R E V I E W // G I G A B Y T E A O R U S Z 3 7 0 G A M I N G 7
overclocks. Whatever the capability
of your CPU, you’ll not be held back
by the GAMING 7 at all.
So, what of GPU support then? As
usual you have the typical Cross-
Fire and SLI multi-GPU support.
Gone are the days of plenty of PCI-
Express slots for 4-way GPU setups
and to reflect that the GAMING 7
simply features three full length
slots. Certainly not a board for
mining, but for ‘gaming’, it is more
than enough. In particular for
two-way VGA systems, this layout
I find particularly favourable. The
two primary slots for the graphics
cards are spaced a healthy distance
apart and the third slot is still far
enough for you to use a Sound card
should you choose (not that it’s
26 The OverClocker Issue 43 | 2018
necessary given the audio solution
on this board).
The only downside here is that two
of the M.2 slots will be operating
directly under two hot GPUs, which
is the last thing M.2 drives need. The
oddity here is that there two M.2 slots
that are susceptible to GPU heat and
they are the ones without a heat sink.
Yet, the primary or at least the first
M.2 slot just south of the CPU socket
has a beefy heatsink (M.2 Thermal
Guard is what GIGABYTE dubs it). You
can remove the heatsink of course
and install it on the 2nd slot but that
will still leave the last socket with no
cooling. Do watch out for this if you’re
planning on making use of all three
for some fast RAID action.
As with all gaming boards of late,
the GAMING 7 will allow you to
disco light yourself to oblivion with
the sheer number of LEDs placed
throughout the board. Just about
everything on the board can light up
and you can customise this to your
liking in the typical fashion. Definitely
not my cup of tea (not on just the
GAMING 7 but on every board), but
should come in plenty useful for
those who care for that sort of thing.
What I do care about though is
the audio solution. For years on
end GIGABYTE has made sure to
couple their boards with some of
the best if not the best audio circuity
in the business (at least as far as
component selection is concerned).
There’s been a small change this
time in that we are no longer