I'm building my first gaming and work PC and I'm having trouble choosing between several X870E motherboards. My options and local prices are: MSI Tomahawk X870E for $380, Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870E for $405, ASUS ROG Strix X870E-H for $490, and Gigabyte Aorus Pro X870E X3D for $540. The system will use a Ryzen 9 9950X3D, an RTX 5080 Aorus Master, 32GB of DDR5-6000 or DDR5-6400 memory, and 4TB plus 2TB of storage. I also do professional filmmaking, so having plenty of useful ports and connectivity matters. Which board would you choose, and is X870E actually worthwhile for this build?
2 Answers
Before choosing X870E, check whether you actually need its extra connectivity. A less expensive B850 board may be enough and could still provide the features this build needs, while leaving more of the budget for storage or other components. Since you work with film, compare the exact rear I/O, USB options, networking, storage support, and expansion slots rather than assuming the more expensive board is automatically better.
That makes comparing the port selection more important, but it still doesn’t automatically require the highest-priced X870E model. Check the specific connections you use and whether a B850 board provides them; both of your SSDs may also be able to use direct CPU-connected lanes for good performance.
The Gigabyte board could be a sensible match for the Aorus graphics card, especially if you like keeping the branding consistent. That said, I wouldn’t pay a large premium for appearance alone—the cheaper boards may offer everything your CPU, GPU, storage, and memory need.
I do filmmaking professionally, so the extra ports and connectivity would genuinely be useful for my work.