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ASUS X870/X870E Motherboard Roundup & VRM Analysis

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The AMD X870 series of boards are here at last, and as is often the case with a new motherboard lineup, there are a lot of them! We have seven of the latest motherboards from ASUS, and even that is just scratching the surface of what’s available. While the X870 and X870E range is available today and that makes up the higher-end segment of the market, B850 and B840 will be coming in the near future, and don’t worry, we’ll be covering those as soon as they’re released to the market.

Now that’s not to say that X870 and X870E are specifically for the high-end, because ASUS have a selection that stem from an ITX pint-sized powerhouse board, all the way to the ATX Crosshair Hero, and everything in-between, and we’ll be taking a look at all of them in detail today to find out what you get for your money, not only from the chipset, but also in terms of the improved VRM design over the predecessor, and those unique nifty features that we all crave.

AM5 – Ryzen 7000, 8000 & 9000

In terms of CPU support, this is an area where AMD have always held strong compared to the competition from Intel, and X870 and X870E comes loaded with support for AMD Ryzen 7000, 8000 and the newest 9000 series processors which will include X3D variants in the very near future thanks to the continued support of the AM5 socket.

This means, that if you’re already rocking a 7000 series CPU, then you can simply upgrade your board by dropping your CPU straight in, and by using the existing DDR5 memory that you already own.

Chipset

So for those of you not in the know, there are some distinct differences with the X870 and X870E chipsets, and arguably more so than what we saw between X670 and X670E but lets talk about the similarities at the same time. The biggest similarity comes down to PCI-Express 5.0 lanes, of which both now support blistering fast speeds for both by the way of X870E supporting the same 16 5.0 PCIe lanes from the CPU for your GPU and 4 for your M.2 drives. This was done so that AMD aren’t reliant on the motherboard vendors like ASUS to use slower, and older 4.0 lanes, because it’s all being handled directly by the processor, though we do still get 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes on the X870E chipset, and 12 on X870 thanks to the chipset. Along with this, the biggest differences that you’ll see come down to the amount of USB ports, which is double on X870E, and SATA ports, where we also see 4 on X870 and 8 on X870E. We now also have much faster USB ports.

Consider it as X870E having greater connectivity options for those who want or need more USB connections, or more SATA ports, and this is where the extra added value of moving up in chipset is, and it’s quite clear to work out what chipset is right for you and what you get from it.

On top of that, and one of the big selling points comes down to USB, and all X870 and X870E boards come with USB4 as standard, and with any new standard, we should see the adoption rate pick up quite rapidly as more consumers buy the boards, and then need the corresponding drives and devices to run on them, and this is especially handy for people like us, who are content creators, where, at least on the video side, we are constantly transferring large RAW video files to and from different computers.

Of course, on top of this, there’s nothing to stop board vendors like ASUS from adding in even more functionality, and of course, this is reflected in the price, because as we all know, motherboards don’t typically give us more performance, but instead, give us more features too and this is the big selling point of moving up to X870E, though of course, if money is an important factor, then X870 still offers a huge uplift in terms of features over its predecessor.

ASUS X870 Motherboards

ASUS have taken things one step further though. Look at WiFi for instance. Whether it’s X870 or X870E, for ASUS boards at least, if the model name has WiFi in it, then it comes included with WiFi 7 though of course there are non-WiFi boards for those again who want to save a little on cost and don’t necessarily need those features.

On top of this, they’ve also incorporated a lot of unique features that make building using their parts a lot simpler from the M.2 mounts, to the PCI-Express slots and beyond.

So, we’ve got quite a few motherboards to cover today, with seven different models, covering the Prime, STRIX, Crosshair, ProArt, and TUF Gaming series, so there really is a little bit of something for everyone. They’re all ATX motherboards, with the exception of the ASUS ROG STRIX X870-I Gaming WIFI, which is the only Mini-ITX motherboard that we’re covering today.

We’ve also linked all of the individual reviews below, if you want a more in-depth look at each board, and what each of them has to offer.

Also, if you want to find out more information on each board, you can over at the product pages for each individual board.

What Series is Right For Me?

Now the beauty of ASUS boards is that they typically have something for everyone and it’s split into different ranges and sometimes it’s a tricky one because each series has its own range of features and there’s a lot of crossover from one to the other. However, I’ll see if I can explain it in as broad a sense as possible.

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Peter Donnell

As a child in my 40's, I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!