So I'll be posting a pic later of the new build but since I didn't want to commit time to modifying a current build only to do a teardown of it later on, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on this (it's listed in my signature now as well).
ASUS TUF Gaming B850M-PLUS WiFi
Here's why. Normally my motherboard criteria is somewhat minimalistic in the sense they I don't normally have to do much research to find one with the features I'm after but this time around for AM5 things are pretty wacky when it comes to the mATX or ITX stuff. I seriously put in enough time cross checking things that those hours amounted to days. That being said here's the checklist of what I was looking for (in no particular order).
1. Power delivery, no less than 8+2+1 80a. This has 14+2+1 80a w/ dual 8-pin CPU connectors. I believe this is the only B850M/B850i board I saw like this (although ASUS does have some 10+2+1 100a offerings). It's good to know that I won't have to worry about power for Gorgon Point when AMD finally starts offering CCDs with more than 8 cores.
2. At least 1x PCIe Gen5 NVMe and 1x Gen 4 or 5. Both have to be on the same side of the board as I don't like the idea of one getting hot on a side that isn't cooled. The Gen5 has to be in its own slot as it can generate a considerable amount of heat and it cannot be underneath the GPU since I am using an RTX 5090. Of course, both need heatsinks. This board fits the above criteria and even has 2x Gen 4 slots.
3. Has to be either mATX or ITX to fit in the Lian Li case.
4. Have at least 2x USB-C in the back and front panel connector. USB4 would've been but nice neither of the x870i boards fit the bill here other than offering that. This has a 10 Gbps and 20 Gbps in back with a 10 Gbps front connector. Plenty happy with that. From B850M to B850i I saw a lot of variations for these.
5. At least WiFi 6E with one of the newer antennas. I know some folks don't like these things but I got to try one out with the B850 that came in the build this started as and was WiFi 7. Speeds are just incredible and from BT to when I have this rig in a part of the house that doesn't have wired LAN it's good to go.
6. Price. I would've dropped the insane 300-400 on an x870i if it had all the features so ~$250 for this doesn't hurt as bad, plus knowing that it will be in use for years. I got on the AM4 train way late in the game with the 3700X, when Brent reviewed it, and have been exceedingly happy with AMD processors since. The 9800X3D is a champ for sure but can't wait for what's next also.
7. At least 4 fan headers. Wow, it was all over the map with different models having as few a 2 or 3 but I wanted 4 or more since I'm planning on extra air cooling needs with this build. This one has 5 (pump + 4) which is very rare for the smaller AM5 boards.
Cooling:
Hats off to
@DrezKill for pointing this one out to me. I've been interested in getting an AIO w/ VRM cooling for a while now and it's been a bit of a challenge to find reviews (although
@David_Schroth ) has more than a few here. This offering is a bit unsual in that the radiator is 38mm vs the 27mm standard thickness. This makes it a challenge, and sometimes impossible for some folks to use and I was well aware of that before doing this build but a little muscle and a lot of planning made for a pretty painless experience. It's keeping the 9800X3D well into the 50c mark, low 60s under heavy loads/benching and the other trick with it is the offset pump/vrm fan. Plan accordingly if using a motherboard or drive, that has a large heatsink. It worked out incredibly well with this motherboard and I could actually put a larger heatsink on the gen5 drive if I want. I don't have a huge amount of experience in installing AIOs (this is maybe my 5th or 6th) but I have to say that in a number of ways this was the easiest. I definitely prefer this type of mounting system over the ones that clip onto the stock motherboard mounts. The other nice thing about this AIO is that the fans are pre-installed and all cabling is in one sleeve going to the pump where Artic provides two solutions for connecting to the motherboard, either a cable powers the VRM fan, pump, radiator fans, or a 3-way splitter. I used the splitter so I can control each separately
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 A-RGB - AIO
Aside from that I decided on this memory because I've heard that while 6000 MT/s CL 30 is the sweetspot that 6400 MT/s has a 1:1 ratio with Infinity Fabric. Price was decent and system booted up first time after setting Expo. Can't really ask for much more and the timings matched the advertised specs. SKHynix dies. I have to say that the manufacturer pics of these don't really do justice. Heatsinks are solid and these things are classy looking. My newer builds are primarily all black so I've got all RGB turned off.
G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo RGB Series
The only other new addition is a Crucial T700 m.2 PCIe 5.0 4 TB drive. I would've gone with a Samsung 9100 but I had a bunch of rewards/credits saved up at BB, plus it was recently on sale, and I got it for less than a 2 TB 9100. Speeds are slightly less and it does run hot while benching but is still a good game drive. I know Gen5 is barely noticeable but I tried to design this system to get as much out of it as possible.
