With the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D hitting the market strong, the X870 and X870E motherboards that launched back at the end of September move more into the spotlight. You can run the 9800X3D on the 600 Series chipsets as well, but if you are building a high-end gaming PC with the 9800X3D for your CPU you might just be looking at the latest and greatest for motherboards with all of those PCIe 5.0 lanes. I’ve already taken a look at a few options from Gigabyte and Asus but I haven’t taken a look at anything from MSI yet. Today I’m going to check out the MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi and see how it compares.

After taking a look at a few of Asus’s full-sized options, it's high time we check out what they have to offer for smaller builds. Currently, Asus has just one X870 board smaller than ATX and that is their ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi. I was impressed with the ROG Strix X870E-E so I’m excited to see what they packed into the Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi. With the next generation of X3D CPUs around the corner, I can’t be the only one starting to think about a new SFF build to save some space in my office and to hit a few LANs. Will the Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi be the ticket?

This last week Intel launched their new Core Ultra 200 Series CPUs and with that the Z890 chipset as well. I started off our testing by taking a look at the Iced-out Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice, but that wasn’t the only motherboard that came in. Asus sent over a few boards as well and now that I have a little more time I can finally dive in and see what they have to offer. I’m starting off with the Asus TUF Gaming Z890-Plus Wifi which isn’t Asus’s cheapest Z890 board but does look to be a good mix of features without costing as much as some of the other gaming-focused boards. I was really impressed with the Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi that I took a look at last month. Will their Z890 TUF Gaming board do the same? Let’s find out!

With new CPUs and a new socket also come new chipsets and motherboards. The launch chipset to go alongside of the new Intel Core Ultra CPUs is Z890 which follows the same making scheme that Intel has used in the past. I am surprised though that it didn’t change alongside of the new CPU naming scheme. To start things off, the first board to come in was the Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice. Gigabyte is launching 17 models in total with four of those being the Ice model like we have here which have a white theme. Some of those have a matching non-Ice model as well but the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice doesn’t. Today I’m going to dive in and see what kind of features they have included with this board and run it through our test suite as well. So without wasting any more time, let’s get to it!

Moving along as I check out a variety of the X870 and X870E motherboards that Asus has launched today. I first took a look at the Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi, now we move on to check out something from their ROG lineup. This board is the ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi and is the first X870E board I am testing. Being from their ROG line, the Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi starts to die into some of Asus’s overclocking-specific features without going completely off the deep end like some of their even higher-end boards like the Crosshair X870E Hero which moves past the Strix brand and into the full ROG. I’m curious to see what Asus has to offer for someone looking to go high-end, but maybe not the highest end. So let's dive in and see what the Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi is all about!

Asus always has a wide variety of boards and the new X870 and X870E chipsets are no different with Asus launching initially with 9 different models. I’ve got a few different Asus X870 boards on hand to check out but I’m going to start with their only TUF Gaming model, the TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi. I was a big TUF fan when it first launched but this is the first TUF board I’ve had in the office for years now. I liked what I saw from the TUF lineup on the GPU side when I took a look at the ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 4070 Ti SUPER earlier this year. Let’s dive into the TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi and see if it continues that trend.

Back at Computex this year AMD announced two new motherboard chipsets for their then upcoming Ryzen 9000 series of CPUs, the X870 and X870E. The new chipsets would continue using the AM5 socket but have improvements including having USB 4.0 standard as well as PCIe Gen 5 for GPUs and NVMe on all of them as well. They also improved support for higher memory speeds using AMD EXPO. With the new chipsets, it's no surprise that the big names in the industry have a whole slate of new motherboard designs to go along with it, Gigabyte included. To start things off they sent over their X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 and I’m going to check out what it is all about today.

With the Intel launch being stacked up so close with AMDs CPU launch as well as GPU launches from AMD and Nvidia as well late last year I didn’t get the chance to check out too much more as far as any of the other new LGA motherboards. This is especially true with some of the other chipsets and ITX boards. So with a little time this spring, I thought why not check some out and MSIs MPG B760I Edge WiFi fit the bill perfectly. We can check out the B760 and also check out an ITX board, perfect for a compact LAN-friendly build. So today I’m going to see what features MSI has given the board, check out its BIOS and performance, then see how it fits in the market price wise. So let’s dive in and see what it is all about.

With the launch of Intel’s new 13-gen CPUs, they did also introduce a few new 700 series chipsets with the flagship Z790 chipset being the only one available at the time of launch. Like with the 600 series chipsets, Intel has left the memory to be flexible with motherboard manufacturers having the choice to go with DDR4 or DDR5 which means there are a LOT of options available and one of those is the MSI MPG Z790 Edge WiFi DDR4 which falls into the middle of the pack for MSI’s lineup overall but is their highest end DDR4 motherboard with a unique silver theme for its cooling. Today I’m going to check out more of what the Z790 Edge DDR4 has to offer, so let’s dive in.

To go along with the Zen 4 launch AMD is also launching their new AM5 chipsets and motherboards. They have four new chipsets, the X670E, X670, B650E, and B650 but for the launch, I am testing with the highest-end X670E with Asus’s ROG Crosshair X670E Hero. To go with today's coverage of some of the new CPUs I’m also going to check out what the X670E Hero has to offer for features and put it through a few tests as well. With a new LGA style socket, USB 4, and PCIe 5.0 as just a few quick highlights when looking at the specifications I’m excited to see what else it will have to offer!

Rumors about Intel’s next generation of CPUs have been going around for a while but we recently saw that BIOS support for the future CPUs have been hitting some motherboards including Asus’s Z690 boards. This means that for those who are looking to build a high-end PC right now you can go with one of those Z690 boards with at least some confidence that an upgrade later will be possible. As far as Z690 boards go there is a HUGE range in features and pricing but there are a few cool options up on the high end. A good example of this is the ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme that we have been using on our test bench going back to the Z690 launch and it is high time that I take a close look at it so let’s check out what it has going on.

The X570 chipset was launched back in 2019 and even today this is still the flagship chipset to go with the most recent refreshed CPU launches from AMD. Asus did release a few new X570 boards which brought a few of the newer features we have been seeing on other platforms and one of the boards included in that launch which was last August was the ProArt X570-Creator WiFi and it caught my eye because while it did have high-end features, its styling is a nice change from the standard “gamer” focus of most higher-end boards. The ProArt X570-Creator has support for the upcoming Ryzen 7 5800X3D with BIOS updates and I’m curious to see if it might be a nice option if you are planning a build with the upcoming CPU.

With the new 12^th Gen Intel CPUs and the Z690 chipset that Intel launched with them being released. It also means that we get to check out the latest motherboard designs. This time around Intel only focused on the high performance focused CPUs so most of the options that came out were gaming, overclocking, or high-end workstation focused. The first board that came in was from MSI which was one of their gaming focused boards, the MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi. Today I’m going to check out what features they have included with this board and check out how the Z690 Carbon WiFi performs with the new i9-12900K as well. I’m also going to take a look at the MAG Coreliquid C280 AIO cooler that MSI sent over as well for LGA1700 testing. Let’s dive in!

With a small B550 break out of the way, I did still have another Z490 motherboard come in after the Z490 launch that I wanted to check out. That board is from EVGA and unlike all of the other board manufacturers, EVGA doesn’t have 15 or 20 different options. They always like to keep things a little simpler. They have two Z490 motherboards and only one available just yet, the Z490 FTW WiFi. I’m excited to see what EVGA has going on for this generation so let’s dive in and take a closer look then put it through its paces.

AMD launched their new Ryzen 3 CPUs last May along with details on their latest chipset, the B550. It wasn’t without drama but it is finally time where we can check out some of the new boards. To start things off I have the Asus ROG Strix B550-I which the I, like with past Asus boards, indicates it is an ITX form factor. With the X570 boards from AMD and Z490 boards from Intel all being on the expensive side. I’m really curious to see what AMD’s mid-range ITX option which will support the most recent generation of Ryzen and future Zen 3 CPUs will have to offer. So today I’m going to check out the board and what Asus has given it for features then test it out a little before we see how it fits in the market for pricing.

As I continue to check out some of the Z490 boards available after Intel’s Comet Lake-S 10^th gen mainstream CPU launch we have the flagship model from Asus and their ROG lineup. The ROG Maximus XII Extreme has features like an OLED display 2.5G and 10G ethernet, and four M.2 slots but that only scratches the surface of what Asus packed into the board. So today I’m going to dig in and take a closer look at what else it has to offer. Put the board to the test and also see if that staggering price point is worth the money for those looking for the best of the best Z490 build.

Intel’s launch of a whole series of CPUs comes with it a new chipset and new socket. That also means new motherboards and the motherboard companies aren’t messing around with the number of options that have available. That means everything from cheap to crazy expensive. The Z490 Aorus Master is one of Gigabyte's higher-end boards and today I’m going to check it out. I’ve been extremely impressed with Gigabytes boards, especially on the higher end for the last few years due to their VRMs and cooling capabilities. With Intel pushing things even farther on what is still a very small socket size I am excited to see what the Aorus Master has to offer! Let’s check it out.

To go along with Intel’s latest launch all of the motherboard manufacturers also have lots of new boards as well. So it isn’t a surprise that we have had a few of the new Z490 boards show up in the office. I’m going to take a look at them over the next few days. Most of the boards that were sent over are higher end, but MSI sent over their MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFI which isn’t a budget board but is a little easier on the wallet. Its name may be a little long, but at just under $270 is it a good sweet spot for a Z490 build? Today I’m going to find out!

With all of the launches stacked, when I covered the Ryzen launch of the 3000 series of CPUs I only really had the chance to touch on the X570 chipset that was launching with it for a little while. The motherboards that AMD sent with their launch kit were put to use immediately for testing and only over the last few days have I had to a chance to finally take a closer look at them and do motherboard specific testing. Today I want to check out the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi that has been pulling double duty as our CPU test platform and our GPU test platform. The Hero isn’t Asus’s highest-end X570 board, but it is close so I’m excited to see what they have packed into it.

Well, it wouldn’t be a new chipset and CPU launch if I wasn’t trying to get my hands on a good ITX board to use in one of our LAN rigs. Especially with a few LANs upcoming. Well from looking at the initial boards announced for the Z390, one of the most exciting ITX boards was the Strix Z390-I Gaming from Asus and I was excited to see it come in. I’m curious what is different from the Z370 or the Z270 for the matter and to dive into Asus’s feature set and see if the Strix Z390-I Gaming covers all of the bases for a high-end gaming PC that will take up less space on your desk and be easy to pack up and take to events to play with your friends. Let's run through the boards features, look at its software, check out the performance, then see how it fits in the market overall.