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MSI Announces its AMD X870E and X870 Chipset Motherboard Series

btarunr

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MSI today launched its first wave of Socket AM5 motherboards based on the new AMD X870E and AMD X870 chipsets, which come with drop-in support for the new Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" processors, and new platform I/O. The company debuted products across its four key consumer motherboard brands—MEG, MPG, MAG, and PRO. Leading the pack is the flagship MEG X870E GODLIKE, followed by the performance segment MPG X870E Carbon WIFI, the mid-range MAG X870 Tomahawk WIFI, and the mainstream PRO X870-P WIFI.

The MEG X870E GODLIKE isn't just a flagship motherboard with no feature spared, but designed to be a piece of jewelry. It is shrouded almost entirely in heatsinks. Almost all its onboard I/O faces the front-end, including a 24-pin ATX, and two optional 8-pin PCIe power inputs. The two 8-pin EPS power inputs are exposed near the CPU socket area. A 27-phase VRM powers the CPU, with an active fan-heatsink solution that uses a series of aluminium fin-stack heatsinks with heat-pipes spreading heat among them. The CPU is wired to four DDR5 DIMM slots, supporting over DDR5-8000, with preparation for higher memory OC speeds that may come up in the future. Expansion slots include a PCI-Express 5.0 x16, a second x16 (electrical Gen 4), and a x4. There are four M.2 NVMe slots, three of these are Gen 5, and one Gen 4.



The rear I/O of the MEG X870E GODLIKE is quite something—two 40 Gbps USB4 ports with DisplayPort passthrough, five 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C, eight 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-A, sitting next to a bunch of other stuff. Networking connectivity includes a 10 GbE, a second 5 GbE, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4. The board features a premium onboard audio solution with a Realtek ALC4082 CODEC, and discrete AMP. The motherboard comes with a fully integrated system onboard, called Dynamic Dashboard III, with its own 4-inch true-color LCD touchscreen. This lets you not just get realtime monitoring stats from the motherboard, but also troubleshoot it, flash its UEFI firmware, among others.

The EZ Control Hub is a breakaway module included in the box, which is meant to be tucked away behind the motherboard tray. A single cable runs between this module and the motherboard, and it puts out all the case-fan headers, ARGB headers, and water-flow sensor headers, so you don't have any pesky little cables seen on the front side of your build.

Next up, is the MPG X870E Carbon WIFI. This is a fairly feature-packed board with all the I/O the top X870E chipset provides, in a premium package. The board uses a simpler 21-phase CPU VRM that draws power from a pair of 8-pin EPS connectors. Besides these are the 24-pin ATX, there is an optional 8-pin PCIe power input which should come in handy if you've loaded the board with several Gen 5 SSDs or riser cards. Expansion slots include a couple of additional x16 slots (electrical Gen 4). The I/O is a touch watered-down from the GODLIKE—you still get two 40 Gbps USB4, but a fewer 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C and type-A; and a set of 5 GbE + 2.5 GbE wired LAN interfaces. The WLAN setup is the same. The onboard audio solution uses an ALC4080.

The MAG X870 Tomahawk WIFI is based on the X870 chipset (8 fewer PCIe Gen 4 GPP lanes), yet has a formidable feature-set. Power is drawn from 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, with an optional 8-pin PCIe that stabilizes the 12 V domain. A simpler 17-phase VRM solution powers the processor. You still get four M.2 NVMe slots—two each Gen 5 and Gen 4. The I/O includes two 40 Gbps USB4 with DisplayPort passthrough, a single 5 GbE wired LAN, Wi-Fi 7 + Bluetooth 5.4, and a mid-range onboard audio solution that uses either an ALC4080 or ALC1200. The PRO X870-P WIFI is a mainstream board, with much simpler layout, a similer power delivery system to the Tomahawk, but with some feature-cutting done in areas such as gamer aesthetics, and I/O. You still get two USB4 and Wi-Fi 7, but the onboard audio solution is an entry-level ALC892.

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Where in their press release did MSI say the pcie 8pin on their boards has anything to do with powering nvme slots? On existing AM5 boards that extra connector correlates with USB C power delivery. Did MSI provide extra info to press apart from what they posted publicly?
 
Just look at all those USB-Cs! (somewhere else, no rear IO photos here) !@#$ing finally! Shame the low-end boards got shafted again but at least the premium options are now fully functional for 2024.
 
No mention of an external clock gen on the carbon, also same goes for 2nd tier Gigabyte and ASRock boards. I really don’t wanna give money to ASUS.
 
Damn, my mobo is out of date after 2 months... Standard!

That pcie connector has to be for gpu, surely?
 
Where in their press release did MSI say the pcie 8pin on their boards has anything to do with powering nvme slots? On existing AM5 boards that extra connector correlates with USB C power delivery. Did MSI provide extra info to press apart from what they posted publicly?
I watched the MSI Gamign live stream that 8 pin is for the PCIe slots and not M2.

Just look at all those USB-Cs! (somewhere else, no rear IO photos here) !@#$ing finally! Shame the low-end boards got shafted again but at least the premium options are now fully functional for 2024.
I said the same thing on the live stream
 
I watched the MSI Gamign live stream that 8 pin is for the PCIe slots and not M2.


I said the same thing on the live stream
IMHO... EXPECT some serious price increases over last generation's Mobo. Just like the CPU... IMHO EXPECT some dissappointment on what you are actually getting on your board for the prices you are going to pay.
 
So carbon does keep the PCIe slot layout from previous Carbon board but damn that rear IO sees a serious upgrade(sadly missing USB 2 ports).

Where in their press release did MSI say the pcie 8pin on their boards has anything to do with powering nvme slots? On existing AM5 boards that extra connector correlates with USB C power delivery. Did MSI provide extra info to press apart from what they posted publicly?
That PCIe power might be for USB PD support, will wait for manuals to be available to find out the reason for their existence.
 
4th board seems the best one, but I am guessing its the cheapest board out of the 4 so probably has weakest VRM and memory traces.

Curious how much sharing is going on though. Use one thing and another is disabled.

They need a godlike with the pro's i/o layout. All 4 options really is a pick your compromise choice.
 
Why do we need 4 M.2 slots. 2 is plenty IMO. I know this is AMD spec, but just not useful.

I've not tried MSI and since this gen actually has decent number of rear USB ports time to try them. But will wait for Z890 Carbon/Tomahawk to compare.
 
4th board seems the best one, but I am guessing its the cheapest board out of the 4 so probably has weakest VRM and memory traces.

Curious how much sharing is going on though. Use one thing and another is disabled.

They need a godlike with the pro's i/o layout. All 4 options really is a pick your compromise choice.
The problem with the 4th board is that it comes with 2 PCI slots, yes I said PCI slots and not PCie.

Why do we need 4 M.2 slots. 2 is plenty IMO. I know this is AMD spec, but just not useful.

I've not tried MSI and since this gen actually has decent number of rear USB ports time to try them. But will wait for Z890 Carbon/Tomahawk to compare.
Some X670E boards have the same M2 layout. Even the X570S Ace Max and X570 Unify boards supported up to 5 M2 drives.
 
Finally! An x870(E) board with some decent expansion.
1725504589865.png
Hopefully, the lane layout isn't stupid...

The second motherboard in MSI's lineup is the PRO X870-P WIFI which features support for quad DDR5 memory DIMMs, a 14+2+1 power delivery with 60A SPS MOSFETs, and a dual 8-pin power connector configuration for the CPU. The motherboard comes with the same features as the Tomahawk but goes light on the heatsinks and M.2 slots. It has a very bare design which should make it a better-priced solution if you don't need the extra features of the higher-end designs. It has a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, three PCIe 4.0 slots, and triple M.2 slots. The motherboard comes with a black and silver aesthetic. Connectivity retains the 5G LAN interface and WIFI 7 wireless connectivity which is always a good thing.
 
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The problem with the 4th board is that it comes with 2 PCI slots, yes I said PCI slots and not PCie.


Some X670E boards have the same M2 layout. Even the X570S Ace Max and X570 Unify boards supported up to 5 M2 drives.

Looks like pcie to me, why would they dump pci slots on there?

Of course there is no official spec page I can find on the internet for these boards, seems the press release to media was more important, but pci has different pin layout.

Confirmed above in @LabRat 891 post. So providing there is no sharing shenanigans the pro if you wanted could have up to six M.2 without using expensive multi slot adaptors, as remember PCIe can be used for M.2 via single slot adaptor, they are flexible and as such superior to native M.2 slots. Or you could use addon cards if you wanted for other purposes.
 
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Are they going to release a Motherboard with only two Dimm slots?
 
Finally! An x870(E) board with some decent expansion.
View attachment 362109
Hopefully, the lane layout isn't stupid...
I find it mildly amusing finding boards having 4 x16 slots configured as x16, x1, x1, x1.

Looks like pcie to me, why would they dump pci slots on there?
Good question although my hopes of using my PCI 3com 1Gps NIC I still have in storage are now crushed.
 
I find it mildly amusing finding boards having 4 x16 slots configured as x16, x1, x1, x1.
x1 gen4 is still ~x4 gen2/x2 gen3, and saves one from having to cut on a new board.

I am curious what the official spec/layout is. 'Couldn't make out the occupied pins on the x16s.
Good question although my hopes of using my PCI 3com 1Gps NIC I still have in storage are now crushed.
Don't fret, PCI-PCIe bridge cards, exist. :laugh:
1725564652859.png
 
any other X870/X870E boards that support DisplayPort passthrough?
 
No mention of an external clock gen on the carbon, also same goes for 2nd tier Gigabyte and ASRock boards. I really don’t wanna give money to ASUS.
I feel the same, looks like ASUS will win the X870 race as well...
What would anyone do with 5GbE + 2.5GbE?!? It's just a waste of PCIe Lanes.
Agreed, absolute waste...
Are they going to release a Motherboard with only two Dimm slots?
I think we will see MATX and ITX boards with only two DIMM slots
 
I think we will see MATX and ITX boards with only two DIMM slots
That might be nice as it by it's limitation helps ensure the best supported ram speed scenarios. When 64GB dimms come along = 128GB heaven.
 
That might be nice as it by it's limitation helps ensure the best supported ram speed scenarios. When 64GB dimms come along = 128GB heaven.
True, but you can also use any board only with 2 slots used, which I am planning to, but will not wait for those 64GB sticks,
96GB will do...
Waiting to the ProArt X870E to be listed... and decide between that and the X670E
 
True, but you can also use any board only with 2 slots used, which I am planning to, but will not wait for those 64GB sticks,
96GB will do...
Waiting to the ProArt X870E to be listed... and decide between that and the X670E
Other than the WiFi 7, is there any difference?
 
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