If you’re looking for the best motherboard for the 9700X, we have you covered. The new 9000 series release was postponed by a couple of weeks as AMD looks to be better safe than sorry with some quality issues it found. That said, the Ryzen 7 9700X and 9600X have been released as the first part of the two-part release, and the 9700X is available for purchase on Amazon. So, for this processor, you’re going to need a good place to put it to function, as any old AM4 mobo won’t do anymore, and you need an AM5 option.
In the case of our recommendation, we go for an X670E motherboard, with the specific recommendation being the ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero we reviewed just recently. Especially since the new X870 release isn’t lining up with the CPU release and so you have to rely on the older hardware to match it. So here’s our top recommendation and the reason for it, along with other alternatives. In case you want to quickly order a 9700X before the bots empty the shelves, we’ve got your back.
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MSI B650M PROJECT ZERO
- Socket: AM5 (LGA1718)
- Chipset: B650
- Form Factor : Micro-ATX
- PCIe Version : PCIe Gen 4
- Memory speed : 6400MHz + OC
- Memory capacity : 128GB (4 x 32GB)
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Why the ROG Crosshair X670E
- Socket: AM5 (LGA 1718)
- Chipset: X670E
- Form Factor : ATX
- PCIe Version : PCIe Gen 5 Storage – PCIe Gen 5 GPU
- Memory speed : 6400MHz + OC
- Memory capacity : 128GB (4 x 32GB)
- High memory speed and capacity
- Robust power stages
- Extensive overclocking support
- Armory crate – everyone who uses it, dislikes it
- If you don’t have high-end hardware, this may be a waste
- Very expensive
The ROG Crosshair is a very gamer-focused bit of hardware with plenty of sharp edgy design and with plenty of RGB to shine bright in your build and LEDs showing off. This can be helpful to your build as well, thanks to the segment display and status lights that can tell you what’s going wrong with your build and make it a bit easier to troubleshoot. There are also small comfort buttons with the power button, BIOS flash, and a CMOS clear, for an easy time working with it.
It is quite a heavy option, with a metal backplate to prevent electrical shorts and accidental solder breaks, along with plenty of heatsinks on top. These are quite large overall and help with the board’s general performance, especially considering the VRMs on board and the ability to provide plenty of power. This board is the type to enable overclocking and get even more out of your system.
That is also supported by the specs and features on the board as well. Running PCIe Gen 5 for its NVMe SSD and graphics cards means getting the fastest performance out of them when possible. As there are still no mainstream GPUs to run the generation to so it is still a forward-looking mobo. As you still have DDR5 support, not much is likely to change with X870. Plus, you get plentiful USB and IO on the back with 8 A types and 4 C. There is plenty you can plug in. With the connectivity, you even have 2.5G LAN and WiFi 6E wireless for very fast speeds, even for home networking.
Crosshair X670E Hero Showing I/O and connectivity
Crosshair X670E Hero showing AMD CPU and RAM slots
Crosshair X670E Hero bottom left corner where power connectors are
Crosshair-X670E-Hero-design
The installation and ease of use are also pretty good on it. The back plate and stiffness make it difficult to mess up or hurt yourself, including not needing to install an IO shield. Then the usability is pretty nice, as the BIOS from ASUS is one of the nicer ones to utilize and makes it easy to update or set it up as you want. Then there are the extras on top with the PCIe M.2 expansion card in case you run out of space for them in the mobo itself.
Performance
In our review of the X670E, Jack showed us its capabilities. Although the 9700X wasn’t used in the review, the 7900X instead has a higher TDP to sort anyway. There we see the VRM tremps max 47°C and the temp in general stayed just hovering over 40°C. Along with having good efficiency with limited power loss, it is a good power platform.
It also has the capability of plugging in extra power cables for the CPU and PCIe, making it a fearsome machine for the top level of performance. This is the reason we’ve had it on our testing bench and make sure it allows the rest of the system to perform at its best.
Budget motherboard for the 9900X
- Socket: AM5 (LGA1718)
- Chipset: B650
- Form Factor : Micro-ATX
- PCIe Version : PCIe Gen 4
- Memory speed : 6400MHz + OC
- Memory capacity : 128GB (4 x 32GB)
- Good value for money
- Looks good, really like the white
- Thermal armour keeps VRMs cool
- Slight performance loss vs X670E
- Micro-ATX, so only 1 PCIe slot
The MSI B650M PROJECT ZERO is a budget motherboard, but it still has everything you’ll need to get the best performance out of the Ryzen 7 9700X. We thoroughly tested this motherboard in our MSI B650M PROJECT ZERO review and were pleased with its features.
A neat or not-so-neat aspect of this motherboard is that all of the connections are at the back. While that does result in a very clean and aesthetic build, it also makes the installation more challenging, but if you’re into minimalistic builds, the struggle will be worth it.
This is also a micro-ATX motherboard, meaning it is smaller than the usual ATX motherboard, which normally means fewer PCIe and RAM slots. That said, the MSI B650 PROJECT ZERO has 4 RAM slots that can accommodate 4 sticks of DDR5 RAM that can be overclocked to 7600 MHz.
Performance
We brought in the Ryzen 9 7900X, which we’ve also reviewed, to check its performance and efficiency. After running Blender, Cinebench, and Geekbench, we saw a loss of 4.73W, which might seem like it isn’t a lot, but when you’re losing 4.73W per second, it adds up to a lot of energy being wasted as you’re not using it.
As for its temperature, the VRMs reached 54°C while the motherboard hovered around 53.5°C. These numbers are totally normal but might be higher or lower for you, depending on where you’re located. For example, if you’re located in a region where the ambient temperature is high, the base temperature of all your components will be high, and that means they’ll reach the peak temperature faster compared to if you were located in a cold region. So, to keep your PC cool, ensure there is plenty of cross ventilation and we recommend using the best 140mm case fans to achieve that.
Overall, this is a great motherboard that should be an excellent match for the mid-range Ryzen 7 9700X and it doesn’t even cost a lot as compared to the X670 variants.
Final word
Overall, the ROG X670E Crosshair Hero is the top pick for the AM5 platform. It unlocks all the features you may want from it, with some of the latest and future options able to run on it and thrive on it. But that comes at a cost of course, and it’s not the cheapest motherboard to go for if you want to pair up the 9700X and if you look to overclock and get the most out of your hardware. Especially in our hands-on testing, it has been a top pick. But if it’s not quite for you, there are some other options below that you might find useful instead.
