We’re heading for a CPU refresh this year which means both Intel and AMD aren’t going to get a significant update in terms of motherboards. That said, with Intel’s socket LGA1700 already at play, brands are now showcasing their new motherboards in preparation for a fresh version of Raptor Lake. It is not yet known if Intel will call it 14th-gen and go by Core 14xxx or use the rumoured new naming convention but it is for sure that Intel will have a Raptor Lake Refresh.
Readying for this, AORUS is preparing two new monitors featuring the Intel Z790 chipset: the AORUS Z790 AORUS XTREME X and the Z790 AORUS MASTER X. The X denoting the refresh distinction.
Not much detail has been revealed with no final specs card on display. The product manager did share that the new refresh motherboards will have WIFI7 support as well as quality-of-life improvements which makes the user experience much better.
The first of which is a quick-release latch but not for the M.2 SSD itself, this time around AORUS is using the easy latch for the entire shroud and heatsink on the Z790 AORUS XTREME X and Z790 AORUS MASTER X. The giant PCIe Gen5 SSD pops off with a quick release tab and the larger bottom shroud also does the same on the XTREME X.
The Z790 AORUS XTREME X also features a magnetic WIFI/BT antenna which has a very strong bottom magnet for mounting nearly anywhere a flat metal surface is. But as evident in the photo, the main highlight here is the LCD screen.
And we’re not talking about a 10FPS mini display, AORUS slaps a full-on LCD display on the IO shroud of the Z790 AORUS XTREME X capable of showing system information, animations and more. As the flagship motherbaord, it also comes with all the best the lineup has to offer but we’ll have to wait until the launch of Intel’s refresh CPUs to see what the Intel Z790 AORUS XTREME X and Z790 AORUS MASTER X has to offer.