What you need to know
- New motherboards supporting AMD's X870 and X870E chipset are now available, launching first on Newegg.
- All boards support the new AMD Ryzen 9000 Series desktop processors with the AM5 socket.
- The new chipsets introduce USB 4.0 ports as standard, alongside DDR5-8000 memory and PCIe 5.0 for expansion cards and storage.
Building a cutting-edge PC around AMD's Ryzen 9000 Series can finally be an all-out affair as motherboards featuring the cutting-edge X870 and X870E chipsets hit the market today. Full-size ATX boards did, anyway, so anyone looking to build a compact micro-ATX or mini-ITX PC without compromising on the latest USB 4.0 standard will have to wait. Nevertheless, enthusiasts can pick up various models from brands like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI as the first batch appears on Newegg.
800 Series motherboards aren't mandatory for new AMD processors like the ultra-powerful AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and 9950X since they are fully compatible with last-gen options featuring the 600 Series chipset and AM5 socket. Still, the new range supports the latest DDR5-8000 memory with AMD EXPO RAM profiles and can unlock over 60% CPU power for the Ryzen 9000 chips with their stock AGESA PI 1.2.0.2 BIOS software.
Which X870 and X870E boards are the cheapest?
At least 25 motherboards supporting the X870 and X870E chipset are available on Newegg today, but some reach lofty (and hilarious) prices of around $699.99. If you're willing to spend that much cash, then I doubt you need any convincing. However, for the rest of us looking to build a new rig on a budget, here are the cheapest boards in both variants available right now.
What's new in X870 and X870E?
It might not seem like a massive list of changes from 600 Series motherboards to the new 800 Series chipsets, and that's because it really isn't. However, the advancement to including USB 4 ports as a standard feature rather than an optional, expensive addition comes alongside support for that blisteringly fast DDR5-8000 RAM. It's a generational leap for storage and expansion, though adoption usually takes a while before it becomes mainstream.
Nevertheless, becoming an early adopter isn't as painfully expensive as I might have expected. While there aren't any confirmations, it's not impossible to believe that NVIDIA's high-end RTX 5000 graphics cards could move to PCI 5.0, though it might leave too many users behind unless reserved only for a fabled RTX 5090. On the other hand, storage offers some of the fastest SSDs with PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket support, so an X870 motherboard could at least deliver some of the best transfer speeds and boot times in Windows 11.
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