MSI Prepares OC-Focused B850E MPOWER Motherboard, and X870 ITX Board with PCB I/O Extension

[AleksandarK]

MSI's Computex booth has prepared new products for everyone, even for overclockers in microATX form factors. The company has presented a microATX MPOWER B850E motherboard, as we expected the MPOWER series comeback, with a very simple visual layout, aiming to please overclockers and even extreme LN2 users, with little add-ons to obstruct operations. Based on the B850E chipset, it accommodates AM5 processors with up to 16 cores and 32 threads in the top-end AMD Ryzen 9 9950X SKU. There are two eight-pin CPU connectors instead of the regular single eight-pin connector, for more overclocking headroom. VRM phases are covered in low-profile heatsinks so that LN2 coolers, often large and chunky, don't interfere with motherboard elements, which would usually require removal and later thermal isolation. What is particularly interesting is the usage of two memory DIMM slots, which is ideal for overclocking as it requires less CPU signaling to the memory. For easy signaling, MSI's EZ dashboard integrates power, reset, clear CMOS buttons, and a debug LED for CPU status codes.




Next is perhaps the most interesting ITX motherboard in a while. ITX motherboards are limited in space, and if you remember, only a few were with extra add-on PCBs for IO expansion. This time, MSI is joining the extension club with MSI MPG X870I EDGE TI WiFi motherboard designed for the AM5 socket and a massive in-case IO expansion. Despite being an ITX board, it packs an M.2 connector with a large passively cooled heatsink, and an additional M.2 connector on the back. Just looking at the right side, we notice a small SODIMM-like expansion slot, which houses two SATA connectors, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with 27 W power delivery, and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports. Other interesting choices shift to the board's I/O, which packs not one but two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 connectors with 40 Gbps speeds, daisy-chaining support, 8K monitor output, or anything a user wishes to achieve. It will be available in July starting at $309.



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[Kwadratowicz]

rsff - rich smal form factor

 

[LittleBro]

Not only those drives will be covered by heat producing GPU, but let's even cover the whole chipset heatsink
by the drives' heatsink, so that heat from chipset can't dissipate at all. MSI once again amazed me.

 

[Kirederf]

Based on the B850E chipset

Hmm, this chipset doesn't exist? The B650E chipset was replaced by the regular X870. There is no B850E chipset in the AMD 800 series chipset.

AMD Shuffles Feature-sets of its 800-series Chipset, X870 is B650E Successor

AMD is debuting its Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" desktop processors powered by the "Zen 5" microarchitecture later this year. These chips are compatible with existing AMD 600-series chipset motherboards with a simple UEFI firmware update, but the company is also taking the opportunity to...

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[Notional]

That ITX board should have 4 M.2 ports. Stack over the PCIe port should have 2. Then one on the back and one extra on the expansion card next to the ram.

 

[claster17]

Hmm, this chipset doesn't exist? The B650E chipset was replaced by the regular X870. There is no B850E chipset in the AMD 800 series chipset.

The X870 branding requires the board to have USB4.
Gen5 M.2 is optional for B850.

I guess they call it B850E to emphasize that it essentially is X870 sans USB4 or in other words B650E under a new name.