Gigabyte B650I AORUS ULTRA Mini ITX AM5 Motherboard Review:
Gigabyte’s newest Mini ITX motherboard, the B650I AORUS ULTRA, aims to meet user demand for compact, high-performance systems without compromising modern technology. With AORUS being one of the most acclaimed collections from Gigabyte, this motherboard bundles a good number of features towards the modern gamer, content creator, and enthusiast alike in finding a strong and efficient platform for their builds. Throughout this review, we dive into the B650I AORUS ULTRA’s design, features, performance, and overall value, giving reasons why it stands as one of the best contenders to any SFF PC build.
What leaps immediately to mind with the Gigabyte B650I AORUS ULTRA is its compact Mini ITX design, ideal for those who wish to build in smaller cases but not at the expense of power and features. For all its small size, it’s a well-constructed piece using premium materials that ensure durability and reliability. The motherboard has reinforced PCIe slots and memory DIMM slots to ensure that the board will not easily break or crack under the force of heavily weighted components like high-end graphics cards and large memory kits.
Gigabyte has even looked to aesthetics, making the B650I a very aggressively sleek-looking motherboard that flows amazingly into the modern builds. A very dark-colored motherboard joined to the style of AORUS gives quite a professional and clean look, not to detract from that in most systems, gaming or professional. Not really placing much of an emphasis on RGB lighting, headers still persist for users who wish to have more customizable lighting in their builds.
Outstanding is the heatsink design in context with the miniaturized board. Indeed, Gigabyte had used large well-positioned heatsinks over the VRMs and other sensitive components to ensure effective cooling even under heavy loads. It pays much attention to cooling in Mini ITX builds, especially as airflow may be very limited. This helps stabilize during a lot of work such as gaming, video editing, or the overclocking.

AM5 Socket and Compatibility
Indeed, the B650I AORUS ULTRA will feature an AM5 socket, supporting AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series processors. Therefore, it is naturally future-proof as one can leverage on the brand’s latest high-performance CPUs offering improvements in performance efficiency and multicore capabilities. One of the best features of AM5 is that it supports DDR5 memory, which comes with much higher speeds, better bandwidth, and improved performance in memory-intensive applications than the older DDR4 standard.
It also supports PCIe 5.0: A second feature anyone would want when building a system to be future-proof for all latest, upcoming generations of GPUs and NVMe SSDs. Current graphics cards could not actually fully take advantage of the bandwidth of PCIe 5.0, but you can count on the motherboard to be ready when that equipment does turn up.
For performance, the Gigabyte B650I AORUS ULTRA just is phenomenal for the size of this PCB. Underpinned with an integrated processor from the Ryzen 7000 series, this board does very well in terms of even the most computationally intensive workloads: gaming, 3D rendering, and multitasking in professional workloads. The VRM setup on this board would be quite robust to ensure stable delivery to the CPU while under heavy loads or overclocked.
Overclocking can be a feature with the B650I AORUS ULTRA as users will have quite a number of options to push hardware to the limit. Gigabyte’s BIOS is certainly easy enough for even a newcomer to overclocking, but they could also control the configurations in detail for CPU, memory, and voltage settings. This leaves room for enthusiasts to fine-tune their system towards maximum performance without having to nag about stability or power delivery issues.
In two M.2 slots, it offers PCIe 4.0 drives for super-fast storage speed. This is particularly important to the users working under large files or for quicker access to their data since NVMe drives are much faster than traditional SATA SSDs. Dual M.2 slots also give users a chance to install several SSDs to balance between storage capacity and speed.
Another highlight of the B650I AORUS ULTRA is Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5G LAN. The former provides fast, low latency, wireless connectivity without interference and is suitable for gamers or content creators whose stable connection to the internet is necessary for online gaming, streaming, or file uploading. Furthermore, with 2.5G LAN, one even enjoys fast wired internet connectivity, considering users who prefer stability and speed due to a hardwired connection.
AMP-UP Audio technology upgrades audio quality, delivering superior on-board audio experience. High-quality capacitors with a clean audio circuitry should provide high-quality sound to further enhance gaming and media content experiences.

BIOS and Overclocking
Gigabyte’s UEFI BIOS interface is very simple and stuffed with useful features. Even an infrequent user who’s not familiar with his or her BIOS settings will find the interface intuitive to use, offering those enthusiastic about overclocking a couple of significant functions for automatic tuning. Enthusiasts will get more granular control over CPU and memory settings in terms of voltage, frequency, and timings.
The B650I AORUS ULTRA supports XMP profiles, and it is not a thing to overclock DDR5 memory for higher speeds without manually adjusting every single setting. It would be magnificent for users who would like to derive the best out of their high-speed RAM without setting deeper into the BIOS configurations.

Connectivity and Expansion
For a Mini ITX motherboard, the Gigabyte B650I AORUS ULTRA has an impressive array of connectivity options. Some really cool features are also found on the rear I/O panel: multiple USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A ports for fast data transfer, a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C, and both HDMI and DisplayPort to output video. While these are useful for anyone using integrated graphics, these can also help to set up a multi-monitor workstation.
The motherboard also has headers for additional USB ports, fan connections, and RGB lighting. It does so to make sure that, even in a compact build, users have many options to connect their peripherals and make the best out of their setup.

Cooling Solutions
Cooling is a great concern in the small form factor builds where space is limited, and there is less room for components to breathe themselves out. Gigabyte did an excellent job with the cooling design of B650I AORUS ULTRA as they used large heatsinks and smart fan headers. The Smart Fan 6 technology allows users to set up customized fan curves that would ensure the cooling performance is tailored for the needs of your system. Multiple temperature sensors also appear on the board, making it possible for the system to cool down dynamically based on real-time information.

Conclusion:
Gigabyte B650I AORUS ULTRA Mini ITX AM5 is the motherboard for someone who wants to have an extremely compact, high-performance system. It harbors all the conveniences of modern times, including PCIe 5.0 support,DDR5 memory, and AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, so it will not be obsolete anytime soon. With solid power delivery, good cooling, and enough connectivity options, this board can most assuredly take on the most intense workloads-gaming and content creation-all under its very capable roof.
Small form factor builds don’t get much better than this – the B650I AORUS ULTRA is an extremely top contender in performance as well as in high-tech capabilities; perfect for users looking for future-proofing without sacrificing performance.

Pros:
Compact Mini ITX design with sufficient features.
It supports the AMD Ryzen 7000 series, offering DDR5 memory.
PCIe 5.0 to support the next-gen GPUs and storage
Dual M.2 slots with PCIe 4.0
Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5G LAN for the best networking
Great cooling with smart fan control

Cons:
Expansion is limited due to its compact size
It has relatively fewer PCIe lanes compared with other bigger boards

Rating:9/10
Overall, the Gigabyte B650I AORUS ULTRA is a feature-rich high-performance motherboard, ideal for the building of a powerful and compact Mini ITX system.