I think the general consensus is to just get the Tomahawk if you want to spend under $300 and the Nova if spending over $300, only worth spending more than that if you’re into serious overclocking.
I second this, as I have a hybrid Gaming/Workstation PC and my requirements are a bit unusual. I'd NEED: -4x M.2 slots, Not saying No to 5 though. -1xPCie x16, -1 PCIe X1 Slot for the Soundcard, maybe a second x1If I have to run a SATA Controller, -6x SATA Ports (internal SATA SSD+HDD+ Blu-ray Drive/Writer), I have a PCIe 3.0 Controller Card If necessary. -4 RAM Slots. I would also like to have: -2.5 Gbit/s LAN -1x PCIe x4 Slot, for Upgrades Like a 10 GBit/s LAN -decent amount of USB Ports, especially USB-As in 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 -Two digit Error Code display Nice to have but Not required: - USB 4.0 (might be able to use it in Card Readers in the Future.) Not required at all: -WLAN/Wifi (don't use it) -good onboard Sound (I have a Soundcard) Not averse to buying 600 Boards! Timeframe for buying, after Christmas to early next year.
Kinda looks like there might be a bit of a motherboard PCB lottery going on with getting DDR5-8000 work on AM5. The X870E-E and Crosshair X870E Hero have the exact same memory topology AFAIK. So it's odd to see such a big difference between them. Also my X870E Hero really doesn't like doing 8000 but yours does 8300. I wonder if MSI has some kind of extra validation step in manufacturing since all their boards got 8100 or if you just got lucky with their boards all getting the same results.
@@MrFatpenguin6000 with low latency is probably still the sweet spot, afaik the lower latency is still better than whatever the bump to 8000 would yield. But then again I'm no expert.
Ditto, I made the mistake of staying with the AM4 5800x3D when I should have waited a bit and gone with the AM5 7800X3D (I’m a Flight Sim Nerd). I want my last build to be the 9800X3D. Can’t wait to see the reviews with the new Gigabyte Bios.
I always looked at the 120-150$ price range, now it feels the same features and quality can only be found at 250$. While getting a 130$ board rn basically equates in receiving a piece of carboard with rgb on it.
I absolutely love this format of how you're showing the information. Please keep this format going forward. Also please keep the audio testing and add m more information like the DAC chipset model. That let's us know if we need to get an external DAC or not. This is amazing work, Steve!
Most of these boards do not have headphone output, only line out and mic in/line in. That means a separate device is necessary if you want to amplify the line out signals into actually listenable levels by headphones/IEMs. Given another purchase is already necessary, the best choice would be a good 60$ usb dongle (which has both dac/amp) which would perform better that even the top results listed on the audio charts of this video
Great job! And really very informative the new summary sheet of each motherboard. I think the data on boot times, max memory frequencies and ECC support in particular are very useful.
There is not much demand for ECC in gaming, but for a home server it would be nice. The double X16 slots; two sata adapters for your drive arrays or those 4 x M.2 cards.
Fantastic work, Steve. No ones doing this on TH-cam, literally no one else. Hope this video hits 500K+ views to keep you motivated doing this sorta thorough testing.
@@marktackman2886yes exactly I 100% agree on that. As long as you have 4/5 usb 3.2 gen 2 or faster ports, some slow ports are fine, you will surely need some slow ports for things like mouse and keyboard or charging your phone while using it or some similar crap
I am sure it has been mentioned already, but the new slide format is excellent (both the I/O breakdown and the information slides). All the information is clearly visible and highlighted as you are talking making it super easy to follow along. One of your best videos to date and so much promise moving forward!
@@Hardwareunboxed thanks for doing the roundup was looking forward to see the "utility" of that nitropath tech on the x870e-e but its just marketing in the end and its related to the whole motherboard PCB architecture instead as seen on msi and gigabyte mobos and the hero one..
@@Hardwareunboxed Is there a mistake on the charts, you show an Aorus Elite X870E, but should it not be the 870 or did you test both? Also, the 870 shows only 7600MT/s in the main review page, but in the chart (the E version) shows 8000, which is correct? This is the board I want to buy so would be good to know. Thanks!
The quantity of boards times the amount of detail for every board is astounding here - I don't anyone needs any more videos on these boards other than this. I really appreciate de USB tests and also the DDR5-8000 stress tests. And I don't pass over the audio tests either, I keep a look there as well.
video was so good and so much effort was put into this, had to watch it twice, liked the video, saved it to my watch later, and shared it with a few friends and on twitter. DEFINITELY WANT THE PRICE POINT VIDEO! definitely want the audio testing to be including in motherboard testing as well going forward!
In case like me you care about having a POST code display then here are the timestamps for boards with POST code displays: 06:31 - Asrock X870E Nova WiFi 07:54 - Asrock X870E Taichi / Taichi Lite 15:47 - Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi 17:08 - Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero 22:48 - Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 24:26 - Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro 25:18 - Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master 28:51 - MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi 30:42 - MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi X870/X870E boards with a POST code display not featured in this video: Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi7, MSI MEG X870E Godlike Edit: added MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi as I missed it when making the original list.
so basically jus taichi lite or nova wifi since everything else is too expensive. jeezus these mobo prices are too crazy, literally paying more for less.
Thanks once again for this content, I picked up the MSI MPG x870e carbon Wi-Fi and so far so good with my 9950x. Continue to do this format, it's brilliant and so informative, cant tell you how in depth and useful this is.
Thank you so much for checking for ECC memory support! This will make my upcoming AM5 workstation build much easier. I do wish the board manufacturers did a better job of documenting ECC support themselves..
I know in the podcast you said you had to be faster on these to make the video short enough but i almost do wish there was longer version with your full thoughts and descriptions etc incase you had more to say. still tons of info in this video which is nice even if im not upgrading my x670e board. Also love the info card with all info such as audio, boot time, ram etc in one spot. Edit: did notice you didnt mention the vrm specs for a few boards though
🥰Best MB testing I have seen in a long time. Power, VRM temps, ECC support, Max Memory speed, USB speed and Boot time. This is very useful. And it might help push the companies to due better. I love it. ❤
After the first X870 bord reviews were out, I pulled the trigger on a B650 board. BIOS Flashback ran through no problems; Ryzen 9000 is up and running. Much more luxurious boards would be available; but looking back at what I did and didn't with my previous DIY PC, I knew I could safely cut back on things like wifi or PCIe 5.0, or SATA, or a huge number of USB ports.
Incredible work and information, the community is lucky to have you! You did fail to mention (understandably) that the ASUS X870E Crosshair Hero has a SlimSAS port allowing for another m.2/u.2 SSD from the chipset which is a feature no other board has.
Thanks, I'm happy for ASRock - and then I remember that I've left the brand for almost a year now but always supporting them still, because they do have great stuff!
ASRock really stepped up their game. Not just in motherboard segment, rather in all of them. Their stuff is just amazing and I am glad they are becoming the choice of many.
@@PsyRox1112 ASRock has fantastic engineers. They're not perfect across the board, pun intended, but their good stuff can be really good. I still rock a few of their boards and absolutely loving them.
@@venomus9286 correct, their marketing and branding is far from the other big guys but their engineering team is actually superb, their key people are of engineering background. The brand has much potential, and their existing lineup is far better than what they were before. In my time my with them the issue is always branding part, product quality wise we were just as good as AMG, perhaps even better.
@@goldfries I hope my ASRock x870e Taichi performs well. I was a MSI fan, but this time I ditched it because I heard that ASRock did a really good job with the X870E motherboards. So I went for an ASRock product this time.
Great work Steve ! A side note - with each subsequent chipset release I see less and less pcie slots, specifically with 4+ lines. Manufactures try to integrate everything, which hurts options for further upgrade or modify the system.
In reality, these motherboards are ultimately limited by the AM5 platform design. Theres only so many configurations you can achieve with 24/28 PCIE lanes.
Gigabyte has stopped offering DualBIOS on their motherboards since at least the 600-series motherboards. AFAIK the reasoning is that most cases of BIOS corruption can be corrected using BIOS Flashback. As for the motherboards with a POST code display, I posted a comment with the timestamps to all motherboards featured in the video that include a POST code display.
You know the funniest thing Ive read lately?? The Gigabyte claim that their new X3D Turbo Mode feature will boost gaming performance by up to 35% on AMD Ryzen 9000X3D 3D V-Cache CPUs. If this is true im gonna eat my hat but it seems 110% total bullcrap. Prove me wrong Gigabyte. Prove me wrong.
I bet it's just marketing. They even reduced the number of layers in their PCBs to cut costs (6 instead of the 8 recommended with PCIE5), I highly doubt their boards can do something others cannot...
I know in your podcast episode you said you were going to try a new way of displaying the data, and I think you absolutely nailed it. As you went through each board, I was really hoping you were going to show a comparison between all the boards afterward in each data point, which you also did. Excellent Excellent job Steve, this was all very easy to take in and also an extremely handy guide to return to if prices ever go down and we find the need to buy an 800 board in the future. Great video, and thank you for all the hard work you guys do.
The Asrock boards are the only ones (I've seen) that DO NOT lane-share with the GPU. Basically, with all the others, you cut your graphics card down from 16 to 8 lanes if you insert an M.2 into a certain slot on your motherboard . While this isn't an issue for the current nVidia and Radeons, as they are PCIe 4.0 and utilize 8 lanes, the new GPU's coming out in 2025 are upgraded to PCIe 5.0 and will need all 16 lanes. So, just make sure to check your manual before adding a new drive.
@@russellbower2557i didn't like the b650 tomahawk at all because it took a long time to boot up the pc and had a lot of ram issue but if the x870 version does not have any problems with ram and is stable and it does not take long to boot up the pc i think it is will be great overall but if those problems still exist and the gigabyte x3d trubo think is ass then the ASRock nova wins this price point if the gigabyte x3d turbo is nice then gigabyte wins this
Good review - Only thing what would have been great is to mention for each board, how many of the M.2 slots are usable without cutting the Primary PCI slot to x8
I enjoy videos like this!! Great work!! One thing that did surprise me was no discussion of "lane sharing" for each one of these boards. Overall a great video nonetheless!!
Really appreciate your testing of ECC memory support. I however cannot find any ECC UDimm memory available at the 6400 MT/s speed you tested (unless you are overclocking). ECC memory is typically available in much more modest speeds. I wonder whether testing at that speed affected the pass results and if so is not a true reflection of a motherboards ECC memory support. Could you provide some info on the memory spec. you used for testing ECC and why 6400 MT/s was chosen?
Awesome work! One thing I am missing is the mention of 7-segment displays in the summary table. The only good thing about these boards is that 7-segment displays seem to be included in the somewhat "cheaper" models also.
Yeah. I was already set on the Aorus Master until I saw Steve's RMAA audio test results. Seems Asus' SupremeFX isn't just some marketing BS, but something that really works! Can see Asus boards significantly outperforming other brands in the audio department.
Apart from audio is the rog strix x870e-e a good board overall? I just bought it today along with 9800x3d... I'm upgrading after 15 yrs from an i5 760 so i don't wanna regret my purchase
the second one is an gen4 x4 slot, with the lanes coming directly from the CPU. It is sadly impossible to have two full x16 slots on AM5 (or any current non-HEDT platforms), as the CPUs only have 28 (24+4 to chipset) lanes. So either 8+8 or 16+4 are the best configurations you can get for two slots.
Just WOW. You are the man Steve! 💪 The page where you are showing all the relevant information is impressive, not to mention the additional testing that you have done 👍 I/O panel presentation is gold as well. Proper good job mates 👏
Great vid, and I appreciate all of the hard work. I was able to snatch up an ASRock Nova Wifi before the stock ran out again, and based on what I've previously seen, and seen more of here, I'm really looking forward to building with it 😃
@@GewelReal Inflation is not greater than 150% in the past 8 years. (Clearly "greater" since indeed the 150% more expensive boards still lack the functionality.)
Great work, you're work is always top tier for buying guides! Between Hardware Unboxed and Monitors Unboxed, I haven't been disappointed with something you've reviewed and I purchased-yet!
34:21 Is there something wrong with this chart? It's the first time the "Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7" (ie. non-Ice) is included, but is called "Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi7" (notice the E after X870) and it's supposedly able to run DRAM at 8000 MT/s whereas the "Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice", that's the same board but with a different color, is supposedly able to run DRAM only at 7600 MT/s?
Awesome Roundup, especially the test of the USB ports. Impressive amount of information in only 38 minuttes. I will certainly use this to select my new Motherboard when I get a 9800X3D! (Now I just need to see if any of the X670E prices drop) 🙂 And YES a buying guide would be awesome, perhaps with mention to B650/X670/X670E - sorry that will probably be more work than you would like to do 🙂
thank you for the video. Amazing, as always! I am still struggling to wrap my head around the lanes thing though. If I have 3 M.2 SSDs and want to use a new generation GPU without getting X4 speeds on the PCIE slot, what do I have to look out for?
Excellent work! I couldn’t imagine taking the time to do all that testing and still have to write a script and make the video. Absolute genius legend! I think I’ll eventually get the asus e-e board, maybe during the end of November sales. It will probably be the last pc I build. 7800x3d, 7800xt, 32gb 6000 cl30, 850w platinum, factal torrent, assassin cooler, 4tb m.2.
Looks like ASUS nailed the audio performance top slot. I am using a Topping DAC to drive my headphones. I am using optical audio from the motherboard but BT also would work. In the audio specifications we headphone people would like to see the output power and impedance range. My old AKG 271s were 55 ohms, not your typical loading for transistor amps on motherboards. Love that you are going all in on the MOBOs testing, nerd audio commentary has been missing!
Does the sound card even play a part in your case? Aren’t you just pulling a digital signal out of a usb port and bypassing the sound card all together?
@@cosmic5789 yes, the digital audio is all i am using. I would pay for a discrete on board solution if it could run the cans! I used to use Sound Blaster cards, then, didn't care for awhile. I have an MSI X570 Unify and have tried to run my headphones with on board sound. It works fine but cannot drive the headphones at volume.
@@Jual2AudioSeken DX-3 Pro! It's an antique, best purchase for an audio interface, not a big amp in it but it drives my Beyerdynamic headset, the one with adjustable bass ports on the cans.
One thing to double-check on each board is which PCI slots do what depending on what NVMe slots are used. Only the ASRock boards guarantee x16 for the GPU but they make other compromises.
The MSI Tomahawk also allows all 4 m.2 slots to be used while keeping the main graphics card slot at 16x. It cuts the bandwidth of the 3rd pcie slot and then the usb4 ports for using the 3rd and 4th m.2 slot.
@@Koozwad I don't understand why? 99% of built systems will get only GPU. No one needs additional slots - for what? Lan, audio, wifi all is built in. ATX motherboards are a waste of money and pcb. They make cases bigger and that's also pointless. I guess B650 is my only option.
@@mc_sim I really don't know and yes it doesn't really make sense my only theory is that ATX has always been the most popular form factor and companies are getting too lazy to cater to various form factors really considering just stepping over to ATX as you also get more air flow and general options/space I liked the minimalist m-ITX and mATX builds but it's not practical at least for gaming/workstation systems
Great video and extremely helpful. A buying guide as you mentioned in the video would be absolutely fantastic, especially if it helps those of us looking to put together a new system work out what we should buy once the new Intel and AMD (X3D chip) chips land.
@M.F.-lq7jb HDMI isn't actually the best for audio. Obviously it's better for the new surround uncompressed formats, but it's not the best for 2.0 audio
@M.F.-lq7jb "well you won't hear a difference no matter how much you spend on cables, connectors and other audio voodoo stuff" Not what I said either But connect a bad DAC to sensitive IEMs and you'll hear noise. Connect it to a better DAC and it will be dead silent. That's not golden ears stuff, or snake oil, that's real objective difference. And at the very least modern electronics should be able to do 16bit clarity, which we clearly see in these measurements that a lot of them don't. I've had numerous active speakers with amps that hiss. That's not hi-fi, a lot isn't.
Would love to see also some testing with 4 dimms (4x kit or 2x2 kits) @128-192gb. Some of us do high ram workloads and we know how painful it is to even make it work @3600mhz with b650/x670
![Servis MSI Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti Blank Hitam Part 1 [13]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xc4qYN2SnQg/mqdefault.jpg)
Yes please do an X870 models buying guide, and do another one when B850 comes out as well
B850 buying guide: see my b650 buying guide 🤐🥲
I think the general consensus is to just get the Tomahawk if you want to spend under $300 and the Nova if spending over $300, only worth spending more than that if you’re into serious overclocking.
@@Sigfried-df2vp id add no pcie lane sharing for gpu slot, debug led. crazy prices tho.
I second this, as I have a hybrid Gaming/Workstation PC and my requirements are a bit unusual.
I'd NEED:
-4x M.2 slots, Not saying No to 5 though.
-1xPCie x16,
-1 PCIe X1 Slot for the Soundcard, maybe a second x1If I have to run a SATA Controller,
-6x SATA Ports (internal SATA SSD+HDD+ Blu-ray Drive/Writer), I have a PCIe 3.0 Controller Card If necessary.
-4 RAM Slots.
I would also like to have:
-2.5 Gbit/s LAN
-1x PCIe x4 Slot, for Upgrades Like a 10 GBit/s LAN
-decent amount of USB Ports, especially USB-As in 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2
-Two digit Error Code display
Nice to have but Not required:
- USB 4.0 (might be able to use it in Card Readers in the Future.)
Not required at all:
-WLAN/Wifi (don't use it)
-good onboard Sound (I have a Soundcard)
Not averse to buying 600 Boards!
Timeframe for buying, after Christmas to early next year.
Buying guide pure gaming plz!
The slides with all the information for each board are incredible, I love the format.
Absolutely. Hardware Unboxed are true professionals. My go-to for PC Hardware info.
Really wish this was browsable on their site or something though instead of having to pick through a YT video.
DAMN Steve - this is a LOT of work you've done. I feel the manufacturers should be paying you to disclose this.
Thanks for your dedication!
Lol I feel like some of them would rather pay him not to share it.
Heck no. They lie and stretch the truth. They do not wanna pay someone to prove that lol
And why do you think they didn't put all these information out themselves?
@@LlywellynOBrien Asus would be the first 😂
So you want sponsored content, instead of independent reviews?
Kinda looks like there might be a bit of a motherboard PCB lottery going on with getting DDR5-8000 work on AM5. The X870E-E and Crosshair X870E Hero have the exact same memory topology AFAIK. So it's odd to see such a big difference between them. Also my X870E Hero really doesn't like doing 8000 but yours does 8300.
I wonder if MSI has some kind of extra validation step in manufacturing since all their boards got 8100 or if you just got lucky with their boards all getting the same results.
Yeah not sure, I'd really have to do more serious stress testing, but for that I'd have to pick just a few boards.
Is there a material reason to go 8000 though? If not overclocking for fun, it seems to me that 6000 is still king isn't it?
@@MrFatpenguin I'd like to know, too !
Yeah 8000 doesn't really make sense, low latency 6000 to maybe 6400 if you have a good chip is king for AM5.
@@MrFatpenguin6000 with low latency is probably still the sweet spot, afaik the lower latency is still better than whatever the bump to 8000 would yield. But then again I'm no expert.
37:37 We want that.
The audio testing is a great addition. Thank you.
I like the ECC testing. It's crazy that ASUS markets a very expensive "creators'" board and doesn't bother to support ECC.
I will comeback to this video again after your 9800X3D review, Thank you Steve!
Ditto, I made the mistake of staying with the AM4 5800x3D when I should have waited a bit and gone with the AM5 7800X3D (I’m a Flight Sim Nerd). I want my last build to be the 9800X3D. Can’t wait to see the reviews with the new Gigabyte Bios.
I'm waiting to hear from you :D Let's get the best motherboard for overclocking. :)
Are you here? :D
@@PuLPeR777 I was here earlier today, I went with the Asrock X870E Nova WiFi.
@@Dudi4PoLFr good choice :)
paying 300$ for a motherboard for it to not be able to run ram at specified speeds is crazy
I think it's best to find deals during Black Friday, that's soon anyway
I always looked at the 120-150$ price range, now it feels the same features and quality can only be found at 250$. While getting a 130$ board rn basically equates in receiving a piece of carboard with rgb on it.
Is there any real speed gain in using 8000mhz, high latency RAM over the optimum, low latency 6000mhz cl30 RAM at all?
@@_____.__you gain more bandwith. Thats all.
@@_____.__ No. I'll keep using 6000 CL30
Appreciate the testing of so many boards! Your work ethic is off the charts.
It's on the charts
@@ThisIsMeArnold, it's on blue charts
The content is second to none here
I absolutely love this format of how you're showing the information. Please keep this format going forward. Also please keep the audio testing and add m more information like the DAC chipset model. That let's us know if we need to get an external DAC or not. This is amazing work, Steve!
Most of these boards do not have headphone output, only line out and mic in/line in. That means a separate device is necessary if you want to amplify the line out signals into actually listenable levels by headphones/IEMs. Given another purchase is already necessary, the best choice would be a good 60$ usb dongle (which has both dac/amp) which would perform better that even the top results listed on the audio charts of this video
Great job! And really very informative the new summary sheet of each motherboard. I think the data on boot times, max memory frequencies and ECC support in particular are very useful.
There is not much demand for ECC in gaming, but for a home server it would be nice. The double X16 slots; two sata adapters for your drive arrays or those 4 x M.2 cards.
Incredible layout Steve, explaining in detail with numbers about that specific board. I loved it.
The summary tables starting from 36:43 are just awesome. Thank you guys !!
Fantastic work, Steve. No ones doing this on TH-cam, literally no one else. Hope this video hits 500K+ views to keep you motivated doing this sorta thorough testing.
I can appreciate the amount of work you put on this testing despite being only interested on the mid range b650 mobos.
Thank you for the in depth information, especially the Audio Info. Please keep it up!
Was just watching the podcast episode where you were running through what you did for this and WOW the work you put in is crazy.
Thanks Steve, I really want to mention that I appreciate you state amount of fan headers in the chart. Helps a lot!
Thank you for catching sneaky slow USB ports!
Those USB 2.0 ports should belong in a museum in 2024 , not in current gen motherboards.
@@fleurdewin7958 I'm ok with 2 of them because of mouse/keyboard but I totally understand
Plus, some legacy hardware could behave weirdly on USB 3 or higher, so having 1-2 USB 2 ports is definitely appreciated.
@@marktackman2886yes exactly I 100% agree on that. As long as you have 4/5 usb 3.2 gen 2 or faster ports, some slow ports are fine, you will surely need some slow ports for things like mouse and keyboard or charging your phone while using it or some similar crap
@@fleurdewin7958 They are cheap to implement, and also enough to connect your keyboard and mouse.
I am sure it has been mentioned already, but the new slide format is excellent (both the I/O breakdown and the information slides). All the information is clearly visible and highlighted as you are talking making it super easy to follow along. One of your best videos to date and so much promise moving forward!
And there was me trying to have a relaxing evening....
Haha get to work :)
@@Hardwareunboxed thanks for doing the roundup was looking forward to see the "utility" of that nitropath tech on the x870e-e but its just marketing in the end and its related to the whole motherboard PCB architecture instead as seen on msi and gigabyte mobos and the hero one..
@@Hardwareunboxed Is there a mistake on the charts, you show an Aorus Elite X870E, but should it not be the 870 or did you test both? Also, the 870 shows only 7600MT/s in the main review page, but in the chart (the E version) shows 8000, which is correct?
This is the board I want to buy so would be good to know. Thanks!
Yes please on the buying guide. Thanks for the overview !
The quantity of boards times the amount of detail for every board is astounding here - I don't anyone needs any more videos on these boards other than this. I really appreciate de USB tests and also the DDR5-8000 stress tests. And I don't pass over the audio tests either, I keep a look there as well.
I love the new summary graphics for each board and the timestamps are also very helpful 👍thank you for this great x870 board roundup!
Thank you so much for this big comparison!
video was so good and so much effort was put into this, had to watch it twice, liked the video, saved it to my watch later, and shared it with a few friends and on twitter. DEFINITELY WANT THE PRICE POINT VIDEO! definitely want the audio testing to be including in motherboard testing as well going forward!
What a huge amount of data. Thanks Steve!
Thank you to you guys for helping me spec out my Am5 build two years ago. Your work is instrumental in our decision making.
In case like me you care about having a POST code display then here are the timestamps for boards with POST code displays:
06:31 - Asrock X870E Nova WiFi
07:54 - Asrock X870E Taichi / Taichi Lite
15:47 - Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi
17:08 - Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero
22:48 - Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7
24:26 - Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro
25:18 - Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master
28:51 - MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi
30:42 - MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
X870/X870E boards with a POST code display not featured in this video: Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi7, MSI MEG X870E Godlike
Edit: added MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi as I missed it when making the original list.
Thanks for listing those boards. I was surprised they didn't point out the presence of the debug LED - I wouldn't want to go without one anymore.
so basically jus taichi lite or nova wifi since everything else is too expensive. jeezus these mobo prices are too crazy, literally paying more for less.
MSI tomahawk also seems to have one, and it's cheaper than most
You missed the MSI Tomahawk
B650e Taichi lite is the cheapest AM5 mobo with POST code, which is around the $240-270 mark, but it is out of stock on Newegg because of its value.
Such an in-depth complete test and review. Excellent work! 💯
This channel really should have more subscribers! All this reliable work done year after year, it's amazing!
This format is super! A detailed and incredibly nice comparison. I am also happy that you included the boot times!
Actualy insane amount of work, thank you!
Thanks once again for this content, I picked up the MSI MPG x870e carbon Wi-Fi and so far so good with my 9950x. Continue to do this format, it's brilliant and so informative, cant tell you how in depth and useful this is.
Love the individual USB port speed testing. Something I've been shocked nobody (I follow) has been doing.
This is amazing, thank you!
And a big YES for the buying guide. With 9800X3D coming I think it's much needed.
Your work is colossal! Well done and thank you
Thank you so much for checking for ECC memory support! This will make my upcoming AM5 workstation build much easier. I do wish the board manufacturers did a better job of documenting ECC support themselves..
thumbs up for the audio testing! keep it up! 👍
Looking forward to the buying guide! Amazing work as usual 👏
I know in the podcast you said you had to be faster on these to make the video short enough but i almost do wish there was longer version with your full thoughts and descriptions etc incase you had more to say. still tons of info in this video which is nice even if im not upgrading my x670e board. Also love the info card with all info such as audio, boot time, ram etc in one spot. Edit: did notice you didnt mention the vrm specs for a few boards though
Definitely down for a buying guide. I also enjoyed the audio tests which were shared.
🥰Best MB testing I have seen in a long time.
Power, VRM temps, ECC support, Max Memory speed, USB speed and Boot time. This is very useful. And it might help push the companies to due better. I love it. ❤
Yes on guide, thank you for all of your effort....keep on keeping on !!
After the first X870 bord reviews were out, I pulled the trigger on a B650 board. BIOS Flashback ran through no problems; Ryzen 9000 is up and running. Much more luxurious boards would be available; but looking back at what I did and didn't with my previous DIY PC, I knew I could safely cut back on things like wifi or PCIe 5.0, or SATA, or a huge number of USB ports.
Wow. Thanks for this amazing round- up and all the work that went into preparing it. Brilliant!!
You're a machine. That's so much work.
My god this was a phenominally well put together video! - so much content & real information to digest! well done!
Incredible work and information, the community is lucky to have you! You did fail to mention (understandably) that the ASUS X870E Crosshair Hero has a SlimSAS port allowing for another m.2/u.2 SSD from the chipset which is a feature no other board has.
Love the audio testing! Thank you.
Thanks, I'm happy for ASRock - and then I remember that I've left the brand for almost a year now but always supporting them still, because they do have great stuff!
Asrock is an absolute killer, because most of the other boards have lane sharing.
ASRock really stepped up their game. Not just in motherboard segment, rather in all of them. Their stuff is just amazing and I am glad they are becoming the choice of many.
@@PsyRox1112 ASRock has fantastic engineers. They're not perfect across the board, pun intended, but their good stuff can be really good. I still rock a few of their boards and absolutely loving them.
@@venomus9286 correct, their marketing and branding is far from the other big guys but their engineering team is actually superb, their key people are of engineering background. The brand has much potential, and their existing lineup is far better than what they were before.
In my time my with them the issue is always branding part, product quality wise we were just as good as AMG, perhaps even better.
@@goldfries I hope my ASRock x870e Taichi performs well. I was a MSI fan, but this time I ditched it because I heard that ASRock did a really good job with the X870E motherboards. So I went for an ASRock product this time.
Thanks for the audio stats, I like these graphs
Great work Steve !
A side note - with each subsequent chipset release I see less and less pcie slots, specifically with 4+ lines. Manufactures try to integrate everything, which hurts options for further upgrade or modify the system.
*fewer and fewer.
In reality, these motherboards are ultimately limited by the AM5 platform design. Theres only so many configurations you can achieve with 24/28 PCIE lanes.
Yes, definitely a buying guide in the future! Appreciate the hard work!
oh no.....HE'S STANDING....
idk man if its always them then give things to them instead, why always dragging clueless innocents
Great job on the roundup! I especially like the usb port speed tests. The audio testing is also helpful.
I like the updated motherboard testing, consider adding a simple YES/NO section for dual bios and POST code
Gigabyte has stopped offering DualBIOS on their motherboards since at least the 600-series motherboards. AFAIK the reasoning is that most cases of BIOS corruption can be corrected using BIOS Flashback.
As for the motherboards with a POST code display, I posted a comment with the timestamps to all motherboards featured in the video that include a POST code display.
This is the review I have been waiting for. Excellent work as always. Subscribed of course.
You know the funniest thing Ive read lately?? The Gigabyte claim that their new X3D Turbo Mode feature will boost gaming performance by up to 35% on AMD Ryzen 9000X3D 3D V-Cache CPUs.
If this is true im gonna eat my hat but it seems 110% total bullcrap. Prove me wrong Gigabyte. Prove me wrong.
I bet it's just marketing. They even reduced the number of layers in their PCBs to cut costs (6 instead of the 8 recommended with PCIE5), I highly doubt their boards can do something others cannot...
@@MrFatpenguin "up to" is doing all the work.
And more oddly the 20% performance improvement over 9000 non-X3D CPUs...
Sounds like a recipe for a lot of 9800X3D's cooking themselves. Would be a great boost if they could do it though.
I'm sure they'll add "AI" to the name, and then that'll make it true.
I know in your podcast episode you said you were going to try a new way of displaying the data, and I think you absolutely nailed it. As you went through each board, I was really hoping you were going to show a comparison between all the boards afterward in each data point, which you also did. Excellent Excellent job Steve, this was all very easy to take in and also an extremely handy guide to return to if prices ever go down and we find the need to buy an 800 board in the future. Great video, and thank you for all the hard work you guys do.
The Asrock boards are the only ones (I've seen) that DO NOT lane-share with the GPU. Basically, with all the others, you cut your graphics card down from 16 to 8 lanes if you insert an M.2 into a certain slot on your motherboard .
While this isn't an issue for the current nVidia and Radeons, as they are PCIe 4.0 and utilize 8 lanes, the new GPU's coming out in 2025 are upgraded to PCIe 5.0 and will need all 16 lanes. So, just make sure to check your manual before adding a new drive.
Thanks for the info
Thanks for the heads up.
how about the MSI Tomahawk?
@@russellbower2557i didn't like the b650 tomahawk at all because it took a long time to boot up the pc and had a lot of ram issue but if the x870 version does not have any problems with ram and is stable and it does not take long to boot up the pc i think it is will be great overall but if those problems still exist and the gigabyte x3d trubo think is ass then the ASRock nova wins this price point if the gigabyte x3d turbo is nice then gigabyte wins this
Great information for me, someone trying to learn what's best for my upcoming build. Thank you!
Great review as always mate. Find the addition of audio and ram stability tests VERY valuable.
Good review - Only thing what would have been great is to mention for each board, how many of the M.2 slots are usable without cutting the Primary PCI slot to x8
All M2 slots from the Nova and the 2 Taichies dont cut from the primary 16x pcie
I enjoy videos like this!! Great work!! One thing that did surprise me was no discussion of "lane sharing" for each one of these boards. Overall a great video nonetheless!!
Really appreciate your testing of ECC memory support. I however cannot find any ECC UDimm memory available at the 6400 MT/s speed you tested (unless you are overclocking). ECC memory is typically available in much more modest speeds. I wonder whether testing at that speed affected the pass results and if so is not a true reflection of a motherboards ECC memory support. Could you provide some info on the memory spec. you used for testing ECC and why 6400 MT/s was chosen?
Great Job! You're like the only reputable channel that does these motherboard round ups. Thank you.
Awesome work! One thing I am missing is the mention of 7-segment displays in the summary table. The only good thing about these boards is that 7-segment displays seem to be included in the somewhat "cheaper" models also.
Well done! Just got the ASRock X870E NOVA, because ist a good value für me with its features, and now waiting for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D...
I find it weird how they made the number so much bigger while basically being the same as x670 lol
marketing: "x670 + 2 new ports = x870, right?"
engineering dept: 🤦♂️
board partners: 🥳
They wanted a bigger number to compete with Intel, which is hilarious when Z890 is bigger than X870 anyways.
Thank you, HUB, for all the hard work that has, in particular, gone into this video. This will be invaluable when I start planning a future system. 😎👍
The MAG Tomahawk and Aorus Master are still respectfully holding the line. RESPECT!
And with the Tomahawk coming in much cheaper and running cooler, it's my overall best value pick. It's understated looks also appeal to my tastes.
So much info here. Well done! Sticking with my X670E mobo!
1:56 USB lottery XD Even if you plug USB device at first try, you get 40MB/s or 400MB/s.
Excellent overview of the boards, and a stellar presentation of data! You guys rock!
I didn't expect that Strix X870E-E have very good overall audio like that.
thx you Mr.Steve for audio testing.
Yeah. I was already set on the Aorus Master until I saw Steve's RMAA audio test results. Seems Asus' SupremeFX isn't just some marketing BS, but something that really works! Can see Asus boards significantly outperforming other brands in the audio department.
Absolutely supreme fx audio chip are very good i really like the msi audio boost chip too
Apart from audio is the rog strix x870e-e a good board overall? I just bought it today along with 9800x3d... I'm upgrading after 15 yrs from an i5 760 so i don't wanna regret my purchase
@@JosephKarthic rog strix x870e-e is a good board
Amazing review! Congratz. Thanks for the patience
Hi, you said there are two pcie x16 slots on that first motherboard.
Does the second one run at x16 or is it an x16 slot at x4 mode?
Thanks :)
the second one is an gen4 x4 slot, with the lanes coming directly from the CPU. It is sadly impossible to have two full x16 slots on AM5 (or any current non-HEDT platforms), as the CPUs only have 28 (24+4 to chipset) lanes. So either 8+8 or 16+4 are the best configurations you can get for two slots.
@@Hugh_I Thanks, I got all excited with the way it was worded. I'll stay on my 990FXA then and get my full dual x16 slots.
Just WOW. You are the man Steve! 💪
The page where you are showing all the relevant information is impressive, not to mention the additional testing that you have done 👍
I/O panel presentation is gold as well. Proper good job mates 👏
Which motherboard would you recommend for ryzen 7 9800x3d?
Great vid, and I appreciate all of the hard work. I was able to snatch up an ASRock Nova Wifi before the stock ran out again, and based on what I've previously seen, and seen more of here, I'm really looking forward to building with it 😃
I miss the old era of MBs. My 200$ board from 2016, has 10gig LAN and a debug display, meanwhile current 500$ boards often have neither.
Inflation
@@GewelReal Inflation is not greater than 150% in the past 8 years. (Clearly "greater" since indeed the 150% more expensive boards still lack the functionality.)
@@GewelReal I would say greediness and than inflation...
@@exscapeI think for a lot of products, inflation absolutely is around 150% over the last 8 years
Yeah but i bet it doesn't have an LCD screen and RGB 🤫
Great work, you're work is always top tier for buying guides! Between Hardware Unboxed and Monitors Unboxed, I haven't been disappointed with something you've reviewed and I purchased-yet!
34:21 Is there something wrong with this chart? It's the first time the "Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7" (ie. non-Ice) is included, but is called "Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi7" (notice the E after X870) and it's supposedly able to run DRAM at 8000 MT/s whereas the "Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice", that's the same board but with a different color, is supposedly able to run DRAM only at 7600 MT/s?
The X870E AEW7 exists as a separate product as the X870 AEW7 (ice or not.) I think it might be an incomplete review?
Awesome Roundup, especially the test of the USB ports. Impressive amount of information in only 38 minuttes.
I will certainly use this to select my new Motherboard when I get a 9800X3D!
(Now I just need to see if any of the X670E prices drop) 🙂
And YES a buying guide would be awesome, perhaps with mention to B650/X670/X670E - sorry that will probably be more work than you would like to do 🙂
Legend has it he is still testing to this day...
Appreciate the amount of work that went into this video!
thank you for the video. Amazing, as always!
I am still struggling to wrap my head around the lanes thing though. If I have 3 M.2 SSDs and want to use a new generation GPU without getting X4 speeds on the PCIE slot, what do I have to look out for?
At least with ASRock, if they share lanes it's never with the main PCIE slot.
@@MrFatpenguin that's good to know, thanks a lot mate :)
Excellent work! I couldn’t imagine taking the time to do all that testing and still have to write a script and make the video. Absolute genius legend! I think I’ll eventually get the asus e-e board, maybe during the end of November sales. It will probably be the last pc I build. 7800x3d, 7800xt, 32gb 6000 cl30, 850w platinum, factal torrent, assassin cooler, 4tb m.2.
Looks like ASUS nailed the audio performance top slot. I am using a Topping DAC to drive my headphones. I am using optical audio from the motherboard but BT also would work. In the audio specifications we headphone people would like to see the output power and impedance range. My old AKG 271s were 55 ohms, not your typical loading for transistor amps on motherboards. Love that you are going all in on the MOBOs testing, nerd audio commentary has been missing!
Does the sound card even play a part in your case? Aren’t you just pulling a digital signal out of a usb port and bypassing the sound card all together?
@@cosmic5789 yes, the digital audio is all i am using. I would pay for a discrete on board solution if it could run the cans! I used to use Sound Blaster cards, then, didn't care for awhile. I have an MSI X570 Unify and have tried to run my headphones with on board sound. It works fine but cannot drive the headphones at volume.
hey a fellow topping user. mine is the EX5. whats yours? thinking of upgrading.
@@Jual2AudioSeken DX-3 Pro! It's an antique, best purchase for an audio interface, not a big amp in it but it drives my Beyerdynamic headset, the one with adjustable bass ports on the cans.
@@Jual2AudioSeken Unless you really like the sterile sound signature, id recommend not getting another topping.
the graphics for the IO and testing is very well put together, thank you!
Thanks, I ll stay on my b650 tomahawk tho 😉
I'd love to see a buying guide. These roundup videos are extremely useful and I'm really happy you keep making them.
One thing to double-check on each board is which PCI slots do what depending on what NVMe slots are used. Only the ASRock boards guarantee x16 for the GPU but they make other compromises.
The MSI Tomahawk also allows all 4 m.2 slots to be used while keeping the main graphics card slot at 16x. It cuts the bandwidth of the 3rd pcie slot and then the usb4 ports for using the 3rd and 4th m.2 slot.
@@Slyons89 the Asrock Nova board looked great until I realised it has no PCIe x4 slot which I might want for a Blackmagic Decklink card.
This is solid work Steve!! This video will help out potential buyers!!
Not a single matx board. I'm pissed.
Me too
seems it's over for mATX
I have such a build as well because I wanted 1 graphics card AND 1 sound card, but that's over now
@@Koozwad I don't understand why? 99% of built systems will get only GPU. No one needs additional slots - for what? Lan, audio, wifi all is built in. ATX motherboards are a waste of money and pcb. They make cases bigger and that's also pointless. I guess B650 is my only option.
@@mc_sim I really don't know and yes it doesn't really make sense
my only theory is that ATX has always been the most popular form factor and companies are getting too lazy to cater to various form factors
really considering just stepping over to ATX as you also get more air flow and general options/space
I liked the minimalist m-ITX and mATX builds but it's not practical at least for gaming/workstation systems
I wouldn't expect there to be an M-ATX motherboard on a high-end chipset. It is after all, a mostly budget motherboard size.
Great video and extremely helpful. A buying guide as you mentioned in the video would be absolutely fantastic, especially if it helps those of us looking to put together a new system work out what we should buy once the new Intel and AMD (X3D chip) chips land.
Thanks for the audio testing, amazed of how bad they are for such expensive boards.
@M.F.-lq7jb bizarre how must of the B650 don't even include optical SPDIF anymore
@M.F.-lq7jb HDMI isn't actually the best for audio. Obviously it's better for the new surround uncompressed formats, but it's not the best for 2.0 audio
@M.F.-lq7jb "well you won't hear a difference no matter how much you spend on cables, connectors and other audio voodoo stuff"
Not what I said either
But connect a bad DAC to sensitive IEMs and you'll hear noise. Connect it to a better DAC and it will be dead silent.
That's not golden ears stuff, or snake oil, that's real objective difference.
And at the very least modern electronics should be able to do 16bit clarity, which we clearly see in these measurements that a lot of them don't.
I've had numerous active speakers with amps that hiss. That's not hi-fi, a lot isn't.
@M.F.-lq7jb problem is that I use an 3.1 analog system with active studio monitors
@M.F.-lq7jb difference from an 88db SNR DAC to an 120 db one is clear as night and day
This video is literally the anatomy of motherboards good work !
Will these do 6000-6400 with 4 dimms?
good question...
Would love to see also some testing with 4 dimms (4x kit or 2x2 kits) @128-192gb. Some of us do high ram workloads and we know how painful it is to even make it work @3600mhz with b650/x670
Very nice x870 board test. Glad to see the audio test included.