The Gigabyte X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE is quite possibly one of the nicest-looking AMD AM5 motherboards in the market, where it features a rear-connector design and a clean white-coloured aesthetic.

Gigabyte's been on a hot streak lately with its white-coloured "ICE" series of motherboard offerings, where their properly all-white appearances make them really well-suited for end-users aspiring to build a snazzy-looking white-coloured PC build. The new X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE is no exception, where being from the "Project Stealth" line-up of reverse-connector motherboard offerings, it comes with connectors on the rear of the motherboard to pave the way for a clutter-free appearance, all topped off by Gigabyte's signature white-coloured "ICE" aesthetic.

Featuring compatibility with the latest "Zen 5" Ryzen 9000 series of processors, the Ryzen 8000 series of APUs and CPUs, as well as the older Ryzen 7000 series of CPUs, the Gigabyte X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE is no slouch as well in the specifications department, where it packs a laundry list of premium features such as a beefy VRM setup, PCIe 5.0 support for a graphics card and two M.2 drives, 5 Gigabit Ethernet, full-fat WIFI 7 with support for the 320MHz channel width - the list goes on and on. Read on to learn more about this motherboard!

Summary of Specifications

Processor Support: AMD Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 series processors
Chipset: AMD X870
Memory: 4x DDR5 slots, max 256GB, up to DDR5 8200 support (as of October 2025)
Audio: Realtek ALC1220 audio codec
LAN: Realtek RTL8126 5 Gigabit Ethernet
WIFI: Qualcomm QCNCM865 WIFI 7 module with built-in Bluetooth 5.4
Expansion Slots: 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (runs at x4 mode)
Storage: 2x SATA III, 2x PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2, 2x PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 (M.2 slots support NVMe drives only)
Form Factor: ATX (Back Connect)
Official Product Page: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X870-AORUS-STEALTH-ICE 

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

Packaging & Contents

The X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE comes shipped in a larger-than-usual box that's coloured in white, where on the front, we get an AORUS wordmark emblazoned on the front and over on the rear, a simple uncluttered summary of the specs for this board. All in all, the packaging is very minimalistic and gives a big hint as to the appearance of the motherboard.

Opening up the motherboard box's quite an affair, where you'll first have to break two seals that hold a top lid in place. With this said lid removed, we get another lid as pictured above, where upon lifting it up, you'll be greeted by a 3D pop-up cut-out of the AORUS eagle motif that’s pretty eye-catching. We alsol get an AORUS case badge nestled in an opening on the side.

To get to the accessories that Gigabyte's included with the board, you'll have to lift up a third and final lid and remove the motherboard and its associated cardboard divider, which then reveals the following accessories:

• WIFI antenna
• 2x SATA III cables (white)
• 1x G Connector (white)
• 3x packs of M.2 drive rubber pads
• Quick installation guide
• Regulatory information leaflet
• Sheet of AORUS stickers

Board Aesthetics

In terms of motherboard aesthetics, the STEALTH series is all about very clean looks thanks to a rear-connector layout, and this is evident in the appearance of the X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE. We see that Gigabyte has gone for a full silver-and-white aesthetic - even the various plastic hardware bits (RAM slots, headers etc) are coloured in white.

Over on the rear, we see that the PCB is coloured in white and grey, and we also get a metal backplate in white with no shortage of AORUS motifs emblazoned on it. As pictured above, we even get an AORUS Chibi motif that looks as if it's peering out at you from behind the metal backplate, which is endearing for sure.

Fans of integrated aesthetic LEDs for their motherboards will be pleased to note that Gigabyte's included a rectangular lighting accent right next to the RAM slots that as far as I can tell, is an aesthetic accessory that serves to conceal the ICs and pins sticking out from behind the various hardware connectors found on the rear of the motherboard. The lighting effects of the LED accents can be customised via the Gigabyte Control Center app from within Windows.

In terms of M.2 drive cooling, we get heatsink coverage for all four of the board’s M.2 slots, where we get a standalone heatsink for the first M.2 slot, and a large rectangular heatsink that serves to cool the remaining three M.2 slots that the board comes with.

With the large rectangular M.2 heatsink out of the way, we catch a glimpse of the passive heatsink that’s used to cool the X870 chipset.

VRM & Memory Support

The VRM heatsinks for this board are sizable, and Gigabyte's included 16+2+2 power phases with 80A power stages. In case you're wondering, the board utilises a six-layer PCB construction.

The X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE comes with four DDR5 slots that as of the time of publishing this article, supports up to 256GBs of RAM and the DDR5 8200 standard when overclocked, with plastic slots of a dual-tab design.

Front Panel USB Headers

In terms of front panel USB connectivity, over on the rear of the board, we get a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C front panel header along the long edge of the board, and further down from it, a 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 also get two USB 2.0 front panel headers along the bottom edge of the board, with each header providing support for two USB 2.0 Type A ports, for a total of four ports.

Expansion Slots & Storage Options

The X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE comes with a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a graphics card – the said slot features Gigabyte’s "PCIe UD Slot" design that reinforces the slot for use with heavy graphics cards. In case you're unaware, do note that PCIe 5.0 is only supported when you have a Ryzen 9000 series or Ryzen 7000 series processor installed – the Ryzen 8000 series of APUs and CPUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard, and the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot will drop down to operate at Gen 4 speeds when you have a Ryzen 8000 series APU or CPU installed.

The slot also comes with the PCIe EZ-Latch Plus feature that helps make removing a graphics card from the slot a cinch. Pressing down on the button pictured above will cause the graphics card retention tab to be disengaged, for the easy removal of your installed graphics card.

The board also comes with a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot that operates at x4 mode.

For your storage drives, the X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE comes with two SATA III ports. Colour me surprised, as I was expecting the board to come with four SATA III ports, a number that one tends to get with mainstream and premium motherboard offerings.

For M.2. slots, the board comes with two PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots and two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. Do note that all of these slots support NVMe SSDs only, M.2 SATA drives will not work in any of these slots. Once again, a gentle reminder that PCIe 5.0 is only supported when one has a Ryzen 9000 series or Ryzen 7000 series processor installed – the Ryzen 8000 series of APUs and CPUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

On that note, it’s great to see that Gigabyte’s implemented, in my opinion that is, a more palatable way of managing the lane sharing situation that we’ve seen with the earlier wave of X870E and X870 motherboards. For those of you who are unaware, due to X870E/X870 chipset PCIe lane count limitations, and the fact that USB4 support is mandated by AMD for X870E and X870 boards, we saw that for the first few iterations of X870E and X870 boards that come equipped with two PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots, their primary PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a graphics card had to share PCIe lanes with the said second PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot, which is less than ideal.

With the X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE however, we still get lane sharing, but this time, it’s between the USB4 controller and the second PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot, slot M2B_CPU. If you have a M.2 drive installed in slot M2B_CPU, both the USB4 controller and slot M2B_CPU will operate at PCIe 5.0 x2 speeds instead. You do also get the option of configuring slot M2B_CPU to run at PCIe 5.0 x4 speeds from within the BIOS, in which case the USB4 ports will be disabled entirely. Unlike earlier iterations of X870E and X870 boards, I think that its great that end-users finally get the ability to select which setting best fits their respective use cases.

Lane sharing out of the way, we get three noteworthy features with the M.2 slots. First up, the M.2 heatsinks feature a tool-less design called M.2 EZ-Latch Click, which makes removing and reinstalling the heatsinks really easy.

Next up, we’ve got M.2 EZ-Latch Plus, which makes installing and removing a M.2 drive a tool-less affair.

Finally, the second PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot comes with a heat dissipation feature called M.2 EZ Flex, where we get a thermal pad on an "elastic" base that can help to improve contact between the SSD and the heatsink - as far as I can tell, the base seems to be mounted on some sort of spring(s) that is directly attached to the motherboard.

Audio & Internet Connectivity

Powering the board's audio is a higher-end Realtek ALC1220 audio codec...

...while on the internet connectivity front, Gigabyte's included a Realtek RTL8126 chip that provides support for 5 Gigabit Ethernet. WIFI support on the other hand, is courtesy of a Qualcomm QCNCM865 WIFI 7 part that supports the 320 MHz channel width, where the said module also serves up Bluetooth 5.4 support.

Fan & RGB Headers

The X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE comes with eight fan headers:

• 1x CPU_FAN
• 1x CPU_OPT
• 4x SYS_FAN
• 2x FAN_PUMP

Also included are three Gen 2 addressable RGB headers and a single 12V RGB header.

Other Features

Some interesting motherboard features to highlight – back at the top of the motherboard on the front side, we get a set of status LEDs that can help with troubleshooting PC start-up issues.

Beneath the status LEDs are a set of three buttons, with the first button being a power button that allows you to power up your PC. The second button is a reset button, also termed a multi key button by Gigabyte, that can be reprogrammed from within the BIOS to serve other purposes. The third button is a Q-FLASH PLUS button that allows you to update the board’s BIOS without needing to install a CPU, RAM and graphics card.

We also get a double-digit debug LED that can help further troubleshoot PC Power On Self Test (POST) issues.

Over on the rear of the board, we get two temperature sensor headers right next to the 24-pin ATX power connector, which can be hooked up to thermistor cables so as to monitor the temperature of devices within your PC.

Moving to the bottom edge of the board, we get a noise detection header that can be hooked up to an optional noise detection cable to monitor noise levels inside your PC case. We do also get a clear CMOS header as well as a traditional two-pin reset header that you can hook up to a reset switch.

Rounding things off in this section is a TPM header for an optional discrete Gigabyte TPM module.

Rear I/O

The X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE comes with an integrated I/O shield design, where the I/O shield comes with parallelogram-shaped ventilation openings. The following ports can be found on the rear I/O

• 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
• 1x HDMI 2.1 port (supports a maximum display resolution of 4096x2160 at 60 Hz)
• 4x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
• 2x USB4 Type-C ports (both ports support DisplayPort Alt mode, with support for a maximum display resolution of up to 3840x2160 at 240 Hz)
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
• 5 Gigabit Ethernet port
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C 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 - this feature will come in handy in the future, especially since it's very likely that AMD's next-generation "Zen 6" processors will be compatible with this board with just a BIOS update, that is, when "Zen 6" launches in the distant future.

Conclusion

To sum up, the Gigabyte X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE is yet another example of Gigabyte really nailing it when it comes to delivering on motherboards designed for clean-looking all-white PC builds. It very definitely looks and feels the part as a premium rear connector motherboard, from the packaging and of course, to the product itself, where I do think it’s one of the nicest-looking AMD AM5 motherboards that I’ve had the chance to handle to date.

In terms of specs, we get a laundry list of features that one would come to expect of a premium motherboard offering – we’re talking about a decent VRM setup that should handle the entirety of AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series line-up with ease, PCIe 5.0 support for both a graphics card and two M.2 drives with a much-improved way of handling the inevitable lane sharing due to chipset PCIe lane count limitations, speedy 5 Gigabit Ethernet coupled with a full-fat WIFI 7 module that supports the 320MHz channel width, dual USB4 ports and a plethora of USB Type-C and Type-A connectivity options, the list goes on and on.

As of the time of publishing this video, the Gigabyte X870 AORUS STEALTH ICE is available to purchase for a price of around $310 US dollars from Newegg – viewers from Singapore can purchase this board for a price of around $575 Singapore dollars from local PC hardware retailers.

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The motherboard featured in this article was a review unit provided on loan from CDL Trading Pte Ltd, an authorised distributor for Gigabyte in Singapore.