GIGABYTE's hidden Z990 motherboard at Computex reveals six NVMe slots and three PCIe 5.0 M.2 bays for Nova Lake-S

Intel's next-generation desktop platform may not have been officially announced, but the very first Intel Z990 motherboard was hiding right under our noses. Publications, including PCWorld and BenchLife, pieced together the discovery after visitors to the GIGABYTE booth were shown a mysterious, unnamed motherboard.

The motherboard shown at Computex Taipei 2026 had its CPU socket covered in tape and stripped of any visible branding. The giveaway was a small "Z99Pro" label printed on the rear of the PCB, which GIGABYTE has since confirmed is the AORUS Z990 PRO, an Intel Z990 board for the upcoming LGA-1954 Nova Lake-S platform.

This reveal confirms the upcoming motherboards, and also gives us a look at what the Z990 platform will bring. Most notably, there are at least three PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots alongside three additional PCIe 4.0 slots, giving the board a total of six NVMe drive bays. Earlier chipset leaks suggest PCIe 5.0 lanes from the chipset will be exclusive to Z990, Q970, and W980, which would make this level of high-speed storage support a differentiating feature of the flagship tier.

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Three eight-pin CPU power connectors are visible on the board, which is unusual and could indicate that Nova Lake-S CPUs will push higher power limits than their Arrow Lake predecessors, or simply that this is an extreme overclocking-focused model. There is also a dedicated fan above the DRAM slots to help manage memory thermals at higher frequencies.

The rear I/O is equally impressive, featuring two LAN ports, eight USB-A ports running at 10 Gbps, and four USB-C connections that may support Thunderbolt 5, though GIGABYTE has not confirmed this. HDMI 2.1, digital and analog audio, and a quick-release Wi-Fi connector round out the back panel.

Intel's 900-series chipset succeeds the current 800-series and will support the upcoming Core Ultra Series 4 Nova Lake-S processors. The platform is expected to launch later in 2026, though Intel's current focus is firmly on its Arc G3 handheld platform.