Board Layout

With so many M.2 ports on the PCB these days the PCIe slots do end up struggling for space, but this is no different to other boards we've seen recently. In fact, the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master has a very similar layout to the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WIFI, with two lower slots sandwiched together and not allowing for expansion cards that are more than one slot thick. It's a packed PCB, but Gigabyte has made good use of the space to include extensive heatsinks for the power circuitry and M.2 SSDs. The upper M.2 slot heatsink is particularly large so it will be interesting to see how it fares in the M.2 cooling graphs later on.


The tool-free features of the heatsinks go up against a variety of elaborate implementations from the competition, but we can honestly say Gigabyte has nailed it here and for a few reasons. Firstly, the heatsink release and lock mechanism—EZ-Latch—is simple and easy to use with a locking latch on one end that needs minimal input to secure or release the heatsink. More importantly, the end of the heatsink leaves the securing mounts exposed so you can more easily line them up with the heatsink. This can be a real issue on other motherboards as aligning the small pins with the notches in the heatsink without them being visible can be tricky.


Finally, to further aid the alignment of the heatsinks, Gigabyte includes magnets in the heatsink and on the PCB to forcefully align the larger lower heatsink for you. The heatsink still includes flanges on the end, though, to provide pressure onto the M.2 SSDs and doesn't rely only on the magnets to do this, they're just there to align the heatsink. The so-called M.2 EZ-Match is easily the simplest large M.2 heatsink we've seen from the four main manufacturers so far and can be removed or installed in just seconds with a minimum of fuss. Well done Gigabyte.



All the M.2 ports are cooled above and below with thermal pads. Gigabyte claims more pads are included in the box to cater for single-sided SSDs that may not otherwise make good contact with the lower pads. Sadly our review sample didn't include them. We've reached out to Gigabyte and this appears to be an issue with review samples and retail models will include the additional pads. Sadly we had to test without the pads as a result.


The quick release mechanism for graphics cards is great too, using a push-button to release the graphics card, which simply locks into place as usual. You might question the cost of including this tool, but when you look at the minimal clearance around the primary x16 slot due to the massive M.2 heatsinks, you can see why manufacturers are including remove graphics card release mechanisms on modern boards.


Next to the usual Type-C header, there's an HDMI port that's designed with case screens in mind. However, while this is welcome, a lot of screens out there use resolutions higher than this port's limitation of 1920x1080 at 30 Hz. HYTE's touch cases, for example, have both needed more pixels on the longer axis than this, plus supporting higher refresh rates, so it's a shame this port has this limitation, even if many third party displays would be okay. The Type-C header is your typical USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port and lacks any enhanced power delivery.


Three of the eight 4-pin fan headers are right-angled to allow for easier cable tidying, but eight of them are way down the south end of the PCB so aren't ideally placed at all for case fans, especially rear or roof fans. Even Gigabyte's included memory fan comes with an extension cable, presumably so you don't have to use one of the CPU headers for it as we did in the photos below. We'd imagine more extension cables will be needed for those rear and roof fans too. The headers are also limited to 24 W, either as a single port or the maximum across multiple ports as shown below. There are also two 2-pin thermistor ports from the included thermal sensor cables or a third party coolant probe.



There are both 5 V 3-pin and 12 V 4-pin RGB headers, but only one of the latter. This is the way most boards are going and some even ditch the 4-pin headers entirely in this generation given most devices are now 3-pin ARGB. As you'd expect on a board at this price you get the full complement of overclocking and testing tools on the PCB including voltage measuring points, an LED POST code display and power and reset buttons.


The DDR Wind Blade fan can be attached at any of the motherboard mounting points so technically doesn't have to cool your memory. It might be quite useful in cooling the VRM heatsinks too, especially if you're using an AIO liquid cooler or custom watercooling, where local airflow is usually nonexistent. Thankfully it's powered by a 4-pin header so it's easy to reduce the RPM to silent levels, but in most cases you'll see limited benefits from it unless you're an extreme overclocker. It's a simple contraption, though, so we doubt it added too much to the cost of the board.


The rear I/O panel features small vents that Gigabyte claims lowers temperatures by up to 7°C, presumably for the VRMs, but there's no fan embedded in the heatsinks just in case you were wondering. It has an impressive 10 Type-A USB ports, but sticks to the bare minimum pair of USB4 Type-C ports, while other manufacturers have struck more of a balance between the two. This is probably enough for now, although there are more and more devices utilizing Type-C so we'd prefer to see more, especially for those planning on keeping boards for more than three years. The labelling on the USB ports here isn't particularly clear either. While those blue ports are labelled as USB 3.2, they are not 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2, but rather 5 Gbps, or the old equivalent of USB 3.

There's also CMOS clear and BIOS Flashback buttons here too, while Gigabyte has opted for Realtek RT8126 5 Gbps Ethernet and Qualcomm QCNCM865 Wi-Fi 7 controllers along with the Realtek ALC1220 codec and two 3.5 mm audio jacks. A new feature on the I/O panel is the WI-FI EZ-Plug. This is a single-piece, two-port connector that hooks up both Wi-Fi antenna cables with a clip-in connector that's far quicker to install than the usual screw-in antennas, being much less fiddly and also there's zero chance it will unscrew itself, which can happen when rotating some Wi-Fi antennas. The competition has some easy fit connectors, but they often still use individual connectors for each antenna so again, Gigabyte has the better implementation here apart from it being proprietary and non-replaceable of course.