Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Elite Motherboard Leaks Prior To 9th Gen Intel Core CPU Launch

If you build it, they will come. We learned that lesson in Field of Dreams, and it applies to the technology sector too, not just baseball fields out in the middle of nowhere. So what exactly is being built? Intel has put together a new Z390 chipset for its upcoming 9th generation processor launch, and Gigabyte appears ready to roll with at least one Z390 motherboard (more likely several) from its Aorus division.

Otherwise known as Coffee Lake Refresh, the upcoming 9th generation Core processor launch is rumored to include up to 8-core CPU options, bringing parity (in core and thread counts) with AMD's Ryzen processors to the mainstream market. Some of the SKUs (up to 6 cores) have already been confirmed on Intel's website in official documentation.

One chip that Intel has not confirmed, however, is the Core i9-9900K. This is said to be an 8-core/16-thread processor. And if a recent leak of a Core i7-9700K getting overclocked to 5.5GHz on all cores is any indication, the Core i9 part should come with a solder thermal interface material for better temps, perhaps negating the desire by enthusiasts to delid Intel's processors.

Getting back to the leaked motherboard, what looks to be an official press render of Gigabyte's Z390 Aorus Elite has appeared online. Under Gigabyte's revamped naming scheme, Elite models sit at the bottom of the full-size ATX gaming stack, replacing the Gaming 3 series.

That doesn't mean they are stripped entirely of desirable features, though. In the product shot, we can see at least one M.2 slot with a heatsink on top, along with reinforced DIMM slots and a reinforced PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot (there are two PCIe x16 slots total).

We can also make out RGB lighting and an RGB header, plus a pre-installed I/O shield, and what appears to be a 12+1 VRM power phase design.

There's no word yet on when this motherboard will launch or for how much, though expect it soon—rumor has it Intel will launch its 9th generation Core processors this month.