Motherboard articles

After reviewing the Threadripper 3990X, it was made clear the 64-core/128-thread beast from AMD lays waste to every HEDT part we have ever tested. It's an insane productivity CPU, that we pushed to extremes to torture a few motherboards just this week. Then we thought, why not try out some big bulky coolers as well?

Today we're going to perform some AMD TRX40 motherboard VRM thermal testing using the powerful 64-core Threadripper 3990X. To apply load we're using Blender with the system running at stock and overclocked to 3.8 GHz. The typical power draw for this system is around 450 watts, but once overclocked we are hitting as much as 850 watts. Toasty!

Today we're taking a look at the performance impact having four DDR4 memory modules can have on performance in a dual-channel system, opposed to just two modules. In this scenario all modules are operating at the same frequency, use the same timings and provide the same total memory capacity.

How well do you know the components that make up your PC? Take the humble motherboard, it sits there, quietly keeping everything running, and rarely gets the same attention as the CPU or graphics card. Motherboards are remarkably important though, so let's go all Grey's Anatomy, and dissect the motherboard -- breaking down its various parts and seeing what each bit does!

As we anticipated when we reviewed AMD's new flagship 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X, rather than testing it on the very high-end Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme, we want to see how it does on budget AMD B450 boards. Maybe this combo doesn't make sense right now, but it will in the future as a potential upgrade for many AM4 owners.

You're ready to go AMD on your next build, and we can't blame you. Third-gen Ryzen offers great options with core-rich CPUs at compelling price points. The new AMD X570 platform consists of high-end motherboards that enable PCIe 4.0 and M.2 Gen 4 storage along with other new features such as Wi-Fi 6, but expect to pay a premium for these.

When we reviewed Ryzen's latest iteration we briefly checked out different DDR4 memory speeds but now that things have settled we were put on a mission to benchmark memory performance on 3rd-gen Ryzen to see if spending more makes sense or not.

Surely you've read our 3rd-gen Ryzen review by now. While testing the new CPUs we posed the question, how well will these processors work on a really affordable B350 motherboard? The test subject for this experiment is the Asrock AB350M Pro4, the best 'ultra cheap' B350 motherboard we recommended back in 2017 coming in at just $75.

Computex 2019 is over and there was more hardware that our daily coverage could handle, and yet we could still rejoice with the very PC hardware-centric show that makes Taipei's yearly stop ever so special. Here are the 10 coolest products we saw at the show this year.

Enthusiasts building their own PCs are accustomed to keeping up with latest drivers, especially when it comes to things like graphics cards. Motherboard BIOS updates are also critical to get the most out of your hardware and improved compatibility.

All in all, while Intel does offer some interesting choices at certain price points, AMD remains king across our recommendations. After all the extensive testing you are familiar with, we've come up with this concise guide on the best CPU choices available right now.