Upgrading from an 8700k to a 9800x3d once it’s out. It’s currently a long weekend in New Zealand so there are some decent sales, but we do suffer from a real lack of choice. E.G I’m sure somebody will recommend the Tomahawk but it’s out of stock and NZD 500.
My main criteria for a motherboard is having 3+ m2 slots. I’d previously found the ASUS TUF GAMING B650-E ATX for NZD360, but the MSI X670E GAMING PLUS ATX has recently been listed for NZD400.
I’ve previously almost exclusively used Asus mobos and am not concerned about Asus’ poor reputation for RMA as we have legal consumer protections that mean I deal with the retailer not Asus. So I’m happy to go ahead with the Tuf but wondering if it’s worth paying the extra $40 for an x670e board?
Anybody have experience with either mobo they can share?
If you want 3 m.2 slots 100% go for the x670e board.
By default on most B__0 boards installing a second m.2 SSD uses all remaining pcie lanes, and possibly even disables some features like sata ports. So installing a 3rd means downgrading your GPU from x16 to x8. X670/e gives you 8 more pcie lanes to fill with all the SSDs you want.
https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/chipsets/am5.html#specs
Supposedly there’s no limitations on the b650 for pcie lanes but I did note that on other boards which is why I ruled other ones out. But yeah seems safer to go with x670e and then there’s a 4th m2 if I really need it.