G
igabyte’sX570-IAorusProWiFiis themore
affordableofthetwomini-ITXboardswe’re
lookingatthismonth.Atless£227incVAT,it’s
noticeablycheaperthantheASRockX570Phantom
Gaming-ITX/TB3andconsiderablymoresothantheAsus
ROGCrosshairVIIIImpact.It alsohasa verydifferentfeature
setanddesign.
TherearedownsideswithGigabyte’seffort,though,the
mostconcerningofwhichis a lackoffanheaders.Thereare
justtwoavailable,oneofwhichis forthe
CPU,givingyoujustoneforyourcasefans.
Youcouldsolvethisproblemwitha fanhub
orsplittercable,butweexpecta minimumof
twosystemfanheadersona modernmini-
ITXmotherboard.
Gigabytehasalsolefta largeportionof
therearI/Opanelunused,andwhatis on
thebackis rathercramped.Therearefive
Type-A USB ports, one of which is USB 3.1,
which is fine, and an improvement over the
ASRock board’s paltry four ports.
However, you only get three audio jacks
tied to the Realtek ALC1220 audio codec,
meaning 8-channel speaker systems need
to use the front audio header to provide an
extra port.
This is partly down to Gigabyte including
three video outputs, but they’re only useful
with an APU – anyone else would find extra
USB ports or a full set of audio jacks much
more useful. On the plus side, the rear I/O
panel sports an integrated shield, while
offering a USB 3.1 Type-C port and
Gigabyte’s equivalent of USB BIOSGIGABYTE
X570IAORUS
PROWIFI /£227incVAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk
X570 MINIITX MOTHERBOARD
Flashback, which allows you to update the BIOS without a
CPU installed, although that’s only likely to be useful if you
buy it when 4th-gen Ryzen CPUs land next year.
Meanwhile, there are four SATA 6Gbps ports, which is
standard for a mini-ITX board and, unlike the ASRock board,
you get two M.2 ports – one on the top and the other
sandwiched in the middle of the backplate on the underside.
Both of them support PCI-E 4 and SATA M.2 SSDs, and the
top port is equipped with a large heatsink and fan that also
cool the chipset.
However, the top section, which you remove to install the
heatsink, isn’t attached using thermal paste or pads. Also, the
tiny fan didn’t seem to add much cooling power, with our
PCI-E 4 SSD sitting at similar temperatures when using its
stock heatsink with no active cooler.
Similarly, there’s a large heatsink cooling the eight-phase
power delivery on the side of the board, but there’s no niftyREVIEWS / MOTHERBOARD
SPEC
Chipset
AMD X570
CPU socket
AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2)
Memory support
2 slots: max 64GB DDR4 (up to
4400MHz)
Expansion slots
One 16x PCI-E 4
Sound
8-channel Realtek ALC1220-VB
Networking
1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, Intel 802.11ac
Wi-Fi
Overclocking
Base clock 100-119MHz, CPU
multiplier 8-64x; max voltages:
CPU 1.8V, RAM 2V
Ports
4 x SATA 6Gbps, 2 x M.2 PCI-E 4, 1 x
USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
2 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2, 2 x surround
audio out
Dimensions (mm)
170 x 170cc
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