AMD board partners unveil more enthusiast AM5 motherboards

[Tudor Cibean]

What just happened? ASRock, Asus, Biostar, Gigabyte, and MSI revealed more details about their upcoming high-end X670 and X670E motherboards. Some of the most notable features include PCIe 5.0 and USB4 support, extreme power delivery designs, and wider M.2-25110 slots. However, the companies didn't mention anything about their B650 motherboards, suggesting that these might not launch at the same time as AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors next month.

At AMD's latest Meet the Experts webinar, board partners showed off some of the features and designs of their upcoming X670 and X670E motherboards. As a reminder, AMD's AM5 platform will support CPUs with a TDP of up to 170W, 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes (x16 for graphics cards, x8 general purpose lanes used for storage and USB4/Thunderbolt 4 controllers, x4 to connect to the chipset), up to four DisplayPort 2 or HDMI 2.1 outputs, and dual-channel DDR5 memory.

ASRock only revealed one new model, the X670E PG Lightning, but also talked about some of the new features coming to their X670E motherboards, including USB4 ports with 27W fast charging, eight-layer PCBs, and an actively-cooled M.2 heatsink to keep PCIe 5.0 SSDs from overheating.

Asus showed off two of its upcoming motherboards, including the flagship ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme and the high-end ROG Crosshair X670E Hero. They will feature impressive VRM solutions with 110A power stages (20+2-phase design for the Extreme, 18+2-phase for the Hero), five M.2 slots each (with some being on separate add-in cards), and high-end audio solutions based on the ALC4082 codec.

On the rear panel, the Extreme has nine USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps), two USB4 capable of 40Gbps, 10GbE and 2.5GbE jacks, audio ports, and Wi-Fi 6E antenna connectors. The Hero trades the 10GbE jack for an HDMI port.

Meanwhile, Biostar's X670E Valkyrie will have a 22-phase VRM design with 105A power stages, two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, and four M.2 slots (with two supporting PCIe 5.0).

Gigabyte showcased four motherboards, including the X670E Aorus Xtreme, X670E Aorus Master, X670 Aorus Pro AX, and X670 Aorus Elite AX. All models will come with at least one wider M.2-25110 slot and a THB_U4 Thunderbolt header. It's worth noting that the X670E boards will each have one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for graphics cards, while the X670 variants will use PCIe 4.0 instead.

MSI talked about four motherboards: the flagship MEG X670E Godlike, MEG X670E Ace, MPG X670E Carbon Wi-Fi, and Pro X670-P Wi-Fi. The Godlike will have the best VRM solution out of the bunch, with a 24+2+1-phase design and 105A power stages for the Vcore. Other notable features include MSI's new screwless M.2 heatsink and a PCIe adapter card that supports two M.2-25110 SSDs with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface.

These motherboards will likely release next month together with AMD's Ryzen 7000-series processors. The cheaper B650-based boards might arrive at a later time, considering the companies haven't announced anything about them so far.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/95534-amd-board-partners-unveil-more-enthusiast-am5-motherboards.html

 

[Gmachine]

I wonder if there's a threadripper pro engineering/research motherboard on the cards that can have 200GbE/400GbE nic. Would there be limitations to such a built-in setup besides the cost? I'm not clued up on this but would like to know which mobo has the highest network card

 

[Athlonite]

I wonder if there's a threadripper pro engineering/research motherboard on the cards that can have 200GbE/400GbE nic. Would there be limitations to such a built-in setup besides the cost? I'm not clued up on this but would like to know which mobo has the highest network card

You'll most likely not see 200GbE or above in anything other than server gear as not only will it be hot it will also cost a fortune

 

[Geralt]

Aorus X670E Extreme is my next mobo!

 

[wiyosaya]

I just love all the marketing buzz words each of these models bears. Personally, I think its ripe for someone to do a comedy routine. Not that I am not interested, but really - Godlike? Extreme?
And ASRock's "feature" for DDR5 - "protects your DRAM from surge current while installing?" Are people expecting to install DDR5 with their systems powered up or something? Maybe I'm behind the times or am just too dumb to understand, but I would never install any component while any system is powered up, and a good grounding strap takes care of the rest.

I guess their marketing departments have to do something to justify the astronomical prices most of these motherboards will probably bear.

 

[passwordistaco]

The daisy-chain arrangement of chipset "chiplets" on the X670E is disappointing. If I go with a first gen AM5, I'll be getting the X670.

 

[kiwigraeme]

They are big investments now - for the cautious person - probably waiting 6 months to a year is a good strategy - probably as well due to longevity of this platform going forward - most boards become less flakey with bios updates - but still.
So unless buying the cheapest chip - you will want a reasonably future proof board -It always will be behind at some stage - eg wifi 7 , BT8 or whatever.

If you are a power user - you will need lots of M2 slots - as where you going to place those black friday 8TB or 4TB modules in a few years .
Myself - happy to get in on MBs and AMD chips gen 2 - plus more clarity Intel vs AMD - so maybe 2 to 3 years from now - 4TB M2 drives etc will be std

Plus maybe PSU and GPUs may slightly change the way they power going forward .

Trying to balance needs/wants and smarts - really most of this is wants - so smarts needs to ramp up

 

[Mr Majestyk]

I'm waiting to see what X650E MB's have on offer and if they'll be a smarter buy than the X670

 

[Xallisto]

Nice to see AM5 using a land grid array.

 

[wiyosaya]

At AMD's latest Meet the Experts webinar, board partners showed off some of the features and designs of their upcoming X670 and X670E motherboards. As a reminder, AMD's AM5 platform will support CPUs with a TDP of up to 170W, 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes (x16 for graphics cards, x8 general purpose lanes used for storage and USB4/Thunderbolt 4 controllers, x4 to connect to the chipset), up to four DisplayPort 2 or HDMI 2.1 outputs, and dual-channel DDR5 memory.

The X670E chipset is the only one to support PCIe 5.0, in any lane configuration, for Graphics cards and NVME. The X670 only offers PCIe 5.0 support for either graphics cards or for NVME drives, but not both at the same time.

From https://www.msi.com/blog/amd-x570-vs-x670-chipset-whats-the-main-difference

X670E vs. X670 Putting the Extreme in X670E
Although both X670E and X670 offer PCIe 5.0 connectivity and DDR5 memory support, X670E motherboards adopt the new PCIe 5.0 standard for both your M.2 slot and your PCIe slot. On the other hand, X670 motherboards feature PCIe 5.0 on only one of the two – either the PCIe slot or the M.2 slot.

However, memory is another matter. ALL AM5 chipsets announced early this year enjoy DDR5 support (as of August 2022), which means X670E, X670, and B650 can leverage DDR5 without limitations.

Maybe this is only valid for MSI, but I don't think so.