Alternatively, you can put it into a tiny case with a 7600 CPU, undervolt it, and have a truly silent little system. ITX can be very flexible. Although AMD's Threadripper CPUs are made for productivity and usage in workstations, there's nothing stopping you from using a Ryzen CPU instead, and unless you need lots of RAM, AM5 can be a great platform for a workstation PC. If you're building a PC for work, we recommend Asus's ProArt X670E-Creator, which is a no-compromises board. It starts with a sophisticated style rooted in clean lines, graceful angles, and precise symmetry. Unobtrusive colors give this ProArt board a timeless look that’s never out of place, whether you’re building a PC for your home office, the set, or for sharing work with clients. Gold accents on the integrated I/O shield and the chipset heatsink add touches of luxury and refinement.

Next-Gen M.2 Support: PCIe ® 5.0 M.2 slot cooled by a large heatsink to maximize performance and an additional PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot for more storage and 9x chipsets also technically supported Broadwell, though that was admittedly a limited release. Prices won't be this silly forever—or even (hopefully) for very long. This first wave of boards is heavily tilted toward the more-expensive X670E variant (20 boards on Newegg, versus just four X670 boards), which need to meet the more robust signaling requirements of PCI Express 5.0 for the graphics slot.The rest of the board includes fairly typical ITX fare, though just two SATA ports might be an issue for some. Three fan headers is the absolute minimum too. More impressive is support for a front USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port and dual ARGB headers. Perhaps most curious feature of all is the inclusion of an embedded DP connector on the rear of the board. Intel motherboards are akin to flagship Android phones that lose feature support after 1-2 Android OS updates. Chipzilla will smite you for even asking if a 3rd update is even "possible"."

Intel ® Z690 Mini-ITX AORUS Motherboard with Direct 10+2+1 Phases Digital VRM Design, DDR5 XTREME MEMORY Design, Advanced Thermal Solution, Intel ® WIFI6 802.11ax, Intel ® 2.5GbE LAN, HDMI 2.0, RGB FUSION 2.0 The thoroughly next-gen X670E platform gives us the opportunity to take your gaming experience to the power of five with PCIe 5.0 and DDR5. Its PCIe 5.0 x16 slot stands ready for the fastest graphics of today and tomorrow, and its support for DDR5 lets you enjoy the massive bandwidth, sizzling new speeds, and exceptional power efficiency offered by next-generation DDR5 RAM. Between its onboard slots and the ROG Gen-Z.2 card, the Gene offers two PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots and one PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot, giving you ample elbow room to build out a fast and spacious game library—and expand it down the road. And, of course, this motherboard is built for even the mightiest next-gen AMD Ryzen CPU with its robust power solution with 16+2 teamed power stages rated for 110A. Unlike Intel, AMD chose to go all in with DDR5 and so does not support DDR4 on its new platform. Since DDR5 is available in greater volume and prices are coming down (though still a lot higher than DDR4), this was arguably a good choice on AMD’s part. The highest in-spec frequency for the existing AM5 SKUs is DDR5-5200. But AMD did share that DDR5-6000 will be the sweet spot for Zen 4. X670 (and rumored B650) Motherboards: The Full List (So Far) The Asus ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming is one of the best motherboards you can buy for Ryzen 7000. For starters, it comes with a plethora of PCIe x16 and M.2 slots, But what sets this board apart from the rest is that most of these run at PCIe 5.0 speeds (two of the x16 and three of the M.2 slots). That's a ton of PCIe 5.0 even for an X670E, most of which offer just two PCIe 5.0 M.2 ports for SSDs. The Strix also has an 18+2 stage design for its VRMs, which is more than enough even for the highest-end Ryzen 9 7950X, and support for DDR5-6600.Configure the fan's operating speed manually or use pre-configured Standard, Silent, Turbo, or Full Speed modes. By default, system fans will automatically switch to full speed if the temperature reaches 75° C. Aura On/Off mode (Stealth) edzieba - Friday, January 7, 2022 - link "Can't believe some early 2018 AMD X470 motherboards can run 4 (!) generations of AMD CPUs and Intel can *barely* support two generations of CPUs." In a roundtable with Dr. Lisa Su, the question was asked about how long AM5 would be around – now that AMD has a sustainable position again in the desktop, and by many measures a leading position, would AMD continue its tradition of longer-lived desktop platforms. Dr. Su stated that AM4 ‘ has been good for the community and … it’s been good for us as well’. She confirmed that a change was required with the new standards, but on strategy it was put that ‘ I don’t have an exact number of years but I would say that you should expect that AM5 will be a long-lived platform as AM4 has been’. Dr. Su also stated that even with the introduction of AM5, the company expects AM4 to stay in the marketplace for some years, with overlap between the two depending on the market. Abundant Connectivity:USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C ® port and seven additional USB ports, PCIe 5.0 x16 SafeSlot, and HDMI ® 2.1

Intel ® Z690 Mini-ITX AORUS Motherboard with Direct 10+2+1 Phases Digital VRM Design, Advanced Thermal Solution, Intel ® WIFI6 802.11ax, Intel ® 2.5GbE LAN, HDMI 2.0, RGB FUSION 2.0 This motherboard has it all: two PCIe x16 slots running at 5.0 (if both are populated, they drop to half lanes, which is effectively PCIe 4.0 speeds), four M.2 slots with two running at PCIe 5.0 and the others at 4.0, and support for DDR5-6400 and DDR5-4800 ECC RAM. The VRM uses 16+2 stages, which is lower than many other X670E boards but still sufficient for high-end CPUs. Each M.2 SSD slot comes with a heatsink. The rear I/O is extremely impressive with its 10 gigabit and 2.5 gigabit Ethernet ports and two USB4 ports, plus nine other USB ports. Intel ® Z690 Mini-ITX AORUS Motherboard with Direct 10+2+1 Phases Digital VRM Design, DDR5 XTREME MEMORY Design, Advanced Thermal Solution,Intel ® WIFI6E 802.11ax,Intel ® 2.5GbE LAN, HDMI 2.0, RGB FUSION 2.0 The ROG Strix X670E-I might seem impossibly small for what it offers: a complete platform for a next-gen gaming build. You’ll find a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot prepped and ready for a cutting-edge graphics card, a pair of DDR5 DIMM slots, and two M.2 slots, one wired for PCIe 5.0 and one wired for PCIe 4.0. On the USB front, the chipset offers quite a bit of native USB connectivity. X670/X670E supports up to eight USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports and another four ports that can be configured as two USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) ports. If that isn’t enough, the chipset also supports up to 12 more USB 2.0 ports.

Some high-end boards support USB Power Delivery (PD) and output up to 60W at 20V/3A. Not only can you fast charge your smartphone with these ports, but larger devices like tablets and some laptops, too. To support that much power, you’ll need to plug a spare 6-pin PCIe connector to plug into the board. Otherwise, you’ll be limited to the 20V/1.5A and 30W. For the midrange B650 chipset, just one of the PROM21 chips is used. On some boards, you’ll find USB 4 support via an ASMedia ASM4242 controller, which outputs two USB 4 ports from four PCIe 4.0 lanes via the CPU, while also supporting DisplayPort v1.4 (thus video) through the interface. ASUS reserves the exclusive right to exclude any entrant from the competition if we suspect that the entrant has violated the contest rules, threatened or otherwise attempted to gain advantage or tried to sabotage the contest. Prizes will be shipped in October 2022 and are not exchangeable for cash. The campaign is in no way sponsored, recommended, administered or associated with third parties. Prizes are subject to availability and we reserve the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value without giving notice. Comments and usernames containing language or concepts that could be deemed offensive will be deleted. Looking for a straightforward motherboard that offers you the features, reliable performance, and unobtrusive design that you need, all for an attainable price? Our ASUS Prime lineup has what you’re looking for.