Gigabyte B450 AORUS M rev. 1.0
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Compact microATX motherboard based on 2018 AMD B450 chipset. Equipped with an AM4 processor socket, it supports the installation of 2, 4 and 8-core AMD Ryzen / Ryzen Pro processors of the first, second and third generation, including models with an integrated Radeon Vega and Athlon 200GE graphics core. It features a reinforced processor power subsystem with heat-dissipating aluminium radiators and two PCI-E x16 slots with support for multiGPU configurations using AMD 2-Way CrossFireX technology, has advanced tools for overclocking processors and RAM.
Thanks to its small overall dimensions, it can be installed in compact housings. The manufacturer is positioned as a model of the middle price category, it can be used to assemble performant home and gaming configurations. The Gigabyte B450 AORUS M motherboard is equipped with 4 slots for DDR4 RAM modules with a clock frequency of up to 3200 MHz, with support for dual-channel mode and a maximum total volume of 64 GB. Allows you to connect one high-performance M.2 drive (up to 32 Gbps) and up to 6 SATA3 devices (6 Gbps). The Realtek 8118 gigabit network controller is responsible for network communications. The audio subsystem is based on the Realtek ALC892 7.1-channel HDA codec with an improved analogue path. There is a selection of USB ports, including high-speed USB 3.1 Gen2 and Gen1.
Overclocker fee for $100
Gigabyte B450 AORUS M is a perfectly balanced model based on the modern B450 chip, which takes its toll due to a successful combination of functionality and reasonable cost. It's perfect for mid-to-high-end gaming PCs that don't need extreme overclocking.
Not at all low-cost friendly
At the same time, the overclocking capabilities here are very advanced: the board has a reinforced power subsystem and a VRM heatsink, XMP support for simplified overclocking of RAM, and a bunch of useful little things like fan speed control from the BIOS and automatic reset to default settings when overclocked. The only thing I didn’t like was that they saved on the mosfet cooling radiator, so with strong overclocking, you have to carefully control the operating temperature.
Compliments
The rest of the technical set is not far behind. In the arsenal of the board, you can find 4 DDR4 slots with a maximum operating frequency of 3600 MHz, an M.2 slot with a heatsink and NVMe support, a gaming LAN controller with traffic prioritization, an improved audio subsystem based on a top codec, a well-thought-out cooling system, Gigabyte RGB Fusion backlight synchronization, a modern set of video outputs including HDMI for the use of processors with integrated graphics. Numerous USB ports are provided for connecting peripheral devices, you can only regret the absence of USB-C. There is DualBIOS support, which is rare for this class.
