(Gigabyte) B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice: Affordable in white

Gigabyte also offers more affordable motherboards (compared to Z890 models) featuring the B860 chipset. While the specifications in this class are relatively modest, they are reflected in the lower price, making the B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7 (Ice) an attractive choice for builds. This is especially true for the tested Ice variant if you’re looking for motherboards with a white PCB. Such models do exist, but they are relatively rare.

Conclusion

An attractive motherboard not only for owners of lower-power non-K processors. The B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice can handle even the Core Ultra 9 285K without any performance tweaks. The results are comparable to Z890 motherboards. Of course, there are some differences in features here: you can’t manually adjust the multiplier, but by removing power limits, you can often reach a level where the CPU cooler’s capabilities become the limiting factor.

In other words, you’re more likely to run into insufficient cooling performance (from the CPU cooler) than limitations of the motherboard. Its capabilities are very good, as confirmed by the VRM thermal imaging results. Even without passive cooling, we stayed below 90 °C. And this was with an excessively powerful processor (CU9 285K), which isn’t expected to be used with this board. Or at least not very often. Motherboards like this generally target models with a 65 W TDP, which also have lower PL2 limits.

The motherboard’s features are solid. Especially for B860 models. PCIe 5.0 is supported for both the graphics card (in the first PCIe ×16 slot) and the SSD (in the first M.2 slot). There are eleven USB ports, including a 40-gigabit Thunderbolt 4. Additionally, there are two video outputs and quite decent SSD coolers. The Ethernet is 2.5-gigabit, and the wireless module supports WiFi. So, in this regard, the features are above average. Some might miss a second header for front-panel USB 3.2 Gen. 2 ports on PC cases, but this is typical for motherboards in this class.

In terms of speed, the B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice motherboard doesn’t deviate from expectations, whether in CPU or GPU performance. The expected speeds are also achieved in terms of M.2 slots, Ethernet, and USB ports.

The price is important, and in our opinion, Gigabyte has set it appropriately. Given the above-average features, it’s good that the price hovers around 260 EUR. Of course, there are cheaper motherboards for less expensive processors, and you won’t go wrong with those either, but they will inevitably have fewer features in some respects. The B860 Aorus Elite can, in many ways, be described as a forward-thinking motherboard that won’t become outdated quickly. Some of its features—whether it’s high-speed networking, Thunderbolt 4, or PCIe 5.0—might only be fully utilized over time. Not everyone may agree with the older Realtek ALC897 audio chip, but we still can’t determine to what extent it might affect the user experience compared to newer adapters.

Considering what the motherboard offers, its features (including fairly decent energy efficiency), and its price, we award the B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice our editorial “Smart Buy!” award. For some, it might already be important that it comes in an unconventional light design, which could be a great fit for building a new system. That is, if you care about visual aesthetics as well.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

Wordpress Table Plugin

Some of the tested boards are also available in the Datacomp e-store

Special thanks also to Blackmagic Design (for the license to DaVinci Resolve Studio) and Topaz Labs (for the licenses to DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI)