The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined

GIGABYTE Z490M Gaming X

Following the same design as its ATX sized counterpart, the GIGABYTE Z490M Gaming X is one of just a small handful of micro-ATX motherboards on Z490. Not as popular and sought after as mini-ITX, micro-ATX does offer users plenty of benefits with more than one PCIe 3.0 expansion slot, but in a smaller than ATX sized frame. The GIGABYTE Z490M Gaming X has two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots, with two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, six SATA ports, with an Intel Gigabit Ethernet controller and Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec powering the onboard audio.

Based upon a more simplistic design for gamers without any integrated RGB, the Z490M Gaming X uses black and grey accented heatsinks, with a black and grey patterned PCB. It has two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16/+4, with a single PCIe 3.0 slot. For the storage, it uses two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, with the bottom of the two coming with its own heat sink. A total of six SATA ports, with two right-angled and four straight-angled ports offering support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Up to 128 GB of DDR4-"""" can be installed across four memory slots, which is impressive for a budget board, with GIGABYTE offering 32 GB UDIMM support across all of its Z490 models.

Despite following much of the same design as the ATX sized GIGABYTE Z490 Gaming X, the micro-ATX Z490M Gaming X does include a single USB 3.2 G1 Type-C port on the rear panel. Also present is one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. A pair of video outputs are present including a DisplayPort 1.4, and HDMI video output, with the five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output which are powered by a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec. Users with legacy keyboard and mice will find a single PS/2 combo port, while the rear panel is finished off with a single Intel Gigabit powered Ethernet port.

The GIGABYTE Z490M Gaming X is the one of a small selection of micro-ATX Z490 models, with most opting to aim at the entry-level and mid-range markets. The GIGABYTE Z490M Gaming X won't be available at launch and doesn't currently have any pricing attached. It shouldn't be too expensive and represent a solid low-cost option for users looking for a smaller form factor but doesn't necessarily want to pay the premium for a mini-ITX model. It has plenty of features, but mostly aimed at users with lower budgets, and should prove popular in an undersaturated micro-ATX market.

This page will be updated when more information becomes available to us.