GoKawiilColorful’s iGame X870E Vulcan OC V14 is a well-built, overclocking-focused motherboard with robust hardware, thoughtful overclocking features, and a premium design that pushes the brand closer to true high-end territory. But stiff competition at this price makes it a tough sell against more established, equally capable peers.
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Breaking out from under ‘the big four’ (ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI), it’s been a while since we've covered any Colorful motherboards. In fact, it's been more than two years since we tested one. Colorful’s motherboards generally tend to be solid options, some with unique appearances, offering features and specifications similar to those available in the US market (Colorful boards are typically available only in Asia and the UK). Still, the company has never offered what I would consider genuine high-end boards. But that changes today, with iGame X870E Vulcan OC V14 motherboard we have in the lab. Colorful touts this as a premium motherboard focused on overclocking, and we’d have to agree. From the robust power delivery, BCLK engine chip, and dedicated BCLK buttons, to the 2-DIMM memory configuration, the Vulcan OC is ready to push any chip to the limit, even with sub-ambient cooling.
Heatsinks and shrouds cover most of the PCB, and it also comes with a small ‘Vulcan Smart Screen’ customizable display, all of which are traits of a premium modern motherboard. Priced around $679.99 (if it makes it to the US market - you can find this in the UK and the Far East), it sits squarely in the premium mid-range segment. It competes with boards like the MSI X870E Ace Max and Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero by price, and overclocking-centric boards like the Gigabyte X870 Aorus Tachyon ($599.99), and ASRock X870E Taichi OCF ($499.99). So it’s a bit of a tough sell, as it comes across as a sort of hybrid, with the integrated display.
Hardware-wise, you get robust power delivery (18 phases, 110A SPS MOSFETs), fast memory support (up to DDR5-10000+ MT/s), three PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 sockets (four total), ample USB connectivity on the rear IO with 13 total, including two USB4 40 Gbps ports, 5 GbE and fast Wi-Fi 7 networking, an integrated BCLK controller, and more. It even has a couple of DIY-friendly features to help with installing your video card or M.2 storage. Colorful also has several baked-in X3D BIOS profiles to get the most out of your high-cache X3D processors.
Testing with our Ryzen 9 9900X showed the board performs well overall. It’s a competent gaming platform, and it plowed through our comprehensive benchmarking suite, so we know there are no performance issues out of the box. We’ll cover those details and more, below, as well as test its performance and other features to determine whether it deserves a spot on our list of the best motherboards . But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from Colorful’s website.
Specifications of the X870E Vulcan OC
Swipe to scroll horizontally Socket AM5 (LGA 1718) Chipset X870E Form Factor ATX Voltage Regulator 22 Phase (18x 110A SPS MOSFETs for Vcore) Video Ports (2) USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C USB Ports (2) USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C
(4) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
(4) USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
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