Review Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wifi 7 Review

[Admin]

Made to be a cheaper option for AM5, the Aorus Elite is a well-balanced board with Wi-Fi 7, several DIY-friendly features, and more for under $230.

Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wifi 7 Review : Read more

 

[Marlin1975]

Cons - Price​

I am looking at the B850s and some are as much or more than some X870 boards.
Seems maybe they hope people will not cross shop. But many, most?, boards I see are priced to high IMO.

 

[snarfo67]

Last year I bought a Gigabyte motherboard (I'm usually a shameless ASUS shill) because it had all the features I wanted, no features I didn't want, and was priced well below the equivalent ASUS board. All was well until did a BIOS update, which disabled my Windows 11 activation. Lesson learned, back to ASUS.

 

[Loadedaxe]

Last year I bought a Gigabyte motherboard (I'm usually a shameless ASUS shill) because it had all the features I wanted, no features I didn't want, and was priced well below the equivalent ASUS board. All was well until did a BIOS update, which disabled my Windows 11 activation. Lesson learned, back to ASUS.

That would have happened on a Asus board as well. It was a bug in Windows.
There is a script you have to do in power shell to get it reactivated, to my knowledge MS has fixed it.

 

[StuWiFi6DDR5]

That would have happened on a Asus board as well. It was a bug in Windows.
There is a script you have to do in power shell to get it reactivated, to my knowledge MS has fixed it.

They’ve been difficult for some time, BIOS issues, Windows 11 update issues, AMD not putting any XDNA, in the 9000 series, the 8000 series only having 16 tops, my M4 Mac mini 38 tops, my iPad mini 7 35 tops. Years back, pcie4 motherboard, pcie4 stick, old Ryzen 3 pcie4, but Ryzen 5, with graphics, no pcie 4, mind blown, you have to watch them like a hawk, which makes owner building, a chore, not a joy, like it used to be. A lot of us go for the mini computers, they come with the case, apu and motherboard integrated, power supply one plug, you have to get the ram, flash and boot media, but it’s still a lot less hassle.

Buying something off the shelf, doesn’t give you the AI, unless you pay through the nose. Mac mini M4, $600, no hassle, but you have to wait for the software, I haven’t managed, to load a llm yet. They say lm studio, llama 2, but not yet.

 

[sverebom]

The details on the M.2-slots are wrong.

According to the specs and the block diagram the first two M.2-slots connect to the CPU, only the third M.2-slot comes from the chipset .

from top to bottom:
M2A_CPU: PCIe 5.0 from the CPU
M2B_CPU: PCIe 4.0 from the CPU
M2C_SB: PCIe 4.0 from the Chipset/Southbridge

 

[StuWiFi6DDR5]

The details on the M.2-slots are wrong.

According to the specs and the block diagram the first two M.2-slots connect to the CPU, only the third M.2-slot comes from the chipset .

from top to bottom:
M2A_CPU: PCIe 5.0 from the CPU
M2B_CPU: PCIe 4.0 from the CPU
M2C_SB: PCIe 4.0 from the Chipset/Southbridge

Yup, gradually, pcie5, is getting into the motherboards and APUs, the 9000 series has pcie5, not the 8000 series, the 670 motherboards, often have pcie5, many of 850, 870 motherboards have pcie5. If I succeed, with a 670 motherboard, pcie5, will help with the llms, long and short term memory being crucial, speed, with the long term, speed and quantity being crucial, in the short term memory, I have 64 GB of ddr5, at 4.8GHz, only 8GB of GDDR6, at 12GHz. With a 7000 series graphics card, fingers crossed. So many things can go wrong, but I’ve ntfs formatted the pcie5 and created, the iso usb Windows 11 boot media.

 

[sverebom]

Don'T start with that please. We have been so close to having 1 PCIe 5.0 expansion and 2 PCIe 5.0 M.2-SSDs hooked to the CPU (all at max lanes), but then AMD had to insist on introducing USB 4.0 with the new chipsets, forcing the board partners to redistribute the available lanes in all kinds of weird ways (liker SSDs cannibalizing the GPU slot to find enough PCiE-Lanes).

Sure PCIe 5.0 doesn't matter much yet, but for future proofing it would have been nice to have a somewhat affordable (sub 300 USD/Euros) platform that can do 95 percent of what Desktop-user and Gamers need in PCIe 5.0. It could have been so easy to have a fully PCIe 5.0 X870(E) version of the B850 Aorus Elite, but no, AMD needed a killer feature for X870(E) and now we have a plethora of mid-range X870(E) mainboards that all steal lanes from the primary expansion slot when you populate the second M.2-slot with an SSD for your games.

 

[StuWiFi6DDR5]

Don'T start with that please. We have been so close to having 1 PCIe 5.0 expansion and 2 PCIe 5.0 M.2-SSDs hooked to the CPU (all at max lanes), but then AMD had to insist on introducing USB 4.0 with the new chipsets, forcing the board partners to redistribute the available lanes in all kinds of weird ways (liker SSDs cannibalizing the GPU slot to find enough PCiE-Lanes).

Sure PCIe 5.0 doesn't matter much yet, but for future proofing it would have been nice to have a somewhat affordable (sub 300 USD/Euros) platform that can do 95 percent of what Desktop-user and Gamers need in PCIe 5.0. It could have been so easy to have a fully PCIe 5.0 X870(E) version of the B850 Aorus Elite, but no, AMD needed a killer feature for X870(E) and now we have a plethora of mid-range X870(E) mainboards that all steal lanes from the primary expansion slot when you populate the second M.2-slot with an SSD for your games.

Yes cannibalism, I got a PC, Windows 10, 16GB ddr4, i5 6th generation, this time, it didn't crash from windows update. 3 year old update, up to date security. But I still couldn't get the pcie 5, 7000 series graphics, 9000 series Ryzen 5 APU, 670 motherboard, to output, to the screen. So I'll have to fall back on a 8,000 series APU, 650 motherboard, PCIE 4, 540 graphics card, if I can even get that, to work.

Maybe one day, I can cannibalise, the case and power supply, of the old PC, I have $A/C 3,000 worth, of components, gathering mould, in the cupboard. I'll have, to get a 800 series motherboard, to get over the BIOS problems with using a 9000 series APU. And PCIE 5, the mess, that's been the updates to Windows 11.

 

[Fox Tread33]

Last year I bought a Gigabyte motherboard (I'm usually a shameless ASUS shill) because it had all the features I wanted, no features I didn't want, and was priced well below the equivalent ASUS board. All was well until did a BIOS update, which disabled my Windows 11 activation. Lesson learned, back to ASUS.

January 16, 2025 - Hi. Interestingly, it so happens that a couple of days ago.. I watched a JazTwoCents video on how to transfer a Windows License when you change out a major component on a Desktop PC. He talks about other stuff in the first half of the video, but finally gets to the point and shows how to do it. It did require a phone call to Microsoft. Which as I recall, was just answering a few questions on the automated system. Further, I have learned that when confronting a Tech problem of some sort. To do a search online for a solution. Most often, any Tech problem we have related to computers, others have had also. Meaning that quite often someone has posted help tips and/or videos on the subject. It took awhile for me to remember to do a search, before "pulling my hair out", trying to solve the problem by myself. I hope that helps. Stay well. 😊

 

[Fox Tread33]

January 16, 2025 - Hi. Interestingly, it so happens that a couple of days ago.. I watched a JazTwoCents video on how to transfer a Windows License when you change out a major component on a Desktop PC. He talks about other stuff in the first half of the video, but finally gets to the point and shows how to do it. It did require a phone call to Microsoft. Which as I recall, was just answering a few questions on the automated system. Further, I have learned that when confronting a Tech problem of some sort. To do a search online for a solution. Most often, any Tech problem we have related to computers, others have had also. Meaning that quite often someone has posted help tips and/or videos on the subject. It took awhile for me to remember to do a search, before "pulling my hair out", trying to solve the problem by myself.

 

[Fox Tread33]

That would have happened on a Asus board as well. It was a bug in Windows.
There is a script you have to do in power shell to get it reactivated, to my knowledge MS has fixed it.

January 16, 2025 - Hi. Interestingly, it so happens that a couple of days ago.. I watched a JazTwoCents video on how to transfer a Windows License when you change out a major component on a Desktop PC. He talks about other stuff in the first half of the video, but finally gets to the point and shows how to do it. It did require a phone call to Microsoft. Which as I recall, was just answering a few questions on the automated system.

 

[StuWiFi6DDR5]

Don'T start with that please. We have been so close to having 1 PCIe 5.0 expansion and 2 PCIe 5.0 M.2-SSDs hooked to the CPU (all at max lanes), but then AMD had to insist on introducing USB 4.0 with the new chipsets, forcing the board partners to redistribute the available lanes in all kinds of weird ways (liker SSDs cannibalizing the GPU slot to find enough PCiE-Lanes).

Sure PCIe 5.0 doesn't matter much yet, but for future proofing it would have been nice to have a somewhat affordable (sub 300 USD/Euros) platform that can do 95 percent of what Desktop-user and Gamers need in PCIe 5.0. It could have been so easy to have a fully PCIe 5.0 X870(E) version of the B850 Aorus Elite, but no, AMD needed a killer feature for X870(E) and now we have a plethora of mid-range X870(E) mainboards that all steal lanes from the primary expansion slot when you populate the second M.2-slot with an SSD for your games.

Yes, I abandoned a lot of my ambitions and am using a 620 motherboard, with slots, for only 2 RAM sticks at 32GB, at 4.8GHz. It only takes PCIE 4, so half the amount, of short term memory and half the speed, of long term memory. I'm using a Ryzen 5 8000 series, not the 9000 series, but I put in the 7000 series graphics card, with 8GB of GDDR6. I've put the Windows 11 iso boot USB stick in, I'll try and boot soon, but I don't want, to get my hopes up, too much, abandon all hope, all ye, who enter here.

Later, I'll use the 9000 series APU, PCIE 5 stick and buy an 800 series motherboard, but I'll have to cannibalise, the 7000 series graphics card. I have a 500 series graphics card, I can put in the 8000 series computer, with 32GB of DDR 5, spare, I'll only have to get 32GB more of RAM, for the 9000 series computer.

 

[Hotrod2go]

Thanks for the review, but basically as a B650 board owner & Aorus Elite model too, no point in upgrading.