Gigabyte X870E Aero X3D Dark Wood Review: A Strong ASUS ProArt Rival

The Gigabyte X870E Aero X3D Dark Wood motherboard blends aesthetics, cooling, connectivity, and creator-focused features into one platform. It's an alternative to the ASUS ProArt range, with quirky features like rear motherboard cooling, dedicated sensor monitoring, and handy diagnostic controls. The motherboard blends workstation features with gaming capabilities, including support for high-speed storage, USB4 connectivity, and AMD X3D processors.

Gigabyte Aero Introduces a Distinctive Dark Wood Design

Gigabyte has rebranded its Vision line as Aero, now its main creator hardware family. The Aero X3D Dark Wood offers wood-inspired styling, making it a great match for darker PC setups, especially those featuring panoramic casings.

The package comes with a Wi-Fi antenna, SATA cable, Aero key ring, stickers, paperwork, and a front-panel connector. Gigabyte also has a lighter variant for people who prefer brighter builds.

Rear Cooling and Advanced Motherboard Features

Another neat feature is the metal back cover with thermal pads to help move heat away from the voltage regulator components and chipset. Under heavy loads, these components can generate a lot of heat, so extra cooling is worthwhile. The motherboard also features two CPU EPS power connectors, eight fan headers, several RGB connections, and a Dr. Debug display to help diagnose startup issues and hardware faults.

Another highlight is the dedicated HDMI sensor monitoring header. It lets compatible internal displays pull motherboard sensor information without a Windows application. This functionality remains useful during startup and BIOS operation, offering a convenient way to monitor system information.

It also includes temperature sensor headers, a 20Gbps front-panel USB-C header, four SATA ports, USB-A headers, USB 2.0 connections, and front-panel audio.

Four M.2 Slots & Flexible PCIe Expansion

The Aero X3D Dark Wood contains four M.2 slots, and you can mix PCIe Gen 5 and Gen 4 connections. Magnetic attachments and tool-less heatsink designs make SSD installation and replacement easy, while thermal pads support varied drive configurations.

But we need to evaluate carefully how we allocate bandwidth. The main PCIe Gen 5 x16 slot connects directly to the CPU, and the second Gen 5 slot supports up to x8. Using both slots changes their configuration to x8/x8.

The fourth M.2 slot also shares bandwidth with the rear USB4 controller. When the relevant USB-C connectivity is active, the available bandwidth for that SSD slot decreases. Although this creates a configuration trade-off, it preserves expansion flexibility when the shared connection is not being used.

High-Speed USB4 and Dual Ethernet Connectivity

The rear I/O includes five 10Gbps USB-A ports, additional 5Gbps USB-A connections, a 20Gbps USB-C port, and two 40Gbps USB4 ports with display-output support. Dedicated power, reset, Clear CMOS, and Q-Flash Plus buttons make maintenance and troubleshooting easier.

The main networking downside is that it has only dual 5Gbps Ethernet ports, with no dedicated 10Gbps port. Although combining both ports can provide up to 10Gbps of aggregate bandwidth under suitable conditions, this requires compatible networking equipment and configuration. A dedicated 10Gbps port would be more convenient for creators working with network-attached storage.

X3D Turbo 2.0 and ASUS ProArt Comparison

Gigabyte also includes X3D Turbo 2.0, a BIOS feature advertised to deliver up to 25% performance improvements on compatible AMD X3D processors. Actual gains depend on the processor, workload, and system configuration, so don't treat the maximum figure as guaranteed.

Compared with the ASUS ProArt X870E Creator WiFi, the Aero X3D Dark Wood offers compelling design, cooling, diagnostic, and monitoring features. System builders will appreciate the Dr. Debug display, sensor-monitoring HDMI header, and rear control buttons.

The biggest downside is the lack of a 10Gbps Ethernet port. That said, the motherboard is a compelling choice for makers and gamers looking for unique style, versatile expansion, and superior system monitoring. The Gigabyte Aero X3D Dark Wood is a strong contender in the premium creator motherboard market with a competitive price.