E
P
latforms come and go and so too do
motherboards build around such
platforms. In AMD’s case however,
they tend to have their chipsets or at least
sockets stick around for quite a while. So,
buying an AMD based motherboard is
almost always going to be a longer-term
investment as compared to Intel chipsets.
At least this holds true for the desktop
platform, maybe less so for HEDT.
Regardless, what this means is that
you’ll want to buy essentially once and
use the same board for as long as
possible. With the GIGABYTE X570 AORUS
MASTER, you just may have the chance to
do that. Not only because of the platform
feature set, but with all the additional
functionality available on this board in
particular.
As usual there really isn’t much for
board vendors to add to their offerings
especially if AMD or INTEL cram so much
into the chipset. Nowhere is this more
vivid than with the X570. Native PCIe Gen4
and USB 3.2 Gen2 to name the major
platform features. That already sorts out
all motherboards with cutting edge
interfaces. To which, companies such as
GIGABYTE will add additional
...the AORUS MASTER
features a pretty beefed
up audio system...
ICs to provide Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0
support, which is precisely what they’ve
done here. Naturally it doesn’t stop
there, GIGABYTE like competing vendors
goes the extra step with either a 2.5G/5G
or sometimes on specific boards 10G
ethernet. On the AORUS MASTER, it’s the
more modest 2.5G Realtek LAN, though I
doubt many will lament it not being of the
faster variety.
That said and true to GIGABYTE’s
history, the AORUS MASTER features
a pretty beefed up audio system, built
around the premium ALC S1220-VB
CODEC, paired with the ESS
SABRE 9118 DAC. The
rest is as you’d expect,
Nichicon WIMA,
fine gold capacitors
and an Op-AMP for
supporting high
impedance headsets
(auto detect). Overall,
notable audio
capabilities which
are always welcomed.
That's all appreciated,
but that isn't special.
What makes this motherboard special in my
books comes down to power delivery as the
AORUS MASTER is only one of two
motherboards on the market which make
use of the next generation Infineon
multiphase digital VRM. As you know by
now this board doesn’t use any doublers
(which supposedly helps with transient
response) as all 14-phases are controlled
directly by the Infineon XDPE 132GSC with
each phase featuring a 50A IR3556 Power
Stage. Plenty of power for any sort of
overclocking, regardless of the CPU
installed (that includes the Ryzen 9 3950X).