AMD AND ITS MOTHERBOARD partners have recently launched cheaper chipset options for the AM5 socket. But a quick glance at the latest B850 boards sees quite a few retail for more than the Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice, while also lacking features such as USB4 and high-end audio codecs. Long story short: this is a nicely featured board, given the price tag starts with a ‘2’.
The X870 chipset is all about making features such as USB4 and PCIe 5.0 for SSDs and graphics cards accessible at more mainstream prices than the X870E. It too is a value play of sorts.
Anyway, apart from the AMD CPU socket and chipset, the Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice has a nearly identical counterpart in the Intel Z890 camp, making for an interesting comparison. You’re definitely getting the better deal with AMD, despite a little less RGB lighting, thanks to a few more ports and power delivery phases. The Z890 option lacks two-pin thermal probe headers included on this board that allow you to hook up coolant probes in water-cooling systems or fine-tune your case’s cooling.