Honestly, except for VRAM cooling, I don't think I'd need more from any mainboard... especially running the artificially limited X3D chips anyway, they can't do much more than stock I expect (7800X3D), so why spend more on this. Except a segmented debug code LED, which is really nice, and locked behind a paywall of probably +100€

Without a heatsink it is not good to use a cpu of more than 65w and the box with 1 or 2 fans removing air from the back and above.

fantaskarsef:

Honestly, except for VRAM cooling, I don't think I'd need more from any mainboard... especially running the artificially limited X3D chips anyway, they can't do much more than stock I expect (7800X3D), so why spend more on this. Except a segmented debug code LED, which is really nice, and locked behind a paywall of probably +100€

This is so true, motherboards have not been a performance-based component since like Lynnfield days. We are really only dependent on the VRM and that's pretty much it. Judging from those features this is low-end budget board, I really hope they adjust the price to around $70. It will be ok at that price point.

The single m2 slot and the potential to cover up the only expansion port with a GPU (or block the GPU fan with an expansion card butted up) also seems like a concern. If this is what bargain pricing gets these days, I'd spend a bit more.

0blivious:

The single m2 slot and the potential to cover up the only expansion port with a GPU (or block the GPU fan with an expansion card butted up) also seems like a concern. If this is what bargain pricing gets these days, I'd spend a bit more.

Aside from the single M.2 slot, which is pretty common on low-end mATX boards anyway, covering up expansion slots with a GPU or having another card butted up against a graphics card has been a concern with mATX boards for the last decade. What bugs me is that so many motherboards are still being sold with the outdated ALC897 audio codec.... ALC1200 should be an absolute minimum at this point.

Am I the only one who doesn't really think that anything important is missing? It looks/has the most feature of other motherboards, indeed vrm heatsink would be good, but led display for error reporting? Crossfire? 2 nvme slot? Not having 3 HDMI and 5 Displayport with 18 USB or having OK-ish Realtek Audio? Who needs those, if you're choosing to go with budget, especially since aparently the VRM-s are pretty good. This seems like a perfect motherboard for simple builds (even "high end" gaming ones)

I also think all of this is fine. Faster USB would be nice but for a desktop PC, what would you really need more than 5Gbps for? You've got other display connectors, you've got wired networking, hardly anybody uses local external storage anymore, 4K 120FPS video devices (webcams and capture cards) work at USB 3.0 protocols, and so on. All of my computers and my phone have USB-C and yet, I've never actually used them for data purposes. Basically, by the time USB was fast enough to replace Firewire 800, nobody needed that kind of speed anymore. Anyway, I'm glad to see the M.2 slot uses PCIe 4.0; 5.0 is unnecessary for a budget board. As for the audio chipset, most people these days are doing Bluetooth, HDMI/DP, or a USB DAC. While I myself am still using 5.1 analog, I probably won't be for too much longer. I didn't know Crossfire was still a thing, so hardly any loss there.

Raserian:

This is so true, motherboards have not been a performance-based component since like Lynnfield days. We are really only dependent on the VRM and that's pretty much it. Judging from those features this is low-end budget board, I really hope they adjust the price to around $70. It will be ok at that price point.

For ITX builds, chipsets like this are totally fine since you're not really missing out on anything. Rather than have the x1 slot, that lane could just be used for integrated wifi. I never liked the idea of paying more for a chipset on an ITX board where there are features you can't use.

I can't believe it's the same company that does this for AMD (yes, I now, expensive:D): https://i.imgur.com/iKAddqf.png I know, price, efficiency, costs, etc but still when I look at it = major depressive disorder.