Gigabyte adds another motherboard to the Aorus Waterforce series

Gigabyte’s Waterforce series has outfitted motherboards with all-in-one monoblocks designed for custom water-cooling enthusiasts of late, with the most recent Z490 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce being no exception featuring a huge monoblock covering the CPU, VRM, SSD and PCH.

However, Gigabyte has added a new member to the Waterforce range this week with the Z490 Aorus Master putting a new twist on the Waterforce motherboard series. This new Aorus Waterforce board isn’t targeting custom water-cooling enthusiasts, but more mainstream users looking for a liquid cooling solution for both the CPU and VRM without the hassle of building a custom loop.

Enter the Z490 Aorus Master Waterforce that comes equipped with a 360mm AIO liquid cooler bundled in the box. This is not just any ordinary AIO, it covers the CPU as you would expect from an AIO liquid cooler, but also cools the motherboard VRM too, while still using a traditional four fixing point method like any other traditional AIO cooler.

The included AIO cooler features an additional heatsink and heat pipe with new generation 7.5W/mK LAIRD thermal pads for the VRM cooling, as well as dual ball-bearing 120mm ARGB fans on the radiator. At the centre of the large CPU/VRM water block is the trademark Aorus falcon logo and the lighting effects of the AIO are compatible with Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 software control.

Other key features of the new Z490 Aorus Master Waterforce include a 14-phase, 90-amp digital power phase with Smart Power Stage design, solid power pin connections and Tantalum Polymer capacitors for improved transient response of the VRM. The motherboard also retains the original Z490 Aorus Master features such as 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, ALC 1220-VB audio engine and PCIe 4.0 support for future CPU upgrades.

UK price and availability of the Z490 Aorus Master Waterforce is still to be announced.

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KitGuru says: It will be interesting to see what price tag Gigabyte slaps on the Z490 Aorus Master Waterforce and whether it will be more cost-effective than buying the original Z490 Aorus Master and a separate 360mm AIO. What do you guys think?

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