Gigabyte's B650I isn't as good as it should be...

[@troystrauss3415]

I've had this board for 2 months now. So far no issues, and on latest bios (*knock on wood). The problem right now with AM5 mini -itx is you only have 5 boards to choose from. I went with this one, because 1) I have experience with Gigabyte Bios and 2) It was the best bang for the $, regarding features. I was seriously considering the MSI mini-itx board as well, but the white did not fit my color scheme at all. I really want Gigabyte or MSI to come out with a mini-itx X670 board; I had the Gigabyte X570si board and it was a beast of a mini-itx board.... just wish there were more than 5 options.

[@MachinesMore]

Indeed… the selection isn’t great and value is quite abysmal. AM4 ITX boards were awesome… Gigabyte’s X570 I is one of my favorite ITX boards ever.

[@igavinwood]

So glad people like you work through the mobos and provide an educated overview. There are so many opinions about which mobo is better that having someone who builds multiple pcs per year really clarifies the main points that are worth consideration. Looking forward to watching the ASRock Phantom mobo review. Funny how the manufacturer that was laughed at so much now seems to be the one that has done the most listening. Lets see how well they have listened with your review.

[@reptilespantoso]

Just posted above how I like my Asrock Live Mixer mobo.😁

[@RandomPedestrian07]

Every time I've looked up a super niche ITX question I had for a build I was doing, you always have a video with the answer I was looking for. I'm super grateful, and I hope this channel gets even bigger.

[@unite9504]

This channel is literally too good. I do not understand how you can provide such concise, quality information. Thank you!

[@vincentvega3093]

Its called research, or just reporting with data instead of rushing out content for clicks.

[@oats7]

I just returned my Gigabyte B650I for the ASUS B650E-I due to many of the cons listed in your video. It was an absolute nightmare to build with in the NR200. The CPU socket was so high that I couldn't fit a fan above the CPU cooler. And the important headers were all over the place--forcing me to remove my GPU multiple times just to access the bulky heatsink and daughter board.

[@AE.Bianchi]

What cooler were you trying to use ?

[@Ren20391]

What cooler did you have?

[@rando843]

Honestly the CPU socket being high is a non-issue since having 2 fans on top barely does anything I'd argue The rest are pretty bad however

[@teslun]

@@rando843barely does anything? it’s essential for exhausting the hot air out the top.

[@cortlan]

I've been running this board since January, but you've basically summed up all my headaches with this board. The front IO from the daughter board is loose and annoying. My case only use 4 of those pins. so they kinda just "hang on" to the pin they’re connected to. The front audio took me so long to find, I almost thought the board didn't have one. Great coverage for people researching this board!

[@_dev_null_]

This channel is criminally underrated.I always enjoy the well thought out content, and your review of the Lian Li Q58 really helped me to flesh out my mini itx build before I even purchased the case 😁.

[@adamm.1367]

Feels nitpicky. Recently built a machine with this board and had zero issues cabling things in a Phanteks case with an AIO installed. The daughter board & riser card was not required at all -- sata use seems unconventional in a tight build (hence the numerous nvme slots) and there's a dedicated power sw header on the board. Cable management is something you have to be meticulous about in an ITX build so it shouldn't come as a shock that you might need to get creative. I'd rather see dongles & riser boards than feature creep in an already cramped form factor. But that's my 2-cents

[@arcayne5814]

Subscribed. Long overdue, should have done it ages ago. As a long-time ITX builder I can tell you that your genuine efforts to inform people on component selection and challenges in this space is top-tier. As an experienced builder I was fortunate enough to spot the silliness of this Gigabyte B650 ITX, as well as the lunacy of the ASUS X670-E ITX. I have built with both the ASRock B650E-PG-ITX and the ASUS B650E-I ITX, and both are fine motherboards. The PGITX cheaped out on USB3 ports, and has no BIOS flashback (why!?), and the M.2 heatsink's fan wastes a perfectly good standard 4-pin fan header, which can fortunately be removed and repurposed for a standard fan. I settled on the ASUS B650E-I ITX and have been happy with it so far after the SOC voltage fiasco (BIOS v.1616 corrected that craziness that should never have happened in the first place). These vendors get so close to perfect, but always they find a way to mess something up through lazy engineering design. Keep up the good work!

[@bisonbro7]

first time building a pc, and planning to go with the msi b650i edge. Any issues/kinks I should look out for ?

[@arcayne5814]

@@bisonbro7 I have not tried the MSI yet, but from what I have read and watched it is a fine choice. It has enough ports of each type, and good cooler clearances. The only thing some might consider a drawback is the lack of PCIe 5.0, but in my opinion that simply does not matter yet. PCIe 4.0 offers plenty of bandwidth for devices now, and by the time PCIe 5.0 becomes needed this platform would belong out-dated anyway. MSI does a good job of updating their BIOS'es to fix issues and improve performance. The only AM5 ITX board I would use myself are the ASUS B650E-I and the MSI, and in either case I do not expect I would be left wanting for more than they offer.

[@roebucksruin]

I wish someone would make an ITX board that doesn't have SATA ports. We're obviously moving towards NVMe, the cost for entry for a Gen 4 NVMe is negligible, and SATA takes up so much real estate. That add-on card wouldn't be necessary.

[@RaphaelCosteau]

I just finished a build on this motherboard 2 days ago and (knocks on wood) everything posted and updated just fine, but when I first plugged everything in and there was no power I immediately thought that the extra connections from that front mounting card and the extra dongle for the switch were the culprit; the issue turned out to be elsewhere and my fault but I would think twice about buying anything with these additional failure points again. And sadly, by the time I understood where frontpanel HD audio plugged in, it was far too late, and that wire is staying unplugged at this point. The full metal backplate felt nice though, made it easy to handle!

[@Alp577]

IMO despite it's flaws, it's still the better option for a high end itx build without much bulk and cooler compatibility issue of an Asus X670. Mine has been quick when booting up, about 9 seconds and only in few occasion I get momery training for about 20 sec. This is with EXPO 6400MT. Plus the fact I can use 12TB M.2 SSD (yes I need all of it and will use the 2 SATA port to expand to 20TB soon) has been a dream PC for the past 7 months.

[@shusui9665]

how did it hold up until today? really like tge b650i aorus. would you consider to buy ?

[@Alp577]

@@shusui9665 I personally would wait for the B or X variant of the 800 series because of USB 4, but the aorus B650i is still holding up well. No BSOD or heating issue so far even with 4090.

[@shusui9665]

@@Alp577 thx

[@Aruneh]

There are so few AM5 ITX boards and none of them are perfect. I ended up going for the Asrock one, and so far I'm happy with it.

[@vincentvega3093]

I had to choose the rog b650e itx for the gigabyte still not available in germany for a 7800x3d build. Had to wait 3 weeks on the BIOS fiasco. I despise the mini fans

[@AfroCelt001]

It's still rough times for AM5 ITX...I was hoping for something nearer to 200 bucks US.

[@MachinesMore]

Yeah, value proposition is very difficult to justify so far.

[@darylzero3139]

I worked on 2 of these boards and both of them had an issue with the nvme fan plug. It would not come out. One of the fan power cables broke and I have no idea where to get a replacement fan that works with it. I only wanted to unplug the fan cable because I needed to change the wifi chip that comes with revision 1.0.

[@nelsonbonilla6854]

I went with this one because it has nveme gen 5 compatibility and msi doesn't, that beats the lights and weird layout by far.

[@1stRanger]

So, have you tried BIOS flashback to unbrick it?

[@bobisadrummer]

The back panel I/O are so lacking on all of these AM5 itx boards, it makes me want to spend the money (and space) to get the mATX ASUS Crossfire GENE board.

[@kylehutto8044]

Protip: If you dont have a reset switch on your case, you can pick up a set of 5 jumper switches for 5 dollars. Absolute life savers for ITX ram OCing. Can be linked outside your case (To reset CMOS jumper) while OCing, then tucked away somewhere out of sight after for future quick use if needed.

[@PAWNB3YOND]

I plan to build this week with a 4090 aorus waterforce GPU. I wanted to use this for compatibility and overclocking reasons but do you think I should return it and get the MSI one?

[@CZzz_Whisky]

Such an informative video ❤ you mentioned that this board would only work with pcie m.2 drives, so would that mean I can’t use a Crucial MX 500 M.2 with this board?

[@PyromancerRift]

They asked chat GPT to design the board.

[@FyXeeu]

There’s only a few options for the mini itx AM5 motherboards, asus are probably the best options but both of the cards don’t have a Display Port which is such a huge deal for me. And the other options just don’t have enough features

[@skulu]

Any idea of the Phanteks Glacier One Gen 2 AIO you tested in your other video can fit on this motherboard in the horizontal orientation with the pump tubes coming out on the bottom side?

[@Edward135i]

You seem to be the only reviewer that really likes that MSI borad, everyone else seems to think its too expensive and barebones.

[@TSUNAMI17]

I've had issues with Gigabyte ITX boards for the last two years.

[@mpdx0]

I'm confused by the daughterboard-- earlier in the video you showed us the front panel audio connector, a usb c front header (20gbps), and a 3.2 usb. Then you mentioned you need the daughterboard? Sorry new to building pcs. If I only have 2 usb type B, audio jack and 1 usb C in the front of my case, do I still need to connect the daughterboard?

[@MachinesMore]

You need the add on card if you want the full front panel connections, one of the fan headers (dongle required), SATA data ports, and 12V RGB. If you don't need those, then you can forgo it. I think the fan header might be key for many builds though.

[@mpdx0]

@@MachinesMore Thank you so much! Really appreciate your help.

[@JoshTrue-xt9bf]

My friend whats the best am5 itx mobo at this moment? And whats the best on qualityt- price ?

[@MachinesMore]

I like the Asus B650E-I.

[@DrDAC-go7hs]

Excellent video. Thank you. I really feel like itx is heading down a bad path with these newest gen designs, both for Intel and AMD. All these dongles and mezzanine boards really complicate the user experience for little benefit.

[@isdandyrezkifebrianto4296]

i hope that Gigabyte also make a unified dongle for both front audio and usb header.

[@handcannon9814]

Hi nice review, btw i have a question based on opinion? Which one is the best to be paired with nr200p max?

[@daesz]

i was actually consider this board once the price will fall down, but it has quite a bit of bad designer choices from my standpoint (a fan on m.2 = extra noise especially since i am not goin to use pci-e5 m2 anyways so i dont need the extra cooling from it; separate front panel board = rather pro than cons for me, especially since it has one of the fan headers on, aswell as power/busy LED, both which i need, couldnt care less about extra sata ports, like probably majority of ppl that buy it for actual 5-8liter care; sandwich of two m.2s on front and barely any cooling for m.2 on the back, aluminum-silicon alloy "shield" on a back is whatever); it has amazing vram (8 stages 105A each), ill give it to it, it would be twice more than enough to power 7950x3d, but thats about it guess ill have to stick to a620i board from gigabyte as msi board has the annoyin fan on it aswell and thats a sole "no go" reason for me, both asus x670e-i / asrock b650e pg-itx prices are way out of my range :/ didnt even know about the absence of debug LED, on this caliber of board is also rather awkward to see, the layout of the connectors is also absolutely not itx-friendly, thanks for the review, it was really helpful

[@reptilespantoso]

Good review. Sorry to hear your mobo died. Hope that's covered with warrantee. Thankfully no issues with my Asrock B650 Live Mixer. Can recommend with 7700X.

[@mio2540]

Will you review the Asrock B650E PG-ITX or the ASUS Strix B650E-I?

[@MachinesMore]

Yes, will do at least the Asus B650E-I. Slim pickings!

[@mio2540]

@@MachinesMore Nice! I'm very split between the two because they offer similar, if not the same features.

[@YoloVib3s]

So …. My motherboard in my 3950X/5700XT build. So my plan was to pick up a Gigabyte B550-I from Micro Center & just keep it moving …. However when I got to MC this morning I found out they had a sale going on where you get a 7900X/ 32GB of G.Skill Flare Ram @ 5600mt for $395, they also had this board for $20 off if I got it with the CPU which brought my total to $722.34 … so I’m now on AM5 & my wife is going to sh!t a brick because I already spent $1k last week on stuff for my setup 😂😂😂 Although I love the idea of having 3 M.2 drives in my system. Your review definitely showed me I might be better off spending the extra $200 & going with the Asus X670E-I board.

[@RamonMarcoNavarro]

Will the ID Cooling IS-55 fit with standard height DDR modules?

[@AndyU96]

Mine seemingly died on me. I was trying to boot into a windows 7 installation media on a USB drive (lets call it a usb drive), over the course of which the damn installation media insisted on either hanging or just telling me that my PC is not compatible or smt. Basically, I had to shut down my pc a few times (about 8) using the power button while trying to boot to stuff. Afterwards I just gave up on the whole thing and went on with my day, booted to my windows 10 to surf the net a bit and within about 5 minutes, poof. Pc shut itself off. Tried turning it back on, but it immediately turns itself off as soon as I turn it on, within just 1 second, with a click like sound, you know, the click sound you hear when the pc turns on or off. Ruled out the PSU and the GPU

[@danchan5620]

I have B550i, it is good affordable board but sucks at tuning options. B650i seems like step backwards. How is the back audio between Gigabyte B650i and Asus B650e-i, they both uses ALC4080?

[@MachinesMore]

Both boards are Realtek ALC4080.

[@dracolnyte]

mate please review the A620i AX

[@blakes8901]

Just thought id let you know that there is a near zero percent chance that backplate is graphene based. Itd be like $10k at minimum to manufacture a board like that even if it was only a graphene composite material with a binder holding the particles together. Currently there really isnt a known way to make solid blocks of graphene in more than a 2 dimensional layer of atoms like that, either. You probably were thinking of graphite.

[@MachinesMore]

Ah yes indeed, more like graphite resin.

[@andrewvirtue5048]

I hope we can get a decent 'e' chipset from gigabyte in the iTX form factor this coming generation CPUs; recently rumored to be officially revealed and released this year. Or another good ASRock.

[@luisolivera9307]

I almost stepped in it with the Gigabyte itx and went with MSI for all the reasons in this forum. MSI is not perfect but at $100 (USD) less than the other guy (ASUS), I got a great deal! Ryzen 7800x3d with G.SKILL Flare X5 Series (AMD Expo) DDR5 RAM 64GB on MSI is almost perfect!

[@kavaxi]

Can I use gen 4 m.2 on the gen 5 m.2 slot for this motherboard?

[@sevaeron]

Yes you can

[@markedtky]

Anyone else get usb disconnect and poor wifi under load? I'm suspecting it's the VRMs overheating bc all my other compnents are in normal temp range.

[@swlak516]

This is why I will hold on to x570i Crosshair 8 Impact for dear life!

[@abdulmotin196]

Thank you

[@Deng1ong]

Got is board back in February and returned it Newegg within a week. I LOVE that this board has 3 m.2's and has USB-c Display & a DP connector. I wanted to love this board so bad, but the Mediatek/AMD Wi-Fi card is absolute crap. Consistent dropouts, would boot into to Windows/ Pop OS and not have networking options until 2 to 3 restarts etc. Also the Daughter board for SATA and Front panel felt so cheap and not confidentially set on the board. With this being said, I went with the Asrock board and didnt look back. Yes I lost an M.2, usb-c display and DP out, but gained Intel Networking, the "e" designation for PCIE 5.0 (for the future- probably doesnt matter in the long run though) and 2 more power phases. I would urge others to go in the direction I did. After all of that I got sick of ITX builds and got the z790 Aorus Master from Woot a couple weeks back for 250. Now I can finally be the data hoarder I have always wanted to be

[@xDownSetx]

Luckily the Wi-Fi card on the B650i Aorus Ultra is a standard WLAN m.2 card. Before installing the board in my case, the first thing I did was pull the VRM heatsink and rear IO cover, then installed an Intel AX210 wlan card. An absolute must upgrade for $18.

[@rezwhap]

For anyone else reading this, later revisions of the board changed the Wi-Fi card. Intel in rev 1.1 and Realtek in rev 1.2. Perhaps Gigabyte heard the complaints.

[@Decki777]

This is one of the best board for ddr5 overclocking

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

Strange, I do not believe that the board has so obvious design flaw as a missed contact SSD drive to a heat sink.

[@womz8203]

Out of 6 motherboards that I've had the only 1 to die (by bursting into flames) was a Gigabyte board.

[@MachinesMore]

Yikes. Rest of the system ok?

[@vasilystarostin4697]

The title is a bit misleading. Gigabyte has two B650I boards: "B650I AORUS" and "B650I AX". I thought you were talking about AX variant but talked about AORUS. Please, mention it in a title. Also, big please, say a few words about B650I AX (and may be A620I AX).

[@amilyester]

Got an Aorus X570SI and it's not...good. VRM heatsink gets in the way of most cooler mounting brackets (it protrudes into the CPU socket area). Couldn't mount a DeepCook AK400 and had to go with a Hyper 212. Proprietary dongle for the fan headers. And way too much useless metal on the M.2 area with a giant block of a heatsink that does nothing but soak heat and keep my SSD hot. Can't even install a third party one cos it has these useless walls of metal that are supposed to sink along with the VRMs (connected by a heatpipe). Just not a good board design all in all.

[@DaltonP386]

I have a B760I ddr4 mini itx motherboard from gigabyte and i hate that backplate combo for the m.2 cooler. I put my ssd into the slot, tightened everything and with the thermal pad it snapped my m.2 in half. Thank god its only an old 500 gig drive, but if i plan on using that m.2 slot with the backplate, I'm just dremeling it off completely so i have both access and more room for a better cooler.

[@darkwingdaph]

This board is so bad. Wanted to like it but cannot excuse the audio connector under heatsink and ESPECIALLY egregious (but I don’t see mentioned anywhere in reviews) is how their own shipped front power extension cable that you show breaks the connector housing on their daughter board. It just doesn’t fit! As far as I can tell, this is the only way to get power LED hooked up vs the option directly on the board. Yours looks okay, and I am not sure why mine isn’t. I saw one other report of this on Reddit. Maybe there are different versions of this connector or front board and I got a crap one? This was the last straw for me to send it back and spend a bit more money on the MSI board you recommend despite having less features overall.

[@tibielias]

if you think that's a bad motherboard, try the ASUS ROG Strix z690i , it's an engineering disaster. I'm sending back the second board to ASUS right now. Root HVEA errors logged in Windows, faulty PCIexpress and bad M.2 Stack design (similar to what you showed in the video). The worst of all. I'm puzzled why those boards haven't been called back and nobody is reporting anything about it.

[@johnballesta2544]

You lost me at gigabyte but I like to watch your stuff. Do an MTB channel already

[@Killswitch1411]

Unfortunately.. It honestly hardly matters what you go with now days.. You will run into issues.. I have had issues with all brands. The most issues I've had came from Asus second is Msi on their new AM5 boards and no issues yet on a Gigabyte Mobo yet on AM5, but past Gigabyte mobos I did have some issues with.. But i'm done with Asus...

[@samm928]

That daughter board is a big mess .. bad location and very flimsy .. very thin and fragile.