I also think there should be some USB transfer tests and LAN NIC tests as well.
Nothing too complicated, just large file transfer speeds, photo files and a set of small diverse files.
And maybe we should throw a comparable Intel setup in there, just to see how how the chipsets compare while handling the USB and LAN transfers, BOOT speeds, etc.
The use cases are super rare, but still might come in handy. I use the machine as a terminal for two users (with added Aster software layer), each has own audio, so it's possible each user has complete experience, being able to use speakers or headset etc.
Honestly, for an admittedly super-rare use case, I would just tell people "install a sound card if you want a second set of DACs". God knows there's enough slots for it.
Did you read the review? One is dedicated to the back and one to the front. If you didn't know, these audio codecs don't have the same quality output over all channels and usually the front audio quality takes a hit. Hence the dual codec arrangement.
True, but the problem is most of the DAC's have a lower overall quality than many high end onboard DAC's. Especially wireless headphones. Until I found the SteelSeries H (Now the Siberia I guess...) I had pretty much given up finding wireless headphones with a decent DAC.
@Flunk that doesn't excuse it, that makes it worse. They clearly understand that Intel NICs are better, but they only half-assed it. Killer is gimmicky garbage. It needs to go away.
The only non-Intel network card I want to see on a motherboard is one of the NBaseT products, and only because Intel doesn't yet make one.
No, it means they clearly understand the market. Of the people who care about the nic brand, half have drank killer's koolaid and know it makes them game better, and half know that intel's the way to go because their drivers are much less garbage than the competition. This lets them supply both of the main halves of the care about nic brand market. The group of people who care about nic brand and need 2 of them is much smaller; losing them and/or sending them to a different model in the lineup isn't a major loss.
Could you guys add some more in depth vrm stuff into the mix? Like current capabilites, vrm temp measurements, etc. A lot of AM4 boards have sub par VRMs that don't have proper temp protections and stuff, so it would be really nice if you guys could add some stuff that looks into this sort of stuff.
This is correct. The flagship K7 also uses the exact same 6+(2x2) VRM setup (in addition to everything else aside from it's inclusion of a external BCLK generator & additional LED strip on the I/O shield).
Seems like Gigabyte have run out of ideas to differentiate their boards from competitors, so now they're just slapping random junk on. "Oooh I know a second audio codec!"
Why are there so few boards that don't waste money on "premium" audio? As someone who uses a USB headset, this has no value for me. Plus if I actually wanted actual premium audio, I'd pick up a discrete audio card anyway.
It really disappoints me that the motherboard industry has degenerated to the point of "great features/connectivity, great overclocking, no useless addons like LEDs: pick one".
I agree the dual audio seems to be a pretty useless feature for the vast majority of users along with the killer NIC - I’d rather an Intel nic or even a Realtek and save the money.
There’s a lot of motherboards that don’t use premium audio or NICs, if that’s what you want, but stand alone audio cards are much more of a rarity now along with stand alone NICs for home use.
B350 has 4 fewer USB 3.0 (3.1 Gen1) ports, 2 fewer SATA ports, and 2 fewer PCIe 2.0 general-purpose lanes. It also misses out on SLI support and PCIe bifurcation. So not really an option.
Seems like to get something decent I have to look at the HEDT market or "workstation" class boards, both of which carry a price premium for removing useless gimmicky crap that nobody wants or needs.
It should be mentioned that this board has major incompatibility issues with a variety of expansion cards. Most SATA/SAS cards do not work, whether in IT or RAID mode, doesn't matter. Other common cards that don't work are some USB3.0 and 3.1 cards and some NICs. Pretty much anything with an option rom is unlikely to work in this motherboard and so far Gigabyte have been unwilling to address the issue.
Actually, it's worked with every Host bus adapter I've thrown at it. From scsi to fibre channel. If it's UEFI compatible, just let it boot. It takes the same time to initialize as if it loaded bios. To use legacy cards, set the storage boot option control, or, other pci boot device option to "legacy only" and they will load the card bios
Yes, you can use one slot for graphics with 8x lanes and the other for something else with up to 8x lanes. I just tested this with an intel NIC in the 2nd slot and it works. But you need to read my comment above. This board has compatibility issues with a lot of expansion cards, so depending on what you want to plug in, it might not work in any slot on this motherboard.
I've confirmed that these cards DON'T work in this motherboard: LSI 8888ELP SATA/SAS RAID card 3Ware 9650SE SATA RAID card ASMedia 1061 2x SATA 3 card Generic USB 3.0 2-port card
I'm willing to be a lot of other SATA/SAS card don't work either, but I don't have any more to test with.
I don't think you have the bios set right. Have tested it with Adaptec ASR-5405z, ASR-6805t (both legacy and UEFI), both sas, IBM LPE 12002 Emulex Fiber channel and HP LPE 11002 cards (First UEFI, second legacy), and Adaptec 29329 LPE scsi card (legacy). I ran a lot of these cards in the 1x slots with cable adapters to 16x and they worked fine (just slower). About this time, I realized I could use more PCI-e lanes. Bought a Gigabyte x399 gaming 7 to use them with. Good luck
I'm glad to hear that at least some storage adapters work with this board. I can confirm that the ones I listed do not work. I did of course have the two PCI device options (storage and other) on Legacy Only, and I've tried every other combo as well. The option roms of those cards I listed don't load in this board.
I have been in contact with Gigabyte over this issue for more than a month, but they are unable (unwilling?) to fix it. I even offered to send them a spare 3Ware 9650SE but they were not interested.
They did confirm the issue with the ASMedia 1061 card and offered a partial fix that only works with motherboard SATA ports set to AHCI. I would say to anyone thinking of buying this board: Check with Gigabyte that your expansion cards will work first.
I own this board too and while I like it a lot, I can confirm Gigabyte support is complete garbage. I've been trying to have them resolve an SLI related problem since May, and gave up after several useless ticket exchanges with their support team. Next board will most certainly not be a Gigabyte...
Is the compatibility issues something to do with this particular board, or the platform as a whole ? I mean I've seen a number of expansion card manufacturer explicitly mentioned that their card only works with, only tested, or at least prefer Intel's.
It is a good question mr_tawan. I tried to get a straight answer from AMD support, but in the end they said it was likely a driver issue (not true) and the cards aren't supported in Windows 10. As you may know, Windows 10 is the only officially supported version of Windows for the AM4 Ryzen platform.
But in fact, each of the cards I mentioned is fully supported in Windows 10, with a compatible driver automatically installed when using them in an intel-based pc. Some of them are older cards with no *official* support from the vendor, but they work just fine. So is it platform-wide? No idea, and I'm not buying another motherboard just to find out. But I would sure like to know!
Keep in mind that gigabyte started off selling these boards advertising ECC memory support. Within the last month they pulled ECC memory support from their advertised products and disabled ECC in a firmware update.
Sleazy business practice. One that I can not support.
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khanmein - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Why not using Handrake v1.0.7?PeachNCream - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
That's probably so benchmark results are can be compared with previous reviews.IGTrading - Thursday, November 16, 2017 - link
Thank you for the good review.I also think there should be some USB transfer tests and LAN NIC tests as well.
Nothing too complicated, just large file transfer speeds, photo files and a set of small diverse files.
And maybe we should throw a comparable Intel setup in there, just to see how how the chipsets compare while handling the USB and LAN transfers, BOOT speeds, etc.
ayqazi - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
I can't actually understand why you would have 2 audio codecs... or perhaps this is a case of "if you have to ask what it's for, you don't need it"HollyDOL - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
The use cases are super rare, but still might come in handy. I use the machine as a terminal for two users (with added Aster software layer), each has own audio, so it's possible each user has complete experience, being able to use speakers or headset etc.Lord of the Bored - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Honestly, for an admittedly super-rare use case, I would just tell people "install a sound card if you want a second set of DACs". God knows there's enough slots for it.Samus - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
The ridiculous thing is taking up real estate or a second Codec when one can be added via USB for $10.HollyDOL - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
Actually that's exactly what I do, dedicated card plays better anyway :-)milli - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Did you read the review?One is dedicated to the back and one to the front.
If you didn't know, these audio codecs don't have the same quality output over all channels and usually the front audio quality takes a hit. Hence the dual codec arrangement.
Hixbot - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Isn't everyone these days just using digital audio output. Better to Bitstream to a quality dac, no need for on board dac, especially two of themSamus - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
True, but the problem is most of the DAC's have a lower overall quality than many high end onboard DAC's. Especially wireless headphones. Until I found the SteelSeries H (Now the Siberia I guess...) I had pretty much given up finding wireless headphones with a decent DAC.PeachNCream - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Killer NIC... *sad panda*Flunk - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Only an issue if you want two Ethernet ports, there is also an Intel NIC on there.wolrah - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
@Flunk that doesn't excuse it, that makes it worse. They clearly understand that Intel NICs are better, but they only half-assed it. Killer is gimmicky garbage. It needs to go away.The only non-Intel network card I want to see on a motherboard is one of the NBaseT products, and only because Intel doesn't yet make one.
DanNeely - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
No, it means they clearly understand the market. Of the people who care about the nic brand, half have drank killer's koolaid and know it makes them game better, and half know that intel's the way to go because their drivers are much less garbage than the competition. This lets them supply both of the main halves of the care about nic brand market. The group of people who care about nic brand and need 2 of them is much smaller; losing them and/or sending them to a different model in the lineup isn't a major loss.PeachNCream - Thursday, November 16, 2017 - link
Does Qualcomm still own the Killer NIC brand? I thought that was their product operating under a subsidiary.nismotigerwvu - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
There's a typo on your conclusions page. It should read "gigabit ethernet" not "gigabyte ethernet".Dr. Swag - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Could you guys add some more in depth vrm stuff into the mix? Like current capabilites, vrm temp measurements, etc. A lot of AM4 boards have sub par VRMs that don't have proper temp protections and stuff, so it would be really nice if you guys could add some stuff that looks into this sort of stuff.Horza - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
The VRM information is incorrect as far as I know. It's running in 6+2 mode with, as you said, doublers on the SOC VRM so it's 6+(2x2) not 8+2.Cooe - Saturday, March 24, 2018 - link
This is correct. The flagship K7 also uses the exact same 6+(2x2) VRM setup (in addition to everything else aside from it's inclusion of a external BCLK generator & additional LED strip on the I/O shield).The_Assimilator - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Seems like Gigabyte have run out of ideas to differentiate their boards from competitors, so now they're just slapping random junk on. "Oooh I know a second audio codec!"Why are there so few boards that don't waste money on "premium" audio? As someone who uses a USB headset, this has no value for me. Plus if I actually wanted actual premium audio, I'd pick up a discrete audio card anyway.
It really disappoints me that the motherboard industry has degenerated to the point of "great features/connectivity, great overclocking, no useless addons like LEDs: pick one".
Reginald Peebottom - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
I agree the dual audio seems to be a pretty useless feature for the vast majority of users along with the killer NIC - I’d rather an Intel nic or even a Realtek and save the money.There’s a lot of motherboards that don’t use premium audio or NICs, if that’s what you want, but stand alone audio cards are much more of a rarity now along with stand alone NICs for home use.
Just get the B series chipsets.
The_Assimilator - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
B350 has 4 fewer USB 3.0 (3.1 Gen1) ports, 2 fewer SATA ports, and 2 fewer PCIe 2.0 general-purpose lanes. It also misses out on SLI support and PCIe bifurcation. So not really an option.Seems like to get something decent I have to look at the HEDT market or "workstation" class boards, both of which carry a price premium for removing useless gimmicky crap that nobody wants or needs.
khanov - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
It should be mentioned that this board has major incompatibility issues with a variety of expansion cards. Most SATA/SAS cards do not work, whether in IT or RAID mode, doesn't matter. Other common cards that don't work are some USB3.0 and 3.1 cards and some NICs. Pretty much anything with an option rom is unlikely to work in this motherboard and so far Gigabyte have been unwilling to address the issue.SRB181 - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Actually, it's worked with every Host bus adapter I've thrown at it. From scsi to fibre channel.If it's UEFI compatible, just let it boot. It takes the same time to initialize as if it loaded bios.
To use legacy cards, set the storage boot option control, or, other pci boot device option
to "legacy only" and they will load the card bios
JTDC - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Sorry to ask such an elementary question but can one of the two slots designated as being for graphics be used for other devices? Thanks.khanov - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Yes, you can use one slot for graphics with 8x lanes and the other for something else with up to 8x lanes. I just tested this with an intel NIC in the 2nd slot and it works. But you need to read my comment above. This board has compatibility issues with a lot of expansion cards, so depending on what you want to plug in, it might not work in any slot on this motherboard.I've confirmed that these cards DON'T work in this motherboard:
LSI 8888ELP SATA/SAS RAID card
3Ware 9650SE SATA RAID card
ASMedia 1061 2x SATA 3 card
Generic USB 3.0 2-port card
I'm willing to be a lot of other SATA/SAS card don't work either, but I don't have any more to test with.
SRB181 - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
I don't think you have the bios set right. Have tested it with Adaptec ASR-5405z, ASR-6805t(both legacy and UEFI), both sas, IBM LPE 12002 Emulex Fiber channel and HP LPE 11002
cards (First UEFI, second legacy), and Adaptec 29329 LPE scsi card (legacy).
I ran a lot of these cards in the 1x slots with cable adapters to 16x and they worked fine
(just slower). About this time, I realized I could use more PCI-e lanes. Bought a Gigabyte x399
gaming 7 to use them with. Good luck
khanov - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
I'm glad to hear that at least some storage adapters work with this board. I can confirm that the ones I listed do not work. I did of course have the two PCI device options (storage and other) on Legacy Only, and I've tried every other combo as well. The option roms of those cards I listed don't load in this board.I have been in contact with Gigabyte over this issue for more than a month, but they are unable (unwilling?) to fix it. I even offered to send them a spare 3Ware 9650SE but they were not interested.
They did confirm the issue with the ASMedia 1061 card and offered a partial fix that only works with motherboard SATA ports set to AHCI. I would say to anyone thinking of buying this board: Check with Gigabyte that your expansion cards will work first.
rsandru - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
I own this board too and while I like it a lot, I can confirm Gigabyte support is complete garbage. I've been trying to have them resolve an SLI related problem since May, and gave up after several useless ticket exchanges with their support team. Next board will most certainly not be a Gigabyte...JTDC - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
Thanks. Sorry to hear there are so many apparent limitations on what will work on the second slot. It seems hit or miss based on your experience.mr_tawan - Thursday, November 16, 2017 - link
Is the compatibility issues something to do with this particular board, or the platform as a whole ? I mean I've seen a number of expansion card manufacturer explicitly mentioned that their card only works with, only tested, or at least prefer Intel's.khanov - Thursday, November 16, 2017 - link
It is a good question mr_tawan. I tried to get a straight answer from AMD support, but in the end they said it was likely a driver issue (not true) and the cards aren't supported in Windows 10. As you may know, Windows 10 is the only officially supported version of Windows for the AM4 Ryzen platform.But in fact, each of the cards I mentioned is fully supported in Windows 10, with a compatible driver automatically installed when using them in an intel-based pc. Some of them are older cards with no *official* support from the vendor, but they work just fine. So is it platform-wide? No idea, and I'm not buying another motherboard just to find out. But I would sure like to know!
tiwake - Saturday, November 18, 2017 - link
Keep in mind that gigabyte started off selling these boards advertising ECC memory support. Within the last month they pulled ECC memory support from their advertised products and disabled ECC in a firmware update.Sleazy business practice. One that I can not support.