using features new to Z590, the Tachyon includes one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C port, which is useful for content creators. Other connections include three USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, one HDMI 2.0 video output, one PS/2 keyboard, and one PS/2 mouse port. Onboard audio is handled by a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec which includes five 3.5 mm audio jacks, a S/PDIF optical output, and a front panel header. Focusing on networking, GIGABYTE includes an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller, as well as an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi which also allows for the connectivity of BT 5.2 devices.
Test Bed
With some of the nuances with Intel's Rocket Lake processors, our policy is to see if the system gives an automatic option to increase the power limits of the processor. If it does, we select the liquid cooling option. If it does not, we do not change the defaults. Adaptive Boost Technology is disabled by default.
| Test Setup | |||
| Processor | Intel Core i9-11900K, 125 W, $374 8 Cores, 16 Threads 3.5 GHz (5.3 GHz Turbo) | ||
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon (BIOS F5d) | ||
| Cooling | Corsair iCue H150i Elite Capellix 360 mm AIO | ||
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum 850 W | ||
| Memory | G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 CL 14-14-14-34 2T (2 x 8 GB) | ||
| Video Card | MSI GTX 1080 (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
| Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
| Case | Corsair Crystal 680X | ||
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit: Build 20H2 | ||
We must also thank the following:
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