MSI Unleashes 5 Ryzen AM4 Motherboards Starting As Low As $79
Starting at the top is MSI's X370 XPower Gaming Titanium. This is a $300 motherboard based on AMD's top-end X370 chipset and includes just about everything but the kitchen sink. It's a spiffy looking board with heavily plated titanium heat sinks, four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 and higher frequency memory, two M.2 interfaces and a U.2 interface, half a dozen SATA 6Gbps ports, four USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports, USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C and USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C ports (one each), headers for four more USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports and a USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port, three PCI-Express x16 slots, three PCI-Express x1 slots, six SATA 6Gbps ports, GbE LAN, and a few other amenities.
Next up is another X370 motherboard, the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon. This is similar to the Titanium board with a different and darker color scheme and some toned down features. For example, MSI lists support for DDR4-3200 and higher frequency memory, which suggests that the Titanium can push RAM a little bit higher. However, it has the same number PCI-Express x16 and x1 slots, along with two M.2 slots for those gum-stick sized SSDs.
Rear connections include four USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports, USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C and Type-A ports (one each), two USB 2.0 ports, GbE LAN, DVI-D, and HDMI, along with audio connectors.
At $180, this is a far less price option for enthusiasts who still want a top-of-the-line chipset and a bevy of features.
This motherboard sells on Amazon for $110.
Despite it's small size, there is quite a bit to play with here, including a combined half a dozen USB 3.1 and USB 2.0 ports, two PCI-Express x16 slots, two PCI-Express x1 slots, an M.2 slot, and support for up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 or higher memory.
Finally there's the B350M Gaming Pro motherboard. This is a sub-$100 part ($80 on Amazon) and another micro-ATX option for SFF builders. It supports half the amount of RAM as the rest at 32GB and has a single PCI-Express x16 port, which is reinforced. It also boasts two PCI-Express x1 slots, four SATA 6Gbps ports, a single M.2 slot, a GbE LAN port, four USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports, and two USB 2.0 ports.
Not all of these are in stock yet, but if you're interested in any of them, here are links to their product listings on Amazon:
- MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium
- MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon
- MSI B350 Tomahawk
- MSI B350M Mortar (links to listing on MSI's site - there's no listing on Amazon yet)
- MSI B350M Gaming Pro