Gigabyte today debuted its AMD 800-series motherboards with the launch of the premium X870E Aorus Master. This motherboard is set to be the company’s second most premium product on this chipset, as the X870E Aorus Xtreme is also in the pipeline. The Aorus Master boasts a plethora of high-end onboard devices and features, making it an attractive option for enthusiasts.
Power and Design Features
Built in the ATX form-factor, the X870E Aorus Master draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS power connectors, offering a robust 16+2+2 phase digital VRM featuring 110A power stages. The board is laid out on a premium 8-layer PCB with tall extruded aluminum heatsinks for the CPU VRM and the topmost M.2 NVMe Gen 5 slot.
Memory and Storage Capabilities
The AMD Socket AM5 is wired to four DDR5 DIMM slots that support up to 192 GB of dual-channel DDR5 at speeds of over DDR5-8000. Storage connectivity is robust, with no less than three M.2 NVMe Gen 5 slots and a fourth M.2 NVMe Gen 4 slot wired to the chipset. Additionally, the motherboard includes four SATA 6 Gbps ports.
USB and Networking Interfaces
USB connectivity on the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master is versatile, featuring two 40 Gbps USB4 ports with DisplayPort connectivity from the processor, four 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2, four 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1, and a 20 Gbps USB-C front-panel header. Networking interfaces include a 5 Gbps Ethernet driven by a Realtek RTL8251B, and a Qualcomm QCNCM865 WLAN controller that provides Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3.
Audio Solution
The onboard audio solution uses a Realtek ALC1220 codec with audiophile-grade capacitors. This codec is preferred over the newer ALC4080 due to its use of the HDA bus, which is more resilient to audio glitches caused by kernel tick mistiming with certain GPUs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master motherboard showcases a variety of top-tier features and functionalities. Gigabyte has yet to reveal pricing details, but the comprehensive specs indicate that it is a formidable contender in the high-end motherboard market.
