GIGABYTE Z690I AORUS ULTRA D4? problem

A post on Gigabyte's sub-Reddit suggests that Gigabyte will be doing RMA's for this issue, before the end of the month.

We're working on how you can RMA those boards. I think you should be able to apply for an RMA before the end of the month or so. We'll let you know when everything has been finalized.

----

I'm about to put two PCI-E 4.0 SSD into my board. Will see how it holds up.

Regardless, I will be attempting an RMA for the coil whine.
 
chameleoneel said:
A post on Gigabyte's sub-Reddit suggests that Gigabyte will be doing RMA's for this issue, before the end of the month.

We're working on how you can RMA those boards. I think you should be able to apply for an RMA before the end of the month or so. We'll let you know when everything has been finalized.

----

I'm about to put two PCI-E 4.0 SSD into my board. Will see how it holds up.

Regardless, I will be attempting an RMA for the coil whine.
Click to expand...
Good grief, but thanks for the heads up.
 
I caved and got a different board. The coil whine around the socket, on my board, was annoying the hell out of me and distracted me almost every time I was really trying to use my computer.
I hope that they do replacements for these. When pulling the board out of my case, I was reminded at how 'nice' this thing is, physically. I will be RMAing it. Not sure if I will build a second machine or sell the replacement.

Unfortunately.....there isn't another high end or even mid-range Alderlake ITX, with DDR4. So.....I had to go for a DDR5 board and buy some DDR5. I have also been needing more storage space. So I took the opportunity to get 1TB and 2TB 4.0 SSDs.

I got this motherboard:
https://www.beachaudio.com/asrock-z...k-z690-phantom-gam-itx-tb4-z690phtmgmitx-tb4/

This DDR5
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09N63G5R7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

1TB and 2TB of this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09F5W62N8?ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details&th=1

My EKWB 240mm AIO fits in one position. I had put a Corsair 280mm on the Gigabyte board. While the cooling was really good: the pump makes noise like an old spinner hard drive (a constant high pitch tone). And with this case, you can't put a 280mm cooler in or take it out----unless you first completely remove the power supply. Which means like over half a rebuild.

My EK is virtually silent and it doesn't require all the rebuilding, just to install/uninstall the cooler. Its a better match for the case.

Sliger S610 is listed as 13.3 liters
 

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I’m interested in your experience with this board. I’m running a 5600x in my s610 and have thought about moving my 12700k to itx and ddr5 at some point.
 
TheHig said:
I’m interested in your experience with this board. I’m running a 5600x in my s610 and have thought about moving my 12700k to itx and ddr5 at some point.
Click to expand...
I have only played around with it a couple of hours so far. But, the Kingston RAM loaded XMP with no issue. Bios doesn't seem buggy (I updated the bios immediately after the first boot). I tried some things like turning off the E cores, increasing the CPU power limit. The Thunderbolt installed without issue.

No coil whine.

Build quality is good, overall. I like the VRM heatsinks. Almost the entire rear panel shroud is heatsink. Supposed to have an 11-phase VRM.

My complaints so far: The front side NVME slot: The mounting post is slightly too far away. The screw just barely grabs the end of the drive. The rear NVME mount does not have that issue.

The way they package these, the board sits on a raised piece of cardboard, inside the box. The board sits too high and the heatsinks were cutting through the anti-static bag and the lid of the box. This isn't the first Asrock motherboard package I have seen like that.
 
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1_rick said:
Any particular reason?
Click to expand...
Something "big" to test the behavior of the bios. But also....some games benefit from running only on P-Cores (something about the cache running in a lower latency or something). Elden Ring in particular, has been suggested to run without Hyperthreading and whatnot. So I've been playing ER on the P-Cores, with no HT.
 
chameleoneel said:
I caved and got a different board. The coil whine around the socket, on my board, was annoying the hell out of me and distracted me almost every time I was really trying to use my computer.
I hope that they do replacements for these. When pulling the board out of my case, I was reminded at how 'nice' this thing is, physically. I will be RMAing it. Not sure if I will build a second machine or sell the replacement.

Unfortunately.....there isn't another high end or even mid-range Alderlake ITX, with DDR4. So.....I had to go for a DDR5 board and buy some DDR5. I have also been needing more storage space. So I took the opportunity to get 1TB and 2TB 4.0 SSDs.

I got this motherboard:
https://www.beachaudio.com/asrock-z...k-z690-phantom-gam-itx-tb4-z690phtmgmitx-tb4/

This DDR5
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09N63G5R7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

1TB and 2TB of this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09F5W62N8?ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details&th=1

My EKWB 240mm AIO fits in one position. I had put a Corsair 280mm on the Gigabyte board. While the cooling was really good: the pump makes noise like an old spinner hard drive (a constant high pitch tone). And with this case, you can't put a 280mm cooler in or take it out----unless you first completely remove the power supply. Which means like over half a rebuild.

My EK is virtually silent and it doesn't require all the rebuilding, just to install/uninstall the cooler. Its a better match for the case.

Sliger S610 is listed as 13.3 liters
Click to expand...
Techpowerup posted a review today. Apparently the VRM heatsinks are junk? The temps seem unusually high, though. I wonder if their temp readings weren't correct, somehow.

But, this is what happens when 5 months after Alder Lake releases-----we don't have ITX motherboard reviews.

*tomshardware recorded much lower temps on the VRMs. Still a bit high, but not crazy at 100C...hmmm...
 
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chameleoneel said:
Techpowerup posted a review today. Apparently the VRM heatsinks are junk? The temps seem unusually high, though. I wonder if their temp readings weren't correct, somehow.

But, this is what happens when 5 months after Alder Lake releases-----we don't have ITX motherboard reviews.

*tomshardware recorded much lower temps on the VRMs. Still a bit high, but not crazy at 100C...hmmm...
Click to expand...
steering the topic away I know but....Toms and Guru 3D reported much better VRM temp perforamnce, than Techpowerup. (Toms actually found the MSI Z690i Unify to be worse). So....it seems like maybe techpowerup had some bad contact with their heatsinks or maybe their testing was messed up somehow?

Also, new bios today!?-----it added AVX 512 support and updated Intel ME microcode.
 
No update yet from Gigabyte, on RMA's for the issues with this board.

TheHig said:
I’m interested in your experience with this board. I’m running a 5600x in my s610 and have thought about moving my 12700k to itx and ddr5 at some point.
Click to expand...
Update on the Asrock board:

I thought it had some problems (intensely long boot times. erratic performance in Elden Ring) but----it turned out to be a bad set of DDR5 from Kingston. I confirmed this because, in my frustration, I also bought an MSI Z690i Unify (thinking that the Asrock board was bad). The Unify also had issues (intensely long boot times. erratic performance in Elden Ring. Sound errors in Elden Ring). I then swapped the RAM for another of the same set and-----everything works great, on both boards.

However, the Unify had a REALLY loud and whiney VRM fan. So I returned it and am sticking with the Asrock.

My DDR5 is a 32GB set of 5600MHZ Kingston fury. I had no issues setting it to 6000mhz, last night. I'm going to see if I can lower the timings, now.
 
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Curious to see what happens here. This board would fit my build like a glove and the next closest option is over $100 more for features I don’t need or want.
 
prtzlboy said:
Curious to see what happens here. This board would fit my build like a glove and the next closest option is over $100 more for features I don’t need or want.
Click to expand...
It's a nice board when it works.
 
As of this morning, Gigabyte's support landing page, where you can select your motherboard, lists 5 Z690 V2 motherboards. I haven't found the RMA notification yet.

The replacement models will still be rev 1.0 but will all have plus in the name--so the Z690I Aorus Ultra DDR4's replacement is the Z690I Aorus Ultra Plus DDR4.
 
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1_rick said:
As of this morning, Gigabyte's support landing page, where you can select your motherboard, lists 5 Z690 V2 motherboards. I haven't found the RMA notification yet.
Click to expand...
If I can remember to, I will get my board out tonight, and see if I can get an RMA started!
 
The RMA link is now live: https://member.aorus.com/global/z690i-aorus-ultra-exchange-refund

Their press release mentions RMA for non-third-party retailers (for Newgg, this apparently means you can only RMA through Gigabyte if you bought it directly from Newegg, otherwise you have to contact the actual seller. I got mine from Microcenter, so I'm going to apply for the RMA and see what happens, as as of yesterday, my local one didn't have either model in stock.)

Here's the press release: https://www.gigabyte.com/Press/News/1991
 
Looks like the board is simple being replace with the z690i aorus ultra "plus"

The only difference I can see is wifi 6e vs wifi 6 in the original board?

I'm not seeing this new board version for sale anywhere yet either.
 
prtzlboy said:
Looks like the board is simple being replace with the z690i aorus ultra "plus"

The only difference I can see is wifi 6e vs wifi 6 in the original board?

I'm not seeing this new board version for sale anywhere yet either.
Click to expand...
Well, supposedly whatever caused the hardware issues has been resolved as well. Gigabyte just listed the board on their own site yesterday, so I don't know how long it'll take to get into the sales channel. Hopefully they stocked up the RMA center first.
 
I put in my RMA request between making posts 62 and 64, and just got a reply a few minutes ago saying to watch for an email with a UPS shipping label for return.

It doesn't look like they're doing an advance RMA so you'll need an alternative for however long it takes. Assuming, optimistically, they ship UPS ground both ways, figure 3-6 calendar days each way for shipping, and a day or two turnaround while they verify you returned the right product. Could be longer, of course. When I returned a defective laptop to HP years ago, it took two weeks each way for shipping. Not sure what they were using--probably Pony Express.
 
Packed up the board in the original box today, taped it shut, took it to UPS after work. Too early to get an estimated delivery date yet.
 
chameleoneel said:
I got approved for RMA and they also sent an email from UPS to access a shipping label.
Click to expand...
MIne was received at noon today, so I'm hoping I'll get some kind of email with a tracking number tomorrow or Friday.
 
Finally heard from Gigabyte yesterday evening, saying "We have finished testing your GIGABYTE product(s) and it is (they are) being returned back to you." and giving me a tracking #.

I sure hope that's boilerplate text--which I suspect it is because of "it is (they are)" (unless Gigabyte wasn't sure of the motherboard's pronouns)--and not an actual reflection of what's going on, because the press release said they were replacing with the new plus model.

ETA: label created yesterday, 5PM, "on the way" at 2:30 this morning, expected tomorrow. I don't know how to square that with "ups ground".
 
1_rick said:
Finally heard from Gigabyte yesterday evening, saying "We have finished testing your GIGABYTE product(s) and it is (they are) being returned back to you." and giving me a tracking #.

I sure hope that's boilerplate text--which I suspect it is because of "it is (they are)" (unless Gigabyte wasn't sure of the motherboard's pronouns)--and not an actual reflection of what's going on, because the press release said they were replacing with the new plus model.

ETA: label created yesterday, 5PM, "on the way" at 2:30 this morning, expected tomorrow. I don't know how to square that with "ups ground".
Click to expand...
"On the way" usually means they're sending it to UPS, no telling where it's at ... "good luck!"

"Expected tomorrow" usually means it'll be in town tomorrow and on a truck the next day.
 
Nobu said:
"Expected tomorrow" usually means it'll be in town tomorrow and on a truck the next day.
Click to expand...
Well, it's coming to Texas from California, so tomorrow struck me as optimistic. :) Plus this weekend is a holiday and I live in a beach tourist town so that can't help.
 
1_rick said:
Finally heard from Gigabyte yesterday evening, saying "We have finished testing your GIGABYTE product(s) and it is (they are) being returned back to you." and giving me a tracking #.

I sure hope that's boilerplate text--which I suspect it is because of "it is (they are)" (unless Gigabyte wasn't sure of the motherboard's pronouns)--and not an actual reflection of what's going on, because the press release said they were replacing with the new plus model.

ETA: label created yesterday, 5PM, "on the way" at 2:30 this morning, expected tomorrow. I don't know how to square that with "ups ground".
Click to expand...
Did you send only the motherboard or did you also send all of the accessories?
 
UPS tracking now says "out for delivery by today at 7PM." So obviously the truck driver is a cannonball run alum.
 
Board showed up about 3PM, but I didn't get a chance to put it all back together until this morning.w The Plus motherboard is apparently the same except for Intel AX411 wifi instead of AX211--they slipped an errata page into the manual.

I'm using it now, and it seems to be working fine. I read the mobo manual a bit more closely this time and realized that what looked like a fan header on the M.2 daughterboard is actually a power connector, which needs to be fed from Molex (ugh).

No WHEA errors so far, and the video card's in PCIe 4.0 mode!
 
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