Looking for a mainstream motherboard offering for your white AMD AM5 PC build? Look no further than the B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE - Gigabyte's latest in a string of aesthetically-pleasing white-themed motherboards.

AMD launched its “Zen 5” Ryzen 9000 series of processors back in August 2024 - for some reason, AMD chose to launch its new 800-series chipsets more than a month after the launch of its Ryzen 9000 CPUs, starting first with the high-end X870E and X870 chipsets back in end-September 2024, and leaving the older B650E, B650 and A620 chipsets to be the flagbearers for mainstream AM5 chipset offerings. Fast forward to January 2025, we now finally have AMD’s mid-range and entry-level 800-series chipsets arriving on the scene, in the form of the B850 and the B840.

To get in on the launch excitement, we'll be taking a look at a B850 motherboard that is targeted at consumers looking to build a mainstream white-themed AMD Ryzen 9000 or Ryzen 7000 PC - the Gigabyte B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE. Sporting a sleek white aesthetic, coupled with features such as a beefy VRM setup, PCIe Gen 5 support for a graphics card and a M.2 drive, WIFI 7 support and a host of quality-of-life features, read on to learn more about this motherboard!

Summary of Specifications

Processor Support: AMD Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 series processors
Chipset: AMD B850
Memory: 4x DDR5 slots, max 256GB, up to DDR5 8200 (OC) support (as of January 2025)
Audio: Realtek ALC897 audio codec
LAN: Realtek RTL8125D 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet
WIFI: Realtek RTL8922AE WIFI 7 module with built-in Bluetooth 5.4
Expansion Slots: 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 2x PCIe 3.0 x16 (operates at x1 mode)
Storage: 4x SATA III, 1x PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2, 2x PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 (M.2 slots support NVMe drives only)
Form Factor: ATX
Official Product Page: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B850-AORUS-ELITE-WIFI7-ICE#kf

Do note that PCIe 5.0 is supported only when a Ryzen 9000 or Ryzen 7000 series CPU is installed on this motherboard - Ryzen 8000 APUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

Packaging & Contents

As a motherboard offering that is targeted at consumers looking to put together a white-coloured PC build, the B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE comes in a box that sports a white-and black colourway, with an AORUS eagle motif splashed across the front for good measure.

The board comes with the following accessories:

• WIFI antenna
• 2x SATA III cables
• 1x G Connector
• 1x metal AORUS case badge
• Quick installation guide
• Regulatory information leaflet

Board Aesthetics

As can be seen, Gigabyte's gone for a full silver-and-white aesthetic, where even the various plastic headers and connectors are coloured in white.

Over on the rear, the PCB is coloured in grey with a large AORUS motif for added visual interest - a nice touch I must say, in spite of the fact most of these motifs would likely never see the light of day inside of a PC case.

Fans of integrated aesthetic LEDs for their motherboards will be pleased to note that Gigabyte has included RGB LEDs beneath the chipset heatsink, which add a touch of pop to the overall appearance of the motherboard.

The B850 sports a single-chip design, and is cooled by a passive aluminium heatsink as pictured above.

The B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE comes with three M.2 slots that are all cooled by a shared heatsink.

VRM & Memory Support

The VRM heatsinks for this board are pretty decently-sized, and Gigabyte has included 14+2+2 power stages with 60A Dr.MOS power phases.

In terms of memory support, the B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE comes with four DDR5 slots that as of the time of writing this article, support a maximum of 256GBs of RAM and the DDR5 8200 standard when overclocked.

Front Panel USB Headers

For front panel USB connectivity, we get a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C front panel header next to the RAM slots, and near the SATA ports along the long edge of the board, a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A front panel header that provides support for up to two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports.

We do also get two USB 2.0 front panel headers situated along the bottom edge of the motherboard, with each header providing support for two USB 2.0 Type A ports, for a total of four ports.

Expansion Slots & Storage Options

The board comes with a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a graphics card – the said slot sports Gigabyte’s "PCIe UD Slot" design that reinforces the slot for use with heavy graphics cards.

As can be seen, the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot also comes with the PCIe EZ-Latch Plus feature, which helps make removing a graphics card from the slot less of a chore.

Concluding this section on expansion slots are two full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slots that each operate at x1 mode.

In the storage department, the B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE comes with four SATA III ports, with all ports in a right-angled configuration to aid with cable management.

The board also comes with a single PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot and two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. Do note that these slots support M.2 NVMe drives only - M.2 SATA drives will not work with any of these slots. In addition, do note that PCIe 5.0 is supported only when a Ryzen 9000 series or Ryzen 7000 series processor is installed - if you do have a Ryzen 8000 series APU installed on this board, the Gen 5 M.2 slot (M2A_CPU) will operate at PCIe 4.0 x4 mode instead.

The B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE's M.2 heatsink features a tool-less design called M.2 EZ-Latch Click, which makes removing and installing the said heatsink really easy.

Gigabyte's included its M.2 EZ-Latch Plus feature for all three of the board's M.2 slots, which makes installing and removing a M.2 drive from the B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE a tool-less affair.

Audio & Internet Connectivity

For audio, Gigabyte's included an entry-level Realtek ALC897 audio codec, which is in contrast to the premium countenance that the B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE exudes.

Wired internet connectivity is courtesy of a Realtek RTL8125D chip that serves up 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet support, while another Realtek part, the RTL8922AE, is tasked for your wireless connectivity needs. The said WIFI module supports WIFI 7 (160 MHz channel width only) and also comes with Bluetooth 5.4 support.

Fan & RGB Headers

The B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE comes with six fan headers:

• 1x CPU_FAN
• 1x CPU_OPT
• 3x SYS_FAN
• 1x FAN_PUMP

Also included are three addressable RGB headers and a single 12V RGB header.

Other Features

The B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE comes with no shortage of special features, starting first with a power button located near the top edge of the motherboard. As its name implies, the said button allows end-users to power on the PC. 

Next to the start button is a reset button that Gigabyte also terms a multi key button - the said button can be reprogrammed from within the BIOS to serve other purposes.

Also included are a set of Status LEDs that can help with troubleshooting PC start-up issues.

A noteworthy feature of the B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE is an onboard HDMI 1.4 port that forms part of a feature that Gigabyte calls Sensor Panel Link. Sensor Panel Link is a feature that taps on the trend of end-users having a small LCD display screen as part of one’s PC case, which can be used to display vital PC statistics or even animated videos of their choice. The said HDMI port supports a maximum display resolution of 1920x1080@30 Hz.

Moving to the bottom edge of the board, we get a TPM header for an optional discrete Gigabyte TPM module, an additional reset header right next to the CMOS battery, as well as a clear CMOS header.

Rear I/O

The B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE comes with an integrated I/O shield design in white, where the I/O shield sports parallelogram-shaped ventilation openings. The following ports can be found on the rear I/O:

• 1x DisplayPort 1.4 port (supports a maximum display resolution of 3840x2160 at 144 Hz)
• Q-Flash Plus button
• 4x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
• 5x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
• 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port
• WIFI antenna connector (WIFI EZ-Plug)
• Audio jack connectors

The Q-Flash Plus feature allows end-users to update the motherboard's BIOS without needing to install a processor, RAM and graphics card.

Conclusion

To sum up, the Gigabyte B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE is targeted at end-users intending to build an all-white AMD AM5 PC at the mid-range. I have to say, Gigabyte’s really nailing it when it comes to their white-coloured motherboards, where they’re pretty much fully white in colour, unlike other competitor brands where their white-coloured motherboards tend to still have a smattering of black-coloured components.

It's great to note too, that the B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE also comes with a good array of modern features for a mainstream AM5 motherboard offering, where we get a decent VRM setup, PCIe 5.0 support for both a graphics card and a M.2 drive, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and WIFI 7 support, a plethora of USB Type-C and Type-A connectivity options, along with a whole bunch of interesting and helpful features such as Sensor Panel Link, EZ-Latch Plus and so on.

One downside to note is the fact that the board uses a WIFI 7 module that doesn’t support the full 320 MHz channel width that you tend to get with higher-end WIFI7 modules. This is something to take note of, especially if fast WIFI 7 networking is one of your key considerations.

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The motherboard featured in this article was a review unit provided on loan from Gigabyte.