The Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 3 B360 is set to hit retailers today, with an MSRP of just £103.27. However, I’m pretty sure we’ll see some competitive pricing right out the gates, and I’m hoping to see this motherboard under £100 today.
There’s a big market for those who want great performance that doesn’t break the bank, and the B360 chipset certainly delivers that. At around £100, it’s a nice entry level solution for those building a gaming or mining rig. Sure, it doesn’t support overclocking, but not everyone needs to do that, nor does every CPU support that. For those running a CPU outside of the K-series, there’s little point in spending more for a Z370 motherboard.
Gigabyte Aorus has trimmed a few things here and there to keep costs down, but not much. Obviously, the chipset is changed and has the biggest impact on price. However, aside from a brown PCB and a missing optical port, all the big hitters are still here. The DIMM slots aren’t armored like we see on their H270 and Z370 boards, but that’s not a deal breaker. The first PCIe slot is armored, which is nice, and there’s even an M.2 heatsink, so it’s hardly scraping the bottom of the barrel style cost saving here. If anything, there’s more that could be trimmed off for an even more affordable version, who knows!
It’s average, and I mean that as a compliment. It delivers pretty good gaming framerates and system benchmark results. It’s not the fastest, but it’s certainly not the slowest. What does stand out is that it’s by far one of the most affordable motherboards we’ve tested in a while. Of course, the fact it still competes with so many motherboards as well as it does, makes it a bit of a bargain.
What impressed me the most, is just how efficient this motherboard is. It barely used any power compared to, well, anything else we’ve tested. For the cost-conscious consumer, this is a very good thing indeed.
The enthusiast overclocking gamer out there will likely still want the Z370 solutions. However, for those looking to build a slightly more affordable gaming or mining PC, it’s ticking all the right boxes. For around £100, you get great efficiency, plenty of features, and competitive performance. I think that’s a bargain no matter what way you look at it.
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