CES 2018 – Gigabyte Shows off the First AMD X470 Motherboard

Gigabyte Shows off the First AMD X470 Motherboard at CES 2018

Yesterday, AMD presented their processor roadmap which shows new Ryzen processors with X470 boards coming in April 2018. New processors typically herald new motherboards with new features. Gigabyte surprised us with the first motherboard based on the AMD AM4 X470 chipset. The Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi isn’t just a refresh of their AX370 Gaming K7 motherboard, they have done a fairly substantial redesign of the system. Let’s take a look at what we could find out about their newest motherboard that should support all AM4 processors.

Taking a look at the motherboard overall, we can see many of the familiar features. There are three PCIe x16 slots, setup for x16, x8 and x4; in addition two PCIe x1 slots are available as well. They appear to have spaced out the x16 and x1 slots so you don’t run into issues with GPU’s. Placed between the PCIe slots is two M.2 slots, both which have heat sinks; one is capable of PCIe x4 3.0, while the other is PCIe x4 2.0. Near the memory slots is the usual DeBug code and the dual BIOS switches. Aorus also included two USB 3.1 Gen 1 internal headers, and the new USB 3.1 Gen 2 internal connector.

One of the big changes deals with the heatsinks for the VRM, rather than going with the previous generation solid block heatsinks, they have switched back to the “old school” fin design. This could provide a good increase to performance, especially for thermals when compared to the solid blocks. Speaking of the VRM, the X470 Gaming 7 uses a 10+2 phase VRM system, controlled by an IR35201 PWM controller.

Flipping the board over, we found another large heatsink where the VRM’s would be as well another way to help keep it cool. It will be interesting to see whether there are spacing issues with the backplates of certain coolers.

Taking a glimpse of the rear I/O it was interesting to see an integrated I/O cover. Back here we find many usual suspects. 7.1 audio with S/PDIF out, dual USB 3.1 Gen 1 DAC-UP ports, Gigabit Ethernet, dual USB 2.0, USB 3.1 Gen 2 and Type-C, four more USB 3.1 Gen 1, WiFi connectors and finally a power button and a clear CMOS button.

We don’t have firm pricing on the X470 Gaming 7 motherboard, but we would expect it to be priced around $250 when it is released in April 2018 when AMD’s 400 chipset series is released with the new Ryzen refresh processors.