The B650 AORUS Elite AX motherboard comes in the standard cardboard package. The front is themed in black and orange which has been part of the AORUS lineup for a while now. You can also note the AORUS Eagle logo on the front which looks great. The front side also lists down support for AMD’s Ryzen 7000 “Zen 4” processors while the motherboard is clearly labeled as a gaming product.
The backside of the package lists the specifications and special features of the motherboard such as the Direct 14+2+1 Phase Digital VRM Solution, Fully-Covered MOSFET heatsinks with Pipe, Fast 2.5 GbE LAN & WIFI 6E support.
Inside the package is another box that contains the accessories at the bottom. It is very easy to access although the accessories and each of them are nicely packed in two compartments.
Following is the full list of accessories in the package.
Quick Installation Guide, User’s Manual
2 x SATA Cables
1 x G-Connector
2 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
1 x Antenna (WiFi)
The motherboard is housed above the accessories and has anti-static wrapping to protect it from any built-up electrical resistance that can affect the board.
The B650 AORUS Elite AX is a very mainstream offering priced at $230 US and still retains a very nice design with a good set of features.
The X670E AORUS Elite AX motherboard features matte black and silver/grey colors. The board comes in a standard ATX form factor and has a good set of heatsinks that provide a nice visual appearance which is great to see on a board of this pricing.
The board uses the LGA 1718 socket to support AMD Ryzen 7000 processors. The socket is compatible only with Ryzen 7000 CPUs for now but will also support future iterations on the AM5 platform.
Next to the socket are four DDR5 DIMM slots that can support up to 128 GB of dual-channel memory. These slots are rated to support EXPO profiles up to 6666 MHz (OC Plus). The DIMM slots feature metallic shielding around them for extra durability. Each slot is labeled, making it easier to install DIMMs in the proper orientation. DDR5 memory comes with a different latch position so forcing a DDR4 module into a DDR5 slot will cause permanent damage.
The X670E AORUS Elite AX features a 14+2+1 (VCore/ VccGT/VccAUX) phase digital power delivery that utilizes Infineon TDA21472 SPS (70A) for the VCore, NCP303160 SPS (60A) for the SOC and a Renesas ISL99390 SPS (30A) MOSFET design.
As you can see, the VRMs are getting ample cooling from the heatsink which makes use of two aluminum fin blocks that are interconnected via a heat pipe solution.
The CPU is supplied power through an 8+4 pin power connector configuration. This will feed the CPU with up to 225 Watts of power. The AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs are very power-hungry with the maximum package power rating of 230W & more if you are planning to overclock these chips.
Getting a closer look at the VRM heatsinks reveals an aluminum fin design on both heatsinks. Each heatsink has thermal pads located underneath for efficient transfer of heat. The thermal pads on the X670E AORUS Elite AX are rated at 7w/mK.
Expansion slots include three PCI Express x16 (1 x Gen 4.0 x16 / 2 x Gen 3.0 x1) and three M.2 slots. One of the M.2 slots is rated at Gen 5 while the rest of two are rated at Gen 4.0 specs.
AORUS is using a metallic cover on the sides of the expansion slots which provides protection to some extent. It adds more retention and shearing resistance by reinforcing the slots with metal plates. Aside from adding more protection, they do look really sweet.
All three M.2 slots are cooled off by the thermal pad and aluminum baseplate cooling. This will ensure stable operation for M.2 storage devices. The thermal adhesive has a plastic cover over them which needs to be removed before being used with the storage devices.
The topmost M.2 slot that will house the primary M.2 is based on the new M.2 Thermal Guard heatsink design that offers even more cooling performance through a larger heat sink. Following is the M.2 config on the motherboard:
CPU:
1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 25110/2280 PCIe 5.0* x4/x2 SSD support) (M2A_CPU)
* Actual support may vary by CPU.
1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 25110/2280 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2B_CPU)
Chipset:
1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 25110/2280 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2C_SB)
Chipset:
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
The B650 PCH is housed beneath a heatsink with a black color coat and the AORUS Label. This is a very basic-looking design.
The PCH heat sink and the I/O cover feature RGB LEDs, as a part of the RGB Fusion 2.0 suite, embedded within it and there is also a wide range of RGB connectors on the motherboard if you want to set up your own lighting.
Storage options include four SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support four different storage devices at once. There are also three USB 3.2 front panel connectors (Gen 1). and four USB 2.0 connectors are also included.
AORUS is using its Realtek AUDIO codec for audio which is a combination of hardware, and software audio solutions. 7.1 CH HD audio.
The full list of connectors on the motherboard is listed as follows.
1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x CPU fan header
1 x water cooling CPU fan header
3 x system fan headers
1 x system fan/water cooling pump header
2 x addressable LED strip headers
2 x RGB LED strip headers
1 x CPU cooler LED strip/RGB LED strip header
3 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors
4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x USB Type-C header, with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x Trusted Platform Module header (For the GC-TPM2.0 SPI/GC-TPM2.0 SPI 2.0 module only)
1 x reset button
1 x reset jumper
1 x Clear CMOS jumper
AORUS is using Realtek 2.5 GbE LAN and AMD WiFI 6E RZ616 (MT7922A22M) Module to power wireless connectivity such as 802.11ax WiFi (2.4/5/6 GHz WiFi) and Bluetooth 5.2. There are in fact two variants of the motherboard, the older v1.0 came with the AMD WIFI 6E chipset while the latter v1.1 boards support Intel’s WIFI 6E AX210 chipsets. We received v1.0 as our sample.
The motherboard comes with the following I/O connectors:
1 x Q-Flash Plus button
2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R)
1 x DisplayPort
1 x HDMI port
1 x USB Type-C port, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red)
5 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 x RJ-45 port
3 x audio jacks
