W
ithtwoveryattractiveboardstoits
namethismonth,Gigabytemustbe
proudofitsdesignersatthemoment.
TheTRX40AorusMasteremploysa huge
heatpipe-equippedheatsinkarraythat
stretchesrightaroundthetopandleftsideof
themotherboard.Theheatsinksarebyfarthe
mostintricateexamplesontesttoo,with
dozensofsmallfins,whichlookmorelikeCPU
coolerfinsthanthelumpsofaluminiumyoucan
seeontheotherTRX40boardsthismonth.
A smallfanis included,butit onlycoolsa
verysmallsectionoftheheatsink.Asa result,
theheatsinkgetstoastierundersustained
loadsthansomeoftheotherboardsontest.
Gigabyte’ssoftwarereportedthattheVRMs,
whichsitabovea 16+3-phasepowerdelivery
system,wererunningat69°Cafterten
minutesinPrime95,withtopandunderside
measurementsintheareahitting48°Cand57°C
respectively.TheASRockTRX40Taichi,withits
pairoflargerfans,manageda littlebetterhere.
Still,thelargebackplateontheundersideofthe
boardhelpstocooltheVRMsaswellasprotect
thePCB.
There’smorecoolingactiongoingon
withthethreeM.2ports,whichallsupport
eitherPCI-EorSATA6GbpsM.2SSDs.A long
GIGABYTE TRX40
AORUS MASTER/£492inc VAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.ukheatsink sits beneath the chipset fan and
cools two M.2 slots, well out of the way of
your graphics card, while the third heatsink
sits beneath the main 16x PCI-E slot, so it will
be tricky to remove with your graphics card
in place. The lower heatsink managed to cool
our Corsair MP600 SSD to 58°C, which is
reasonable and only a few degrees warmer
than the result we obtained from the ASRock
TRX40 Taichi.
You also get the full count of eight SATA
6Gbps ports that we’ve seen on other boards
this month, and thankfully, the Gigabyte
has plenty of other nifty features too. There
are dual BIOS switches and Probelt voltage
readout points, as well as power, reset and
clear-CMOS buttons. You also get USB BIOS
Flashback and an LED POST code display.
Unlike the other sub-£500 competition, you
also get a right-angled 24-pin ATX connector,
which is great for cable tidying and certainly a
standout feature. There’s an impressive count
of eight fan headers as well, which can all
handle up to 2A or 24W apiece.
Illumination is fairly restrained out of the box
for Gigabyte, with just a small diffusing block
of plastic sitting in the I/O shroud, but you get
the usual four RGB LED headers if you want toadd more lighting. There are no major layout
issues either, with the large heatsink at the
base solving some of the M.2 access issues
on the Asus board. Also, the Gigabyte’s DIMM
slots sit much further away from the top PCI-E
slot than the ones on the Asus board, with the
latches not coming close to interfering with our
test graphics card.
Meanwhile, there are seven Type-A USB
ports in total, which will be enough for most
people, and you get a 5 Gigabit Aquantia
Ethernet controller in addition to a standard Intel
Gigabit controller, plus 802.11ax Wi-Fi. Gigabyte
has also combined the Realtek ALC1220 audio
codec with an ESS9218 DAC and WIMA audio
capacitors. The box accessories are a little
lacking, though, especially compared with the
ASRock TRX40 Taichi and its hefty air-cooled
M.2 expansion card.SPEC
Chipset AMD TRX40
CPU socket AMD Socket TR4X
(3rd-Gen Threadripper/Zen 2)
Memory support 8 slots: max
256GB DDR4 (up to 4400MHz)
Expansion slots Four 16x PCI-E 4, one 1x PCI-E 4
Sound 8-channel Realtek ALC1220
Networking 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, 1 x
Aquantia 5 Gigabit LAN, 802.11ax Wi-Fi
Overclocking Base clock 100-
200MHz, CPU multiplier 23-63x; max
voltages: CPU 1.55V, RAM 2V
Ports 8 x SATA 6Gbps, 3 x M.2 PCI-E 4,
5 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
2 x USB 2, 3 x surround audio out
Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244LABS TEST / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS