Gigabyte has released a number of X370 motherboards to support AMD’s Ryzen processors, and one of the early boards to see a release was the AORUS AX370-Gaming K5. As of this writing, this ATX motherboard has a BIOS (Version F23d) that makes it a viable option for any AM4-based processor, including Bristol Ridge (Excavator), Summit Ridge (Zen), Raven Ridge (Zen APUs), and AMD’s upcoming Pinnacle Ridge (Zen+) processors.

If Gigabyte’s naming scheme has you scratching your head, you’re not alone. This motherboard is similar to the AORUS AX370-Gaming 5, but it lacks the dual Ethernet ports (the Killer E2500 NIC is the one not found on our board), there are fewer USB 3.1 ports, and slightly fewer memory and CPU overclocking options. A close look at the VRM also reveals that the K5 version we’re looking at here has a less robust voltage regulation subsystem, but these relatively minor sacrifices get you an X370 motherboard with a solid feature set for roughly $30 less than the Gigabyte AX370-Gaming 5. The big thing this board has going for it compared to the Gaming 5 is the all-black shrouds, which look much more at home on the all-black PCB. To see if this board will make a worthy platform for your next AMD-based system, read on.