Friday, August 30th 2024
GIGABYTE Intros X870 AORUS Elite WIFI7 Motherboard
GIGABYTE just released its second AMD 800-series chipset motherboard following last week's debut of the X870E AORUS Master, the more affordable X870 AORUS Elite WIFI7. This board is based on the slightly more affordable AMD X870 (non-E) chipset, which offers connectivity nearly identical to that of the previous-generation AMD B650E, but with the addition of USB4. The board is built in the ATX form-factor, and features a 6-layer PCB. It draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS power connectors. The CPU VRM solution consists of a 16+2+2 phase setup, with the vCore side of it being 8-phase with phase doubling. The Socket AM5 is wired to four DDR5 DIMM slots for up to 256 GB of memory.
Expansion slots include a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 wired to the CPU, a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 (electrical Gen 4 x4), and a third PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical Gen 3 x2). The main Gen 5 x16 PEG slot gets a quick-release lever. You press a button, and it ejects the graphics card. Storage connectivity includes three M.2 Gen 5 x4 slots, two of these are wired to the CPU's dedicated Gen 5 x4 NVMe lanes, while the third slot subtracts 8 lanes from the Gen 5 x16 PEG slot. There is a fourth M.2 slot, which is Gen 4 x4, and wired to the X870 FCH. All four slots get heatsinks. Four SATA 6 Gbps ports make for the rest of the storage connectivity.
Networking options, as the name of this board suggests, includes a Wi-Fi 7 WLAN card that's either a MediaTek MT7925, or a Realtek RTL8922AE, depending on the PCB revision. Besides Wi-Fi 7, both WLAN solutions put out Bluetooth 5.4. The wired networking side of things see a 2.5 GbE interface driven by a Realtek controller. USB connectivity includes two 40 Gbps USB4 ports that each include DisplayPort passthrough, a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 via a header, two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-A, four 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1, and two additional 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports by header.
The onboard audio solution features a premium Realtek ALC1220 HD audio CODEC with 120 dB SNR, with ground-layer isolation, and audio-grade capacitors. There are no additional AMPs over the CODEC, but GIGABYTE tuned the solution to automatically support high-impedance headphones. There are many DIY-friendly features on offer, including a POST code read-out, LEDs that indicate a point of failure, SMD power and reset buttons, USB BIOS Flashback, PCIe x16 ejection mechanism, a quick-connect Wi-Fi antenna module, a tool-free M.2 SSD mounting mechanism, and three addressable RGB 2.0 headers. The company didn't reveal pricing.
Expansion slots include a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 wired to the CPU, a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 (electrical Gen 4 x4), and a third PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical Gen 3 x2). The main Gen 5 x16 PEG slot gets a quick-release lever. You press a button, and it ejects the graphics card. Storage connectivity includes three M.2 Gen 5 x4 slots, two of these are wired to the CPU's dedicated Gen 5 x4 NVMe lanes, while the third slot subtracts 8 lanes from the Gen 5 x16 PEG slot. There is a fourth M.2 slot, which is Gen 4 x4, and wired to the X870 FCH. All four slots get heatsinks. Four SATA 6 Gbps ports make for the rest of the storage connectivity.
The onboard audio solution features a premium Realtek ALC1220 HD audio CODEC with 120 dB SNR, with ground-layer isolation, and audio-grade capacitors. There are no additional AMPs over the CODEC, but GIGABYTE tuned the solution to automatically support high-impedance headphones. There are many DIY-friendly features on offer, including a POST code read-out, LEDs that indicate a point of failure, SMD power and reset buttons, USB BIOS Flashback, PCIe x16 ejection mechanism, a quick-connect Wi-Fi antenna module, a tool-free M.2 SSD mounting mechanism, and three addressable RGB 2.0 headers. The company didn't reveal pricing.
50 Comments on GIGABYTE Intros X870 AORUS Elite WIFI7 Motherboard
For example:
- GIGABYTE GC-MAPLE RIDGE, PCIe 3.0 x4: requires 2x PCIe 6-pin, delivers 97W
- ASUS ThunderboltEX 4, PCIe 3.0 x4: requires 1x PCIe 6-pin, delivers 100W
- ASRock Thunderbolt 4 AIC, PCIe 3.0 x4: no extra power connector, delivers only 27W
- Razer Core X (enclosure for eGPU): got its own PSU, delivers 100W -> I got one, and I charge/power my laptop with it
There are other Thunderbolt enclosures that require power delivery over 15W, mostly from OWC and Sonnet for the macOS market.
Funnily enough, there is also this:
ASUS USB4 PCIe Gen4 Card, PCIe 4.0 x4: requires 1x PCIe 6-pin, delivers 60W via USB-CIt's probably mandated by AMD, because all Gigabyte and Asus boards that use the ASM4242 do it that way so far.
Massive CPU air coolers that practically contact the GPU backplate, and Massive GPUs that completely obscure access to the clip are recent additions to mainstream PCs probably the last 5-ish years or so. Previously such humungous things were the realm of factory-OC'ed flagships that few people really purchased.
Right now depending on how bad I really want that 9950x I have to decide to put my GPU in the x4 (which could be fine but really problematic if in the bottom slot) and dual Optane in x16 (and waste x8 of premium PCI 5.0 lanes that could have been really useful for other things :banghead: ). With that config I could go down to a cheaper $150 motherboard and drown in excessive USB2 ports. Alternately I could pay about $400 for a motherboard that does x8/x8 but at that price I might as well consider workstation/server motherboards with the same limitations. Right now it seems no AM5 motherboard outflanks my X570 in terms of expansion slot configuration. I'm really annoyed how limited I am trying to carry my configuration to AM5 so much so I'm deadlocked in my decision to move to AM5.
I don't know which contry you live in, but it seems like both Threadripper and Xeon W motherboards can be found for ~$500 in the US. I think the prices have come down a bit in Europe too (at least it has where I live).
While I haven't owned/used Threadrippers, I suspect they have the same benefits Intel's workstation parts have vs. their mainstream contemporaries; obviously memory bandwidth and IO, but also performance consistency, which is very underappreciated.
Getting something like a Ryzen 9 9950X (like so many enthusiasts do, and upgrade all the time), which is so IO and memory constrained, would be much more wasteful than getting a "proper" system and sticking with it.Well, if you're still considering "upgrading" to a Zen 2 og Zen 3 Threadripper, you clearly aren't after cutting-edge CPU performance. Then I'll give you a tip; add price notifications on relevant parts, even high-end workstation parts do on occasion get significant discounts, especially when the new stuff arrives. (E.g., it's not that long ago I saw Ice Lake CPUs and motherboards with a >>30% discount in a store…)But very low clock speeds though, for a workstation?
If so, you should consider Xeon W, you know they start at $359, right? Sure, the lower four models have limited availability due to being "OEM only". Try to find a store which sells "OEM" parts, if not buy one used. $400-500 for the CPU, and $500 for the motherboard (new), and you're rolling. ;)
Only the ASUS ProArt boards are somewhat OK.
4 PCIe slots fed from chipset, which are 10 lanes between them, no sharing with any of them, 2 M.2 on the chipset, one removes a single SATA port, not the end of the world, and 8 SATA port in total on the board anyway so still 7 if using all the M.2.
Is it that X870 sucks in lane availability or the board manufacturers not doing a good job?
So four of the CPU PCIe 5.0 lanes are now used to connect the ASM4242 USB4 host controller, which leaves only four lanes for an M.2 slot.
Four of the chipset PCIe lanes are shared between the PCIe x4 slot and one M.2 slot.
All the PCIe 3.0 lanes are used up, but that still leaves four unused PCIe 4.0 lanes... I don't understand why Gigabyte made that design choice, as there's no need to share the x4 slot with the fourth M.2 slot...
www.techpowerup.com/295394/amd-zen-4-socket-am5-explained-pcie-lanes-chipsets-connectivityIt seems like Gigabyte made a really weird design choice with this board as pointed out above, but yes, X870 is also PCIe lane starved as it is.
Really this is a hole they dug themselves, because there was never any reason or need to create a chipset given that everything is just PCIe lanes and their server parts prove this by all being SOCs anyway. What AMD should've done is:
* launch Zen 4 consumer CPUs with an IOD capable of 52 lanes, but with 16 fused off for a total of 36 available
* launch "X670"/"B650" as boards that wire out up to a certain number of the available CPU lanes, not a physical chipset - i.e. boards can only call themselves X670E if they wire out all 36 lanes with a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and 5.0 M.2 slot; X670 = 32 lanes with PCIe 5.0 x16 + M.2 5.0; B650E = 36 lanes but all PCIe 4.0; B650 = 32 lanes of PCIe 4.0. In other words, the (wired lane count * PCIe 4.0 matrix) becomes the virtual chipset for marketing purposes.
* launch Zen 5 CPUs with the exact same IOD but 8 further lanes enabled, for a total of 44 maximum. That way you can add ASM4242 and still have an extra 4 lanes on "X870" and friends.
* launch Zen 6 CPUs with the exact same IOD but all lanes enabled, and use those 8 extra over the previous generation to make the Zen 6 boards compelling
This way you still get consumer market segmentation and incentive to upgrade both CPU and board, but you haven't shot yourself in the foot regarding future expansion. Plus the boards would be quicker to market because of no need to wait for a chipset that literally does nothing, and they would be cheaper because, again, no chipset.
Another bonus is this would encourage competition via a proliferation of USB (and to a much lesser extent SATA) chipsets from various vendors. Instead of every board manufacturer being forced to use ASMedia's Prom21 and ASMedia's ASM4242, now they can add SATA, USB3 and USB4 from whoever the fuck will sell it to them. If you want to keep BOM down, add something cheep and cheerful from VIA. If you want high-end, add Thunderbolt 4 from Intel. The number of permutations are endless and would give further flexibility to board vendors to come up with innovative approaches, not just MOAR RGB.