GIGABYTE X570 Gaming X Motherboard Review

[Brent_Justice]

Introduction



Today, we are looking at GIGABYTE’s X570 Gaming X motherboard. This is quite literally, the second-lowest priced GIGABYTE X570 motherboard we could find. There is one that’s about $10 lower which lacks RGB LED lighting, but I like shiny, blinky lights so here we are.



Here at TheFPSReview, we’ve covered some of the most expensive motherboards for the AM4 platform and several that fall in the middle of the spectrum. We have covered some less expensive motherboards, but never the...

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[Niner51]

Very nice review. I've been tinkering with the idea of building an AMD system and was looking into this board. I doubt I'll do it, but if I did I would no doubt heavily consider this board. This review only backs my thinking up.

 

[Dan_D]

It was a surprisingly good motherboard. Low end boards are a bit of a double-edged sword for me. They are relatively easy to test as they have less integrated hardware, but at the same time they are often quirkier, not as well made, etc. GIGABYTE really did a good job cutting the fluff without making it horribly cheap like some other brands usually do.

That's not to say the VRM is excessively beefy, but it's good enough and can more than handle higher end CPU's like the 3900X and 3950X if need be.

 

[Burticus]

Nice review Dan.

I don't like the x570 boards having the tiny cooling fan on the chipset. Those things always fail or become noisy over time. I would prefer a proper beefy heatsink if needed.

GB is not my favorite brand but they are in my top 3. Their bios implementations have always been wacky and different from everyone else's.

 

[David_Schroth]

Nice review Dan.

I don't like the x570 boards having the tiny cooling fan on the chipset. Those things always fail or become noisy over time. I would prefer a proper beefy heatsink if needed.

GB is not my favorite brand but they are in my top 3. Their bios implementations have always been wacky and different from everyone else's.

I would agree that the tiny fans tend to fail/get noisy over time, but then again, I've had an MSI X570-A Pro sitting next to me for the past 6 months as a test bench and the fan very very very rarely runs to the point it's fairly moot to have it. The only time it has run is when I had a video card in it that was exhausting its heat down onto the heatsink - other than that, it's been off the whole time. Thermal images show it to be about 110-120 degrees F when under load.

 

[noko]

Very nice review, looks like a good motherboard for a Ryzen 3600 build keeping the costs down while allowing for later upgrades to much higher end CPUs.

The Spec chart looks wrong, it has 3x PCIe 3.0 16x slots as listed, not sure of the rest either, Quad CrossFire support?

 

[Riccochet]

I would agree that the tiny fans tend to fail/get noisy over time, but then again, I've had an MSI X570-A Pro sitting next to me for the past 6 months as a test bench and the fan very very very rarely runs to the point it's fairly moot to have it. The only time it has run is when I had a video card in it that was exhausting its heat down onto the heatsink - other than that, it's been off the whole time. Thermal images show it to be about 110-120 degrees F when under load.

That's been my experience as well. If it does run I can't hear it.

 

[Dogsofjune]

I have had good luck with the B450 boards so far. I wouldn’t mind checking this board out for a new Linux box. As for the chipset fan, I still have a Swiftech block that can replace the fan.

Not that it’d bug me much to leave the fan.

Aww, Realtek lan, meh

 

[Dan_D]

Nice review Dan.

I don't like the x570 boards having the tiny cooling fan on the chipset. Those things always fail or become noisy over time. I would prefer a proper beefy heatsink if needed.

GB is not my favorite brand but they are in my top 3. Their bios implementations have always been wacky and different from everyone else's.

The chipset coolers would have to actually run for that to happen. As I said in the review, you hear it when you first power the system on and that's about it. I've been running the MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE since before X570 came out for CPU reviews and general testing. I never heard its fan beyond initial startup. I dusted the thing off after so many months and now its in my personal PC not making any noise either.

All the other X570 motherboards I've tested have the active chipset cooling and they all work the same way. I wouldn't worry about them. This isn't the days of the old chipset coolers that ended up clapped out or seized by dust or bad bearings in short order. The X570 chipset itself can reach temperatures of 50c and the chipset fans still won't turn on.

The problem with going to a beefier heat sink is surface area. You can't make them thicker or they'll prevent expansion card installation. Spreading them out like the old days doesn't work as well anymore as you have to leave room for M.2 slots. It's one of the many issues that result from M.2 being an absolutely retarded form factor for desktops. Of course, you can spread it out some and then use heat pipes to help cool them. You can even connect the heat pipe to the MOSFET coolers if you wanted to. But all of those things are costlier than adding a simple chipset fan and writing some firmware to make sure it only turns on when its absolutely necessary.

As for GIGABYTE, I like their build quality and most of their more modern designs. They tend to overbuild most of their motherboards which is better than the alternative. Even though the X570 Gaming X is pretty cheap, its still well made. GIGABYTE cut costs precisely where I think they should have. When some other companies cut costs, they do it at the VRM's and that's not a good approach.

As for the GIGABYTE UEFI, it's different, but so is everyone else's. Everyone does their own thing for better or for worse. This is one area where I think ASUS is the undisputed king. Everyone else is on a sliding scale of worse than ASUS on UEFI implementation. That said, MSI and GIGABYTE's stuff works pretty well even if it is different. I guess, I have gotten used to them all by reviewing so many of them. I can see where they could all improve, but it gets the job done and you generally don't spend a lot of time in the UEFI past your initial tuning phase of a system build.

If I could change anything about GIGABYTE's UEFI, it would be the horrendous red/orange colors. I hate them.

 

[Dan_D]

Very nice review, looks like a good motherboard for a Ryzen 3600 build keeping the costs down while allowing for later upgrades to much higher end CPUs.

The Spec chart looks wrong, it has 3x PCIe 3.0 16x slots as listed, not sure of the rest either, Quad CrossFire support?

Thought I fixed that chart. (EDIT: I've fixed it now.)

However, the GIGABYTE X570 Gaming X does indeed support both 2-Way and Quad-Crossfire technologies. Quad-Crossfire is the use of two dual-GPU graphics cards. Since there aren't any newer cards that feature dual GPU's, it's a legacy feature at this point but it is on the spec sheet.

I have had good luck with the B450 boards so far. I wouldn’t mind checking this board out for a new Linux box. As for the chipset fan, I still have a Swiftech block that can replace the fan.

Not that it’d bug me much to leave the fan.

Aww, Realtek lan, meh

I currently work in IT and I've been doing so for more than two decades now. Believe me when I say, I'm not a fan of Realtek LAN. That said, it tested very well here and to be honest, it's not surprising given the price point.

 

[Dogsofjune]

No, you are right, it’s expected for the price, I am always of Realtek and Linux. I am still considering the board. I can always get an Intel network card if there are issues