The most completed AM4 motherboard it have lot of dual tech. on it.....
review by
radical vision
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Introducing
All this thing in this review are the main reasons why i did go for Aorus K7, instead of ASRock Fatality Prof. Gaming the other board i did consider, or ASUS ROG CHVI....
This is the most completed board from all AM4 boards. It have so many features, no other brand can offer + Gigabyte`s great build quality that is known from years to come.
The board have so many, many, many futures, overall build quality for its price is ridiculous. Even the damn box of the K7 feels premium that only confirm what i say, Gigabyte don`t cheap on their boards/cards + they have very good support.
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Main Futures/ Options
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RGB fusion
The board have ton of led is like disco, or some DJ party is very nice, no other board have that nice party feeling to it if you are up to it. it can change the whole concept of the system, is all black, and in the next moment can be black + at least 10 colors you can adjust via smartphone or APP center is insane. But if someone don`t like the RGB it can turn it off, and the board will have classic no lights style with all matte black + stylish metal slots like a gun or something from designer.
Dual technology
This product have many dual things on board.
Dual BIOS is life savior as we all know now Zen processors are still in not the final state of bioses, AGESA, memory settings and more, so we update very often the bios and if something get wrong we will have big problems, here it comes the x2 bioses on the board that can help us a lot and save us time, nerves and more headbanging on the wall, this is one of the very best futures of the board that only Gigabyte offers today..
Dual gigabit LAN is very nice future as well to have + both chips are very quality and the very best on the market now Intel lan and Rivet Killer E2500 + Bigfoot Killer software that helps to manage pings, and network load times very nice future to have as well. You can plug second LAN cable on the second lan card and to put the ping to absolute minimum, or use one of the lan cards, and the second one to stay as backUP lan card is very useful..
Dual Audio the board is equipped with x2 Realtek ALC1220 chips, that future can make the computer even more useful x2 audio streams, ofc the sound quality is not the greatest but is still very acceptable. Bcuz Gigabyte know as well that realtek are not the best of the best, they pared the x2 codecs with Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5, this software from creative makes miracles when you play movies or games, still not very good for music, but is ok for the price of the board i think they did all things on the best possible way, there was easy way for Gigabyte to put creative audio chip + other audio components, but that was going to affect the price on negative way of course, so i think that was the best way + there is the option to buy discrete audio such as Xonar Essence STX II or Creative SB ZXR..
Dual USB even the USB onboard are duals, x2 USB 3.0 headers and x2 USB 2.0 headers that provides even more options to the whole system when installed, not many boards have that options on them.
The Style
The MB have one of the best styles all over on AM4 socket, the only one that looks better is the MSI titanium, but im fan of the black line so i like more the Aorus look. The PCB is all matte black that just make it to look like some tuxedo, or some expensive gem, with all metal slots and all metal gold plated jacks the look on the board becomes even better. Aorus is the only line of AM4 boards that offers premium feel, only they use all the way metal plated jacks, instead of the ugly metal + plastic that i found as ugly as hell and add cheap looks to the other brands. The chipset and VRM coolers look amazing, brushed aluminium + the Aorus branding all are so well made that makes people to be like
. The overall look of the board is very stylish it can be on 2 modes max style or max DJ party with RGB all over the place. The board can be turned on white lights meaning it still be very stylish, or when they are completely off you can enjoy the looks of it the good old fashion way. I can say for me the board look like some tech designed by some famous designer that did give his best to make the board look the best way...
The BIOS/ OC
The bios is not the best one, but it get the job done. Not much options or fine tuning options, and the K7 still manages to get on par with ROG CHVI on max OC on CPU or memory, or even LN2 overclocking, meaning the board is not bad at getting the max possible clock speeds of your chips.... Me and other people don`t have problems to get 3200MHz, some of them even x4 stick of 32GB total DDR4 memory on that board, that just show the board in very good light. My experience with K7 board is all the way good, and im impressed how stable it works, no crashes, boot problems or memory incompatibility. The bios seems stable enough at this point F4, as Gigabyte provides s decent amount of updates, while other like asus don`t provide much updates, at least not betas... My board is running 3 months now and is rock stable, no problems whatsoever so i can say it is nice board. I will like to see Gigabyte adding at least 30% more options in the bios, bcoz now seems like uncompleted in bios part.
More Futures/Options
LED diagnostic display that shows error codes, and helps, there are even x4 diagnostic leds, that light up on major components CPU, RAM, VGA, BOO, this is very helpful if there is some problem...
Turbo B-Clock this chip allow users to adjust the system FSB and tweak even more the whole system, no all boards have this chip...
NVMe this U.2 port uses faster protocol to transfer data sata 3 SSD drives can get way improved speed over this connector, it can be very useful to have, not all board support this future as well..
PS2 connector, is nice to see they did add this so old port, i use it to connect my old trusty IBM Model M and to write all this here. PS2 allow users to use they favorite old mechanical keyboards, or even mouses, it make the install of windows 7 possible, without doing nothing more then just connect the PS2 mouse to the port.
G-Connector is one of that futures i always did enjoy seeing in a board package, still is not like the ones on ASUS ROG series, is a bit buggy, but is still very useful to have, the installation of the case front panel is so much easy with that connector...
The Software/APPS
The APPS/Software is very well made, the Creative X-Fi MB5 provide descent movie and gaming sound, for music is ok, not the best. It adds more bass to the sound, it have special mode that helps you to hear enemy players in shooter games such as CS, it have also modes that help to watch movies at night and make the movies speech clear, really nice software. Killer Bigfoot software helps to manage internet traffic and manage pings, and programs very useful and good to have.
Gigabyte APP center this is the best software for the board it offer 24 different apps that are very useful, some of them are still bugged, but overall i like how they did the whole software. The SIV have inside the Smart FAN 5, this app is amazing, it give 110% fan control of the board to the users. The auto mode have x4 options, quiet, normal, turbo and full speed, but i don`t really like them simply bcuz it just ramp up all the time the fan speed when the CPU reach bigger temperatures, and when it become cooler the fans are become on lower speed, meaning all the time it makes really annoying noise that can make everyone mad. Now the advanced mode is the treasure here it give you absolute control on every fan header, at the very moment i have all the speeds i like from 20% rpm up to 80%, making the computer run quiet and not ramp/down the rpms all the time. Of course above 60c the fans will become so much louder at max rpm, but on 50c the system is so quiet only the HDD is the thing i can hear, great software. The SIV have also calibrations of the fans and info about the % and the correct RPM of the fan at that percentages + 7 thermal spots that report the temperatures gigabyte did go even further they add x2 thermistors for optional temperature monitoring. It have more options to record temps, voltages or fans is useful.......
The RGB fusion APP is very well made as well it have nice amount of options for the users to set up the led on the MB, the color, the style, the brightness, the speed. It have even advanced mode for every single led or temperature based mode that goes from green to red...
USB DAC UP is very useful for USB headphones, it will ramp up the sound for more power, but i think it will be better for the audio jacks on the back as well or the front audio too, not only the USB....
The fast boot app seems even nicer, but i think is bugged at the moment, and don`t boot up faster with it...
I find the USB block as very nice future, no one can use the USB if is turned on, but uninstalling the program will brake that effect....
I like the options of color for the whole Giga APP center, very nice of them to include this
The overall quality/ packaging
Gigabyte is know from many years to be superior in build quality and stability boards. I can see that just by the look only of the box it feels really premium for that price tag, solid box not cheap like was on some brand DFI LanParty for example, where the board and the box feel cheap and they are. On Aorus k7 there is not such thing as cheap all says premium and good quality product. We can see that even on GTX 1080TI Aorus is the best based GEforce card. Gigabyte use to have that high build quality, even on old slot 1 boards such as Gigabyte BX2000 they are using high quality capacitors and even dual bios that is just proof about the quality... The caps are japan high quality 10K it will take so long to see them dead, the chokes, they all are with great quality as well as the transistors they are IR based one of the very best on the market now Infineon is behind all, and that company is know to be good, they used to be and Memory manufacturer but seems today they make power components, that just show how quality is made the Aorus K7 board. The Ultra Durable quality of Gigabyte is not some marketing joke is here on the PCB of the board, all caps, chokes, mosfets, even anti sulfur resistors...
The packaging is bot the greatest, but have some useful things, like the x2 thermistors, sata cables, one RGB cable, but the most shocking for me was the SLI bridge, the damn plastic on the connectors was with steel on them lol, no one does that....
Metal memory and x16 PCI ex slots, this is really nice future to have, and all other brands have steel slots only on the x2 of the PCI slots, but none of the memory. Only Titanium board have all steel slots, but that board sucks bad on every other aspect different then steels slots + style...
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Conclusion
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The board offers much for its price compared to MSI`s Titanium or ASUS ROG. Many of us enthusiasts knows that the MSI Titanium is very bad board, low quality components, high price, no futures, no even BLCK chip. Other thing many people don`t know is the fact ASUS CHVI is not much better then Aorus K7 compared in all aspects, yes the ROG have better bios, and little more powerful VRM components, but both MB are capable of OC Zen processors on LN2 no problem. The problem on CHVI is it have nothing special inside, no futures, no nothing and all that on higher price tag, and i don`t find that as nice + most important thing is ASUS RMA support suck really bad, i did see that in first hand when i gor x2 times problems on asus boards, and their support threat me like scum, so that is BIG + on Aorus compared to ROG.... This + tons of futures on the Aorus K7 make me say proudly i know the K7 is the very best board out there, it need just a little more and it will be more then great, and i don`t say that bcoz i own K7, no i say that bcoz that are all the reasons and they send me to the Aorus K7 instead of ROG CHVI....
At the end with Aorus K7 everyone can have wide range of utility, from only one computer die to all options Gigabyte did include on the board, apps, connectors, options and more. Of course i will like to see an improved Aorus K7 or even Aorus K9 board, that offers even more things, like on intel side they have even Aorus 8 and Aorus 9 boards, while AMD is stuck only with K7 that is the same as the Aorus 5, if we don`t count the better style and the B-Clock chip...
Pros | Cons |
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RGB fusion, steels slots, dual: BIOS, LAN, AUDIO, USB, PS2 con, metal gold plated jacks, x8 fan headers, Ultra Durable quality, Aorus look, price..... | No Wi-Fi, VRM heatsink need to be bigger and there is not heat pipe, BIOS need way more options, only 8 pin +12 CPU power, M2 spot + no cooling... |
Ratings