The GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Xtreme Motherboard Review: Fanless AM4
by Gavin Bonshor on September 24, 2019 9:00 AM ESTBoard Features
The GIGABYTE X570 Xtreme is the current flagship in its product stack, with a current selling price of $700 at Newegg and Amazon. The premium and core feature set includes an Aquantia AQC107 10 GbE NIC, with an assisting Intel I211-AT Gigabit NIC which provides users with dual Ethernet ports on the rear panel, and an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax wireless interface offers users with both Wi-Fi and BT 5.0 connectivity. The onboard audio solution is higher quality than standard models with a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec with GIGABYTE also included an ESS Sabre 9218 DAC with uprated WIMA audio capacitors located on the audio section of the PCB. As with other high-end X570 models, there are three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots with the bottom-mounted slot on the PCB shared with two of the six SATA ports which supports RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays.
GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Xtreme E-ATX Motherboard | |||
Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
Product Page | Link | ||
Price | $700 | ||
Size | E-ATX | ||
CPU Interface | AM4 | ||
Chipset | AMD X570 | ||
Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 128 GB Dual Channel Up to DDR4-4400 |
||
Video Outputs | N/A | ||
Network Connectivity | Aquantia AQC107 10 G Intel I211-AT 1 G Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax |
||
Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220-VB ESS 9218 DAC |
||
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16, x8/x8) |
||
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 | ||
Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/10 | ||
Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4/SATA (CPU) 2 x PCIe 4.0 x4/SATA (Chipset) |
||
USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) | 5 x Type-A Rear Panel 1 x Type-C Rear Panel 1 x Type-C Header |
||
USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) | 2 x Type-A Rear Panel 2 x Type-A Header |
||
USB 2.0 | 4 x Type-A Rear Panel 1 x Header (two ports) |
||
Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 2 x 8pin CPU |
||
Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Water Pump (4-pin) 7 x System (4-pin) 8 x System (4-pin) - Fan Commander |
||
IO Panel | 5 x USB 3.1 G2 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 G2 Type-C 2 x USB 3.1 G1 Type-A 4 x USB 2.0 Type-A 2 x Network RJ45 (Aquantia/Intel) 5 x 3.5mm Audio Jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Output (Realtek)) 2 x Intel AX200 Antenna Ports 1 x Q-Flash BIOS Button 1 x Clear CMOS Button |
The rear panel includes a pre-installed rear IO shield and also features five USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C and two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports, and four USB 2.0 ports. Users can expand on this with a single USB 3.1 G2 Type-C header which provides a single port, a USB 3.1 G1 Type-A header for two additional ports, and a single USB 2.0 header which offers users two additional ports. The GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Xtreme includes a comprehensive 14-phase power delivery for the CPU and a 2-phase solution for the SoC. Given the high-end and flagship status of the X570 Aorus Xtreme, there are no video outputs on the rear panel with the board design for the higher-end Ryzen 3rd generation processors such as the Ryzen 9 3900X and the impending Ryzen 9 3950X which is due later this year.
Test Bed
As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
While we have been able to measure audio performance from previous Z370 motherboards, the task has been made even harder with the roll-out of the Z390 chipset and none of the boards tested so far has played ball. It seems all USB support for Windows 7 is now extinct so until we can find a reliable way of measuring audio performance on Windows 10 or until a workaround can be found, audio testing will have to be done at a later date.
Test Setup | |||
Processor | AMD Ryzen 3700X, 65W, $329 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3.6 GHz (4.4 GHz Turbo) |
||
Motherboard | GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Xtreme (BIOS F3i) | ||
Cooling | ID Cooling Auraflow 240mm AIO | ||
Power Supply | Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Gold PSU | ||
Memory | 2x8GB G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 16-16-16-36 2T | ||
Video Card | ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
Case | Open Benchtable BC1.1 (Silver) | ||
Operating System | Windows 10 1903 inc. Spectre/Meltdown Patches |
Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.
New Test Suite: Spectre and Meltdown Hardened
Since the start of our Z390 reviews, we are using an updated OS, updated drivers, and updated software. This is in line with our CPU testing updates, which includes Spectre and Meltdown patches. We are also running the testbed with the new Windows 10 1903 update for AMD's Ryzen 3000 series CPUs, and X570 motherboard reviews. The Windows 1903 update improves multi-core and multi-thread performance on AMD's Ryzen processors with topology awareness meaning previous issues in regards to latency have been known to affect performance. As users are recommended to keep their Windows 10 operating system updates, our performance data is reflected with the 1903 update.
42 Comments
View All Comments
SSTANIC - Tuesday, September 24, 2019 - link
"Users can expand on this with a single USB 3.1 G2 Type-C header which provides a single port, a USB 3.1 G1 Type-A header for two additional ports, and a single USB 2.0 header which offers users two additional ports". It says right there - USB 3.1 G1 Type-A, formerly known as USB 3.0..uplink - Tuesday, September 24, 2019 - link
A great motherboard indeed, that died after 5 days of installation of the system...Andy Chow - Tuesday, September 24, 2019 - link
I don't get paying $700 for a motherboard. Consumer motherboards over $300 don't make sense. And yes, this is a consumer motherboard.TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, September 24, 2019 - link
There's a sucker born every minute.Total Meltdowner - Wednesday, September 25, 2019 - link
This.rtoledo2002 - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
so true. these days, they add a 1:00 dollar RGB light and call it " GAMING " and all of a sudden it cost 3 to 10 times more, and these kids just pay it. at most these MOBO are worth 150.00 to 300.00 dollars . can't wait to see RGB toilet paper for gamersDr.Neale - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
For you, they don’t make sense.For me, I firmly believe you have to pay for what you get, and a better “price limit” on a motherboard might be the price of the “consumer” CPU it matches: in this case, the $749 price [announced] for the Ryzen 9 3950X.
Somehow, I doubt you would be willing to spring for one of those, either...
Of course, just because YOU aren’t into this particular [*sniff*] “consumer” motherboard, many enthusiasts ARE.
And enthusiasts often drive many diverse markets, precisely because they WILL spend the money to fulfill their wish lists, unlike skinflints, who want everything for next to nothing !!!
Not much profit in selling to skinflints !
willis936 - Sunday, August 1, 2021 - link
Human from the future here: watch out for the next year.Also, this board is $700 because it has 12 USB ports on the rear panel and 10G networking. Those things would eat up the (extremely limited) number of PCIe lanes on AM4. The fastest single core processors available today are on AM4. You could always go to Threadripper Pro or Xeon or something but you lose a *lot* of single threaded performance. This board makes a lot of sense. The other AM4 flagships: not so much.
Ratman6161 - Tuesday, September 24, 2019 - link
Interesting Materiel for sure. But...a $700 motherboard???? Not for me. I would really like to see reviews of some "real people" boards. I tend to be more about using lower priced low to mid-range hardware and then using overclocking to get more out of it. For example I've got a R7-1700 that performs like an 1800x (which was a much more expensive proposition at the time). Maybe you know your audience better than I do, but I don't know anyone buying $700 motherboards for home use.On new egg there are actually x570 boards for as low as $149 and 12 of them for under $200 as of the time I'm writing this. So, if I spend $500 less, maybe I'll just get the 4.2Ghz and not the 4.3 squeezed out of the board in this review? Yup, I'm OK with that.
Threska - Tuesday, September 24, 2019 - link
Maybe buy a fanned motherboard and water-cool the whole thing?