The AX370-Gaming 5 features a 6+4 digital phase power delivery system that features precise current sensing technology to ensure an even thermal loading for reliability and stability. Sitting just behind the 8pin EPS/CPU socket, there is a 4pin fan header, with another two 4pin fan headers for the CPU/CPU OPT towards the right of the image. Other features we can find is the Intel LAN chip which is sitting behind the dual BIOS chips, as the LED_C1 (Cooler LED) header as the Ryzen CPUs are shipped with RGB LED lighting.
The DIMMs feature an armour similar to what we find on the PCIe lanes, between each slot is a row of RGB LEDs forming part of the Surround lighting effects. To the top right of the memory slots, there are some onboard controls including a power button, OC button, a smaller clear CMOS button, and a reset button. To the left of the 24pin ATX port there are a pair of 4pin fan headers (the right side is one of the 2a/24W pump header), a thermistor header, a pair of USB 3.1 Gen 1 headers (some would have preferred one of these to have been at a right angle), while at the edge of the board we see the Accent LED overlay.
The bottom right of the board gives us the storage connectors, to which there are 8x SATA 6Gb/s, 2x SATA Express ports (with a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 1.97GB/s (16Gb/s). There is also the NVMe U.2 connector which shares PCIe lanes with the M.2 slot, which means that if you use the U.2 port, it disables the M.2 slot.
The bottom right of the board, sitting below the chipset headsink, you will find the front panel connection block. Just above and to the right of the FP block there is a CLR_CMOS jumper, and to the left of it is the second thermistor header. Moving along to the left you will find 3x 4pin fan headers of which farthest on the right is the second 2a/24W pump header, and of course there is a debug LED display.
From the bottom left we can front panel audio connectors, S/PDIF out header, a pair of BIOS switches, the RGBW LED header, the TPM header, and finally 2x USB 2.0 headers.
The audio circuitry is electronically isolated from other components much of it is hidden behind the plastic covering, though we get to see the cool Nichicon audio capacitors. The AX370-Gaming 5 sports two of the latest flagship audio codecs from Realtek, the ALC 1220, sporting an impressive 120dB SNR for both the rear, and front panel audio.
The Rear IO has an impressive selection of ports, including a universal PS/2 port, 2x DAC-UP USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (Yellow), another 4x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (Blue), 3x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type A (Red), 1x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C (the small port), HDMI 1.4b (for future support with A-Series APUs, supports 4096x2160@24 Hz), dual RJ-45 ports (left side for Killer E2500, right side Intel). Then we get an optical S/PDIF, and 5 audio jacks (centre/sub, speaker out, rear speaker out, Line in, Speaker/headphone out, and Mic in).
The lighting is customisable with various effects with the GIGABYTE RGB Fusion APP, which is also available as an Android/Apple mobile APP. There are various effects including pulse/music/and spectrum cycle, as well as performance related lighting indicator based on CPU load, thermal performance, or network performance. I was unable to create a mix of colours or a wave effect which is a shame, but maybe a Razer Chroma esque motherboard is yet to come.
