Gigabyte Aorus X370-Gaming 5
A clear demonstration of equality returning.
The Aorus X370Gaming 5 is smack in the middle of motherboards when it comes to cost. Yet, the performance strikes towards the top, even besting two tests. Some might say that is to be expected, but we hadn’t expected the competitive price point.
Looking across the aisle to the blue side of the Aorus fence and the Z270XGaming 5 delivers comparable features at a comparable price. It’s been a long time since we could make this kind of statement between an Intel- and AMD-derived platform from a single vendor. And you know what? We like it. We like it even more that the two sides of the CPU divide offer attractive solutions. The choice is fantastic to have once again and it creates significant opportunity for good value to be found by consumers.
While the X370-Gaming 5 may lack the additional M.2 and U.2 slot of its blue- hearted brethren, it is packed with eight SATA3 6Gbps ports, a single M.2 slot and a plethora of USB connections.
Pitched as a gaming ‘ board, the X370-Gaming 5 features the archetypal RGB flourishes, integrated throughout the ‘ board and serviced via one RGB header and one RGBW header. This appears peculiar at first but the logic fits. The RGB header services the potential installation of one of the new RGB LED lit AMD Wraith stock coolers, while the RGBW header continues Gigabyte’s RGBW push started with the Intel 200series product launches.
We really like the Aorus, but if you can stretch the budget to the Crosshair VI Hero (page 47), consider it.