Gigabyte's AM4 Flagship: The Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming K7 Motherboard

In preparation for Ryzen’s impending launch, OEMs have placed several AM4 motherboards up for pre-order. We now get a look at Gigabyte’s Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming K7 AM4 flagship, but you may not be able to pre-order it in your area.

They "neatest" feature of the Aorus AX370-Gaming K7 is its use of interchangeable RGB LED overlays that give additional customization options. The board also has RGB LEDs located around the RAM slots, PCI-E slots, audio hardware, and heatsinks. If you feel the need for more RGB LED lights, there are also two light strip headers on board.

As a flagship motherboard, AX370-Gaming K7 also boasts the best overclocking features out of Gigabyte’s AM4 product line up. It has numerous power phases covered by large heatsinks, and it supports two BIOS chips to ease recovery from a bad overclock. Gigabyte also equipped its Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming K7 with a third-party clock generator. Although most people will prefer to OC by raising the CPU multiplier, the added clock generator will make BCLK overclocking easier and more stable.

Gigabyte opted to use a unique audio configuration that consists of two Realtek ALC1220 audio codecs. One codec is devoted to the front audio ports, whereas the other one is used for the rear audio jacks. These codecs are also equipped with AMPs, relatively high-end capacitors, and various types of protection against EMI. Gigabyte also licensed Creative’s Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5 software to further enhance the performance of these chips.

The Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming K7 has a total of four USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. Two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports are connected to the X370 chipset, while a third is powered by an ASMedia controller. The ASMedia controller also supports a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port located on the rear I/O panel.

For storage connections, Gigabyte offers a total of eight SATA-III ports, an M.2 Key M slot, and a U.2 connector. The board also has two SATA-Express connectors, but these will almost certainly go unused, as virtually no SATA-Express devices exist.

There is currently no word on pricing or availability for the Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming K7 in the United States. It's available for pre-order in Canada for $219.99 CAD on Newegg, however, and if it's priced comparably stateside, it should be around $168 USD when it is released.