All 300 Motherboard Feature Set and General Use Tier List For Intel Z690, H670, B660, H610, and AMD X570, B550, A520 Buildapc edition.

Intro:

Here is the repost of this tier list, the mods locked my other post and asked to make a couple changes and I have complied.

Welcome to the updated motherboard tier list and guide. My list tiers over 300 boards covering both Intel and AMD. All current chipsets are listed including Intel’s Z690, H670, B660, and H610 chipsets, and AMD’s X570, X570S, B550, and A520. I can’t respond to Reddit Chats or PMs. Post in the main thread or I will ignore it. PMs and reddit chats take hours of my time are buggy, and are not worth it because no one sees my responses to learn from. In the main thread I can respond publicly, and you can see both my thoughts and the thoughts of critics who disagree with me.

This was an incredibly ambitious and difficult project to work on, so enjoy. Tiering 300 mobos in the way I have done was an insane amount of work, because I don’t just list parts out, I actually analyze the parts. This Tier List is a WIP especially because many intel boards are still not out. I am planning a big update in March or April once production ramps up post chinese new year and these boards release. Double check the Motherboard's Specifications page if you see anything, as I may have missed something. I fully expect to have missed a few mobos.

I'm always on a quest for knowledge, so if you find any errors or typos, or know something I missed about a Motherboard, please let me know, I'm sure I've missed some things, my brain is fried and I am seeing mobos in dreams. Many users who disagreed with my original AMD tier list and could provide well thought out arguments have had their thoughts integrated into this list.

Table of Contents and Synopsis:

1. Warnings and Notes:
   Intel MOBOs are preliminary as many are still not released, and VRMs are DATA Deficient.
   Testing and where I get my Information from.
   Limitations of All Tier Lists including mine.
   Sanity check regarding special features after Tiering 300 motherboards.
   
2. A general use tier list.
   General Users vs Power Users and those with Specific needs.
   
3. Free Features
   Broken B450 Tomahawk Max replaced with a B550 board
   Boards that moved to lower tier for this reason.
   They don’t matter to YOU, but many others find them useful.
   The best thing you can do is buy a mobo with best features at your budget point.
   

Part 2: Changes to the list and New information on components.

1. Changes:
   Only statements I can verify myself. If a Tech tuber said a platitude with zero evidence it was removed unless I can find a corroborating source.
   Changes to tiering categories and changes based on legit criticism.
   Discrepancies. See something say something
   Tiering changes and the biggest mistake I made.
   Mini ITX has been added.
   S, A, and B tier are all recommended MOBOs now.
   Tier S is more exclusive many boards moved down, a couple moved up.
   Tier A and B expanded
   Tier C has been added for mobos bad for general use but good for specific users.
   Tier D and F had minor changes.
   Tier E is for faulty Mobos.
   
2. Audio Changes
   Realtek 1220 and 4080 headphone amps vs low end external amps vs everything else.
   My most frustrating issue with the old list.
   
3. Lan chip changes
   Moved some chips around
   I225-V fault is fixed with B3 stepping.
   Neat thing you can do only with 2.5 GB Lan chips.
   
4. INTEL vs AMD
   All modern boards use the same standardized parts, so can be judged the same regardless of Intel or AMD.
   Power hungry Intel chips and Chipset/Mosfet/DDR5 costs.
   Upcoming AMD sticker shock will be similar to z690, more expensive socket, chip shortage.
   Intel boards are punished a bit for their high price, as they are still competing against lower cost AMD boards.
   
5. PCIE Gen 4 vs Gen 5 and why I don’t differentiate:
   PCIE Gen 4 SSDs are already being used to improve some console games.
   PCIE Gen 4 is mostly useless for GPUs. PCIE Gen 5 is useless right now, but doesn’t cost much more to add to a MOBO.
   

Part 3: responding to comments I’ve gotten in the past:

1. Price, my second most controversial subject, responding to critical PMs and comments.
   Why I use Price to tier MOBOs
   I use American Dollars to tier mobos, and concessions I’ve made to those outside the US.
   My Tier list sucks because I have expensive boards in high tiers.
   My Tier list sucks because I have cheap boards in high tiers.
   
2. Chipsets
   Contradictory Misconceptions that are both wrong.
   No bad chipsets only bad components on motherboards.
   Unlocked CPUs on locked boards, and vice versa.
   Example of Linus Tech Tips perpetuating these misconceptions.
   B450 Tomahawk Max vs Low End X570
   
3. Future Proofing is EVIL so you are bad for including it, and Add In Cards
   Why I include a section on Future Proofing.
   New users who have been burned in the past.
   Every time you add an add in card you add to the cost of the MOBO.
   Don’t buy MOBO Add In Card Plus extra cables without checking for a better MOBO.
   Spreading out cost for components as you need them versus buying things you may need right now.
   
4. VRM worship:
   VRMS are underrated and overrated at the same time.
   Where VRMs are underrated on budget builds.
   Where VRMs are overrated, don’t need $400 mobos for your 5800x.
   Balance is key.
   
5. B550 Gaming Plus in D Tier:
   My most controversial take BY FAR and I still stand by it. More comments than everything else.
   Poster child for unnecessary overkill VRMs.
   Cost of VRM mosfets and that money could be spent elsewhere on the board.
   Overclocked 5950x on Asus TUF B550 versus B550 Gaming Plus.
   5600x can be OCed on B550m DS3H.
   Only use case for the board is a max OCed 5950x, otherwise a waste of money. Use the right tool for the job.
   

Warnings and Notes:

Data deficient on some boards:

WARNING: MOST INTEL H670, B660 and H610 boards have not actually been released yet, nor had pricing leaked. And VRM data is deficient on most current Gen INTEL boards, so I have tiered intel boards VRMs somewhat conservatively. Expect Intel boards to shift around a lot once we get this data. Some boards from D and B will move up. Some from A may move down.

This also means I mostly reference AMD MOBOs in this guide. That is only because we have accurate pricing now. I can’t really say this B660 is a hidden gem if I have no VRM or Pricing data.

Testing: IMPORTANT: I don’t actually test most motherboards, because it is impossible. There are 300 MOBOs on this list. Assuming an average of $200 per board, that is $60,000 I don’t have. Even then, comprehensive testing 1 mobo could take days, and by the time I finish there would be new CPUs and MOBOs out. Most of my information comes from Data Sheets, articles, testing on forums by communities who use these specific features and I have spent countless hours reading this stuff. Much of this information is vague, on obscure websites, and this makes it a nightmare to track down. For example, someone might test a specific component in article not on motherboards, but that tells me what the component does and I extrapolate its performance across my tier list.

Keep in mind that ALL tier lists have limitations like this. Any tier list author who says their tiering is perfect or isn’t honest about the above is lying and should be avoided. Comprehensive reviews are the best but are rare. So always keep in mind the limitations of tier lists when looking at one, including mine.

Sanity change:
For my own sanity, I will not be writing out special features. Special features are just a nightmare. It’s easy for me to glance over a mobo and gather special features roughly, it is immensely challenging to actually decide if a mobo with 4 major features and 3 minor ones is better than one with 3 major features and 4 minor ones and what tier they should go in. Like quadrupling the time it takes tier a Mobo. However, I will still tier the special features just in a more hey this mobo has lots of cool stuff way. It’s on you to look up the specs page for the mobo and see what it exactly has.

General users vs Power Users:

This tier list is aimed at the General User. I define general use as gaming, streaming, listening to music, watching video, hobbyist video editing, and so on. So, it covers features useful for the things that 90% of people here buy PCs for. Sadly, the vast majority of information on motherboards by tech tubers or other sites only focuses on extremely niche cases such as hardcore overclocking, while ignoring or even posting terrible advice regarding most other features. I hope this list helps provides you with a better view of more esoteric features of boards.

For Power Users or people who have specific needs, this list is still helpful as many of you do other things. However, my list won’t be as useful as it rewards balance over specific tasks. You may need to purchase a board I have a D tier on because it does something you need. I don’t focus on or care much about weird use cases like 8x8x8x PCIE slot bifurcation, high end overclocking and so on.

Free Features:

The most important concept of my list is free features. If you have 2 motherboards at a given similar price point and one has a feature that the other does not have, even if the feature is minor or you don’t need it, you should buy the MOBO with the extra feature regardless of whether you need it or not. In other words, at a given price point, for general use, buy the motherboard with best features at your budget.

A while back a user at r/buildapc received a broken B450 Tomahawk Max II. Everyone else suggested things to try to fix it, none of which worked, it was clearly borked. I so I suggested that since it was clearly broken, he should return it, and exchange it for a B550 for same price. Something like a B550m Pro4 or MSI B550m Pro VDH WIFI. I’m not one to complain about downvotes, but damn I got shit on by people who clearly didn’t understand how this works. A b550m Pro4 comes with a Realtek 1200 over the Tomahawk’s Realtek 892. Meaning if OP ever uses 32 ohm headphones on it they will just sound better. Furthermore, it has an M.2 E Key, so if OP ever needs to add wifi, he can save money with an m.2 WIFI card. And the Pro VDH WIFI is basically a B450 Tomahawk Max with WIFI and Bluetooth. Even if OP uses wired internet from the wall, this allows them to use Bluetooth or wireless game controllers. And PCIE gen 4 on the B550s. All 3 of these mobos cost 115 dollars. Even if OP never needs those features, he gets them for free by buying the B550 boards.

For example, the B550 Strix, Steel Legend, and Aorus Pro all make S tier because the have an audio codec that can power 600 ohm headphones. MSI’s lineup lacks this free feature, so it gets moved to A tier. MSI still has excellent mobos but the others have an extra feature beyond what MSI’s B550 lineup has for the same price, so they get rewarded.

Just because a feature doesn’t matter to you, does not mean it does not matter someone else. Read this thread where I brought up Gigabyte’s poor audio implementation, and see how many were affected by it. Meanwhile, Buildzoid praised Gigabyte for this very thing, because it meant more USB ports. That’s because these people in that thread have different needs and priorities to Buildzoid. Which is fine, even though I have totally different things I look for in motherboard versus Buildzoid, his work was a huge influence on mine. Motherboards are one of most the subjective parts of PC building. There is a wide of variety of features out there for everyone, even if you don’t personally care about a specific feature.

I have had so many people thank me or praise me for bringing up things like M.2 E Keys, how audio codecs work, and neat things they never knew their motherboard could do. Invariably though I have someone say those very same things are useless to care about, or the thing they care about is the most important, and I’m an idiot for not caring about it enough.

Most people have no idea what they need, so the best thing they can do is buy a mobo with best features at their budget point.

Changes:

First. I removed almost every single thing that came from tech tubers unless I could A.) Verify it myself. Or B.) it had hard factual data with hard numbers. Such as VRM temps which are not subjective.

Changes to tiering categories. I have changed up my tiering slightly of how I do Lan chips, Audio codec, and internal and external connectors. For the connectors I have removed some obscure rules like needs RGB on tier D. This is because Intel has a couple boards with a nice range of internal connectors but no RGB. This puts the onus more on the user to check the MOBO’s specifications page, so please do.

Discrepancies. This means there may be a few discrepancies, especially with AMD boards I tiered early on, if you are looking over a spec sheet to compare it my list and see something I missed let me know.

Tiering changes:

The biggest mistake I made was when I posted my last tier list was someone demanded a basic TLDR where I spoonfed him what MOBO to buy within like 10 minutes of posting my last guide, and I snarkily responded he should just buy something from S tier.

This throwaway comment led to so much butthurt in PMs and comments about how come a motherboard is in B tier when techtubers claim it should be in S tier. S tier became the only thing that mattered, and great boards in A or B tier were ignored. This was a mistake I have regretted ever since, and has been changed.

Tier S, Tier A, Tier B are all boards that I give my recommendation. S and A are highly recommended, and B is recommended. Tier S boards are highly recommended excellent boards that also have excellent value. However, I have made S tier FAR more exclusive, with only a few boards have good enough value to make it here.

Tier A boards are highly recommended rock-solid boards that will be excellent for general use for the next several years. A huge number of boards have been moved here.

Tier B boards are good but have some limitations or are very expensive or have some other feature keeping them out of S and A. Basically, if you choose anything in those S, A, or B I mostly have no problem with it, although with tier B you need to be sure any boards limitations don’t affect you.

Tier C was changed to included boards with very specific use cases that are not good for general use, but really useful for certain people. Just being expensive isn’t good enough, you need something else to make it here.

Tier D and F have minor differences. If I have a board in D tier, it may have some use, but is not good for general use, even at its price, meaning a cheap board here is still bad, and no amount of price will make it great. F tier should not be bought by anyone for general use.

Tier E is now where the faulty mobo tier is.

Furthermore, I was rightly and correctly called out for placing MOBOs in D Tier that, while bad or overpriced for general use, had very useful features for specific users. This has been changed.

Mini ITX has been added. I am no SFF expert. So, I tiered them by saying if this was an mATX board would I recommend it with these features at this price. This surprisingly worked very well as many ITX boards are better than competing mATX boards.

Category Tier Changes:

Audio had the largest change. The Realtek 1220 and 4080 audio codecs can power 600 ohm head phones without the need for an external audio device or sound card, whereas the Realtek 1200, 892 and 887 can only power 32 ohm headphones.

This solved one of the most frustrating issues I had with my old tier list. Many users were reporting highly inconsistent information about their audio that was inconsistent with what my research was saying. With some users reporting audio is fine on a board, and others were saying it was terrible. Due to variations in headphones and speakers and so on, it led to wide variety of user experiences. User A has 32 ohm headphones, and User B has headphones in 32-80 Ohm range both on a B550m pro4 with a Realtek 1200 rated only for 32 ohms. User A audio sounds great to them, user B’s audio is tinny or has sound issues because the codec can’t fully power their headphones.

Unfortunately, Intel MOBOs rarely have the Realtek 1220 or 4080 below $250, and even with AMD its uncommon below $200. Gone are the B450 days when it could be had for $130. Meaning if you want high end audio on lower end boards you need an external Audio device, and those can run $75-150 or more. Still, an external audio device is not a bad investment as it can last you years, allowing you to spread the cost out across several builds.

This caused a massive cull of mobos with Realtek 1200s from S tier. I left some like the b550m Pro4, many more like the MSI B550 Tomahawk are no longer S tier.

Lan Chips. Some minor changes. After scouring forums, and looking into it. The Intel 1211 is slightly better than the Realtek 8111h. It shouldn’t matter for most users but the difference is there. Furthermore, some boards have added chips by killer, or other brands such as Marvell. These chips do not have good reputations.

The biggest change has been 2.5 GB lan chips. Intel’s i225-v is fine now that they revised chip with the B3 stepping version and AMD boards have had the updated chip for nearly a year.

INTEL vs AMD:

One of my most controversial decisions will be that I tiered AMD and Intel boards together, instead of separating them out. All modern motherboards use standardized parts besides the socket. So an AMD or Intel mobo is going to have the same audio codec, same lan chip, same I/O controllers, same standard mosfets and so on. Now, there are slight differences, as with highly efficient AMD CPUs, AMD mobos can use cheaper VRMs, and Intel is heavily involved in Thunderbolt so it’s more commonly available on Intel, but there is no special Intel or AMD only parts.

Intel motherboards cost anywhere from 40-100 more for like for like parts on a MOBO. This is because Intel CPUs are power hogs that require far greater power delivery. For example, Intel charges MOBO makers $51 for it’s z690 chipset, and the isl99390 used in the Z690 Aorus Pro VRMs costs $5-6 per piece when purchased in large bulk quantities. We are talking $90 or so just for 1 component of the VRMs, not even including the other chips. That is 141 dollars right there, more than many B550 mobos. DDR5 implementation is also costly, leading to many DDR5 mobos costing as much as 80-100 more then AMD Mobos for like for like parts.

AMD fanboys may be rejoicing now, but be very ready for sticker shock when Zen 4 releases. The new AMD socket is going to cost more, the more advanced IMVP9.1 Smart Power Stage mosfets AMD will likely switch to will cost more, DDR5 implementation is costly and many of the newest most advanced chips have shortages. With skyrocketing inflation, I would not be surprised if we see a large price jump across the board for X670/B650 for like for like parts vs 500 series AMD MOBOs. Hey Intel Fanboys, get those memes ready mocking AMD fanboys butthurts when this upcoming sticker shock hits.

Finally, this also means that INTEL mobos get punished a bit on the tier list. This is because they are still competing with what AMD has now. By seeing all the motherboards side by side, you can see just how much the price difference is for like for like. I’m sure this will lead to some real stimulating PMs from fanboys. No Fanboys, I don’t hate Intel, actually think the Big/Little core architecture is really cool. If I did hate them, I wouldn’t have bothered with this list. However, Intel made their CPUs power hogs so they need more VRMs which cost more which means cheaper MOBOs lack features that AMD mobos have for the same price. An AMD B550 Strix-F for $190 and a $300 Z690 DDR5 Tomahawk WIFI to get like for like components really shows the differences. The vast majority of Intel mobos under $250 skimp in various ways. Example, an A520m Pro4 is $85 whereas a B660 with far, far worse capabilities, like the B660M-E DDR4 cost $120. ]

PCIE Gen 4 vs Gen 5:

I don’t differentiate between the 2. PCIE Gen 4 actually has some minor use, and nothing needs 5. The PCIE Gen 4 SSDs with their advanced implementations used in modern consoles allow for very fast loading, and while I thought it would take a while for games to use these features, I was wrong. Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart launched with NO loading screens last summer on PS5 using these features. We are already seeing PCIE gen 4 features be used in 1st party AAA gaming. Soon enough, games will be here that rely on this feature. As for graphics cards, they currently barely saturate PCIE 3 with only very slight bottlenecks at higher ends. However, this is slowly changing. Highest end GPUs tend perform very slightly better with PCIE 4. YMMV.
However, PCIE gen 5 is totally useless for general use. I really hope Intel didn’t just add it so their marketing could say we have 5 which is better then 4. While I’m sure some workstation user out there has some use for PCIE 5, for the 99.99% of the rest of us, there is no meaningful difference between 4 and 5, and by the time there is, you will be upgrading anyway.

PRICE:

One my most controversial subjects. Price has not changed.

There are 4 points I need to address.

First, using price is a bad way to tier motherboards.

No because the problem is that if a $400 mobo and a $190 mobo all have a Realtek 1220, 2.5 GB lan chip, VRMs capable of overclocking the entire CPU stack, excellent internal connectors including thunderbolt, and back panel I/O with tons of useful ports, and special features like WIFI, postcodes and so on, then price becomes the best to way distinguish these 2 boards. I mean I just watched a hardware unboxed mobo review where they literally said don't buy this mobo which is $100 more for because the specs are almost the same. Gamers nexus, hardware unboxed, Linus, all use price in their reviews. Linus just brought up price of the steam deck as to why it's so amazing and obliterates the competition. Price is stupid important. Take away price and 1000 dollar boards like the Asrock X570 Aqua are just straight up the best. Should I punish excellently priced A520, B550 and B660 boards because they can't compete with the feature sets on high end boards?

Second, Price tiering in US dollars is bad because so many people don’t live in America.

I sympathize, which is why I expanded A and B tier. In those three tiers you should be able to find something good. If in your country, the S tier Asrock B550m Pro4 is 200 of your money, and the B tier Gigabyte B550m DS3H is 120 or even an A520m Gigabyte Elite is 100 of your money, then the Gigabyte boards would probably be better options there. This also why I added the line about Tier D being the third world tier. In many third world countries these are the only reasonable options or maybe all that is available so you may have to make a choice. As a concession I did look at non-western/non-english speaking PC sites for prices. I moved some boards in D Tier that I felt were borderline to B Tier, so hopefully you guys in the Philippines, Brazil, India or wherever else can find something reasonable on my list. I almost made a B minus Tier but decided not to bother. I may revisit that in the future.

Third and Fourth Points. Either my list sucks because I have a lot of expensive boards in Tier S and A or because I have a bunch of cheap boards in Tier S and A.

These are the MOST annoying PMs and comments I get and I get it from both sides here.

The sweet spot for AMD MOBOs is $180 to $230. After that price per feature ratio goes down, with many $400 mobos having little in the way of superior features over those boards. Look, I get that it sucks that you see an Asrock A520 board in S tier for 85 dollars, and your $400 x570 board is in B tier. But the reality is that little A520m Pro4 board outcompetes almost everything in the $60-100 price point, whereas your $400 x570 does nothing better then any other $400 board, and 97% of the components on that board can be found on $190 boards.

As for price to performance zealots. Yes, I do include expensive motherboards in my high tiers. That is because they are good and have top tier components. People purchasing $2500 builds need good MOBO advice just much as those who have $600 budgets. And there are some severe wastes of money in the 300-600 price point that they would do well to avoid. These comments annoyed me when I included budget boards like the B550m Pro4, B550 Pro VDH WIFI, B450m Pro4, and B550m DS3H in S, A, B tier respectively.

Chipset:

OH MY GOD STOP WORRYING ABOUT CHIPSET, ESPECIALLY YOU, TECH TUBERS.

Stop saying things like: don’t ever buy X570 because B550 is better and so on. There are B550 boards that outcompete lower end x570 boards, and x570 boards that trounce higher end B550 boards, and there are great x570 and B550 around $200.

There are no bad chipsets, only bad features and components on boards. H610 boards all suck not because there is anything wrong with the chipset, but because the components on the boards suck themselves. If they wanted mobo companies could put better components on H610, they just choose to make them hot garbage.

A chipset simply tells the motherboard what components it supports, where to send signals, and holds the bios. And in many cases, mobo companies put way less features and components on boards than the chipset can support. Such as less USB ports than the total number of USB ports the chipset can support. Treat chipset based features like PCIE Gen 4/5 or whether a board can overclock just like you treat things like the VRMs, back panel I/O internal connectors, audio codec. Simply as an additional feature.

Next misconception: Never ever buy a locked non-overclockable chipset for an unlocked overclockable CPU and vice versa. This is so stupid and so commonly repeated by tech tubers it has become a dogma.

If you need it, buy it, don’t blanket reject A520 or z690 or B660 or whatever. If there is a great deal on a bundle with an unlocked Intel CPU and a good locked B660 that is cheaper then a locked CPU and locked board bought individually and you weren’t going to OC anyway, ignore the people saying not to buy it.

Almost every AMD CPU is overclockable. Should AMD users never buy a 5600g and one of the excellent budget locked A520 boards for their $600 build, because the 5600g is overclockable? That is stupid.

Even worse is when people become dogmatic about this in the face of all evidence otherwise. Take this video by Linus Tech Tips. The only way the USB-C port on Dennis’ PC case was going to work was with z490 as no B460 series mobo has an internal USB-C port for cases with USB-C. Linus’ employee who reviewed that build did a great job and chose a great relatively cheap z490 board with tons of high end features at a great price, and Linus perpetuates this myth by implying this totally and completely correct decision was dumb.

This is a clear case where the user needed a feature for his specific case to have full functionality, that MOBO manufacturers chose to put only on z490, and if you wanted that feature you needed to buy z490.

TLDR: Judge motherboards on individual merits. Do not blanket reject whole chipsets.

Future Proofing, and Add In Cards:

I get a lot of complaints about how my future proofing section. My list has to cover 300 or so motherboards and everything from budget to expensive, and it has to help not just tech hobbyists but new users.

I wanted to show how cheaply you can buy motherboards with these technologies that are right around the corner or here now. Take the A520 Pro4 which has 2 of my 4 technologies for a mere $85, versus the MSI A520 Pro at $80 which has none. Simply adding a good USB-A to USB-C cable is going to cost you $10-20. Or you could just buy the Pro4 for $5 more, save total money and get better features like an M.2 E Key, and much better VRMs.

So many times, I have spoken to new builders who are scared their PC build isn’t viable now. These people are not asking to build 10 year PCs for $850-1000 and don’t need to be screamed at like babies. They are people who have purchased a Pre-built or a laptop for $800 2-3 years ago only to find out later that it was already outdated by the time they brought it home cause it was sitting on a shelf for 3 years and the salesman took advantage of them. These people have had bad experiences purchasing Laptops and Pre-Builts that quickly had issues.

Sadly, too often these noobs have perfectly viable parts at a reasonable price, but just get scolded by someone for using the term future proof without even being offered any help. BTW, that is a dick move, don’t just tell someone to not futureproof without providing help and context, I see that too often. Then the noob panics, and they think they are wasting money, and switch to parts that are hot garbage. 6 months later, we have to troubleshoot why their Asrock HDV board is causing their 8 core CPU to crash.

If you spoke to these new builders instead of screaming at them to never ever future proof you would realize they are very nervous about sinking hundreds or thousands into a DIY build, and getting burned like they have been before. Most times, these users mean “will my build be viable for the next 4 years or so?”, not for the next 10 years. I have had several users thank me for the future proofing section because it helps them feel secure in what they are buying.

There is huge disconnect between the hobbyists versus the newbies and people building to save money. Hobbyists like us have been building PCs for years, we pay attention to when new components come out. We plan our builds so we buy our products at the beginning of a product cycle so it’s viable for 4 years and we forget how easy it is to get a PC NOT viable for the next 4 years.

Every time you add an add in card or buy an extra cable you need for your motherboard, you add to the cost of the mobo.

Another example is the $150 MSI B550 Gaming Plus vs the $180 Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro. To add the same quality headphone amp to your Gaming Plus you would need to spend $75-100 dollars on an external headphone amp.

Most times, I’d guess 90%, you end up spending more to add an add in card, then just buying slightly better components on a better mobo. This isn’t always true, adding a $20 wifi 6 M.2 card for your Asrock B550m Pro4 is a counter example where this is one of the cheapest ways to add WIFI 6 to mobo. But in most cases it’s cheaper to buy the better board.

Next, what about people who don’t need those specific components? They shouldn’t waste money on components they don’t need.

This is somewhat correct. My point is, don’t add a $35 wifi card, a $15 – 80 5v to 12v RGB convertor to the build you are a planning to buy right now, when you can save money buying a board with those components built in. Or don’t buy splitter cables to add fans to a low end budget board with only 1 or 2 fan headers when the cost of splitter cables your low end board is the same as a much better low end board with the fan headers you need.

Finally, doesn’t it make sense to save money now, buy only the parts you need, and if need to add a component later, then add it? If I never need it, I save money.

Sure, this is viable. If your current board has Realtek 892 audio codec and your headphones work fine and sound good. Hey, maybe you don’t need a better audio codec now. And if you ever do upgrade your headphones, an external audio device can be used for years and spread the cost out across multiple builds, same with a wifi card. Heck, it could even mean you spend less on a mobo next time.

TLDR: If you are putting together a build for right now, don’t choose a MOBO, and add $35-100 worth of add in cards and extra cables without checking if it would be cheaper to spend $20-30 more on a mobo that already does those things. However, if you don’t need any of that now and it would kill your budget to spend extra, then it’s ok to buy a cheaper board and add that stuff later.

VRM Worship:

VRMs are simultaneously the most overrated component and underrated component.

What a Voltage Regulation Module does is regulate the voltage heading into the CPU. If you choose too weak VRMs or not boost properly, or your CPU may crash. However, the opposite is now people are spending way too much on VRMs as Tech tubers worship VRMs to an insane point.

Balance is better here.

For budget users VRMs are underrated and one of the most important components because it is very easy to purchase a cheap A520 or B660 board with VRMs too weak for your CPU. Just because a board is locked, does not mean VRMs are irrelevant. For example, B560 boards for 11th gen intel had boost issues because the VRMs on cheaper boards were too weak for some midrange intel CPUs.

This is why the MSI A520 Vector WIFI is in A tier despite bad connectivity. Because decent VRMs and WIFI for $85 is good deal. So even though that board is locked and can’t overclock, they can run most Ryzen CPUs at stock settings fine.

It is very possible to get a cheap board like an H610 Asus Prime, or any of Asrock’s HDV line on Intel or AMD that has VRMs so bad that even an intel 12400, 3400g, 5600x struggles.

Too often I see posts where the Poster bought a super cheap mobo, a CPU too powerful for it, and they get worthless advice when the only solution is to purchase a better board. Had the OP spent $10 more on a better MOBO with slightly better VRMs, they wouldn’t be in this situation.

However, beginning around 180 dollars for AMD, and 230 for intel, most boards can overclock even the highest end 5950x and 12900k. You don’t need a $500 LN2 overclocking board to run a stable daily driver OC on your 5600x or 5800x. A $115 MSI B550 Pro VDH WIFI can do that no problem.

Too often I have to talk people down from $400 MOBOs because they are desperately afraid their VRMs won’t work on their 5800x they plan to run at stock.

The most difficult part is the $100-200 price point where there can be boards with trash VRMs, balanced boards and boards with overkill VRMs. My tier list should help with this.

MSI B550 Gaming Plus:

Putting this board in D tier got tons of butthurt and more PMs and reddit chats and comments complaining than ANY and EVERY other single issue. I stand by this decision.

This board is the poster child for unnecessary overkill VRMs. According to hardware unboxed own VRM testing, an ASUS B550 TUF with much weaker VRMs can run a stable OC on a 5950x 30 degrees cooler then where thermal throttling begins. The VRMs on the Gaming Plus are unnecessarily powerful. If you are not running a constant, high spec OC on a 5950x, they are a waste of money. Otherwise the board has similar components to the MSI B550m Pro VDH WIFI, a $115 motherboard.

When someone PMs me (a regular occurrence) and throws a fit about the B550 Gaming Plus being in Tier D. I’ve taken to just assuming they have an overclocked 5950x, and how they would have been better off buying a board with better OC support features to support such a high-level OC for their $800 CPU. Usually, they get the message, but some don’t. Your 5600x or 5800x can be OCed by a B550m DS3H, so you don’t need a motherboard this powerful.

I’m sure there is someone out there who needs a max OCed 5950x but not threadripper, and does not need better audio, fast transfer data through Thunderbolt, a 2.5 GB lan chip or any of those other features can be had on mobos at this price with weaker but still fine VRMs. That person probably exists, but it is such tiny use case, like maybe 1 in 5000.

Use the right tool for the job.

It’s like using a FAT MAN Nuke launcher in Fallout. Sure, it kills things good, but using it on a low level raider is worthless because you do far more damage than the raider has hit points. Don’t use a nuke when a rifle would do the same task. Same deal here.

For vast majority of users, the B550 Gaming Plus is the wrong tool for the job. Either buy a cheaper MOBO with better non-VRM features like a B550m Pro4 for your 5600x, or spend a mere $20 more expensive MOBO like a B550 Steel Legend which has better features all around.