– To what I can remember this is the first time I review an Aorus product and I’m glad it’s the X299 AORUS Gaming 7 – true, Aorus is part of Gigabyte and I’ve reviewed many of their products but just saying it’s the first for Aorus here and it’s a damn good board as well.
The X299 AORUS Gaming 7 retails at a whopping RM 2,099 but not without good reasons, this is hands down one of the best X299 boards in the market – not only is it feature rich but it looks great too, and it looks even better once the LED lights are on.
The list of features is as follows, and it’s a really long one.
– Supports Intel® Core™ X-series Processor Family
– Quad Channel Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR4, 8 DIMMs, DDR4400+(OC)
– Intel® Optane™ Memory Ready
– Intel® VROC ready
– ASMedia 3142 USB 3.1 Gen 2 with USB Type-C™ and Type-A
– Front USB 3.1 Gen 2 Header
– 3-Way Graphics Support with Dual Armor and Ultra Durable™ Design
– Server-Class Digital Power Design
– 121dB SNR AMP-UP Audio with ALC1220 & High-End ESS SABRE 9018 DAC with WIMA audio capacitor
– Sound BlasterX 720°, the top-of-the-line audio engine solution for 4K gaming and entertainment
– Killer DoubleShot™ Pro for the best gaming networking experience possible
– Killer 2×2 802.11ac Wireless – AC 1535
– Intel® GbE LAN Gaming Network
– RGB FUSION with Multi-Zone Digital LED Light Show design, support digital LED & RGB LED strips
– Swappable Overlay for Accent LED
– Smart Fan 5 features Multiple Temperature Sensors and Hybrid Fan Headers with FAN STOP
– Triple Ultra-Fast M.2 with PCIe Gen3 x4 interface and Thermal Guard
– NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 U.2 support by optional adaptor
– USB DAC-UP 2 with Adjustable Voltage
– Precise Digital USB Fuse Design for Stronger Protection
– Anti-Sulfur Resistor Design
– Ultra Durable™ 25KV ESD and 15KV Surge LAN Protection
– Lightning-Fast Intel® Thunderbolt™ 3 AIC Support
– GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™ with Q-Flash Plus USB port
– APP Center Including EasyTune™ and Cloud Station™ Utilities
It would be insane to go through all, so I must inform ahead that I will not be going through all of it. You may browse the official product page for additional details.
Starting from the image below you’ll see that the X299 AORUS Gaming 7 has 2 medium sized heatsinks that are linked via heatpipe and there is an IO panel cover at the rear, they won’t be as big as the ones on Z270 / Z370 board as X299 boards are like their X99 counterparts where it supports up to 8 DIMM slots with 4 on each side of the CPU socket.
Notice how the X299 AORUS Gaming 7 comes with 2 units of ATX12V socket for added power delivery.
While the upper corner where the ATX power connector is located isn’t anything out of the ordinary, I would like to highlight that if you look at the left side of the image you’ll see that the board comes with 2 covered M.2 connection, and there’s a 3rd one near the heatsink on the other corner.
The board supports memory speed up to DDR-4000 which is plenty for most people. Now my only complaint would be that PCI-E lane that’s next to the M.2 slot, once any card is in place the lock clip is practically inaccessible. 🙁
Now this is where it gets interesting, the X299 AORUS Gaming 7 not only has another M.2 slot at the bottom but it also comes with a host of SATA ports, covered connection areas and much more.
As you can see the X299 AORUS Gaming 7 comes with many PCI-E slots but bear in mind the PCI-E slot availability depends on the processor you use and the M.2 devices in place, do remember to use the X299 AORUS OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE TOOL to plan out your configuration.
Lastly the I/O panel of which are
1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
1 x USB Type-C™ port, with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support
4 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red)
4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
2 x RJ-45 ports
2 x MMCX antenna connectors (2T2R)
1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In, Line Out, Mic In)
The X299 AORUS Gaming 7 is basically a beast, one that’s made to look good and also deliver the performance for gaming, and this includes packing the system with great audio components. Once again I’ll have to point you to the official product page for more details.
And the board DOES light up and as always with Gigabyte aka Aorus brand products they have the best LED lights, ever! If you look at the right side of the image you’ll see that the I/O panel is lit too!
User Experience
I’ll show you some of the UEFI screenshots here. While the board is under the ‘gaming’ line-up, after all it’s with the name AORUS and GAMING is part of the model name, the X299 AORUS Gaming 7 is a board that doesn’t disappoint in every area.
I’m not a fan of Gigabyte’s UEFI for tweaking but the features and functions are there, it’s more than what I need as a not-so-detailed overclocker.
The Verdict
The X299 AORUS Gaming 7 retails at RM 2,099 – the price is steep, almost double that of the X299 AORUS Gaming 3 but you get a host of features that aren’t found on the Gaming 3. The Gaming 3 lacks debug LED, doesn’t light up as beautifully, less PCI-E slots and M.2 sockets and lacks the refinements for connectivity and many more.
Bottom line – if you want the best for your X299 processor then I’d say this is the board to go for. If you’re just using just the i7-7740X or i5-7640X then the Gaming 3 might actually be the better board to keep costs low.
