Gigabyte Preparing X570SI Aorus Pro AX Passively Cooled Mini-ITX Motherboard

[Uskompuf]

Gigabyte has already announced several new X570S motherboards which all feature passive cooling thanks to the upgraded chipset. These motherboards were all on the larger size so it is good to see that Gigabyte is also planning to update their Mini-ITX X570I Aorus Pro Wifi with the new chipset. The X570SI Aorus Pro AX removes the chipset cooling fan found on the old model and increases VRM cooling with a new heatsink. The motherboard will retain all the features of the original including Wifi 6 with the product name change simply for cohesiveness.



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[tabascosauz]

The new board makes more sense than the original X570I Aorus (equivalent VRM to the B550I, smaller BIOS chip, fan on VRM, higher price, older memory topology), since it's clearly got a different VRM. And probably some form of 2.5Gbe Realtek or Intel to replace the original 1Gbe Intel LAN.

X570I Aorus: 6+2 TDA21472
B550I Aorus AX: 6+2 ISL99390
X570SI Aorus: 8+2 ????

But I have to wonder who exactly would want to buy this. The B550 board is one of the best price-performance AM4 ITX boards, and this board does basically nothing extra except for the VRM, which was already good enough for anything. The original X570I was a $50+ CAD markup over the B550I, this X570SI probably even more expensive judging from the design differences.

And the z-height of the M.2 heatsink, yikes. Gigabyte's idiotic solid chunk of metal (not the actual M.2 heatsink that suffocating underneath) on the Z490I Ultra and B550I Aorus AX is literally the first thing to come off the board, as soon as owners realize it hampers thermals / needs to come off to fit their downdraft coolers (e.g. Blackridge). Looks like this one can't/shouldn't even be removed, to give the X570 PCH the heatsink it needs, so why get this over the B550 where you can simply remove the clearance issue with two screws and still not lose any M.2 thermal performance?

 

[HABO]

The new board makes more sense than the original X570I Aorus (equivalent VRM to the B550I, smaller BIOS chip, fan on VRM, higher price, older memory topology), since it's clearly got a different VRM. And probably some form of 2.5Gbe Realtek or Intel to replace the original 1Gbe Intel LAN.

X570I Aorus: 6+2 TDA21472
B550I Aorus AX: 6+2 ISL99390
X570SI Aorus: 8+2 ????

But I have to wonder who exactly would want to buy this. The B550 board is one of the best price-performance AM4 ITX boards, and this board does basically nothing extra except for the VRM, which was already good enough for anything. The original X570I was a $50+ CAD markup over the B550I, this X570SI probably even more expensive judging from the design differences.

And the z-height of the M.2 heatsink, yikes. Gigabyte's idiotic solid chunk of metal (not the actual M.2 heatsink that suffocating underneath) on the Z490I Ultra and B550I Aorus AX is literally the first thing to come off the board, as soon as owners realize it hampers thermals / needs to come off to fit their downdraft coolers (e.g. Blackridge). Looks like this one can't/shouldn't even be removed, to give the X570 PCH the heatsink it needs, so why get this over the B550 where you can simply remove the clearance issue with two screws and still not lose any M.2 thermal performance?

Yeah, I’v got X570I. I had to throw their cooling solution on chipset, because of nvme drive overheating to bluescreens and buy aftermarkt solution with noctua fan. Another problem I had with this board is, that they are not compatible with noctua a12 fans, because of some bug with their inhouse chips on fans which randomly stopped. Solved by aftermarket fan controller… I tried to save some money going this gigabyte small boards but at the end of the day I overpaid on fixes. Just go b550 and if you‘d like to use noctua a12 fans try another brand.

 

[tabascosauz]

Yeah, I’v got X570I. I had to throw their cooling solution on chipset, because of nvme drive overheating to bluescreens and buy aftermarkt solution with noctua fan. Another problem I had with this board is, that they are not compatible with noctua a12 fans, because of some bug with their inhouse chips on fans which randomly stopped. Solved by aftermarket fan controller… I tried to save some money going this gigabyte small boards but at the end of the day I overpaid on fixes. Just go b550 and if you‘d like to use noctua a12 fans try another brand.

You sure you're not just using the Noctua Y-splitter for your A12x25s and accidentally setting to PWM control? I have a lot of F12s and A12x25s and none of them have any problems with either my former B450I Aorus Pro Wifi or my current B550I Aorus AX in my HTPC, either with former 3700X and current 4650G.

When I still had my B450 board I actually contacted Noctua because one of my A12x25s kept stopping and I thought it was faulty, but I realized that it was the Y-splitter - one of the ends is 3-pin but the other is only 2-pin. All you have to do is go back to fan control and set your fans to Voltage control instead of PWM, every fan header has that option.

 

[HABO]

You sure you're not just using the Noctua Y-splitter for your A12x25s and accidentally setting to PWM control? I have a lot of F12s and A12x25s and none of them have any problems with either my former B450I Aorus Pro Wifi or my current B550I Aorus AX in my HTPC, either with former 3700X and current 4650G.

When I still had my B450 board I actually contacted Noctua because one of my A12x25s kept stopping and I thought it was faulty, but I realized that it was the Y-splitter - one of the ends is 3-pin but the other is only 2-pin. All you have to do is go back to fan control and set your fans to Voltage control instead of PWM, every fan header has that option.

Yes, I used Y splitter with PWM. It's correct, this is the way you should configurate that. It works on different boards and also on my corssair fan controller, but no on my gigabyte board. Actually one of the ends is 4 -pin (because of pwm fan), but the other is only 3-pin. It has to be like this, because one of them is RPM measurement. You can't measure 2 fans with one control point, second one is passively controlled by measurements from the first fan. You can use Voltage control but this is retarded fix, this technology is old and is for 3 pin fans. Also in my case, fan motor with this voltage control setting did some weird sound, hence this fix was not acceptable for me.

 

[Valantar]

Wait, is that heatsink level with the rear I/O? There's some real weird perspective going on here. Guess this is for people wanting the B550 but really wanting front USB-C.

You sure you're not just using the Noctua Y-splitter for your A12x25s and accidentally setting to PWM control? I have a lot of F12s and A12x25s and none of them have any problems with either my former B450I Aorus Pro Wifi or my current B550I Aorus AX in my HTPC, either with former 3700X and current 4650G.

When I still had my B450 board I actually contacted Noctua because one of my A12x25s kept stopping and I thought it was faulty, but I realized that it was the Y-splitter - one of the ends is 3-pin but the other is only 2-pin. All you have to do is go back to fan control and set your fans to Voltage control instead of PWM, every fan header has that option.

You can still use Noctua fan splitters with pwm - the pin they cut is the rpm sense, as you can't send two rpm signals to the same port on the motherboard. One fan gets 12V, GND, rpm, PWM, and one gets 12V, GND, and PWM only. Should work perfectly. Unless you got your splitter from a non-PWM fan bundle, and it's a true 3-pin (in which case the second connector would just have two pins)?

 

[tabascosauz]

Yes, I used Y splitter with PWM. It's correct, this is the way you should configurate that. It works on different boards and also on my corssair fan controller, but no on my gigabyte board. Actually one of the ends is 4 -pin (because of pwm fan), but the other is only 3-pin. It has to be like this, because one of them is RPM measurement. You can't measure 2 fans with one control point, second one is passively controlled by measurements from the first fan. You can use Voltage control but this is retarded fix, this technology is old and is for 3 pin fans. Also in my case, fan motor with this voltage control setting did some weird sound, hence this fix was not acceptable for me.

You can still use Noctua fan splitters with pwm - the pin they cut is the rpm sense, as you can't send two rpm signals to the same port on the motherboard. One fan gets 12V, GND, rpm, PWM, and one gets 12V, GND, and PWM only. Should work perfectly. Unless you got your splitter from a non-PWM fan bundle, and it's a true 3-pin (in which case the second connector would just have two pins)?

Interesting. I suppose that's correct after all that there's something fishy going on - in my main, I think the 2 x A14s in my Cerberus are left on PWM mode by default, on my Asus B550M-TUF, with the Noctua splitter never having an issue with one of them not spinning.

I have never gotten any pair out of my NF-F12s, NF-A12x25s and NF-A8s to work properly with the splitter on PWM, on my Gigabyte B450 and B550 boards. Lots of different combinations, not one worked consistently (sometimes you have to run it for two or three days and all of a sudden find that your GPU is running hot because one fan isn't spinning at all/intermittently). Fix has always been to run it on voltage, works like a charm every time.

I wouldn't call voltage a "retarded fix" though......yes it is "primitive" by comparison but in 2 years I have literally never noticed a negative impact on granularity of control, performance or noise with voltage control on any fans, on any modern board. Because Gigabyte lacks the step-up and step-down control of Asus, a custom flatter fan curve is pretty much mandatory for Ryzens.

However, interestingly enough, any splitter connected to the CPU header on either B450 or B550 board has never had a problem, although the only fans connected to that header have been my NF-A9x14s and NF-A9s.

 

[Lnxepique]

Yeah, I’v got X570I. I had to throw their cooling solution on chipset, because of nvme drive overheating to bluescreens and buy aftermarkt solution with noctua fan. Another problem I had with this board is, that they are not compatible with noctua a12 fans, because of some bug with their inhouse chips on fans which randomly stopped. Solved by aftermarket fan controller… I tried to save some money going this gigabyte small boards but at the end of the day I overpaid on fixes. Just go b550 and if you‘d like to use noctua a12 fans try another brand.

Same problem here, I have tried everything. I have the Z490 Intel version.

Replaced with Toughfan 12s an not looking back. They are even significantly quieter than the Noctuas in direct proximity of the NR200 bottom fan filter.

 

[pcminirace]

When I commented last week why they did not release a mini ITX board with a silent X570 chipset, they answered me that it was difficult for them to do so. Now you go and tell it. I'm glad I have the option to buy it.