Last year, Gigabyte launched the X870E Aero X3D Wood, the motherboard with real wood as a part of its build. But maybe some folks have found that the overall bright colour scheme doesn’t quite fit the aesthetic of their rigs. For those folks, the company has launched the X870E Aero X3D Dark Wood instead. And you’ll be glad to know that beyond their colours, their name, and oddly enough their price, the two boards are exactly the same.
Just as it did before, Gigabyte says that the X870E Aero X3D Dark Wood has “genuine dark hardwood” as part of its construction. While the company does say that it’s not a “superficial coating”, it stopped short of identifying the exact type of wood being used here. Beyond the wood, the metal bits have also gone from the metallic steel colour to simply black.
As mentioned, aesthetics aside, the two boards are exactly the same. This means support for the AMD Ryzen 9000, 8000, and 7000 Series CPUs, plus X3D Turbo Mode 2.0. DDR5 overclocking goes up to 9,000 MT/s, with digital twin 16+2+2 phases VRM design. Naturally, you get PCIe 5.0 support for M.2 SSDs and GPUs. Built-in wireless support includes WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Overall, the Dark Wood is a very familiar board, as mentioned.
And finally, we get to the price of the Gigabyte X870E Aero X3D Dark Wood. The company itself has not put a price tag on it for the local market, but an official distributor has. Per the listing by C-Zone, the Dark Wood has an official retail price of RM1,999, just under the RM2,099 of the original light Wood. While it’s probably not a case of white paint being heavier this time, I wouldn’t discount the possibility of light wood being more expensive instead.
