Gigabyte Announces X299 Aorus Gaming Pre-Order Specials (Updated)

Update, 6/26/17, 11:30am PT: Gigabyte has started to ship X299 motherboard pre-orders. The company also revealed the contents of the Xperience Pack it offered last week-- an Aorus Hoodie, a 1-Year subscription to Xsplit Gamecaster, LEDs from CableMods, a Limited Launch Edition Keyboard Mousepad, and Sennheiser CX3.00 In-Ear Headphones. Gigabyte said "each bonus item is critical to enhance elements of the Gigabyte X299 experience." Pre-orders should arrive sooner than later.

Update, 6/19/17, 11:30am PT: Gigabyte revealed that the MSRPs for the Aorus Gaming 9, 7, and 3 are $499, $399, and $279, respectively. The company has links to all participating retailers on the X299 pre-order page. It also revealed that pre-ordering will make you eligible for the "exclusive Xperience pack," which is purportedly worth $200, but it won't divulge the pack's contents until June 23.

 Original article: 6/16/17, 12:35pm PT:

Intel's X-series CPUs are coming, and if you want to take advantage of their multitudinous cores and threads, you'll need a new motherboard. Enter the X299 Aorus Gaming 9, 7, and 3 from Gigabyte, which announced that you can pre-order the new boards from June 19-25.

We covered Gigabyte's new X299 chipset motherboards back at Computex 2017, where the company showed off these Aorus Gaming models as well as several other products just raring for Intel's new X-series processors. Gigabyte has since offered some more information about the Aorus Gaming 9, 7, and 3, and the pre-order event will allow you to make sure you have one ready for the debut of Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X CPUs.

Gigabyte said in a press release that the X299 Aorus Gaming 9, 7, and 3 to be available from "many retail stores and online retailers." Those include Amazon and Newegg in the U.S. as well as NCIX, Canada Computers, and Memory Express in Canada. The company told us the promotion varies by retailer:

Purchasing from Newegg, customers will receive a HyperX Cloud Series Headset & $15 CPU bundlePurchasing from Amazon, customers will receive a $50 Steam code voucher.Purchasing from a Canada retailer (NCIX, Canada Computers, Memory Express), customers will receive a $50 CPU Bundle

There's a frustrating and continued lack of MSRPs. Gigabyte didn't share 'em at Computex, and a spokesperson told us that the company can't reveal the prices until Intel's embargo lifts, so it seems we'll have to wait until the event is actually live to learn more about how much these motherboards are going to cost. Unless you know you're going to want an X-series processor and you like the idea of getting a free headset, Steam Card, or CPU discount, you probably won't be able to decide if you want to scoop up one of these boards until June 19.

Not that Gigabyte is the only manufacturer slinging X299 motherboards. Asus revealed seven of its own at Computex, and MSI announced five more. Between these three manufacturers and their many different products, you certainly won't be hurting for options. (And yes, other companies are bound to announce their own offerings, too.) Still, it's probably worth keeping an eye on the pre-order website, which is currently counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until you can finally decide if you're ready to hop on to the X299 bandwagon.

Pre-order shipments will start on June 26.