GIGABYTE AORUS X470 GAMING 7 WIFI Review

👤by Matthew Hodgson Comments 📅01-05-18
Closer Look
AMD, being the forward-thinking company that they are, generally design their sockets with both backwards and forwards compatibility in mind. The AORUS X470, with the AM4 socket, is therefore compatible with all of the 1st Gen. Ryzen 3, 5 and 7 processors as well as the 2nd Gen.

The most prominent portion of the CPU socket region is the power delivery cooling heatsinks. There’s over 100 fins in that array, with direct heatpipe contact on the hottest components. The 10+2 Phase IR Digital PWM is designed to provide the most stable current possible for better overclocks and longer product life. GIGABYTE have utilised an 8+4 CPU power connectors for extreme overclocks, ensuring the most energy-sensitive components are properly dealt with.

A pair of 4 pin PWM fan headers are provided, to the right of the upper most heatsink. One is provisioned for a watercooling pump and the other for a typical fan.



The 4x DIMM slots are supported with an ultra durable memory armour, designed to prevent memory modules from shifting and avoid the motherboard bending at all when installing RAM sticks. The 3 strips between the DIMM slots feature a row of RGB LEDs which can be customised in software.

Another three 4 pin PWM headers are found next to the 24-pin power slot. BIOS switches for any problems booting are just above, with a 2-digit BIOS debug display next to those. Over on the right is an OC switch, for fast overclocking of the Ryzen chip and RGB lighting headers on the far edge are available to make things even flashier.



To the right of the southbridge heatsink is a bank of six 90° SATA 6GBPS connectors.



The southbridge heatsink is covered with a piece of brushed aluminium with orange accents, within which is a translucent AORUS logo featuring RGB LEDs underneath.

PCI-E ports are as follows:

• 1x PCI-E 1x
• 1x PCI-E 16x
• 1x PCI-E 1x
• 1x PCI-E 8x
• 1x PCI-E 4x (This bottom slot is disabled when the bottom M.2 NVMe slot is populated)

The two M.2 NVMe slots are covered by a Thermal Guard heatsink solution, one measuring 110mm in length, the other 80mm.

Along the bottom edge is a mass of connection options.
(From left to right)

• Front Audio
• Digital RGB LED pin header
• RGBW pin header
• TPM header
• 2x Front USB 2.0
• 2x 4-pin PWM system fan header
• 2x Front USB 3.0
• Front panel connections



Onboard audio is refined and dealt with by a multitude of different components to ensure sound is as clear and as loud as possible. WIMA Nichicon fine gold capacitors are used for their audiophile level of reliability and sound production, these are the red rectangular pieces as well as the 5 golden cylinders. Sound is provided in 7.1 via the rear IO or through optical SPDIF.



GIGABYTE attach the rear IO shield directly to the motherboard, saving any embarrassing mistakes when forgetting to attach it to the case before installing the motherboard. On the rear is a Clear CMOS button as well as a power switch, for test bench and overclocking functionality. We don’t see any PS/2 ports here, which is unusual, but who uses them anyway?

Connectivity on the rear is plentiful:

• WIFI 802.11ac (twin antenna)
• 4x USB 3.0
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen. 2 Type A
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen. 2 Type C
• RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet
• 2x USB 2.0
• 2x USB 3.0 with DAC-UP (useful for high-draw products like VR headsets)
• 5x 3.5mm jack
• 1x SPDIF out



20 pages « < 4 5 6 7 > »

Comments