First things first, let’s talk about the motherboard’s form factor. It’s an EATX layout, which as a definition is a little imprecise; in this instance the board size (30.5cm x 26.9cm H x W) extends beyond ATX in both horizontal and vertical dimensions, which you should take into account when pairing it with a suitable chassis. Compact chassis that technically support EATX motherboard may have cable routing issues or be otherwise cramped for space.


As a premium approach to the X670E solution the AORUS XTREME unsurprisingly arrives with a nice selection of accessories, including:



The USB DAC in particular will add quite a bit of value to the bundle but even items as simple as the Q Connector - designed to make connecting front panel switches to the motherboard as painless as possible - add an aura of quality to the package.

A majority black colour scheme, interrupted only by a few white highlights and some AORUS branding, make the XTREME something of a blank canvas upon which you can impart your own personalised touches through customisable LED lighting. Lighting can be linked and controlled through their proprietary RGB Fusion implementation, or a unified control system compatible with this standard.


A large ‘thermal shield’ covers almost the entirety of the back of the motherboard. It acts as a heatspreaders for hotter components mounted to the rear of the board as well as the PCB in general, whilst also adding rigidity. The aluminium has a ‘NanoCarbon’ coating which should help to dissipate heat despite the lack of air flow over the surface.

The motherboard’s AM5 socket supports the whole range of Ryzen 7000-series CPUs including those as-yet unreleased. Once again however we should remind readers that the pins in LGA sockets are fragile, so the CPU installation process should be handled with utmost care. Older AM4 coolers which utilise the clip retainer system should be compatible with the new AM5 socket but other styles may not be supported. Check with the cooler manufacturer prior to installation; some manufacturers also offer upgrade kits to those who need it.


Two 8-pin 12V connectors feed the CPU plenty of power for standard and overclocked configurations, but they are ideally located for easy cable routing. Bordering them below and to the right are the tall VRM heatsink assemblies which may require a certain amount of air flow to operate efficiently. Clearance could be an issue for some wide twin-tower CPU coolers.

Further along the top edge and from left to right there are a trio of PWM fan headers (of a total of 10), three RGB headers, an on-board power switch, and debug LED panel (which is always a welcome troubleshooting addition). The DDR5 DIMM slots have been reinforced to offer greater rigidity, with A2 and B2 as the recommended install location for 2-DIMM configurations and thus giving the most leeway for larger heatsinks.


Down the right side are the 24-pin power connector, two further fan headers and a pair of two-pin thermal probe headers, USB 3.2 20Gbps front panel header, CPU/VGA/DRAM/BOOT indicator LEDs, Thunderbolt/USB4 header (for an upcoming optional add-in card), another sensor header, six SATA ports at right-angles to the motherboard, two more fan headers also at right-angles, and a reset switch. That’s a lot going on, and will require some pretty accomplished cable management to make it look even remotely tidy.

The inclusion of so many troubleshooting and on-board control options shows how aligned the X670E XTREME is with high-end overclocking. These are not options found on a typical gaming board in today’s market.


Directly below the CPU socket is an M.2 slot compatible with the new wider 25110 form factor as well as the older long 22110 standard, the former of which will be more common among PCIe 5.0 drives. This slow benefits from the augmented Thermal Guard III cooling (a heatsink on top of the slot’s heatspreader), and so is most suited for the highest performance SSDs. Next is the PCIe x16 slot, supporting PCI-Express 5.0 and GIGABYTE’s quick-release EZ-Latch Plus feature that makes removing a GPU more straightforward. Below this are three more PCIe 5.0 M.2 22110/2280 slots for yet more storage, bringing the total number of supported PCIe 5.0 drives to four when two or even one is more typical for X670E.

Each drive slot is located under a heatspreader; thermal pads are affixed both under the heatspreader and between drive and motherboard PCB for optimum cooling for even dual-sided M.2 SSDs.


The two PCIe x16 slots at the bottom of the board are wired for x4 and x2 lane operation respectively, but remain well away from the top-most slot to improve compatibility with today’s super-thick graphics cards. Note that this board does not support dual-GPU configurations.

Aligned along the bottom edge are more fan, front panel, USB 2.0 and USB 3 headers as well as the PWR/RST/LED connectors for front panel switches. The only other notable inclusions are a couple more LED headers for RGB lighting extensions. Tucked away on the near side are the on-board audio components, isolated from other components as much as possible for cleaner audio reproduction.

A great aspect of this layout is the plethora of routing options for fans and front panel I/O, something that is often sorely lacking on cheaper motherboards. This will allow for cleaner builds where the configuration demands that most or all of the headers are utilised, particularly in cases that complement all of the header locations.


As with all X670E motherboards, the XTREME features a wide selection of I/O from both chipset and the CPU SOC:



One feature this design does lack is dual-LAN support, something that’s been a mainstay of high-end motherboards for some years. That’s mitigated somewhat by 10GbE and now standard WiFi 6E, but it could be a frustration for a subset of potential buyers.

Overall the AORUS X670E XTREME is exceptionally well put together, with thoughtful layout design that puts control in the hands of the end-user rather than the whims of the engineer. Troubleshooting features will be welcomed by all but particularly those overclocking on the bleeding edge of the platform’s capabilities, while RGB support and aesthetics tweaks are appropriate for any user with an eye towards their systems attractiveness.

If we have a concern it’s the left-hand VRM cooling heatsink, that doesn’t allow air to freely circulate through the fin stack due to the LED cover and solid I/O shield. It shouldn’t be a problem because of the heatpipe through to the upper heatsink, but it’s an odd design choice where otherwise so much has been set aside for keeping thermals under control.