aorus/gigabyte @ computex 2023

The very first time I visited Computex was with Gigabyte, and particularly in covering what they call "VIP Suites", which in practice is a really nice ballroom full of their tech, very close to but still pleasantly away from the extremely busy Computex main convention hall.

4 years later, we meet in Taipei Again. 

z790 x refresh

Star of the show were the new Z790 Motherboards. A refresh that has mostly aesthetics in mind for the Z90 lineup, but also a few technical changes such as PCB layer amount upgrades, which could be important due to the ramp-up in DDR5 speeds that we will probably be seeing in the near future, as well as improved supported for 14th gen Intel processors.

The Z790 AORUS XTREME X and Z790 AORUS MASTER X, the two top-of-the-line motherboards for Aorus, if you disregard the very specific Tachyon, made for overclockers.

Detail on the Z790 AORUS XTREME X. There is actually a magnetic plastic cover if you prefer to hide most of the heatsinks, but if you lift them, you get access to all this sexy goodness.

And take a look at this THICC M.2 heatsink that comes with the Xtreme (you can remove it easily, if you'd like). It's a testament to how warm pcie 5 SSDs might be able to get, but also an incredible display of just how much we as humans can tackle pretty much every technical problem that is presented to us. I kinda like it.

This line-up should be available by the end of Summer, and I suspect we'll know a bit more about specifics as soon as Intel officially says more about the 14th-gen launch. 

PROJECT STEALTH 2.0 

Tried and improved "classics" were also present, like Project Stealth 2.0.

This project is extremely interesting, and it's all based on seeing the fewest cables possible. Power and data connectors are often behind the motherboard itself, and there's even a GPU version where the connection is also snuck away from sight.

Overall, it doesn't really seem like anyone wants to see their cables, so this AORUS x MAINGEAR project seems to have inspired every brand and their mother to try to do the same.

You may remember version 1.0 of Project Stealth, which had only one major fault, the case airflow.

In this case, the problem seems to have been resolved by simply upgrading the design to one that can easily breathe and bring those temps down.

Air, glorious air!

JENSEN HUANG SUPERSTAR

I also had the chance to hold this NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang signed AORUS RTX 4090. I tried to take it with me but they were adamant that I shouldn't (joking).

I wonder how much this baby would run on eBay?

Jensen is a superstar in the industry, but in Taiwan, he's just a normal superstar. Everyone surrounds him and wants a pic with the man. I didn't get a chance, but holding some signed hardware is a good second-best!

And it's always great to customize hardware to your liking, so this is what I'm going for on the AORUS RTX 4090 Master LCD display, and I reckon you should too.

This always brings me back to the AORUS RTX 3080 XTREME and its LCD, the one I had to sell a kidney for (not many will understand this reference), so I'm a sucker for this specific design.

DON'T SKIMP UP ON YOU MONITORS

And don't forget that AORUS/GIGABYTE makes some fine monitors. I should know, as my current triple--build battlestation is 1x M32U and 2x M32UC, both great models. They seem to be focusing a lot of their attention on the Arm editions, in this case of the M32U, which out of the box comes with a mount for your table, which is the next best thing after actually doing a wall mount.

Speaking of triple monitors, it's always nice to see a proper mod battlestation on display, so here's the AORUS 4K vision, which looks like something out of Stargate SG-1.

The Aero look and the coffee situation

It's hard to ignore the AERO design that GIGABYTE has been pushing more and more lately, and I for one welcome it. White or silver components are not that easy to get, so this does help tremendously when you want to build in white cases or just want to stay away from the black and grey plastic classics.

AERO 14 OLED and 16 OLED Laptops.

The full Line of AERO design Graphics Cards. Pictured above and below, is the RTX 4060 Ti AERO OC.

Last but not least, the AERO motherboard line, which has been more or less settled as a go-to for white/silver build enthusiasts for at least 3 generations.

But Gigabyte's healthy obsession with AERO goes further than this. There is actually a Café in Taipei that is devoted to it. The Aero Café! And yes, of course, I had to go check it out, what kind of peasant would I be otherwise?

Yes, this is a regular Cafe with a Gigabyte AERO Theme, and gaming and Instagramable spaces. LOL, I love Taiwan! 

And yes, of course that there's actual coffee at the Aero Café!