We have compiled for you everything you need to know about AMD’s new AM5 socket and the new motherboards based on the B650 and X670 chipsets – so that you know where it is most worthwhile to invest your money
As part of the hardware storm that has hit the world of computer users in recent weeks, we bring you a lot of original content about the new Intel and AMD platforms. This time we will focus on AMD’s AM5 bracket and we will sort it out for you when it comes to the different motherboards and what features you should look for when purchasing a motherboard.
After all the new AMD Ryzen 7000 processors have arrived in stores, now the motherboards from the different models that support them are also arriving so that you can purchase a new computer based on the Ryzen 7000 processor that supports various and diverse features.
As part of a special with a consumer focus, we organize the chip sets and the various features for you so that you know where to direct your purchases and get the most out of your money. The emphasis in this buying guide focuses on the manufacturer GIGABYTE, which is well known to the audience of personal computer users mainly for its motherboards and video cards. In the future we will discuss additional components and manufacturers.
First of all, you need to sort out the different chipsets of the AM5 mount. This bracket comes with four chipsets so that the different motherboard manufacturers can segment their products with different features and prices.
In the table in front of you you can see the distribution of the communication paths between the different chipsets when each chipset exists in an extreme version and a normal version. You can tell what the Extreme version is by the E in the name, such as X670E and B650E. The main and most noticeable difference between a chipset that is Extreme and one that is not is the support for the new PCI-Express 5.0 standard for a video card. Extreme-less motherboards support the traditional PCI-Express 4.0 standard for this. It is important to add that support for at least one M.2 interface in PCI-Express 5.0 exists on the entire platform.
As of the time of writing these lines, there are still no video cards that come with the new standard, and on a technical level there is an opinion that the near future video cards that will support this will not really produce a significant advantage from the interface compared to the existing one, and apparently AMD also knows this as a graphics core manufacturer itself due to this choice. As a reminder – NVIDIA’s monstrous RTX 4090 also comes in standard 4.0 only.
Here are some of GIGABYTE’s prominent motherboards along with explanations about the intended market segment and the value.
GIGABYTE has several ways to segment its products, with AORUS being the leading gaming brand and the one that represents all advanced gaming and overclocking motherboards for it. What you see here is its most advanced motherboard for the AM5 bracket now, the X670E AORUS XTREME.
This motherboard comes with a high price tag, but surprisingly not as high as its competitors – $700. The idea in such a motherboard, apart from taking out the eyes, is mainly to cover at the highest level in terms of wide features and to enable every potential communication interface that the processor and the chipset is able to provide. This is not always done by manufacturers, and here is the possibility.
Such a motherboard gets 10Gbps wired internet for fast communication, with plenty of fast 10Gbps and more USB interfaces as well. There are also display ports for the built-in graphics core, but the main use with such a motherboard will be with a high-end graphics card.
Relatively quickly the B650E AORUS MASTER became our favorite for value for the advanced user. Those who know GIGABYTE know that AORUS MASTER as a step below XTREME is usually significantly cheaper when it provides almost all XTREME features and so it is here. This motherboard gets the same PCI-Express 5.0 support for its interfaces, with an overclocking potential that wouldn’t put any extreme board to shame, and with enough heatsinks where needed.
For an official price of exactly half the X670E AORUS XTREME, it’s easy to see why we like the B650E AORUS MASTER. Here too, GIGABYTE does not miss out on a variety and abundant amount of faster and less USB interfaces. The few audio ports can be considered a drawback, but we hope that advanced users using this motherboard also use an advanced external sound solution.
For us B650E is the successor of X570, the flagship chipset of AM4 chipset. It’s easy to be dazzled by the X670E and the additional PCI-Express lanes it offers, but we believe that for most users the effect will be non-existent.
The placement of the X670 chipset is a bit odd between the B650E and the X670E. This is one that does not allow a PCI-Express 5.0 interface for the graphics card, but does include some additional paths in the previous generation for such and such interfaces. The X670 AORUS ELITE AX comes in like a lion’s tail with a price tag of $290, which makes it cheaper than the B650E AORUS MASTER.
It is not that there are too many assumptions in the field of interfaces. Apart from the XTREME class, GIGABYTE decided to stick to a wired network connection of 2.5Gbps for its motherboards, which today is considered standard for any motherboard beyond the office and home computer class. The AX is due for the WiFi and Bluetooth module as this motherboard also supports fast wireless connection.
We have arranged for you the important features among the four motherboards that we have presented here. This table explains the segmentation that GIGABYTE makes between the various interfaces on the motherboards according to the price. Everything of course depends on the capabilities of the chipsets.
There is another component that gets different configurations and it is the power supply for the processor mount, this is actually a system that converts the 12V voltage coming in the upper connectors to the voltage that the processor needs in real time at any given moment. Among computer users, for the most part this topic does not receive most of the limelight and it makes sense. Voltage regulation components are not the most exciting and interesting topic when it comes to gaming hardware, at least not for everyone.
This operation, like any operation of converting voltages from one value to another, is such that the components that participate in it produce heat depending on the current and the general efficiency according to how they were built.
In short – as long as there is healthy air circulation in the case, overclocking using air or water cooling will not be limited by the power supply system for the bracket, since its heating is something that usually limits frequencies for the processor.
Now we will go to extreme mode where we will talk about the cheapest motherboard that GIGABYTE currently offers, or will offer in the near future for the AM5 bracket. This is the B650M-DS3H. This is a MATX configuration motherboard that includes a pair of M.2 interfaces for storage, a PCI-Express X16 4.0 interface for a graphics card, and a PCI-Express X1 3.0 interface for an expansion card.
Specifically, among the things that characterize such a motherboard, which is expected to be available at a price tag of about $130, is that you will get fewer USB interfaces in general, with most of them being slower than usual, in addition to fewer interfaces in each area.
Therefore, there are several questions that a user should ask themselves when looking for a motherboard for their needs:
- Am I overclocking? What overclocking utilities would I want?
- How many USB interfaces do I need? which kind? at what speed?
- Which hard drives should I connect to the motherboard? How many in the SATA interface and how many in the M.2?
- Do I have space restrictions as a result of using a special case?
- Which processor will I install on the motherboard?
- Will I be using 2 or 4 memory sticks? Maybe you should leave room for an extra?
- Does the motherboard match the color scheme I’m looking for, if any?
The motherboard we brought as an example, the B650M-DS3H, is the type of motherboards that, based on their price, are probably aimed at using the Ryzen 5 7600X processor or cheaper ones that will be launched in the future. The reason for this is that there will probably be no desire for overclocking, neither the use of power-intensive processors nor a high number of storage devices in the system.
Users who will be interested in overclocking, more USB interfaces and the use of processors such as Ryzen 9 7900X or 7950X for example, but want a cheap option, motherboards like the X670 AORUS Elite AX are designed for them, for example. There, you get a power supply system that is designed exactly for these things. Another option would be the B650 AORUS PRO AX, which is a motherboard with a rich system and high-quality cooling units with a price tag of about 260 dollars.
The rule of thumb in overclocking, especially for processors more advanced than the Ryzen 9 series is to use a motherboard that comes with a dated system as such that has 12 or more stages of voltage stabilization for the processor core, it can be stages of 70A or more, it is not critical. The industry more or less draws a line between the different manufacturers and the current ratings and this number is a general recommendation that belongs to a relatively recent generation of voltage stabilizers. Of course there are subtleties beyond that (how not), but this is a general guideline.
The simpler motherboards will come with systems that have 6-10 stages, and are usually cheaper or simpler rated 45-60A, and also heatsinks with less area to spread the heat from. Meaning, a reduction in two levels of the ability to deal with high current. These are not motherboards built for overclocking needs, but will run any standard processor in the bracket without a problem as long as there is healthy airflow in the area.
We note that when a manufacturer like GIGABYTE describes the power supply system as “8+2+2” the important part is the first one on the left, which describes the power supply system for the processing cores themselves, which are the main part of the processor’s power consumption. The rest describes the power supply for the CPU IO controller, which is a separate piece of silicon. There are components such as the memory controller and the communication controller with the cores.
You can see all these things on the official product pages on the manufacturer’s website. Sometimes the stabilizer models are not explicitly stated, but the general rating for the current is born from the ability of the component to deal with heat mainly. Components configured to convert voltage (the one that enters 12V to the motherboard, to the one that enters much less to the processor) at higher currents are ones that naturally have a higher electrical efficiency.
As a result of all the things we mentioned, on the question “Which motherboard is the most affordable?” There is no single answer, the answer will always depend on the user’s wishes. From rough statistics of the website community, we know that the great majority choose the cheap motherboards, which have now become significantly more expensive than what was known as cheap not long ago. The situation is especially true when the emphasis is on gaming and the bulk of the budget goes to the graphics card and processor, and rightly so.
As a result, for NIS 600-800 any motherboard you get such as the B650M-DS3H or B650 GAMING X (hopefully it will fit in this budget) will be able to provide “enough” interfaces and worry-free support for processors such as Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 7700X even with a little Overclocking. Unfortunately as it stands now, this price range would be considered the entry market for the AM5 mount. It is natural that users who want more advanced processors such as Ryzen 9 7900X or Ryzen 9 7950X will go a little higher, where all the features of the motherboard are improved. These are usually motherboards of NIS 1,000 and more.
As of now, it doesn’t look like we’ll get to the point where it’s considered truly dangerous, at least not with GIGABYTE motherboards for regular use of the new Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processors. The result of overheating of the power supply system means a reduction in processor performance, and with healthy air flow in the motherboard area this should be avoided. Admittedly, there is a chance of reaching this situation when using Ryzen 9 with the most basic motherboard such as the B650M-DS3H, a budgetary unbalanced situation anyway.
Sometimes you may find a motherboard that has everything you are looking for, but suffers from a lack of USB or you are looking for an advanced motherboard with two network ports and have to pay more for it, so another option would be to add a network card to one of the PCI-Express interfaces.
We hope for a healthy stock of the various motherboards in the stores, and for the competition to continue to improve the cheap category of motherboards in the AM5 bracket, a point that will definitely be happy to receive reinforcements.
Stay tuned as we will provide more articles and articles on consumerism and new hardware very soon, including more manufacturers.