Monday, November 11th 2024
Gigabyte Launches its first Mini-ITX X870 Motherboard, the X870I Aorus Pro Ice
When the initial batch of AMD X870/E motherboards were announced, there were no signs of Mini-ITX motherboards, but now Gigabyte has launched its first X870 Mini-ITX board and it's a bit of a hit and miss in our opinion. The X870I Aorus Pro Ice comes in white, as per the Ice moniker that Gigabyte likes to use for its white products and this might really appeal to some and put others off. Feature wise, we're looking at a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot—as per most Mini-ITX boards—two NVMe M.2 slots, one PCIe 5.0 and one PCIe 4.0, but for some reason, Gigabyte decided that a single USB4 port was enough.
What makes the single USB4 port decision even worse is the fact that the board only has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps USB Type-C port and the front panel header is also limited to 10 Gbps. On a brand new board, this is really quite disappointing, but the Pro SKUs are usually feature limited models from Gigabyte. The rest of the ports around the back consists of an HDMI 2.1 port, although it too is limited to 4K 60 Hz output, which again is disappointing—the USB4 port is capable of 4K at 240 Hzvia DP Alt mode—two USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps USB Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a 2.5 Gbps RJ45 Ethernet jack, a WiFi antenna connector for the onboard RTL8922AE WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 module and a pair of 3.5 mm audio jacks mounted on a separate PCB. There's also a BIOS flashing button around the back.
Admittedly Mini-ITX boards have limited space, but this feels sub-par for the category. Internally there's also a USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 Gbps USB header, two SATA 6 Gbps ports and for some reason, Gigabyte decided to add their PCIe EZ-Latch Plus quick release button to this board, a feature that doesn't quite make sense. Also note the really odd location of the fron audio header, which appears to connect via a wire to the actual header on the motherboard.The board sports a 8-2-1 VRM design and we're looking at a 110 A setup for the vCore. The board does at least have debug LEDs to help troubleshoot basic issues. Overall, we're not blown away by Gigabyte's first Mini-ITX X870 board and we hope the company has something better coming down the road, especially as they want US$300 for this rather basic motherboard.
Source:
Gigabyte
What makes the single USB4 port decision even worse is the fact that the board only has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps USB Type-C port and the front panel header is also limited to 10 Gbps. On a brand new board, this is really quite disappointing, but the Pro SKUs are usually feature limited models from Gigabyte. The rest of the ports around the back consists of an HDMI 2.1 port, although it too is limited to 4K 60 Hz output, which again is disappointing—the USB4 port is capable of 4K at 240 Hzvia DP Alt mode—two USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps USB Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a 2.5 Gbps RJ45 Ethernet jack, a WiFi antenna connector for the onboard RTL8922AE WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 module and a pair of 3.5 mm audio jacks mounted on a separate PCB. There's also a BIOS flashing button around the back.
38 Comments on Gigabyte Launches its first Mini-ITX X870 Motherboard, the X870I Aorus Pro Ice
Any now with AM5 only 2 out of 9 have 4 ports in germany, the other 7 only have 2. And both with 4 are without PCIe 5.0.
There are also no µATX boards with PCIe 5.0 on the german market.
And 5 of the 16 X870 ATX!! boards on the german market also only have 2 Sata ports.
Imaging paying 300-500$ and only having 2 sata ports, while a <80$ boards from 4 years ago already had 4.
Also, the motherboard form factor is Mini-ITX, ITX measures 215 x 191 mm and I don't think it's used any more, unless you get some custom boards in the German market.
Chemicals - there lots of agressive chemicals around
poor design at the limit without reason. (although i still read the same bullshit with 8 layer pcb and other nonsense ... which hardly aids anything)
The wrong components choice. There are more durable parts and not. E.g. check power supply units for the temperature rating of certain parts.
Prebuilds with bad, bad mainboards(looking at hp microtower pcs)
ASUS as a brand - yet again i saw by chance gamers nexus video - where it seems again asus does have a faulty uefi - which caused wrong behaviour of the test suite. Or broken processors because of asus optimised settings (i hope you get my point - it's about mainboard which enforce bad settings - e.g. that x3d chip asus killed without knowing what they did) Asus seems to manufacture a lot of garbage in regards of firmware and settings. I wish people would share more how good or bad their mainboards are. Where the common faults are. (the point about gamers nexus - for some reason core parking does not work with windows + asus mainboard + swapped processor = wrong results for 9950x3d gaming benchmarks)
-- Some silicion get quite hot over many years and do not die. Temperature is only bad when the parts were badly chosen.
Like who made powerstages, which dr.mos is being used.
Which USB port connects to which root hub. Does it have extra usb-hubs?
and etc.
anyway, I am to scared to buy new motherboards today, without checking live reviews, because what if it makes high pitched vrm noises.agree, 2 is more than enough for ITX. If u want to make a weird build with 8 satas, u can add extra sata controller on the back side of the motherboard via secondary m.2motherboards with a cheap discrete VRM suffers from heat.
While expensive ITX uses some fancy dr.mos stuff.
That, or release max/halo mobile chips on desktop too, so we can have 4070m tier onboard graphics. Then I can bifurcate the x16 slot for more m.2 drives.I'd use the SATA ports on my machine if SATA SSDs were significantly cheaper. But they are the same price as m.2 drives so I opted for m.2 drives instead, and I'm running out of ports.
Sadly, the *ONLY* Micro ATX / AM5 / PCIe 5.0 / 2 x NVMe-M.2 Gen5x4 I found is
rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-crosshair-x670e-gene-model/spec/
ROG CROSSHAIR X670E GENE
- mATX
- 16 + 2 phases d’alimentation (110 A)
- DDR5
- Compatible PCIe 5.0
- AI Overclocking, Dynamic OC Switcher, Core Flex et Horloge asynchrone
- 2 x PCIe 5.0 M.2
- 2 x ports USB4®
- AI Cooling II
(it requires a proprietary extension card to hold the 2nd NVMe-M.2 Gen5x4)1 x PCIe 4.0 M.2
1 x connecteur sur panneau avant USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 avec Quick Charge 4+
it seems most motherboard manufacturers do *NOT* bother offering a very simple & efficient Micro ATX (my segment) design focusing on the critical components : CPU <-> RAM <-> GPU <-> SSD 2 x NVMe-M.2 Gen5x4
I just check AMD CPU(s) database, all AM5-PCIe 5.0 cpu(s) (9000 & 7000 series) supports 24 usable PCIe 5.0 lanes allowing direct connection to GPU (PCIe x16) + 2 x SSD NVMe-M.2 Gen5x4.
I will keep looking.
Hope this helps.
Would go nice with a Lian Li DAN Cases A3-mATX Wood Edition..., but no, no µATX PCie 5.0 in my country...