What’s the point?
The goal is to identify which of the AM5 boards are most likely to meet your needs taking into consideration your budget.
Which chipset do I go with?
With 800 series boards have not yet launched I struggle to see the benefit in waiting for one of those so our focus will be on the 600 series for now.
My recommendation will always be for the B650/E boards, X670/E adds a second chipset to the board but does not increase the absolute limit of devices. Mainly adding more options as the CPU PCIe lanes is still the limiting factor. So unless you have requirements which are only met by a board with an X670 chipset I would avoid as it adds extra cost for no other benefit.
But which one is the best?
Okay so for those of you with unlimited budget. Yes you that’s looking at motherboards that cost the GDP of a small African nation. Buy whichever one is the prettiest for you OR you can buy what I think is actually the best 600 series board.
The ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Gene.
It’s got you covered in most areas except for only coming in black and not in white. More phases than you could count on all your fingers; A post code display; lots of place for M.2 drives with the included Add-In card; USB 4 with lots of type C; 2.5Gb Intel NIC & Wifi 6E (if you’re into that).
Unfortunately it lacks in normal USB A ports and only has a single PCIe x16 slot. This is still the best board out there for all the enthusiasts mainly due to a single feature that I have yet to mention but is quite easy to see. It’s only got 2 Dimm slots, one for each memory channel.
Yes this is a good thing, with the ability to get 96GB of ram on only two sticks with DDR5 you don’t need those extra slots which are just going to make getting high speeds on DDR5 more difficult.
What do I recommend for most consumers.
ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2
The ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 is what I and many others have been recommending as one of the cheapest boards to look at and it is also perfectly fine for any of the CPUs available on AM5.
It has all of the basic requirements that one could need. A main x16 at 4.0 speeds, which won’t hold back even the most high-end GPUs. 2 M.2 slots, one at 5.0 and another at 4.0 so enough and high speed at that. 6 Type A USB and a Type C USB port so enough for most users. They have also included an 2.5Gb nic. The only thing that the board is really missing is Wifi; but the board does have an open slot for an M.2 Slot-E add in card.
“And the price?” you might be asking. It can be had for less than $140 most of the time straight off Amazon.
GIGABYTE B650 Eagle AX
Okay this board is quite a bit more featured and I have no idea how Gigabyte are producing this for the price they’re selling it at. A shocking $159 for all the features that it has.
So what are these features. A main x16 slot at 4.0 speeds which once again won’t hold back any current or even next gen GPU. As well as 3 other x16 slots wired for x1 only unfortunately; 2 direct to CPU and 1 through the Chipset. 3 M.2 slots, a main 5.0 slot and 2 4.0 slots; only the bottom one of which goes through the chipset.
Front panel USB C connector; 8 USB A and a USB C on the main IO which is absolutely plenty, even you guys that want to do some streaming or video recording. Included is Wifi 6E and a Realtek 1Gb Nic.
The board also has an internal Q-Flash button for flashing the bios to the newest one to ensure that your 9000 series CPU will work in your motherboard even if it has been sitting on a shelf for a little bit.
Wait I need a feature that these don’t have.
If there is a specific feature you require, I’m not going to recommend anything specific, start by making a list of what you do require and then seeing what board has the most pros within your budget and the least cons.
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