Gigabyte X670 AORUS Elite AX

[ir_cow]

Gigabyte readies the budget-friendly AORUS Elite AX built upon the X670 chipset. Offering a robust 16+2+2 VRM configuration, DDR5 support, PCIe Gen 4 and four M.2 Gen 4 sockets, Gigabyte knows not everyone has a lot to spend. Does this X670 offering perform, or is it a flop? Follow along as we find out!

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[Chrispy_]

If it doesn't have Gen5 PCIe, why is it so much more expensive than the X570 Aorus Elite? It's $90-110 more that the launch price of the older platform, and that board has more features, RGBLED, better audio etc.

I agree with your conclusion though - why buy X670 non-E? If you don't need PCIe 5.0 you're clearly not after the PCIe bandwidth and can almost certainly make do with the cheaper B650 boards instead.

 

[P4-630]

Few days ago I tried GIGABYTE Control Center for controlling my fans, well it froze everytime when I wanted to change the fan from the drop-down menu, the app closed and needed to reinstall and then froze again and closed and so on....I gave up , finally I got fan profiles made in BIOS now.

 

[csendesmark]

Why there isn't one X670 mainboard with PCIe 8× for second PCIe slot.
Yet to find one...

If it doesn't have Gen5 PCIe, why is it so much more expensive than the X570 Aorus Elite? It's $90-110 more that the launch price of the older platform, and that board has more features, RGBLED, better audio etc.

I agree with your conclusion though - why buy X670 non-E? If you don't need PCIe 5.0 you're clearly not after the PCIe bandwidth and can almost certainly make do with the cheaper B650 boards instead.

It is mostly because the LGA socket, which should make the CPUs somewhat cheaper... right AMD?

 

[sethmatrix7]

Few days ago I tried GIGABYTE Control Center for controlling my fans, well it froze everytime when I wanted to change the fan from the drop-down menu, the app closed and needed to reinstall and then froze again and closed and so on....I gave up , finally I got fan profiles made in BIOS now.

Works for me on B650 Aorus Elite AX. How odd

Wouldn't say you're missing much

 

[ir_cow]

Few days ago I tried GIGABYTE Control Center for controlling my fans, well it froze everytime when I wanted to change the fan from the drop-down menu, the app closed and needed to reinstall and then froze again and closed and so on....I gave up , finally I got fan profiles made in BIOS now.

Interesting. I haven't experienced any problems. No freezing or unresponsiveness. The older Gigabyte APP did that to me though... I have a Gigabyte Z490 that will restart if I open GB RGB Fusion lol. Its the wifes computer, so I just leave it alone and uninstalled it. Haven't tried the new Control Center on it yet.

Why there isn't one X670 mainboard with PCIe 8× for second PCIe slot.
Yet to find one...

MSI is calling your name MSI PRO PRO X670-P WIFI

 

[R-T-B]

If it doesn't have Gen5 PCIe, why is it so much more expensive than the X570 Aorus Elite? It's $90-110 more that the launch price of the older platform, and that board has more features, RGBLED, better audio etc.

I agree with your conclusion though - why buy X670 non-E? If you don't need PCIe 5.0 you're clearly not after the PCIe bandwidth and can almost certainly make do with the cheaper B650 boards instead.

In my case it's because I have precisely zero periphreals that can use pcie 5.0 and wanted an ATX sized board.

I've been using this board for a month or two btw and been generally happy with it. Good review.

 

[Chaitanya]

What with the trend of hiding CMOS battery under heatsinks or using those laptop style connectors for batteries? Another Gigabyte board where CMOS battery is under chipset heatsink.

 

[R-T-B]

What with the trend of hiding CMOS battery under heatsinks or using those laptop style connectors for batteries? Another Gigabyte board where CMOS battery is under chipset heatsink.

It isn't my favorite either but I view it as a minor issue overall. Still annoying when it could easily be avoided though, yeah.

 

[Chrispy_]

In my case it's because I have precisely zero periphreals that can use pcie 5.0 and wanted an ATX sized board.

I've been using this board for a month or two btw and been generally happy with it. Good review.

I don't understand how wanting an ATX sized board is reason to buy X670 over B650, since there's a huge number of decent B650 ATX boards.

Lack of availability at the time of purchase would make sense, as would wanting addition USB 20Gb/s ports. Form factor makes no sense.

 

[R-T-B]

I don't understand how wanting an ATX sized board is reason to buy X670 over B650, since there's a huge number of decent B650 ATX boards.

Well yeah, I wanted the additional IO as well (form factor on its own would be silly yeah). Mainly 4x m.2 is nice and the one pcie m.2 at gen 5 is future proofed enough for me.

Also, I actually use a few pcie cards and again, none of them benefit from pcie 5, but they do need lanes. Mainly a 10 gigabit intel lan card that runs at x4 gen 2, lol.

It's a niche board but it fit my niche well.

 

[ir_cow]

Also, I actually use a few pcie cards and again, none of them benefit from pcie 5, but they do need lanes. Mainly a 10 gigabit intel lan card that runs at x4 gen 2, lol.

Oh nice! I haven't had luck with things running at x2. just defaults to x1. Not just this motherboard either.

 

[Chaitanya]

It isn't my favorite either but I view it as a minor issue overall. Still annoying when it could easily be avoided though, yeah.

For us who are used to building PCs it sure is a minor issue but for many users having to remove motherboard from case and chipset heatsink plus repasting the chipset just in order to replace CMOS battery is a major hassle. Also for boards which use prewired CMOS batteries, sourcing them is a pain compared to CR2032 cells which are available at all hardware stores locally.

 

[ir_cow]

@Chaitanya you shouldn't have to remove the battery for like 10 years. Most motherboards have a clear CMOS jumper. This one has a button instead. No need to take it apart.

 

[btarunr]

ALC897 audio codec on an X670 chipset motherboard is just sad. Anything short of ALC1200 is sad.

 

[Blaazen]

ALC897 audio codec on an X670 chipset motherboard is just sad. Anything short of ALC1200 is sad.

If you need hi-fi you must buy external DAC anyway. Motherboard is crossroad of EMI and even if manufacturers do their best the same chip will always work better in external metal case than on the mainboard. Aorus Master B650E has ESS chip which is IMO wasting.

 

[Chaitanya]

@Chaitanya you shouldn't have to remove the battery for like 10 years. Most motherboards have a clear CMOS jumper. This one has a button instead. No need to take it apart.

Battery on my X570 board died under 3 years and even on previous boards it was around 2.5-3 years before needing battery swap(granted I switch off mains when I shut down my PC).

 

[ir_cow]

@Chaitanya unlucky? I still have a Z87 with the original battery. Had a even older X79 motherboard that was fine when I gave it away last year.

 

[R-T-B]

Oh nice! I haven't had luck with things running at x2. just defaults to x1. Not just this motherboard either.

Gen 2 x4. So 4 lanes, just Gen 2, using the middle slot. Old enterprise grade lan card, an Intel X540-T1.

Interestingly the boards bios suggests in several places that the CPU attached x16 slot can be forced to gen 5, but lacking any gen5 hardware, I have yet to try this.

@Chaitanya you shouldn't have to remove the battery for like 10 years. Most motherboards have a clear CMOS jumper. This one has a button instead. No need to take it apart.

If he's cutting power to his PC as he says that'll be massively accelerated.

@ir_cow slight typo on the claimed board chipset in the specsheet of this review (it's not an "e" variant).

 

[Pumper]

I don't get the hubbub about the onboard audio. Do any of you really hear the sound quality difference, or is it just about the chip number snobbery?

I got myself the B550 Gaming Plus with ALC892/ALC897 because my old Z87 Gryphon had the same audio and I never thought to myself: "damn, that audio quality is trash, I should really get a mobo with a better chip next time".

 

[Chaitanya]

Gen 2 x4. So 4 lanes, just Gen 2, using the middle slot. Old enterprise grade lan card, an Intel X540-T1.

Interestingly the boards bios suggests in several places that the CPU attached x16 slot can be forced to gen 5, but lacking any gen5 hardware, I have yet to try this.


If he's cutting power to his PC as he says that'll be massively accelerated.

@ir_cow slight typo on the claimed board chipset in the specsheet of this review (it's not an "e" variant).

@Chaitanya unlucky? I still have a Z87 with the original battery. Had a even older X79 motherboard that was fine when I gave it away last year.

My local electric company is quite notorious for unstable electric supply, its just out of precaution I turn off the main switch and not leave my PC(and other appliances) in standby state(in past even had a UPS failure due to frequent brownouts).

 

[R-T-B]

My local electric company is quite notorious for unstable electric supply, its just out of precaution I turn off the main switch and not leave my PC(and other appliances) in standby state(in past even had a UPS failure due to frequent brownouts).

That's a legit reason. Still, it will drain the cell faster... not that that should be a big deal, as we already discussed. Sadly design trends are what they are.

 

[codex5600x]

I use Asrock x670e pro rs and I have no issues with ddr5 6400

 

[R-T-B]

I use Asrock x670e pro rs and I have no issues with ddr5 6400

With what soc voltage and how many ranks though? This review is playing it fairly reasonably safe with voltages.

 

[lemoncarbonate]

So this board is more expensive than my Gigabyte AX370 Gaming 5 brand new in 2017, but has much worse audio and less feature.