Review Let's liven this slow forum up! My super quick review of the GIGABYTE B550I AORUS PRO AX

[DAPUNISHER]

It is a great little board. Runs my 5600@4.65GHz without breaking a sweat. VRMs never get out of the 50s c with the air set at 24c with a ceiling fan. I will push the CPU harder later on, this was the; set the +200MHz in the UEFI one and done overclock.

I know some here do not like Gigabyte, but I have 3 different chipsets of AORUS ELITE and now this pro, and they are all excellent. If you don't like their UEFI, you ain't wrong. I prefer MSI's UEFI out of all the board makers I have tried, but this cost me $190 shipped tax free, so meh.

I will add a couple of pics of it in the build, as quick and dirty as my mini review. Don't beat me up on cable management. I refuse to plug in ARGB on principle, and I swap stuff too often to bother with getting too tidy. I also keep a PCIE cable plugged in since I use other GPUs that require it. Notice how diminutive the 6400 is even in this tiny build.

All prices are rounded up, and include all tax and shipping -

AORUS PRO B550i = $190 Amazon
Gigabyte 256GB nvme = free
5600 = $150 Newegg
Deepcool 120MM AIO = $45 Amazon
XFX RX6400 = $118 includes Saints Row Amazon
NR200 = $85 Amazon
EVGA GM650W - $60 bought here in FS/FT.
RAM = $45 2x8GB CL15 3000MHz at 3200 (I keep stealing all the faster ram for other projects) Newegg I think? Had this 5yrs now?
Win11 pro = $12 VIPSCDKEYS I use a 10 pro key and Microsoft is like, okay cool.

Total = $705

It is very quiet and temps are spectacular for a mini-ITX build. The AORUS PRO is the real MVP in this build. I like everything about it, other than the RGB lighting.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Put about 150hrs of gaming on this now, it is cool, quite, and just a joy to have and use. Just swapped the 6400 for a Powercolor Fighter 6600XT. I set Radeon Chill with it playing Fallout 4 1080 maxed, fan doesn't spin up often, and when it does it is silent. Best part is it uses even less wattage than the 6400 this way. Doesn't go over 37W max and is in the low 30s and 20s most the time.

The PSU I picked fills the whole cage, unlike the 550W version in the other NR200. It means I can't use a 3 fan card with it, the cables block it. Not having been into SFF since back in the Shuttle days of yore, it is a learning experience.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just swapped the 6400 for a Powercolor Fighter 6600XT. I set Radeon Chill with it playing Fallout 4 1080 maxed, fan doesn't spin up often, and when it does it is silent. Best part is it uses even less wattage than the 6400 this way. Doesn't go over 37W max and is in the low 30s and 20s most the time.

That's... rather interesting, from a wattage perspective.

There's a reason why 6600/XT cards are desired for lower-wattage mining.

I however have had issues with their zero-fan implementation; the fan stays off, the card gets to 86-89C mining, fan never comes on, card crashes.

Some of that might have to do with latent bugs in the mining software when it comes to fan-control, zero-fan, and AMD cards, as I had the SAME problem years ago with XFX HD7700 cards and Nicehash, at the time. The fans wouldn't spin, either.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

You stealth edited on me.

No issues with fan stop. Your problems had to be mining related. The card works a treat.