The “new” AMD 800-series chipsets and their accompanying motherboards are now officially released. So, if you’re looking to buy one, you can now – but should you? What do these new motherboards have to offer, how do they perform, and how much do they cost?
We’ll be covering all of that today as we kick off our X870E content with flagship models from Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte, and MSI.
Actually, we don’t have MSI’s $700 Godlike because it was delayed, so the Carbon will have to do. But before diving into the boards, what’s the difference between the new X870E and the old X670E chipsets? The short answer is: not much. They’re essentially the same, with X870E simply making USB4 support mandatory.
Other than that, they’re identical. Both chipsets provide a maximum of 44 PCIe lanes, 24 of which support PCIe 5.0. The primary PCIe slot from the CPU must be 5.0 compliant, as does the primary M.2 slot. The maximum supported USB speed is 40 Gbps, also a requirement due to the mandatory USB4 support.
The difference between X870 and X670, the non-E versions, is more substantial.
The difference between X870 and X670, the non-E versions, is more substantial. X870 requires the primary PCIe slot to be 5.0 compliant and mandates USB4 support. However, X870 uses a single chipset, whereas X670 requires two, meaning there are just 36 PCIe lanes available for X870 but 44 for X670. In that sense, X870 is a downgrade. However, X870 offers 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes, whereas the older X670 has just 8. It’s an odd choice by AMD, making their already confusing chipset lineup even more confusing.
Anyway, the models we’re looking at today are all X870E boards, and they all cost way too much money. So, that’s exciting – let’s check them out!
The Motherboards
MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
We’ll start with the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi, the most high-end MSI X870E board available, given the current absence of the Godlike. MSI claims an MSRP of $500 for this board, so it’s not cheap, but expect this to be the norm for X870E boards. We have yet to see where the retail price settles, but the X670E Carbon currently retails for $420 and lacks features such as WiFi 7, 5 Gbit LAN, and USB4.
There are also some nice board features like the EZ PCIe Release button for the primary PCIe slot. Additionally, there’s the EZ M.2 Shield Frozer II, a tool-less design that allows for RGB lighting within the heatsink, which is, of course, unnecessary but looks pretty cool, no pun intended.
In fact, all M.2 slots are tool-free on the X870E Carbon, which isn’t something you’ll find on all the expensive X870E motherboards. The other three M.2 slots can all be accessed by removing a single large heatsink using the same release mechanism, with cooling provided to both sides of the SSD.
The primary and secondary M.2 slots are PCIe 5.0 compliant, while the other two are PCIe 4.0. Other notable onboard features include a digital debug LED, power and reset buttons, and massive VRM heatsinks. Speaking of the VRM, you’re getting eighteen 110A power stages for the vcore, which is quite impressive. The X670E version was already overkill with eighteen 90A power stages, so naturally, they’ve been upgraded.
Overall, the X870E Carbon WiFi is an excellent-looking AM5 motherboard, and at $500, it better be.
Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero
The ROG Crosshair X870E Hero has to be one of the best-looking motherboards we’ve ever seen. Best of all, it’s loaded with features – so much so that it’s hard to know where to begin.
The feature list is almost overwhelming, with things like M.2 Q-Release, PCIe Slot Q-Release Slim, Q-Antenna, Q-LED, and Q-Code. In other words, a lot of “Q” features, along with WiFi 7, tons of PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots, Nitropath DRAM Technology, Built-in Clock Generator, and more. And no, we haven’t even scratched the surface of that massive RGB holographic panel.
Around the I/O panel, you’ll find two USB4 ports, eight USB 10 Gbps ports (including six Type-A and two Type-C), an HDMI output, a WiFi module, two Ethernet ports (one 2.5 Gbit and the other 5 Gbit), gold-plated audio jacks, optical audio out, a BIOS Flashback button, and a clear CMOS button. It’s a well-stocked I/O panel with plenty of USB support and no USB 2.0 ports in sight, which is a refreshing change for a high-end board.
In terms of cooling, the Crosshair X870E Hero is a solid slab of aluminum. The backside of the board features a full-size heat spreader, while the front includes large VRM heatsinks and multiple M.2 heatsinks that also cover the chipsets.
There are five M.2 slots onboard; the first three support PCIe 5.0, while the additional two are PCIe 4.0 compliant. The PCIe 5.0 ports offer cooling for both sides of the SSD, and the primary port connected to the CPU gets a large heatsink with the M.2 Q-Release feature, which also incorporates Q-Slide and Q-Latch – a triple-Q feature, if you will.
Both PCIe x16 slots also feature the new Q-Release Slim mechanism, which allows you to release the graphics card without pushing any buttons – just lift the card, and it releases automatically.
As for the VRM, like MSI’s X870E Carbon WiFi, this board has enough power delivery for multiple Intel Core i9-14900K processors, even though it only needs to handle a single Ryzen 9 9950X. So, needless to say, there’s plenty of headroom here, thanks to eighteen 110A power stages for the vcore. There’s little point in testing the thermal performance of this VRM, but we’ll do it anyway.
Asrock X870E Taichi
The Asrock X870E Taichi is likely the most affordable flagship X870E motherboard at $450, and despite that, it looks quite impressive. That said, the gold highlights might not appeal to everyone. If that’s the case, the Taichi Lite might be more to your liking, and we’ll take a look at that version shortly.
At the I/O panel, you’ll find a dozen USB ports, although two are USB 2.0, and three are USB 3.2 Gen 1. While it’s not the most extensive USB configuration, there are still five USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and two USB4 ports. Additionally, there’s a LAN port, WiFi antenna ports, optical audio out, two audio jacks, a CMOS clear button, and a BIOS flashback button.
Onboard, there are four M.2 slots. The primary slot is PCIe 5.0 connected to the CPU, while the other three are PCIe 4.0. There are also two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots connected to the CPU. When both are in use, they run at x8/x8.
Additional onboard features include power and reset buttons, a digital diagnostic LED display, an easy-release mechanism for the primary PCIe x16 slot, and tool-less access for the primary and secondary M.2 slots. However, screws are required to access the additional M.2 slots.
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