Gigabyte’s X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice is one of the more affordable AM5 motherboards to feature AMD’s new X870 chipset, but not necessarily in its arctic color scheme. This board has some noteworthy features, including built-in Wi-Fi 7 support and two USB4 ports, but its more high-end aesthetic carries a premium that pushes the cost up to $289 and somewhat hurts it in terms of overall value. Overall, it’s a decent board; just be prepared to pay extra for the white option. Otherwise, we recommend you check out Gigabyte’s similar (non-“Ice”) black version, which costs $30 less, or consider a more affordable all-white alternative, such as the ASRock X870 Steel Legend WiFi.
Design: It’s All About That Ice
Gigabyte designed the X870 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 Ice with a white-and-silver color scheme. The more silvery-gray color dominates most of the board, with flecks of white added for contrast. The board looks sharp and well-made, but the lack of additional color might make it feel a little bland, depending on the parts it’s paired with and the color of the case it’s installed in. An RGB LED array beneath the silver chipset heatsink helps some, though additional lights would help more.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
One area that could use some improvement, at least in the aesthetics department, is the rear I/O shroud with “Aorus” written on it in white letters. You’ll see a gray shadow effect around the letters, but as this is set on an even lighter shade of silver, it doesn’t catch the eye and instead blends in too much.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
A white metal heatsink closely set with another heatsink running above the CPU socket sits below the rear I/O shroud. These work to cool the board’s 16+2+2 power phases, which supply power to the CPU.
Networking: Striking Lucky 7
As the product’s name makes clear, Gigabyte built Wi-Fi 7 support into this motherboard. However, depending on the revision of your motherboard, you will get one of two Wi-Fi controllers. Revision 1.0 boards come equipped with a MediaTek MT7925 controller, and revision 1.1 boards ship with a Realtek RTL8922AE controller.
Both of these controllers have similar networking specs and support 802.11be and Bluetooth 5.4. Both are fine options; you’ll just need to make sure you install the correct driver for the version of the board you receive.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
The motherboard also has a Realtek 2.5Gbps wired Ethernet controller for wired internet connections.
Audio Hardware: Not What It Says on the Tin
The audio codec that Gigabyte employed on this motherboard is Realtek’s ALC1220. This audio solution has been around for a long time at this point, but it still provides relatively high-quality audio with a signal-to-noise ratio of 120dB. Newer solutions may produce slightly better performance, but you’d likely be hard-pressed to tell the difference from listening with standard audio equipment, so it’s hard to knock the motherboard for using this chip.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
The audio connections on the rear I/O panel of the motherboard leave a lot to be desired, though. This board has only two 3.5mm audio jacks, one of which is a dedicated microphone jack. This leaves just a single 3.5mm audio jack that can support, at best, two speakers for a left and right speaker configuration. Gigabyte advertises this board as supporting up to a 7.1-channel audio configuration because the Realtek ALC1220 can support it, but you won’t actually be able to use it in practical fact. You’ll at least find an S/PDIF optical output, and you can still use audio over HDMI.
Rear I/O Panel: A Mismatched Offering
This brings us to the rear I/O panel, which has a few odd things going on. First is the aforementioned relative lack of 3.5mm audio jacks, but the USB ports are a little peculiar, too. You’ll find a dozen USB ports on this board’s rear I/O panel, including two USB4 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and four USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports. That leaves four USB ports outstanding, which are all USB 2.0 Type-A.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
This last part is what’s a little unusual. It’s still quite common to see USB 2.0 ports on a motherboard these days, and even four of them might not be so strange on an entry-level or budget-oriented motherboard. We don’t typically see this many on motherboards oriented at enthusiasts. It’s an understandable design choice if you consider what the chipset supports. Without an additional USB controller, the system cannot support more USB 3.x ports than what’s already in use.
The motherboard does have two USB 3.x headers internally, and technically, those could have been removed and used to change two of those USB 2.0 ports into USB 3 ports, but then you wouldn’t be able to use any USB 3 ports on your case’s front panel. That wouldn’t be good, so keeping those four ports on the rear I/O panel as USB 2.0 ports was likely the best option. Still, these could have all been replaced with an additional USB controller, which sets this board apart from more premium solutions.
The rear I/O panel also has an HDMI video output (all late-model Ryzen chips have a form of integrated graphics now, if you want to use it) and a button for flashing the BIOS to a newer version.
Building Experience and Port Placement: A Cool Operator
Building the X870 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 Ice into a case goes relatively smoothly with few issues. The only aspect of the board that was a bit problematic was plugging in the 8-pin CPU power connectors, but this is a common issue. The connectors are crammed into a tight space in the upper-left corner of the board and set close to the VRM heatsinks, which have fairly sharp corners. Again, this is a common issue, but you sometimes see these pointy heatsink corners get rounded off to reduce the chance of finger injuries while connecting the cable. Still, as they are, the heatsinks aren’t overly problematic.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
Everything else on the motherboard’s surface is relatively easy to use and access. The CPU fan headers, which are also typically difficult to access, are set far enough away from other items on the board that they are easy to get to. So are the 4-pin LED headers set nearby. Down the right edge of the motherboard is the main power connector, a USB Type-C port, four right-angle SATA-III connections, and a right-angle USB 3.0 header. The bottom edge of the motherboard has several additional internal headers, including the front-panel header, the front-panel audio header, several additional fan controllers, and two USB 2.0 headers.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
This motherboard has four M.2 slots and three PCIe x16 slots below the CPU socket. Three of these M.2 slots are set quite closely together between the first and secondary PCIe x16 slots, while the primary M.2 slot is set above the top PCIe x16 slot and has a dedicated heatsink. Three of these M.2 slots can run PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs, while the last one is limited to PCIe 4.0 speeds. At this time, I see no real downside to this configuration as PCIe 5.0 SSDs are still relatively premium items, making it unlikely you would need to install more than two. If you buy a PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSD, don’t install it in the one PCIe 4.0 slot.
A Brief Look at the BIOS: Heading for a Whiteout
When booting this board and entering the BIOS for the first time, you will be brought to the Easy Mode menu, as you should. A surprising number of motherboards get this wrong and send you to the Advanced Mode BIOS by default, negating the point of having an Easy Mode at all, but Gigabyte gets it right here.
(Credit: Gigabyte)
The BIOS, like the motherboard, feels a bit overly whited out. This is fine for some parts of the BIOS, like the big, bold black letters, but it makes some of the text, like the smaller black font and especially the gray text, difficult to read.
From the Easy Mode BIOS, you should be able to take care of most things you might need without entering Advanced Mode. In addition to setting a memory profile, you can see what hardware the system is recognizing here, adjust the boot order, flash the BIOS, and adjust the fans. You’ll also find some overclocking features oriented toward AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, but we didn’t test these at this time.
(Credit: Gigabyte)
In the Advanced Mode, you’ll find a lot more options, including overclocking features and more intricate settings for fine-tuning your system usage. Most of you won’t need to interact with these unless you are overclocking.
Verdict: Slick as Ice, But a Little Pricey
Taken as a whole, Gigabyte’s X870 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 Ice is a well-made motherboard. It performed well during the time we used it without any noticeable issues. The BIOS isn’t sluggish, flashing the BIOS is relatively easy, and Windows installs without issue, too.
The motherboard’s overall feature set is also decent for its price. Though the audio controller could have been a bit more modern, and half of those four USB 2.0 ports on the rear I/O panel could have been swapped out for newer USB ports, those are relatively minor negatives. Wi-Fi 7 support is arguably a more appreciable feature that users are likelier to notice and take advantage of than a slightly newer audio codec. It’s still a trade-off, but arguably one that’s worth it.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
However, this board is pricey for its features. Gigabyte sells an X870 Gaming X WiFi7 with a few minor changes and a black color scheme for $249. The X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice costs $289 at full price, though, showing a bit of a premium for the white build. We should also re-mention ASRock’s X870 Steel Legend WiFi motherboard, which retails for $259 with a white color scheme. It also has Wi-Fi 7 support and a newer audio codec, though it has fewer M.2 slots.
Overall, Gigabyte’s X870 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 Ice is a fine motherboard, but catching it on sale would undoubtedly make it a better buy in the competitive Ryzen AM5 motherboard market. Otherwise, you can get a similar icy-white aesthetic elsewhere for less by skating over to ASRock’s offering.
Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice
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The Bottom Line
Gigabyte’s X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice motherboard has a helpful leading-edge feature set (including Wi-Fi 7 and USB4) and a chilly white aesthetic for AMD Ryzen builders, but the pricing leaves us a little cold.
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About Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Analyst
