[Hardware] AMD's Budget B650, B650E Motherboards Top Out at $450

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A flood of new AM5 B650 motherboard listings has appeared on Newegg, from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and ASRock, including board prices. But these boards are anything but cheap. The cheapest motherboard in AMD's B650 lineup starts at $169.99, with no boards coming close to AMD's official starting MSRP of $125. At their peak, B650E flagship boards sell at a whopping $450+.

 

These incredible price hikes represent a considerable change in purpose for AMD's entire chipset lineup. All of AMD's chipset models compete with each other now, with prices overlapping between B650, B650E, X670, and even X670E chipset boards. As a result, shoppers now need to pivot and start looking at motherboard model names first to find a good value. As a result, looking at the chipset name exclusively is almost pointless.

It means all motherboard models ranging from B series to X series boards will probably have nearly identical feature sets, despite the chipset name differences. The main difference between the chipset names now comes from connectivity, and that is it.

 

Starting at the low end, ASRock's B650M PG Riptide is the cheapest B650 motherboard, starting at $169.99. Stepping up to the mid-range boards, all these boards sit in the $199-$300 price bracket. They include models such as the Asus Prime series, Asus TUF series, Gigabyte Aorus Elite boards, ASRock Riptide (ATX versions), and MSI Mortar, Tomahawk, and Edge variants. All range from ATX, microATX, and mini-ITX models. To be precise, these board versions include both B650 and B650E chipsets.

 

These mid-range boards will probably be your best all-rounders, for best-bang-for-buck on the AM5 platform; these boards all come with good USB connectivity, Wi-Fi 6E support, several M.2 slots available to the user, and in general, have good quality power delivery systems, adequate for general overclocking use.

 

Once you go beyond $300, you get into the ridiculous category of B650/E motherboards. The amount of USB connectivity you get becomes very extreme, and borderline overkill for anything but the highest-end power user. The same goes for everything else, including, audio, M.2 storage, and more.

The only exception is for overclockers, where you get some of the best power delivery systems AMD's AIB partners can offer. A good example is ASRock's B650E Taichi which provides the same 24+2+1 power delivery system as the X670E variant. So overlockers can opt for AMD's flagship B650E offerings and probably get the same overclocking experience as on flagship $1,000 X670E versions unless you're chasing world records.

 

X670 prices start to overlap at $250, which is where X670 prices start and end at $450, where the B650E flagship boards top out. In this $250 to $450 price bracket, shoppers will need to judge whether or not they want extra PCIe connectivity over additional features B650 might offer. For the most part, X670/E equivalent boards with the same branding name, feature a $50-$80 price hike over their B650/E equivalents.

But, beyond or below this price bracket, is where the chipset names will make an actual difference. Below $250, you'll only find B series motherboards, and above $450, you'll only find top-tier X670/X670E motherboards. With some going as high as $1,000.

 

Source.