AORUS X299 Gaming 9 Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts
Being that this is the current top X299 offering from Gigabyte it is packed with features and has everything you want in a high-end desktop motherboard. When it comes to running the Core X Series processors power delivery is important and this board has a great power delivery system designed by International Rectifier which includes both 4th Generation digital PWM Controllers and industry-leading 3rd Generation PowIRstage controllers. There are also server level chokes, which have a new design and reduce heat and provide efficient power delivery to the CPU VRM area. You have dual 8-pin EPS connectors to feed those 10+ core CPUs as well.

One thing that has really set these high-end boards from Gigabyte apart from others is their audio solution. The board has some of the best audio components available including the ESS SABRE reference DAC, TI Burr-Brown OPA1622 and LME49720, Savitech SV3S1018A, and audiophile grade capacitors from WIMA and Nichicon. The audio components are backed up by Creative’s top of the line Sound BlasterX 720° software.

2017 is the year of RGB and this board is packed with RGB LEDs, to my knowledge it has more RGB LEDs than any other X299 motherboard available. You have a total of six controllable LED sections on the board itself, the rear I/O shield, two RGBW headers, and a digital RGB header. Having RGBW headers means that you can use RGB, RGBW, or RGB-UV LED strips. The digital RGB header gives you the ability to use digital RGB strips where each LED on the RGB strip is addressable. All of this is of course done inside of Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion software, which is one of the best out there.

Gigabyte has not really changed the look of their BIOS all that much, but you do get Smart Fan 5 and RGB controls in the BIOS which is nice. I still feel that the Gigabyte BIOS just looks and feels a little dated compared to ASUS and MSI BIOSs. As far as software goes Gigabyte has put all of their software together in the APP Center, which makes it easy to download and install software as well as drivers.

As far as performance goes this board did great in all of our testing and nothing was out of the ordinary. When it came to overclocking we were able to get our Core i9-7900X up to 4.6 GHz (all 10 cores), which seems to be our current thermal limit for our X299 test bench.

Now we can’t not mention the price of this board, it is currently $499.99 at our favorite online retailer. That makes it one of the most expensive X299 motherboards available. But you have to keep in mind this board has pretty much everything, quality components, and some of the best audio you’ll be able to find. I think at the end of the day it comes down to if you are going to use all of those components, if you are then this is the board for you!

Overall ThinkComputers gives the AORUS X299 Gaming 9 Motherboard a 9 out of 10 score.

rating9 10

Pros:
– Quality VRM components
– So much RGB!
– Some of the best audio out there
– Quad M.2 slots
– Solid performance

Cons:
– One of the most expensive X299 boards out there

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