Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro review

After launching one generation of chipsets on the Socket AM5 platform, AMD faces a arduous challenge in selling motherboards with 800-series chipsets when older, cheaper options perform perfectly well with processors like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. However, it probably has an easier task than Intel given the low sales figures of the Core Ultra 200 series and there are plenty of options that will make a decent change from $400 to £400.

The Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro costs just $350 – that’s still not budget-friendly, but the flagship choice is the X870E option with AMD’s up-to-date 800-series chipsets.

This provides Wi-Fi 7, full PCIe 5.0 support on both graphics and some M.2 storage ports, USB 4 Type-C ports and the latest features designed to make the build process as seamless as possible while also dealing with heated PCIe 5.0 SSDs. The latter ultimately makes a difference, considering the older X670E chipset offers most, if not all, of the same features under the hood in terms of ports and bandwidth.

For this price, you’re also paying for a premium look, and Gigabyte has provided a solid set of obscure, moody heatsinks for the M.2 ports and VRM modules, as well as a bit of built-in RGB lighting above the I/O panel and chipset heatsink. While it’s not exactly budget-friendly, the board looks and feels like something $100 more costly.

If you don’t like dealing with diminutive M.2 screws or graphics cards stuck in slots, you’ll love the tool-free features of the X870E Aorus Pro. They are similar to other manufacturers, but easily on par with anything from Asus or MSI. EZ-Latch applies to both the M.2 SSD, heatsink, and PCIe graphics card slot, with the former two using miniature latches that open with a press of a finger, making removal and installation easier. To remove the graphics card, there is a button next to the memory slots.

Even the Wi-Fi antenna gets the EZ treatment thanks to a bonded connector that plugs into the I/O panel port, so there are no complicated nuts or bolts involved. All four M.2 ports chilly SSDs on both sides, and three of them support PCIe 5.0 SSDs, although the bottom two PCIe 5.0 slots steal bandwidth from the graphics card, so it’s best to avoid them.

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The rest of the PCB has almost everything you could want, even for a high-end system. There are eight fan headers, a couple of 2-pin thermal probe connectors if you’re really going to town with your cooler, and you even have an LED POST display and power and reset buttons. It also has impressively immense VRM heatsinks to chilly the 16+2+2-phase power system.

Testbed for PC gamers
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | ARIES: 32GB Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR5-6000 | Storage: 2TB Corsair MP700 | Charger: MSI MAG AB50GL 850 W | Operating system: Windows 11 24H2 | Chassis: Open platform | Monitor: Dell U2415

Apart from the trendy Wi-Fi port, the rear I/O panel has a standard look and doesn’t support USB Type-C like other boards. Instead, you get two USB 4 Type-C ports and a total of nine USB Type-A ports, including three USB 3.1, four USB 3.0, and two USB 2.0, giving you a good balance of ports and future-proofing without going overboard and bumping up the price unnecessarily .

The I/O panel also features a Q-Flash button, also known as BIOS Flashback, a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, and audio connections for the Realtek ALC1220 codec.

Gigabyte’s BIOS and software are also quite good, with the former offering an attractive home page that makes it straightforward to access basic options like memory EXPO/XMP and quick links for fan control and BIOS updates. The software is definitely useful for controlling fans from within Windows, and the driver updater also works well, so it should be useful for beginners who have noticed a thing or two that Windows Update missed.

If it was 2026 and the AMD Socket AM5 CPU could only have another 12 months left, we’d suggest you don’t spend so much on a motherboard that probably doesn’t have the ability to upgrade if you bought any Ryzen CPUs that were available at the time. However, the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro will enjoy decent longevity, and AMD has previously promised to support this socket until at least 2027.

Spending a little more on cutting-edge features that will also support you with your next CPU upgrade is definitely a sturdy argument.

The board has a lot to offer beyond future CPU support, however, as it has good VRM and M.2 cooling, looks fantastic, and is incredibly straightforward to operate thanks to a range of tool-free features. It has circumscribed RGB lighting as standard and only two of the four M.2 ports can be used thanks to a lane steal, but otherwise it’s a very solid X870E board for the money that’s particularly user-friendly.