Gigabyte X870 Aorus Infinity first looks: Built for serious overclockers

PC | ComponentsGigabyte X870 Aorus Infinity first looks: Built for serious overclockersAt S$1,199, Gigabyte’s motherboard is easy to admire but harder to justify for an everyday gaming PC.

Photo: HWZThere is something quite appealing about a motherboard that makes you stop and work out where everything has gone. With the Gigabyte X870 Aorus Infinity, the memory slots sit on top of the processor, an M.2 drive goes where I would normally expect the RAM to be, and a row of buttons along the right edge doesn’t look like it belongs there in a traditional layout. Even before getting into its specifications, it is clear that Gigabyte has a particular kind of PC enthusiast in mind for this Infinity board.

The Infinity’s unusual layout reflects its purpose: an AM5 board designed to help overclockers push their processor and memory further. It also reminds me that some enthusiasts want more from a motherboard than just simple overclocking. I find that interesting, even if my own priorities when building a PC tend to be rather more mundane these days.

This is a first look at the Infinity’s design and features, so I am leaving performance judgements for another time. There is already plenty to talk about without a benchmark chart, including a few decisions by Gigabyte that make more sense once you stop treating the Infinity as a conventional motherboard.

Even the back of the X870 Aorus Infinity is fully armoured.

At a glance, I thought the black-and-silver finish is relatively restrained for a flagship consumer board. Large heatsinks and a full backplate give the Infinity a substantial appearance (and weight), while the illuminated Aorus falcon adds some RGB subtlety without turning the whole board into a light show. Personally, I like the balance as I thought the exposed switches and diagnostic displays already give the board enough character.

Gigabyte’s innovative EZ-Latch Up mechanism allows you to remove a graphics card easily.

One detail I particularly like is the sliding cover over the two eight-pin CPU power connectors. It moves aside for access, then slides back to conceal the connections. It is a small touch, but one that I thought was very clever. That said, the 305mm by 275mm E-ATX footprint means checking your case carefully (make sure its E-ATX compatible), particularly the space around its cable-routing openings.

The more consequential change is the CPU socket, which has been rotated by 90 degrees here. Together with the two memory slots above it, Gigabyte claims this is intended to shorten and improve the consistency of the signal paths between the processor and RAM. The primary M.2 slot consequently sits vertically to the right of the socket. It takes a little mental adjustment, but there is a purpose behind the rearrangement.

The Infinity has an 18+2+2-phase design, 110A power stages and a 10-layer PCB.

The VRM heatsinks use a direct-touch heatpipe to help carry heat away from the power-delivery components.

Having only two DIMM slots on such a large board might seem odd at first, but it is also less restrictive than it sounds: Gigabyte specifies support for up to 128GB of memory. The compromise is expansion. Populate both slots now and a later capacity upgrade means replacing those modules, rather than adding another pair.

Gigabyte also lists memory speeds support of up to 11,400MT/s, but attaining this threshold will require experienced manual tuning in the BIOS as well as having the right memory sticks as well. Nonetheless, if you’re a serious overclocker looking to push your system to the limit, the Infinity is one platform to consider.

The board’s overclocking controls are all easily accessible in one row.

The Infinity’s overclocking controls are where its layout starts to make sense. Alongside power and reset controls are a clear-CMOS button, a cold-reset button, external-clock adjustment buttons and voltage-measurement points. Two diagnostic displays add another way to see what the system is doing – especially during boot up. These are very convenient to reach if I were repeatedly changing settings and dealing with failed boots, making the process of experimenting, checking and recovering less fiddly.

Gigabyte’s CPU Thermal Matrix is a specialized metal frame and backplate system that helps to dissipate heat from the around the CPU area.

The accessories included in the package are worth mentioning too. Alongside the CPU Thermal Matrix cooling attachment is a socket backplate intended to accommodate liquid-nitrogen cooling hardware. I’m almost not very likely to be using it, but it’s thoughtful of Gigabyte to include it for those who dare. And like most, if not all, modern flagship motherboards, the Infinity also features screwless M.2 fittings and a tool-less graphics-card release (EZ-Latch Up).

Could Gigabyte have added more M.2 slots onto the Infinity?

It’s surprising to see retro-looking PS/2 connectors on the Infinity too, but they offer direct, low-latency, and driver-free hardware communication that USB cannot always match.

Storage is where I believe the Infinity started to let me down. There are three M.2 slots and four SATA ports, with two M.2 connections capable of PCIe 5.0 operation with an appropriate processor. Three drives are more than enough, but for an E-ATX size of a motherboard I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want more.

There is also a bandwidth caveat worth knowing before planning a build. The second CPU-connected M.2 slot shares its connection with the USB4 controller, so using that slot limits each to an x2 connection. Getting the M.2 slot’s full x4 bandwidth requires disabling USB4, which can be a bummer if you intend to combine fast external storage with multiple internal SSDs.

Elsewhere, 5GbE, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 provide a useful networking spread. The magnetic Wi-Fi antenna connector is another welcome convenience. There are even separate PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports to give it that nostalgic look.

While it’s geared toward overclocking enthusiasts, the X870 Aorus Infinity is still a very good looking motherboard for DIY PC makers.

For me, there is something satisfying about hardware designed around a specific purpose, and Gigabyte has put a lot of thought into making this board useful and convenient for overclockers. Ordinary DIY enthusiasts are not left out either, with details such as the sliding connector cover and screwless fittings making the build process a little less fiddly.

But here’s the thing. If you do not need all those overclocking bells and whistles, the S$1,199 Gigabyte X870 Aorus Infinity is pretty much overkill – especially when Gigabyte’s other AMD flagship, the X870 Aorus Master X3D, costs about S$100 less. However, if tinkering is part of the enjoyment you get from building PCs, there is plenty here to like. And just on looks alone, the Infinity would rank high on my list of overclocking motherboards.