Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme Review
Up Close – Connectors
Whilst there are many elements to the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme that could be considered party pieces, we think that this is one that will find appreciative agreement amongst the largest part of the audience. Having massive power delivery is something that most people know they need but maybe don’t fully understand why, but we all know that we need the largest amount of fan headers possible to not only keep our system cool but provide us with the widest set of options when it comes to placement. Although the area above the heat pipe and DIMM slot arrangement is where you will find the two fan connectors that the air-cooled brigade need, if you move around the side beneath the Thermal Armor you’ll find a sizeable selection of hybrid headers.
Tucked away on about the only piece of PCB that isn’t covered by the Armor is the front panel USB header that brings all the high bandwidth joy you could wish for to the easily accessible frontal area of your chassis.
With the 24 pin ATX connector being the bane of the life of anyone who likes to keep their cabling tidy we are massive fans of the horizontally mounted type as found here on the X570 Aorus Xtreme. It’s still very much the sign of an expensive option, but hopefully in due course it will become the standard across all motherboard types and price ranges.
Away from the somewhat novel 90 degree connectors we saw above, the USB front panel headers and SATA 6 Gbps connectors are more usually found in this orientation. When everything else along the side is too though it does make for a more consistent aesthetic.
Gigabyte are famous for their DualBIOS system and this latest Auros Xtreme motherboard is no exception, with easy to reach DIP (Dual In-Line Package) switches letting to swap between a daily configuration and something a little more extreme.
We like the way that Gigabyte have solved the problem of covering as much of the PCB as possible whilst retaining the ability to utilise all the features if needed. One area that is a little unloved on most people’s systems is the front panel audio, so by covering it up it makes the whole package have smoother lines, and yet it is the work of a moment if you wish to utilise either the front panel audio connector or supply extra power to your system with the additional ATX power connector. The best of both worlds.
