As a new pain point for AMD AM5, the high pricing has seriously affected consumers’ enthusiasm for the Ryzen 7000 series desktop processors and X670 / X670E motherboards. Also, compared to Intel’s LGA 1700 platform, Ryzen 7000 CPUs are not backward compatible with affordable DDR4 memory. The good news is that AMD has just lifted the ban on mainstream B650 / B650E motherboards in order to cater to budget-conscious PC DIYers.
From the more than 25 SKUs from the four major manufacturers listed on Newegg (portal), AMD mid-range B650 / B650E motherboards are priced from $170 to $450 (about 1220 ~ 3230 RMB).
As for the main difference between the B650(E) and X670(E) chipsets, the high-end X670E motherboard uses dual Promontory 21 chips (traditionally only a single south bridge chip) and retains four PCIe 4.0 lanes between the chipsets.
Since the B650(E) only needs a single chipset, it basically retains only half of the connectivity/expansion, but it is quite sufficient for ordinary users.
The Ryzen 7000 processor also provides up to 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes, and the B650/B650E also adopts a different allocation scheme due to the difficulty of routing such high bandwidth.
"Among them, the B650E provides 16 PCIe 5.0 (supporting 1×16 or 2×8 split) and at least one PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSD direct connection slot. However, the B650 is downgraded to a PCIe 4.0 graphics card slot, and PCIe 5.0 support for the M.2 SSD slot is optional."
It is worth mentioning that all AM5 motherboards that have been released so far support overclocking the CPU and memory.
In terms of specific models, the most affordable SKU currently listed on Newegg is the B650M PG Riptide from ASRock, priced at $170 – $75 cheaper than the lowest X670(E) model.
Even so, ASRock has equipped this mATX motherboard with a 12+2+1 phase power supply (rated current 50A), and a PCIe 5.0 and another PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD slot.
It should be pointed out that when AMD officially announced the Ryzen 7000 series processors, the company said that the starting price of the AM5 motherboard was as low as $125 (about 897 RMB), but did not further disclose that the price was for the B650 or the unreleased A620 entry chipset.
