I'm considering purchasing an AM5 motherboard, an X670E. Generally, these have the best feature set. However, they tend to be more expensive. The X670 does not have PCIe 5.0 graphics, but it has great I/O potential. what about the B650? These motherboards generally have high-performance core features, but they are at the most affordable end of the AM5 motherboard spectrum, so they are a bit too skimpy. How about the B650E in the middle?

Our recent review of the Asus TUF Gaming B650 Plus WiFi (opens in new tab) found it to be a competent and refined motherboard, but it left out a few key aspects, such as WiFi 6E and PCIe 5.0 slot support. If you're looking for a board that will support a few CPU upgrades (AMD says it plans to support AM5 until at least 2025), these may be things you want in the future; the Gigabyte B650E Aorus Master has both It is equipped with both.

Before we get into the description of the Aorus Master, a quick overview of the chipset: the B650 motherboard has a "one-chip" chipset, as opposed to the X670/E daisy-chain pair. This means that the B650 has fewer PCIe 4.0 lanes and reduced I/O overall; the B650E has PCIe 5.0 graphics and M.2 support. The former is omitted in the B650. [At this time, PCIe 5.0 is not critical, but it will become important eventually, so if you are thinking about Zen 5 or RTX 50 series graphics cards, proper PCIe 5.0 support is a good thing.

The B650E Aorus Master is far from a bargain-bin cheapie, despite being a B-series board. Is it worth the premium over the more affordable B650? Or is it priced too far into X670 territory?

Aorus Master boards are very high-end options and are typically associated with high-end chipsets. At the time of this writing, it sells for $349 (open in new tab) / £429 (open in new tab) / A$599. This is an expensive proposition, but at least $150 cheaper than the X670E Aorus Master or the Z790 Aorus Master.

When you take the board out of the box, the first thing you notice is its weight. It is made of metal. The board is black and gray in color. It's not a design that makes you go "ooh" and aah, but I like the subtlety. It's a stark contrast to the old retina-burning X399 Aorus Gaming 7 (opens in new tab). But RGB is here to stay, and with that in mind, the B650E Aorus Master offers five RGB headers, two of which are addressable.

The Master offers many internal headers, with up to 10 fan/water cooling pump headers. Five of them are located on the bottom of the board for greater cooling flexibility. Other onboard features include a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C header. A power and reset button, a BIOS-programmable multi-function button, and a header for a Gigabyte Thunderbolt 4/ USB4 add-in card are included.

The board supports four M.2 drives. Not uncommon on high-end motherboards, but in this case Gigabyte has gone all out: all four slots support PCIe 5.0 x4 drives, but the primary GPU slot is limited to 8x speed when all four are used. The bottom three slots are located below the graphics cards and require very good airflow to prevent overheating; there are also four SATA ports.

The top slot comes with a large, chunky metal heatsink, obviously necessary for the fast but heated PCIe 5.0 SSDs.

The B650E Aorus Master's VRM is a 16+2+2 phase configuration with a 105A stage, as opposed to the VRM on the cheaper B650 boards; spin your Ryzen 9 7950X (open in new tab) to your heart's content.

Gigabyte's cooling system has always impressed me. But that is usually the case when Gigabyte uses a finned heat sink design, which is often the best cooling capability of any generation. This time around, the B650E Master uses a more conventional metal block. A 10 minute loop of Cinebench on the 7950X resulted in a peak temperature of 62°C. Very good results.

Turning to the rear I/O, it's USB city. Fortunately, you can use the 3.2 Gen 2x2 header if your case supports it. [Networking consists of an Intel 2.5G LAN and an AMD RZ616 WiFi 6E controller. Audio is provided by an ESS ES9118 DAC and a Realtek ALC1220-VB. rounding out the I/O is a single HDMI 2.1 port, clear CMOS and BIOS flashback button (the latter will be a godsend for years to come).

System Performance

Gaming Performance

Turning to benchmark results, the Gigabyte performs within the margin of error of the Asus TUF Gaming B650 Plus WiFi and ASRock X670E Pro RS (open in new tab). Note that the Ryzen 9 7950X is set to its default state with all enhanced turbo features disabled.

Gaming results are fairly close, as expected; Gigabyte fares well, but again, it's a close call.

Most people won't be buying a 7950X chip to undervolt, but it's worth checking out if you like to tweak your system; depending on the CPU, you may be able to keep most of the peak performance while lowering power consumption. b650e The Aorus Master BIOS offers many options for tweaking PBO settings. Of course, you are also free to overclock. The VRM on this board is very robust and won't stress you out no matter what you throw at it.

Overclocking the memory is a much more informative test of the board than overclocking the CPU, which has limited cooling. In this case we used a G.Skill DDR5-6000 C30, which is an EXPO-compliant kit and should be easy to set up, but it did not work well with the F3H BIOS we tested; the SOC voltage was set too low, but increasing it to 1.2V solved the problem.

Recent BIOS releases from all vendors include AGESA updates and memory compatibility and performance improvements. In most cases, the BIOS that ships should work with commonly available Micron, Hynix, and Samsung-based memory, but to take full advantage of the new Hynix A-die memory, a BIOS update may be required. This applies to all AM5 motherboards, not just Gigabyte.

Whether the B650E Aorus Master is the right board for you depends on what you are looking for. However, if you are looking at future PCIe 5.0 support or a powerful VRM design for high core count (and future) CPUs, the Aorus Master is very impressive.

It is also relatively affordable. Compared to high-end X670E boards, it certainly is; it doesn't have things like 10G LAN or USB 4, but don't expect that at this price, and honestly don't expect that from any B650 board.

There is a caveat, however. There are several X670/E boards available at this price, and they may offer some features that appeal to you. It uses two daisy-chain chipsets, which may include better I/O and connectivity options; the Aorus Master has many USB ports, but many of them are of the slow type; there are only four SATA ports; and the X670/E has a USB port for the X670/E. The X670/E also has a USB port for the X670/E, but it has only one USB port for the Aorus Master. For most users this is not a problem, but it is worth pointing out.

With regard to optimal memory support and compatibility, the Aorus Master seems to lack the final touches in the BIOS. But this board is not alone; AMD continues to roll out AGESA updates that all AM5 boards use.

Where this board excels is in its M.2 configuration: four PCIe 5.0 compatible M.2 slots is very impressive. If you want to use all four, you will need to configure 8x primary PCIe slots, but this is a fair tradeoff if future storage support is a priority.

And that's where the B650E Aorus Master really comes into its own, as AMD plans to support AM5 for the next few years, so spending the extra money on a B650E board with a powerful VRM and PCIe 5.0 support should pay off. hello Zen 6 Again, it comes down to what you value in a motherboard, and the B650 Aorus Master meets a lot of requirements. If you are looking for a board with a robust feature set, it is well worth considering.