GIGABYTE Intros B860M DS3H WIFI6E Rev 2.0 Motherboard with Fin-Stack VRM Heatsinks

GIGABYTE introduced an interesting new Socket LGA1851 motherboard that could mark the mainstreaming of aluminium fin-stack heatsinks for CPU VRM. The new B860M DS3H WIFI6E Rev 2.0 is part of GIGABYTE's mainline brand, it escapes the gamer-focused AORUS brand, or even the slightly spruced-up Gaming brand. For a mainstream microATX motherboard based on the mid-range Intel B860, it offers some interesting specs, such as a VRM cooling solution that consists of two aluminium fin-stack heatsinks that are joined by a 6 mm-thick copper heatpipe. This feature is only found on Revision 2.0 of the B860M DS3H WIFI6E. The Revision 1.0 of this board has regular extruded aluminium monoblock heatsinks for the VRM.

The B860M DS3H WIFI6E Rev 2.0 draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, and uses a 10-phase VRM to power the CPU. The Intel B860 chipset lacks multiplier-based CPU overclocking, but supports memory overclocking, and this board can do up to DDR5-9066. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 5.0 x16, and three PCI-Express x16 slots with PCI-Express 4.0 x1 wiring, each. Storage connectivity includes one M.2-2280 slot with PCI-Express 5.0 x4 that's wired to the CPU, and one M.2-2280 with PCI-Express 4.0 x4, wired to the PCH. Display connectivity includes two DisplayPorts and one HDMI; networking includes an Intel AX211 (Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3) WLAN module, and a Realtek 2.5 GbE wired LAN interface. The onboard audio is basic Realtek ALC897 fare. USB ports include a 10 Gbps type-C USB 3.2 header, one 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 port on the rear I/O, and four 5 Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (two on the rear I/O, two via headers). The company didn't reveal pricing.