Best Ryzen Motherboard 2026 for Ryzen 9000 & 7000 CPUs. Best B850 X870 X870E Motherboard Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 It's time to update our best Ryzen motherboard 2026 guide for fall 2026. Welcome back to PC Builder. I'm Jason. Now, whether you're building a budget gaming PC with a Ryzen 7600X or the ultimate gaming PC with a Ryzen 9850XD, getting the best Ryzen motherboard in 2026, it's confusing. There's a ton of different motherboard chipsets. It's hard to know what features that you actually need and pricing.

00:19 It's all over the place. So, we're going to break it all down and make specific product recommendations for the best Ryzen motherboard 2026 Ryzen 9000, 7000, and 5000 series CPUs. If you get value out of this video, please give it a like, of course, subscribe for more cool PC content. Let's jump into it. So, when buying the best Ryzen motherboard in 2026, what chipset should you get?

00:38 We've got everything from B850 to X870, X870e to B550, B650, A520. The list keeps going. Here's the simple version. Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series CPUs require an AM5 socket motherboard with the pins on the motherboard which are the 600 and 800 series. The best gaming focused motherboards are the B650, B650e and B850 motherboards which generally have between two and three M.2 SSD slots and they also offer an array of rear panel USB and network connectivity.

01:08 The only real difference between these three chipsets is that B650 motherboards mostly have PCIe Gen 4 GPU slots, while all the B650E and almost every B850 motherboard uses a PCIe Gen 5 GPU slot. Now, PCIe is backwards compatible. So, a PCIe Gen 5 GPU is going to work fine on a PCIe Gen 4 motherboard. And even an RTX 590 runs just fine at PCIe Gen 4 speed, but there's often very little price difference to get a PCIe Gen 5 motherboard.

01:37 So, you might as well get this feature if you can pick it up for free. For creators or gamers who want an ultra premium motherboard that goes beyond gaming features, we've got the X870 and X870E motherboard chipsets. Well, most of the X670 and X670E motherboards basically vanished from the new market. The primary difference between these motherboards and the B series motherboards are that the X series boards typically have four M.2 two SSD slots, and they offer extra connectivity in the form of additional USB ports,

02:02 faster USB ports, generally faster wired networking, and more premium looks as well as build quality. The X870 and X870E motherboards, they also offer USB4, which to be honest, it's been pretty useless for desktop PCs. There are also some cheaper cut down X870 motherboards that aren't quite as good as some of the more premium B850 motherboards. So, just make sure that you know what you're getting and why.

02:23 We also have ultra cheap A620 and B840 motherboard chipsets. Now, these are cut down motherboards with PCIe Gen 4 GPU slots. They do not support precision boost overdrive. That's AMD's one-click auto overclocking utility that we prefer to turn on to increase our performance by up to 5%. Now, for a long time, these motherboards cost about the same as a B650 motherboard.

02:44 So, they just didn't make any sense. But, I'm happy to report I'm now seeing some ultra cheap ones. So, you can grab that if you need to save every dollar. For a budget build using a Ryzen 5000 series CPU, you want a 500 series motherboard which uses the older AM4 socket which has the pins on the CPU. I recommend a B550 motherboard here as X570. It's almost impossible to find brand new and A520 and B450 motherboards.

03:07 Those are limited to PCIe Gen 3, which does create issues with a lot of budget graphics cards. Even with a CPU like the Ryzen 5500, it's nice to pick up that PCIe Gen 4 GPU slot if you ever upgrade to the 5800 X3D. But let's talk about BIOS Flashback. This is the feature that allows you to update the BIOS on a motherboard, even if you don't have a compatible CPU.

03:24 Gigabyte calls this Q Flash Plus. Now, you'll need BIOS Flashback if your motherboard does not come with an updated BIOS that supports your current CPU. This is primarily an issue for the AM5 CPUs released in 2026. And that's specifically the Ryzen 9850 X3D, the Ryzen 7700 X3D, and Ryzen 7500 non-f as most AM5 Ryzen motherboards in 2026 ship with a BIOS that's compatible with all the other Ryzen CPUs.

03:47 For AM4 owners, you might need BIOS updates for the Ryzen 5500F recently launched. Using BIOS Flashback is super easy to do. We cover how to do this step by step in our how to build a PC guide, and it's linked down in the video description. So, what motherboard is going to be right for you? Well, let's start with motherboard size. There are four sizes to choose from.

04:06 ATX, that's the full-size motherboard, and MicroATX is a twothird size motherboard. Those two are probably the most popular for regular PC builds. Extended ATX or EATX for short motherboards are the same height as ATX motherboards. They're just a little bit wider. They will still fit into most ATX size PC cases. MiniITX is a small size used in small form factor PC builds.

04:25 Let's talk about motherboard storage. This is an important motherboard feature, particularly the number of M.2 2 MVME SSD slots that your motherboard comes with and the bandwidth that they run at. Now, older B550 motherboards, they're going to have two M.2 slots. One that runs at PCIe Gen 4 speed and a second that runs at PCIe Gen 3 speed. B650, B650E, and B850 motherboards will have between two and four NVME SSD slots, including that most will support at least one PCIe Gen 5 SSD.

04:50 Now, I don't recommend PCIe Gen 5 drives for the most users. They're super expensive. They run hot. They often share bandwidth with the main GPU slot, and they also don't provide any extra gaming performance over Gen 3 or Gen 4 M.2 MVME drives. You can check out our best SSD for gaming video for more on that. X870 and X670 motherboards are generally going to have four and sometimes up to five M.2 MVME SSD slots.

05:12 Some AM5 motherboards with three or more M.2 drives have one of the M.2 slots running only at half bandwidth at PCIe Gen 4. This is usually shown as PCIe 4x2 instead of the regular BY4. To best utilize that M.2 slot, you're going to want to buy a PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSD slot. It's just going to effectively run at PCIe Gen 3 bandwidth. Still quite fast and it's fine for an extra storage drive.

05:37 Now, rear panel USB connectivity is a big separation point for the budget versus mid-range versus premium and creator motherboards. Both the total number of USB ports as well as the speed of the USB ports themselves. The square USBA connectors are usually colorcoded. The black ones being USB 2.0 speed. Those are good for slower devices like mice and keyboards.

05:54 USB 3.2 Gen 1 speed. Those are typically colored blue. Then we've got USB 3.2 Gen 2 connections, often colored red. There are also USB type-C connectors, which are smaller but faster connections. Most X870 motherboards also come with at least one USB type-C port running at USB 4 speed. That's mostly useless for desktop PCs, at least right now. So, don't spend extra just to get USB 4.

06:18 Let's talk about network connectivity because every motherboard has at least wired Ethernet. The older motherboards are generally 1 GB connections, while most of the newer 600 and 800 series boards do come with at least 2.5 GB speed. Some are faster, but check the specs. Many motherboards also come with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, either built-in or added in using an M.2 Wi-Fi key.

06:38 The fastest Wi-Fi speeds right now are Wi-Fi 7 on the latest B850 and X870 motherboards. You can also buy a USB, M.2, 2 or PCIe addin card to get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth later. All right, let's talk about motherboard audio. It's in the bottom lefthand corner of the motherboard. It's made up of capacitors, shielding, and a realtech audio codec chip. You use this audio anytime you plug in an analog device with a pole connector that looks like this, either into rear panel audio connectors or the ones in the front panel of

07:05 your PC case. If instead you're plugging in a sound device with a digital connection like USB or HDMI, then you're bypassing your onboard motherboard audio and you're offloading that to a secondary device instead. Budget audio codecs can sound fine. They're typically in the 800 series, such as the ALC 897. More premium audio codecs have better overall signal to noise ratios and additional audio signal boost for front panel headphones like the ALC 1200.

07:29 The best audio codecs right now are the ALC 1220 or the newer but similar ALC 4080. Both of which offer additional encoding and decoding support as well as support for high impedance headphones. Finally, we've got a couple other features to consider. Motherboard VRM are the power delivery in the half square around the CPU. This used to be a bigger issue, but for gamers looking to use a Ryzen 5 or 7 CPU, virtually any Ryzen motherboard will have good enough VRM.

07:54 If you're buying a Ryzen 9950X, 9950X3D, or higher core count CPU, you're going to want to get a motherboard with a strong VRM that won't potentially overheat during heavy allcore workloads, which we'll go over in the creator and ultra premium motherboard section. Speaking of power delivery, every Ryzen motherboard will have between one and two EPS power connectors, usually in the upper leftand corner of the motherboard.

08:15 For motherboards with two EPS power connectors, while you can technically run it with just one connected, I recommend that you utilize both. So, make sure your PSU supports enough EPS power cables for your motherboard. Some newer motherboards now come with an additional 8pin PCIe GPU connector on the motherboard itself, which is supposed to increase stability during GPU use.

08:35 If you do want to use this, just make sure that your PSU has enough GPU 8 pin power cables to support it and your GPU. While every motherboard comes with at least troubleshooting LEDs to help if your system doesn't boot correctly, some higherend motherboards do come with postcode readouts which give an actual code that you can look up to help in troubleshooting phase.

08:53 Personally, I think every mid-range and higher motherboard should have a postcode readout. But unfortunately, this feature is usually price gated behind the more expensive X870 motherboards. Finally, one more issue to be aware of is that users reported higher than normal failure rates for Ryzen 9000 series X3D CPUs on ASRock motherboards in 2025. ASRock released a number of BIOS updates to address the issue.

09:15 I did a whole video in 2026 analyzing the failure data over time, CPU sales, and other reports. Based on my review, I believe that ASRock essentially solved these issues in early 2026 when using a BIOS that is 3.50 50 or later. And they were always fine with Ryzen 7000 series and many 9000 series CPUs. So, I'm going to recommend ASRock motherboards for even the 9800 X3D and 9850 X3D CPUs.

09:36 But if that makes you uneasy, feel free to buy a motherboard from MSI, ASUS, or Gigabyte instead. If you do go with an ASRock board, just update your BIOS to the latest version as I recommend for all motherboards. All right, let's jump into our product recommendations for best Ryzen motherboard in 2026, which are all linked down in the video description.

09:54 So, check out those for current pricing and availability in your region. We're going to keep this list updated, including adding new motherboards as they come on the market or getting rid of old ones as they leave the market. I've also linked our how to build a PC playlist. It has videos on every PC component from coolers to PSUs to CPU and GPU combos.

10:09 And we've got our PC build list playlist with individual build guides for many popular Ryzen CPUs. All right, let's jump into the best AM4 motherboard for Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. I'm going to give you two picks here. There's basically two reasons you're going to be buying one of these motherboards in 2026. Either you're building kind of a really budget gaming PC with like the Ryzen 5500 or just released 5500F or you're going to be upgrading your existing motherboard because you're dropping in a 5800 X3 with 32 gigs of

10:35 DDR4 RAM. Like, hey, my older motherboard is PCI Gen 3. I want a PCI Gen 4 one. So, I'm going to give you B550 picks here because these are PCIe Gen 4. Even if you go with a 5500, the Ryzen 5500, which is PCI Gen 3 locked, you may want to upgrade in the future. And these motherboards cost just as much as the, you know, more budgetous A520 and B450 motherboards.

10:58 So, with all that out of the way, basically going to give you two picks here. I like on the MicroATX side because my MicroATX is often a little bit cheaper. I like the MS B550M Pro VDH Wi-Fi. I've recommended this board for a long time. It has entry-level audio. It's got two M.2 slots on it, one of which has a heat shield. In terms of the rear panel, USB connectivity.

11:18 It's got four high-speed USB ports, two USB 2.0 ports. Tons of connectivity for a motherboard at this price range. And it's got Wi-Fi. And for whatever reason, I find a lot of budget builders need Wi-Fi. Maybe they just can't get a wired Ethernet connection to where they're at. So, this is a good one for $89. Just note that it looks like MSI is phasing that one out in favor of a kind of rebranded one.

11:37 It's the same motherboard except with better looking heat sinks on it. Kind of looks cool, gamer. and they've upgraded the Wi-Fi on this to Wi-Fi 6E. So, if you are somebody who needs better Wi-Fi, maybe spend the extra $10 and pick this one up instead. For those of you who are upgrading your your existing motherboard to with a 5800 X3D and your existing 32 gigs of DDR4 RAM because we got the RAM crisis right now, and you want something that's a little flashier, a little bit more gamey, I would probably go with the

12:04 Asus Tough Gaming B550- plus Wi-Fi, too. Now, unfortunately, the second version of this motherboard, they've dropped the audio codec down to ALC 897. It's not upgraded audio. However, I will say they've added additional audio capacitors over what you typically find, which is three to four. So, that is nice. It's going to give you a little bit more of a boost.

12:22 And they've got the full suite of audio connectors here as well. And then in terms of the rear panel USB connectivity, it's really nice. It's got six high-speed USB ports, including a type-C and then two USB 2.0 ports. Both of the M.2s have heat shields to them. It's $110. It's a nice little upgrade board. All right, let's jump into the best cheap AM5 motherboard for Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series CPUs.

12:44 Especially if you're doing just an ultra cheap build with a Ryzen 7500F, maybe doing a small form factor build where the loss of precision boost overdrive. That's AMD's auto overclocking feature doesn't really matter to you. You can now pick up A620 motherboards cheaper than B650. $89 for the ASRock A620 AM-X Wi-Fi. It's a great motherboard. Comes with Wi-Fi on it.

13:03 Comes with pretty decent rear panel USB connectivity. Comes with four high-speed USB ports, including a type-C, two USB 2.0 ports. Has two M.2s on it. Neither one have heat sinks, but again, not that big of a deal. Not a lot to say about this. $89 right now with Wi-Fi, and it's pretty dirt cheap. The other cheap option here is the ASRock B850 M-X Wi-Fi revision 2.

13:27 Now, this one actually has a PCIe Gen 5 GPU slot to it. It has one of the M.2s with a heat shield on it, which is really nice. Heat spreader. And on top of that, it's basically the same motherboard otherwise, except you get the precision boost overdrive here. So, if you don't mind spending $ 20 to $30 more with the Wi-Fi on it, this is a pretty good one to pick up as well.

13:47 Let's jump into the best budget AM5 motherboard for Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series CPUs. So, if you're looking the best budget motherboard for like a Ryzen 9600X, best motherboard for even a Ryzen 7800 X3D, 7700 X3D, these are some great ones. And I'm going to show you my top pick first, but you're looking to spend here about $150 down to $130 in that price range.

14:06 Don't overspend on any of these motherboards. And check the next category because there's often huge sales right now on premium motherboards with slightly better features or even sometimes way better features. But let me jump into my top pick. That is the MSI Pro B850 M-8 Wi-Fi. Now, why is this my top pick? Number one, MSI has cut the price down to $150, sometimes $140 on sale.

14:27 That's insane. They initially char try to charge like $180 for this motherboard. Too much, but it does have more like $180 motherboard features. Look at the rear panel USB connectivity. It's insane. Eight highspeed USB ports, two type-C's on there, and 5 GB wired LAN. That is really, really crazy. It's got Wi-Fi 7 on it. This is one of the two boards I'm going to show you that have Wi-Fi 7 on them.

14:47 So, it's got tons of really good connectivity. I think the styling looks pretty good as long as you don't want like matte black or you're not looking for an all white board. But, I think it'll match just about any color scheme out there. either black or white. It's got a heat shield over the top M.2, two M.2s in total. It's just an overall great motherboard for $150.

15:04 Now, if you are looking for something a little bit cheaper and you don't mind giving up a little bit of the rear panel USB connectivity, but still getting Wi-Fi 7, let me introduce you to the ASRock B850M Challenger Wi-Fi. There's a non- Wi-Fi version of this motherboard. Often just sells for only like5 or $6 cheaper. I just get the Wi-Fi one. Even if you don't need the Wi-Fi, at least you get Bluetooth and stuff like that.

15:23 I like this one quite a bit. VRM are pretty decent on it. It's got one heat shield on it on its two M.2s and it's pretty robust looking one. Uh it's all black. I love the styling on this. The Challenger obviously they're ripping off a who's tough here. But I got to tell you, you know, I mean, if you can't beat them, join them, right? Cuz it looks really, really sick.

15:42 In terms of the rear pedal USB connectivity, good, but not quite as good as the MSI board. Obviously, this is only $130, so you're saving 20 bucks. You're just basically same number of ports except no type-C's on this one and two of the ports drop down to USB 2.0 speed. Otherwise, pretty good. Six high-speed USB ports. Again, those two USB 2.0 ports.

16:01 2 and 1/2 GB LAN. That's usually more than anybody really needs. Uh especially if that's your Wi-Fi uh connection out there. And like I said, Wi-Fi 7 on it. Pretty good motherboard here for just $130. And then here's a board that's been around for a little while that I do like quite a bit. It's a Gigabyte B850M Eagle Wi-Fi 6E. out Wi-Fi 7 on this. Two M.2s on it.

16:20 It's got one of them with a heat shield. I think it looks really nice. It's a kind of a triedand-true motherboard. Four high-speed USB ports and four USB 2.0 ports on the back. So, a little bit slower. One of those is a type-C, which is nice. Got the built-in rear IO shield on it. Kind of not much more to say. There is also the Gaming X version of this one.

16:40 It's basically the same motherboard. It just looks a little bit cooler. Really, that's it. The VRM slightly stronger on this one. 160 feels like a little too much to pay. I'd probably stick it out with $149. And there's also an ICE version as well. Let's jump into the best motherboard. Ryzen 7000, 9000 series CPUs in the mid range. So, we're looking for ATX size motherboards.

17:00 And these are all going to have regular entry audio on them, but they're going to have more USB features. They're going to have obviously more PCIe slots and likely at least three M.2s on them. We're going to start off with a good pick right now as its price. Often this is overpriced and that is the Asus tough gaming B650E- that is a very deceptive name because it shares a name with the more premium Asus tough motherboards.

17:24 Just note the more premium one is the B650E- Plus. So if you see the Dash Plus that means it's got upgraded audio, upgraded USB features, and other things like that. However, this is a pretty good motherboard and for $145 is actually a really good price. Although premium motherboards are going for about the same price. Check the links in the video description.

17:42 At least at the time of filming. Uh, what do I like about this motherboard? Not only does it look cool, it's the Suzu gaming. It has one M.2 heat sink on it out of three M.2s on it. Uh, it's got pretty decent, not phenomenal rear panel USB connectivity to it, five high-speed USB ports, including a Type-C, Wi-Fi 6E, and it's got 2 and 12 GB LAN to it.

18:00 I think it looks super nice. And if you're looking for a nicer motherboard, but you don't want to spend a lot of extra money, this is a pretty good pick. Another good standby here is the Gigabyte B850 Eagle Wi-Fi 6E. There used to be a gaming X version. However, at least in the US, there doesn't seem like it's really available. It's like $300 now. But you if it does come back in the market, it's a good alternative as well.

18:21 And I like the B850 Eagle because not only does it have three M.2s on it, so two thumbs up. It's got one with a heat sink on it and it has pretty decent rear panel USB connectivity. Somewhat similar to the Asus Toughboard. It's got basically five high-speed USB ports, including a type-C here. And it's got four USB 2.0 0 port, so slightly more connectivity uh by a port basically.

18:42 Wi-Fi 6E on it. It's very, very similar, $150. There is an all-white ICE version as well. Uh MSI's boards are kind of oddly priced right now, but I'm going to pick out what I think is probably the best one right now, and that is the MSI Pro B850-V. This is a relatively new board on the market. I think they're basically just repackaging their - S board with a slightly better heat sink on it.

19:03 They're going to pair it with Wi-Fi 7, which I really love. This is I love Wi-Fi 7 on it. I'm just going to tell you the rear panel not amazing. Four high-speed USB ports including two type-C's or USB 2.0 ports, but 5 gigabit LAN. So maybe if that sways you. I do like the CMOS clear button as well as a BIOS flashback button is on the back of the motherboard.

19:23 I think everybody should do that. I don't want to have to use a screwdriver and like underneath the graphics card to clear my CMOS when I need to. I'd love to just p be able to push a button to it. It only has two of the uh audio jacks in the back. That's probably all you need. I think the styling looks nice. $169 is a little steep. I really think this motherboard belongs more like $150.

19:42 All right, let's jump in the best motherboard for Ryzen 7,000 9000 series CPUs. So, these are going to be premium motherboards, premium gaming motherboards. So, we're looking here for upgraded audio ALC 1200, 1220 or 4080 codecs on them. We want at least three M.2s, all full bandwidth. And we want them all with heat shields, or at least the vast majority of them with heat shields.

20:02 We want good rear panel USB connectivity. And of course, it has to look amazing, like a gaming motherboard, basically. Let me start off with an insane banger of a deal right now. I don't know how long this is going to last. Typically, this motherboard sells for about $160 to $170. And it is worth it at that price. You, this price may go away, but right now at $132, I would buy nothing other than this, unless you want something much higherend.

20:24 And that's the Asus Tough Gaming B650E- Plus. Remember, the Dash Plus is the more upgraded version. If it was B650E- that's more mid-range features. So, this have upgraded audio ALC 1220 on it. It's got three M.2s. All of them have heat spreaders on them. It's got pretty insane styling on it. I think ASUS has done an enormous job with his tough gaming styling on the B650E and B850.

20:48 Remember, it's P B650E, so it does have PCIe Gen 5 GPU slot. You're covered there. In terms of it rear panel USB connectivity, it's got tons of rear panel. It's got four high-speed USB ports, six USB 2.0 0 ports, 2 and 12 GB LAN, and Wi-Fi 6E as long as well as a full suite of audio connectors to it. BIOS Flashback there as well. If you're looking for a great motherboard on the premium side and maximizing value, this is my pick.

21:12 There is also a B850 version of this motherboard right now at $28. I'd probably give it a hard skip. Often you can find it for more like $180 where there's not that big a gulf between the B650E version and this one. What do you get for the extra money basically or the B850 version? You get these ports here that were USB 2.0 on the B650E version. They go to a higher speed and on top of that you pick up Wi-Fi 7 on it.

21:34 So that is really nice overall. If you're looking for a microATX more premium motherboard, I like the ASRock Phantom Gaming Riptide. Now the good news about this is there's also an all-white version if you're looking for it. It's the Steel Legend version. We'll talk more about that in the all white motherboards in a little bit. But $160, pretty good price point.

21:51 Often you can find it for more like $150. has pretty good rear panel USB connectivity, four high-speed USB ports, including a type-C, four USB 2.0 ports, two and a half GB LAN, and it's got Wi-Fi 7 on it as well, and it looks pretty nice. It also has three M.2s, two of which have heat spreaders on them. I also really like the ASRock Phantom Gaming X870 Riptide.

22:11 Now, this has Wi-Fi 7 on it. Only three M.2s. That's why I'm not really considering it a creator motherboard cuz I want to see four M.2s on those. But, it's got insane rear panel USB connectivity to it. Look at this. It basically has four, five, six, seven high-speed USB ports, including two type-C's or USB 2.0 ports on it. Wi-Fi 7, two and a half gigabit LAN to it.

22:34 There is a B850 version of this motherboard with almost identical features. You can just pick up whichever one suits you. Or maybe this one has slightly better features. All right, let's jump into the B850 MSI Tomahawk. Now, here's my problem with the B850 Tomahawk. I love the motherboard. It's a great motherboard. In fact, it's the only V850 out there with three type C's on the back, which if you're looking for that feature, that is an absolute two thumbs up.

22:57 And it's got an additional three more high-speed USB ports along with four USB 2.0 ports, 5 GB LAN, Wi-Fi 7 on it. There are some new versions of this motherboard. So, the one we're looking at here has the green logoing. I think that looks absolutely fine. However, they've got a newer version that's about $20 more called the B850 Tomach Max Wi-Fi 2 instead that basically replaces that with a more muted kind of white to to black logoing instead for $229.

23:24 But my big issue with this is right now is the price. When this was down at $180ish dollars, it was a great pickup, but right now it's kind of slamming right into those X870 motherboards. So, check the link in the video description cuz it often does go on sale. Similarly, I love the Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 motherboard, especially now that they are coming with upgraded ALC 1220 audio on them.

23:45 This is the revision two of it, and it's got insane VRMs. It's got crazy good black styling. It's got a lot of the easy building tools that a lot of the other newer B850s come with. Look at that easy lift latch there. It comes with three M.2s on them. And in terms of rear panel USB connectivity, this one's just got it for days. Look at this. We've got basically 2, 6, 7, eight high-speed USB ports, including a type-C, four more USB 2.0 ports.

24:12 It's got Wi-Fi 7 on it. It's a banger of a motherboard, but my big problem with it is the price right now at the time of filming. $29. This motherboard's gone for as little as $180. I like it. They're better because there are X870 motherboards. It's running slam into right now. Of course, check those links in the video description cuz this is another one that often goes on sale.

24:30 All right, let's jump into the ultimate gaming and creator motherboards for Ryzen 7000 9000 series CPUs. What are we looking for here? We're looking for four full bandwidth M.2s on them. We're looking for insane rear panel USB connectivity, upgraded audio, and of course, it's got to look absolutely amazing. And we really want to have features like Wi-Fi 7.

24:49 We don't want to cut any corners at this point. But look at this one. This is a B850 motherboard. Jason, this is B850. What's I want an X870. This is an insane B850 motherboard. better than many X870s out there. This is the Asus Rockstricks B50-F. This motherboard forever has been massively overpriced at like $300. Like, why would you buy it? At $200, it makes way more sense.

25:08 Four full bandwidth M.2s. It looks insane. Got a great audio section to it. Terms of the rear panel USB connectivity. It has eight high-speed USB ports, two type-C's. Then, it's got four more USB 2.0 ports. The the rear networking 2 and a half GB LAN. That's most that's enough for most people. I wish it was five, but not a big deal. Wi-Fi 7 on it and it looks absolutely incredible.

25:30 I would easily pick this up over that's why I was kind of dissing the Aoris Elite and the MSI Tomahawk. If this is this price right now, check those links in the video description. I would pick this one up if you are looking for an X870E from ASUS. I would probably go with the Tough Gaming X870E- Plus. The rest of the Stricks lineup is like $300 to $400.

25:51 That's just crazy high price for me. You can definitely grab one of those if you feel like you want to, but I know a lot of you are struggling to buy the DDR5 RAM. So, I look at something like this for $235. Very, very similar feature set. Look at the rear panel USB connectivity again. So, we've got 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. One additional USB, a high-speed port, still the four USB 2.0 ports, 2 and a half GB LAN just like the other one, Wi-Fi 7, just like the Ragsticks motherboard.

26:16 And it's got the tough gaming styling. Maybe you like the tough gaming sounding a little bit better. that kind of black mat along with upgraded audio. Although I will say the audio section on the stricks board slightly better, more audio capacitors to it. But if you're looking for X870E and you don't want to break the bank, this is a good one to pick up.

26:33 In the ultra premium category from Gigabyte, I want to show you the Gigabyte X870 Aoris Elite Wi-Fi 7. Note, there is an X870E version of this motherboard. You just basically get one additional USB port and it costs $60 more. Just avoid it. I would go with this one right here. It's insane. Not only does it have upgraded audio, the audio section looks absolutely phenomenal on it.

26:53 It's got the easy release latches on the M.2 covers to it. Four full bandwidth M.2s. It has what no motherboard we've seen so far has, which is a postcode readout. I think these should be standard on mid-range and higherend motherboards. Motherboard companies clearly disagree with me, even though they don't cost that much to install. And this is great for not only overclockers, but if your motherboard or if your system crashes for some reason, you can find out exactly where it's crashing.

27:18 It really does help troubleshooting. Again, I think it should be standard equipment. Motherboard companies disagree with me, but for $215, not much more than those B850 motherboards we're looking at. Look at the rear panel USB connectivity. I believe it's about the same as the B850. So, you basically get 2 4 6 8 highspeed USB ports, two type-C's on there, but the type-C's are USB four-speed.

27:37 You get four USB 2.0 ports, Wi-Fi 7, 2 and a half GB LA RAM. I have to tell you, the ones I've shown you thus far, I do like this one quite a bit. If for no other reason that postcode readout from MSI in the ultra premium category, I'd skip over the X870 Tomahawk unless it's the same price as the B850. I'd probably go with the X870 E tomahawk. The reason is the X870 version shares a lot of lanes across things like USB ports to the main M.2 slot.

28:04 Not a big fan of the way they bifrocated it. I would go with this instead. It's got more PCIe lanes cuz it has two chipsets. Remember, for the X870e versus X870, it's got tons of rear panel USB connectivity. Basically, over the B850 version, what we've improved here is the speed, I believe, of one of the ports, and we picked up two more high-speed USB ports.

28:23 5 GB LAN is nice. Wi-Fi 7 as well. It would be nice if we had the full suite of audio outputs on an X870E motherboard, but you get what you get. But you do get a postcode readout on this. I like that quite a bit. You get a postcode readout right here. Two thumbs up with that. I like the layout of this quite a bit as well with the singular plates on it.

28:41 Four full bandwidth M.2s. For $245, I think it's a pretty good deal, especially with that upgraded audio. Then we've got the ASRock Phantom Gaming X870E Nova Wi-Fi. I like this motherboard quite a bit. Let's go through the features. It actually has five M.2s technically, though one of those M.2s is PCIe Gen 3 by two, so it's half bandwidth PCI Gen 3.

29:03 It'd be fine for a storage drive, but it does have four high-speed uh M.2 drives on there. And in terms of rear panel USB connectivity, it's just got tons of it. Tons and tons of rear panel USB connectivity. It's got four, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 high-speed USB ports, two USB 4 type-C ports as well, 5 GB LAN on it, Wi-Fi 7. I love the CMOS clear, the BIOS flashback as the other motherboards had as well on the back panel of it.

29:29 And it's got the postcode readout along with power and reset on the board. If you're an overclocker, you're going to love that quite a bit. The board itself looks really, really sick. And honestly, for $229 right now, it's kind of tough to beat. All right, let's jump into color theme boards. We're going to stick with all white motherboards cuz I know a lot of you want to do an all-white build, like an ice build basically.

29:49 Gigabyte really has this nailed, and I want to show you why. So, you can see this is the Gigabyte B850M Eagle Wi-Fi ICE board for $160. It's identical to their regular Eagle B50M board except it's all white. But here's the thing. You notice how even the connectors are white. Look at how most other folks do these boards. Now, this is changing. They have new models supposedly coming out.

30:10 But you can see it's black on white for the connectors. So, if you were looking for that like all ice look, you really got to go with Gigabyte except I do have a new board from Asus Tough I want to show you. But let's start off with the Gigabyte B850M Eagle. $160. This is your cheapest option basically to do kind of an all-white ice board. it seemed just a mid-range motherboard though if you want slightly more ATX version of this and pick up the ATX size version of it which is a pretty good motherboard but is $25 $30

30:36 more expensive than the regular Eagle motherboard to get the all-white Ice version. I do like it quite a bit for $180. If you want a more premium motherboard I would jump up to the Gigabyte X870 Aoris Elite. Now there's a B850 Aoris Ice as well but it's not much less money than this. So I would go with this one instead. that it's got insane rear panel USB connectivity as did the X870 AORS Elite.

30:58 It's basically the same motherboard except all white and it looks super sick. But for those of you like Jason, I don't want to buy a Gigabyte motherboard for my all-white build. Asus is finally answering the call here on the other motherboard vendors. We got the ASUS Tough Gaming B850-Pro Wi-Fi 7. Now, this is basically a B850 Tough- Plus motherboard with all white.

31:21 So, the features are basically identical to the B850 Tough Dash Plus, except it's all white. It looks amazing and they finally doing it right with all white connectors as well. $224. A little pricey compared to the Gigabyte boards for the feature versus feature, but still, if you want an ASUS board, this is a great one to pick up. For those of you looking to do cableless PC builds, we're talking back motherboard connections.

31:43 I'm going to give you two boards here, and I'm going to tell you why I like them better than any other board like this on the market. For instance, here's the MSI B850 Gaming Plus Wi-Fi PZ. That's their back connector. What's my problem with this one, and sorry, Asus, you too, is that it's just a bunch of plates at different heights that have been slapped on.

32:02 This board does not look like clean like I want it to look in a cable PC build. And that's why I'm going with a Gigabyte B850 or Stealth Ice. Look, it's just clean. It's all basically one height. I absolutely love it. And it's no longer just an ice whiteboard. They now have it in black as well. These are amazing. There's also basically X870 versions of them as well.

32:22 They're like $30 or $40 more. I don't think you have to get those. The features are very, very similar. Come with a postcode readout at the top of the board. They have great rear panel USB connectivity. Basically very similar to the B850 Aoris Elite to them. And I think they're great at two about $255 each. Let's jump to the best MiniITX motherboards for Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series CPUs in 2026.

32:41 And honestly, now that we've got the A620 motherboards hitting the market for MiniITX, I don't think you should buy a B or X series MiniITX motherboard anymore. Let me show you why. Here's the ASRock A620 AI. Now, the only thing you get with a B and X series chipset over this is you're going to get precision boost overdrive. You don't really need it for a miniITX build.

33:03 In fact, just running it at the the standard power is probably absolutely fine for a small form factor build. And look at this. Watch the rear panel USB connectivity you get with this thing. You get four high-speed USB ports, including a type-C, two USB 2.0 ports. That is the similar connectivity to the B and X series MiniITX motherboards. And I have complained about the lack of connectivity on those boards forever for the pricing.

33:24 And then you also get Wi-Fi 6E on this. You get two M.2s. Now, one is PCIe Gen 3, but so what? So what? You know, you don't need faster than that for a lot of the gaming applications. It's $131 for this motherboard. You can pick up the Gigabyte one. Very similar features for $149. if you don't want to get ASRock for whatever reason. Basically the same in terms of the rear panel connectivity and the USB connectivity or you could spend a lot more money.

33:48 This is one of the cheapest ones out there for B850. $271. This is a good motherboard. This is Sus Tough Gaming B850i. But look at the rear panel USB connectivity on this one. Four high-speed USB ports including a type-C and two USB 2. It's the same. It's the same. What am I paying so much money for for it to say Asus tough? Most of the small form factor builds I'm going to put this in, I'm not even going to see the motherboard.

34:14 It's not like it's going to have a glass case in most of them. So, my strong advice here, pick up the A620 motherboards and save yourself like $150. Remember, everything is linked down in the video description. Check that out for current pricing and availability in your region, including any new motherboards that may have come on the market or things have gone on sale. If you got value out of this video, please give a like, of course, subscribe for more cool PC content, and we'll catch you on the next