Gigabyte X870E AORUS ELITE WIFI7 motherboard AM5, ATX, DDR5, Wi-Fi 7, USB4 (rev 1.2)

X870E is the higher-end chipset of the AM5 platform. The CPU is fed by a digital 16+2+2 phase VRM with DrMOS stages, and the MOSFETs are fully covered by heatsinks, so heat spreads evenly through long renders or gaming sessions. Two 8-pin EPS connectors supply the CPU. For cooling there are two CPU fan headers, two pump headers and four chassis fan headers, plus four RGB headers for lighting.

Four DIMM slots hold up to 256 GB of DDR5 in dual-channel mode, with up to 64 GB per slot. The manufacturer lists speeds from 4400 to 8200 MT/s, with the higher figures reached by overclocking. The board reads both AMD EXPO and Intel XMP profiles, so modules sold with XMP also run at their rated speed without setting timings by hand. Unbuffered non-ECC memory is supported.

Of the four M.2 slots, three run at PCIe 5.0 and one at PCIe 4.0. The first slot takes SSDs up to 25110 and the rest up to 22110. M.2 EZ-Latch Plus holds the drive without a tiny screw that tends to drop into the case. There are also four SATA III ports for 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives with RAID 0, 1 and 10, for up to eight drives in total.

The graphics card sits in a reinforced PCIe 5.0 x16 slot (PCIe UD Slot X) with an EZ-Latch Plus release: the card comes out at the press of a button, with no hunting for a latch under a bulky GPU. Additional PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 3.0 x4 slots take a network card, sound card or other expansion. Sensor Panel Link is an internal HDMI connector for a sensor display inside the case.

Wired networking comes from a 2.5GbE port on a Realtek RTL8125 controller, wireless from Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Bluetooth 5.4. The directional antenna attaches with WIFI EZ-Plug, no screwing needed. The rear panel has two USB4 Type-C ports with DisplayPort support, HDMI 2.1, six USB 3.2 ports and four USB 2.0 ports. Audio is handled by a Realtek ALC1220 codec with 7.1 support and an optical S/PDIF output.

Builders who want the X870E chipset on AM5 with PCIe 5.0 for both the graphics card and three SSDs; owners of DDR5 memory with an XMP profile; and anyone assembling a gaming or work PC who appreciates screwless installation, USB4 ports and the option of a sensor display inside the case.