Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice overview: An excellent white motherboard

If you wish to construct a clear white PC you then’ll want a motherboard that matches your shade scheme too, and the Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice is considered one of a number of boards primarily based on the X870 chipset to take action. It appears to be like incredible, however because it makes use of the X870 chipset versus the dearer X870E chipset, you continue to get premium options corresponding to USB 4, Wi-Fi 7 and PCIe 5.0 M.2 and PCIe slots, however with out the $500 price ticket.

After all, in the event you’re simply in search of one of the best gaming motherboard and need to pair it with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, there are many different choices, with people who use the older B650 chipset saving you much more cash. Nonetheless, Gigabyte is aiming this board at those that need cutting-edge options that may stand the take a look at of time, corresponding to Wi-Fi 7 and USB 4, along with its snazzy design. What’s extra, this motherboard has bigger heatsinks than many B650 and X670 boards, that means you’ll be able to add a PCIe 5.0 SSD with out it getting too toasty.

Retailing for $290, the Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice is without doubt one of the extra inexpensive motherboards to have been launched since AMD’s Zen 5 Ryzen 9000 CPUs hit the cabinets just a few months in the past.

Whereas all Socket AM5 motherboards assist Ryzen 7000 and 9000 CPUs, the brand new 800-series motherboards are designed with PCIe 5.0 SSDs and graphics playing cards in thoughts and embody a variety of improved tool-free options too. Gigabyte has additionally up to date its EFI and software program to make them extra user-friendly, so we count on the Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice to be straightforward to put in and arrange, and never only a fairly face.

Specs

Options

You would possibly suppose all of Gigabyte’s funds for this motherboard has gone into the colour scheme, however fortunately you’d be fallacious. All 4 of the M.2 ports are tool-free and straightforward to take away and reinstall when you’ve added your SSDs. In reality, it’s somewhat simpler to cope with Gigabyte’s heatsinks than these of different producers we’ve seen lately too. Nonetheless, solely the highest port above your graphics card is cooled above and under the drive, with the opposite three ports missing the decrease thermal pads you usually see on dearer motherboards.

As a result of tightly-packed nature of the PCB and fully inaccessible graphics card locking latch, Gigabyte additionally features a PCIe EZ-Latch Plus button on your graphics card. This opens the locking latch on the strengthened slot and is positioned subsequent to the reminiscence slots. This isn’t simply crucial but additionally makes eradicating your graphics card a lot simpler than regular on the whole. Gigabyte has improved the Wi-Fi aerial ports too, with a single connector now catering for each sections of the antenna, saving you some useless fiddling.

The headline options for X870 chipsets are wider assist for USB 4.0. in addition to PCIe 5.0 on each the first PCIe 16x slot and not less than one M.2 port. In reality, this board has three PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 ports, but it surely’s value noting that the decrease two PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 ports will steal PCIe lanes out of your graphics card, so we advise solely utilizing the primary slot, whereas slot two can be obtainable, however restricted to PCIe 4.0 speeds. Nonetheless, two M.2 SSDs are more likely to be sufficient for many of us.

You additionally get Wi-Fi 7, which is an improve on what you see on 600-series chipset boards, however the 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port isn’t any quicker than we’ve seen for the previous few generations. The audio, in the meantime, comes from Realtek’s ALC1220 codec, which once more isn’t an improve on what you’d see on X670 boards, however is normally stable when it comes to audio high quality.

There are many helpful options for tweaking and cooling too. There are onboard energy and reset buttons, an LED POST code show, and a BIOS Flashback button on the I/O panel too. Along with eight 4-pin fan headers, there are two thermal probe inputs as properly, which you’ll assign as fan pace inputs.

There aren’t as many USB-C on the I/O panel as you’ll find on a few of the competitors, however each Sort-C ports are USB 4.0 and there’s a large tally of ten USB-A ports as properly, with a mix of USB 2.0, 3.2 Gen 1 and three.2 Gen 2 ports. In the meantime, the entrance panel USB-C header is your commonplace USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port (20Gbps), however subsequent to it’s an HDMI port. That is along with the one on the rear I/O panel and helps third-party 1080p 30Hz case screens that can be utilized to show animations or system data graphics inside your system.

Gigabyte has additionally utilized the white theme to its up to date BIOS, which is a pleasant contact, and the BIOS itself appears to be like loads cleaner than earlier Gigabyte layouts. Likewise, Gigabyte’s motherboard management software program has been simplified, and is now principally restricted to RGB lighting and fan management, with the latter providing glorious management over your PC’s cooling.

Design

After all, the engaging shade scheme is the principle purpose you’d purchase the Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice. It sports activities a mix of very gentle grey and white, and even the PCB joins the occasion, which is a uncommon transfer. Should you’re planning to construct a white-themed PC, you then’ll love the eye to element right here, as the colour even extends to the fan headers, AMD socket cooler mounts, LED POST code show, and built-in I/O panel defend.

The format can be principally glorious, particularly because of the PCIe EZ-Latch Plus button on your graphics card we talked about earlier – it might be extraordinarily tough to take away your graphics card with out this function. Gigabyte has in any other case positioned key ports and connectors on the fringe of the PCB to assist cable tidying, however we do have one criticism, which is the situation of six of the eight 4-pin fan headers.

These are all positioned on the underside of the PCB, that means that powering the roof or rear followers from a supply apart from the CPU headers might have extension cables. Fortunately there are each 4-pin and 3-pin RGB headers on the high of the board, with an additional two 3-pin RGB headers on the base.

Benchmarks

The Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice recorded Cinebench R24 scores of two,344 factors within the multi-core take a look at and 139 factors within the single-core take a look at, that are proper on the cash. Additionally, in our Complete Warfare: Warhammer 3 sport take a look at at 1080p, it managed a 1% low of 159fps and 209fps common utilizing an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Tremendous graphics card.

The audio efficiency in Rightmark Audio Analyzer was first rate too, as anticipated for a Realtek ALC1220 codec, with 102dBA dynamic vary and -102dBA noise degree measurements, each of that are first rate outcomes. We’ve seen greater, however that is higher than you’d see from a funds board with an older ALC892 codec, for instance. In the meantime, the highest M.2 slot dealt with our PCIe 5.0 SSD properly, with a peak temperature of 61°C in our stress take a look at, which is simply in addition to that is the one slot that helps PCIe 5.0 SSDs and doesn’t steal lanes from the graphics slot.

Likewise, the voltage regulator module (VRM) temperatures sat at an inexpensive 55°C in each the software program and utilizing our thermal probe, whereas dealing with our Ryzen 9 9950X take a look at CPU. Lastly, the whole system peak energy consumption was 361W from the wall, which is consistent with different Socket AM5 boards I’ve examined.

Worth

The Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice value is $289, which represents good worth in comparison with the competitors and its predecessors, primarily because of Gigabyte’s obsession with creating a very icy white motherboard. It provides added options over B650 fashions and, to a lesser extent, over X670 boards as properly.

Clearly, in the event you’re on a good funds, saving $100 or so is the way in which to go together with a B650 motherboard. Nonetheless, in the event you’re seeking to construct the white PC of your goals, with a motherboard that has your again when it comes to options and growth, however nonetheless leaves you with change from $300, then the Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice provides a good worth for the worth.

Verdict

The largest drawback motherboard producers face when getting lovers to purchase X870 motherboards is that X670 and B650-based choices typically supply similar efficiency with the most recent AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs. It’s solely extra options and aesthetic tweaks that warrant spending extra, however at $290, that is nonetheless a well-priced motherboard, even in comparison with the older B650 mannequin of this board.

With the Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice you get a motherboard that adheres much more extensively to its white shade scheme, has improved tool-free options, and contains Wi-Fi 7 in addition to USB 4.0 Sort-C ports, all of which add a contact of future-proofing to the equation too.

There are cheaper choices with regards to white X870 motherboards, however Gigabyte has nailed the eye to element in making certain virtually each element on the PCB is both white, or near it.

Mixed with first rate cooling for one of the best gaming SSDs and the VRMs, full PCIe 5.0 assist, loads of scope for controlling an intensive air or water-cooling system, in addition to Wi-Fi 7, USB 4.0 plus first rate BIOS and software program, in the event you want a white motherboard on your AMD Ryzen 7000 or 9000 CPU, then we will completely advocate the Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice.

Should you’re seeking to improve to one of many newest AMD CPUs with this board, then take a look at our Ryzen 7 9800X3D overview, the place we take the present greatest gaming CPU for a spin in our benchmark suite.