Thanks for the write up. Amazingly thorough (as always) and very timely for me as I am about to pull that trigger … and that Asus model seemed pretty steep.

Great review! First time i read a whole one through in a very long time but I have been eyeing this board the last few days ... i already picked up the gskill 3200 rgb memory which i just had to put in my current system to play with lol.pretty stick too. Im just unsure if i should buy a new str4 water cooler AIO that has full heat spreader which is not future proof or just get one compatible with ther bracket as i do not think my EKWB predatror 240 will fit. I am thinking of going the ring rgb AIO cooler but am unsure I also saw a new white cooler come out which would match my build but i am unsure if its compatible. i didnt know until i read the review that there will be an 8 core 16 thread version want to see a review on that please then i will decide as i am buying the processor last

To this day I don't believe that Gigabyte are sending the same products to their reviewers as are available in stores. They can never regain my trust. It doesn't get much lower in the tech industry than a bait-n-switch.

To this day I don't believe that Gigabyte are sending the same products to their reviewers as are available in stores. They can never regain my trust. It doesn't get much lower in the tech industry than a bait-n-switch.

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Exactly what I said. They would send an item to the reviewers, but the retail product would be different. Like my GTX 970 G1 Gaming card, which was the most expensive 970 around, but I bought it based on reviews claiming it was the greatest (an a 980's price was far away from it in Canada). The RAM on this thing is el-cheapo defect RAM from Zimbabwe, meanwhile the review samples all used high end Samsung RAM which always hit 8GHz. The cheap RAM struggles to hit 7.5. I contacted Gigabyte to ask why they would do such a thing, and their answer was essentially "because we can". They said it meets specifications, no **** it does, anything at the time "met" specifications, people buy G1/Strix/etc cards based on reviews showing them to have superior components. It was as dirty of a tactic as they could do. Edit: I almost forgot, I had several of these cards, all had the crap RAM, and never met anyone who had the same components on one as the review samples did.

Exactly what I said. They would send an item to the reviewers, but the retail product would be different. Like my GTX 970 G1 Gaming card, which was the most expensive 970 around, but I bought it based on reviews claiming it was the greatest (an a 980's price was far away from it in Canada). The RAM on this thing is el-cheapo defect RAM from Zimbabwe, meanwhile the review samples all used high end Samsung RAM which always hit 8GHz. The cheap RAM struggles to hit 7.5. I contacted Gigabyte to ask why they would do such a thing, and their answer was essentially "because we can". They said it meets specifications, no **** it does, anything at the time "met" specifications, people buy G1/Strix/etc cards based on reviews showing them to have superior components. It was as dirty of a tactic as they could do. Edit: I almost forgot, I had several of these cards, all had the crap RAM, and never met anyone who had the same components on one as the review samples did.

I had a 1070 that had Samsung Memory that overclocked as usual. Also had one of two GTX 1080 Tis on G3D that overclocked beyond 2.1Ghz. Can't say I share the same view. They do cheap out of their VRMs though, especially on their B350 Ryzen boards. Do you have a GPU-Z shot of that 970?

I had a 1070 that had Samsung Memory that overclocked as usual. Also had one of two GTX 1080 Tis on G3D that overclocked beyond 2.1Ghz. Can't say I share the same view. They do cheap out of their VRMs though, especially on their B350 Ryzen boards. Do you have a GPU-Z shot of that 970?

They were probably too afraid of being sued for false advertisement if they did it for another generation, either that or you got lucky. VRMs on B350 boards? And here's a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/p5iysxQ.png

Exactly what I said. They would send an item to the reviewers, but the retail product would be different. Like my GTX 970 G1 Gaming card, which was the most expensive 970 around, but I bought it based on reviews claiming it was the greatest (an a 980's price was far away from it in Canada). The RAM on this thing is el-cheapo defect RAM from Zimbabwe, meanwhile the review samples all used high end Samsung RAM which always hit 8GHz. The cheap RAM struggles to hit 7.5. I contacted Gigabyte to ask why they would do such a thing, and their answer was essentially "because we can". They said it meets specifications, no **** it does, anything at the time "met" specifications, people buy G1/Strix/etc cards based on reviews showing them to have superior components. It was as dirty of a tactic as they could do. Edit: I almost forgot, I had several of these cards, all had the crap RAM, and never met anyone who had the same components on one as the review samples did.

I dunno about the B350 models, but Gigabyte's high end X370 boards (Gaming 5 & Gaming K7) use one of, if not the very best VRM setup you can find on any AM4 motherboard today (w/ ASUS' Crosshair VI Hero being the only other board I can think of with VRM's in the same ballpark; there's a list with all the popular AM4 boards VRM setup's broken down in detail floating around). The visually similar, but lower end X370 models (Gaming K5/K3) on the other hand are another story entirely though, as they use the same VRM setup as GB's B350 boards, just with an added top VRM heatsink. Aka, they very well could be garbage as I haven't looked into that VRM setup specifically (though from the relatively killer reviews of their B350 boards, I would wager a guess it's not. GB's done extremely well with their AM4 lineup, all things considered IMO, and I know others agree with me, like Hilbert here and Kyle over at HardOCP).

Why the closing comment "it's no Zenith"? The Zenith is a beautiful looking board and was my initial first choice, but was a bit too large for the case I had already purchased (Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX). So, I settled on the Gigabyte. I must say, it was interesting and gratifying to see the Aorus X399 beat the Zenith on all but one of those benchmarks. Mine will be built as soon as the Enermax LiqTech 360 AIO is released. I still have to buy the memory and had already settled on the same TridentZ, or Ripjaws V, in a 64gb kit. Thx for the review.

I bought the motherboard with the recommended memory G.Skill Trident Z RGB F4-3200C14Q-64GTZR (64G kit) and the result is: XMP profile doesn't work setting the memory spec manually doesn't work either (3200/1.35V) I'm currently stuck at 2133/1.2V. I'm using latest gigabyte uefi, version F3g.

TyrantofJustice:

Great review! First time i read a whole one through in a very long time but I have been eyeing this board the last few days ... i already picked up the gskill 3200 rgb memory which i just had to put in my current system to play with lol.pretty stick too. Im just unsure if i should buy a new str4 water cooler AIO that has full heat spreader which is not future proof or just get one compatible with ther bracket as i do not think my EKWB predatror 240 will fit. I am thinking of going the ring rgb AIO cooler but am unsure I also saw a new white cooler come out which would match my build but i am unsure if its compatible. i didnt know until i read the review that there will be an 8 core 16 thread version want to see a review on that please then i will decide as i am buying the processor last

Hi there Sadly these AIO are not the best on TR4 socket, you want to wait on other manufacturers to release their full coverage block like Enermax do have or other option is go route TR4 specific Noctua cooler If you do have EK Predator then have look on Phanteks Waterblock or Bykski WB, Bykski is on par with other manufacturers like EK or XSPC etc and cost way less than these WB And regarding this motherboard not sure,I still don't trust Gigabyte as brand Hope this helps Thanks, Jura