As expected from most components vendors, this year’s COMPUTEX is going to be a challenge as there hasn’t been any big releases in terms of GPU or motherboards which are mostly what drives development of new products in this department. GIGABYTE was nice enough to give us a close-up look at their upcoming motherboards for the yet to be released AMD Threadripper 2 processors and AMD B450 chipset. Alongside this, GIGABYTE did make a shocking reveal with their first DDR4 memory modules along with SSDs.
GIGABYTE X399 AORUS XTREME
As the name implies, this is one decked-out motherboard. The weight alone was pretty much past 1kg and all those adornments in the board are solid pieces of metal. This was the only board sample of this model we were shown and no live demo were active but we’re told it’s ready for retail once Threadripper 2 is made available. Nothing is official about this board yet but it seems pretty final to me. The board is a socket TR4 motherboard and supports both 1st-gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper and the upcoming Threadripper 2 featuring up to 32-core SKUs.
The motherboard features a robust 13-phase power delivery design cooled by GIGABYTE’s recent VRM heatsink implementation of actually using heatsinks with fins. This is one of the first motherboards for HEDT that we’ve seen that actually has a heatsink on the left side by the I/O shroud so there’s some beefing up going there. The heatsinks are copper which has significant weight and is connected with heatpipes. All of which use premium thermal pads as well to mount on the VRMs for better cooling.
GIGABYTE has also made some key decisions in LED placement in this motherboard. They have decided to forego placement of LEDs in the DIMMs and PCIe slots and have concentrated most light in the heatsinks and audio area. This decision was reached to give it a cleaner look and we feel having components installed on your slots would cover them up eventually so we support this idea.
The key features of this motherboard aside from support the new AMD Threadripper 2 processors and having a ton of PCIe bandwidth for PCI-E and M.2 slots is its I/O: the board features three LAN ports, one of which is a 10Gbps (yes, 10 gigabit) port powered by an AQC107 controller with two Intel Gigabit(1Gbps) ports. It’ll also features Intel WIFI-AC. GIGABYTE is also baking in an ESS9118 Sabre DAC for audio. The I/O shield also comes pre-installed as is the norm for most current high-end motherboard.
GIGABYTE B450 AORUS Pro WIFI
AMD has yet to formally launch its B450 chipset into the market and thanks to the advancements they’ve made with the new 2nd-gen Ryzen processors, demand is growing for their processors but mainstream consumers are still waiting for more cost-effective solutions below the current X470 flagship chipset-based boards. GIGABYTE showed their upcoming B450 AORUS PRO WIFI motherboard which will be available in time around the formal launch of the chipset.
The GIGABYTE B450 AORUS PRO WIFI features support for AM4 processors except Bristol Ridge processors. GIGABYTE cites that support for the older Bristol Ridge chips has waned enough not to warrant support especially for a relatively more premium motherboard. To balance cost further, GIGABYTE is cutting back on the metal brace that reinforce their slots. Only the top-most x16 PCIe slot receive a full metal brace although GIGABYTE is nice enough to provide both M.2 slots with cooling slot covers. The motherboard features a 11 phase power delivery design and is beefy enough to support up to Ryzen 7 processors and have room for some overclocking.
The motherboard will feature WIFI similar to their other mainstream offerings prior as well as USB3.1 Type-A and Type-C support. A pre-installed I/O shield is present in the motherboard.
GIGABYTE AORUS RGB DDR4 Memory
One of the most surprising reveals during COMPUTEX season was GIGABYTE’s decision to dive into the memory market. Despite the current market condition, GIGABYTE has managed to create their own and they’re offering a unique solution a common but relatively ignored matter: unpopulated DRAM slots.
Talking about the memory sticks themselves first, there’s really nothing revolutionary about them: the kits are offered in kits of 2 and the currently announced speeds are DDR4-3200 with 16-18-18-38 timings running at 1.35v. The AORUS RGB DDR4 memory are compatible with Intel 200-, 300-series chipsets as well as X299 and X399 HEDT chipsets as well as all of AMD’s 300- and 400- series chipsets
Going back to the bit we mentioned earlier, GIGABYTE is only offering these kits in two and will be including two dummy sticks in the pack. This means the dual-channel kit you receive will also include two dummy sticks that feature the same look and lights as the AORUS RGB. This is intended to populate slots in your motherboard if you’re not looking to purchase a full set of memory to fill them with. It’s a novel idea and while many can argue that you can just buy one, some people are happy with just 2 sticks or given the current prices of DDR4, its just out of the budget. The dummy sticks provide an aesthetic upgrade and while you may not appreciate it, its a solution for a certain group of people. GIGABYTE’s Aorus RGB memory sticks are yet to be released and support GIGABYTE RGB Fusion. There was no mention if the memory and dummy sticks will work with other motherboard software.
GIGABYTE AORUS GAMING SHOWCASE
To also show-off that they’re capable of providing a gaming ecosystem similar to what ROG is doing, GIGABYTE has setup a special area in their COMPUTEX showcase featuring a man-cave’esque like setup showcasing gaming setups for various scenarios including a lounge/living room bigscreen gaming setup featuring an AORUS gaming notebook connected to the big screen TV with a wireless display receiver.
Another setup they had was a music production setup powering multiple screens and controllers all through a single AORUS laptop. 
Also on display is the much hyped aquarium PC by GIGABYTE. This was a build they’ve done a couple of months back featuring submerged components under 3M Novec non-conductive liquid with water placed on top of the Novec. Since Novec is denser than water, it sinks to the bottom and here we have a good glimpse of physics at work. The Novec is cooled via a custom loop cooled by GIGABYTE tower heatsinks at the back of the aquarium. The aquarium top is open and we’re not sure which version of Novec is used as fluid loss through evaporation seems to be a concern when this thing gets loaded. Still, my biggest concern was the guppies in the tank still not growing. The build was already months old and the guppies don’t seem any bigger. Kidding aside, it’s a great concept build and is fully functional.
