B650e or x870

[FireflySparkles]

Hi,

I'm gathering parts to build a gaming PC. 

I am using an R7 9700x CPU. I'm a bit confused on what motherboard to get. A lot of online posts suggest just a b650 board would be fine, but ideally I'd like a board which would be future proof. 

I'm looking at:

Asus Rog Strix B650e-F (or -E) Gaming WiFi 

Asus TUF x870 Gaming Plus WiFi 

I will be using 2 Samsung 990 Pro Nvme drives. One for Os (1TB) and the other for games (2TB). 

I've been looking at loads of information online and some say with the x870 board I listed above, using drives in specific slots cause the PCIE 5.0 slot to run at x8, and I also don't understand the whole CPU and chipset way of connecting the nvmes drives. 

Please forgive my lack of knowledge, but hence why I've joined and would like opinions on whether to go for the b650e -F/E board or the x870. And if someone could explain what the differences would be when using 2 nvmes and whether there is any detriment or if they would run slower or cause other components to run slower if put in certain slots etc.

Thanks...

(Also, please forgive me if I've put this in the wrong section and feel free to move it)

[FireflySparkles]

Thank you. For some reason the b850 I'm looking at that nemen recommended is cheaper than x670e-F. So I may go with that. 

[Draugrs]

I just built a new system using the AMD 9950x3d with ASUS ROG Strix X870E-E WiFi. I chose this board since I could utilize the first M2 slot with a PCIe Gen 5 NVMe and the 4th and 5th slots with PCIe Gen 4 NVMes. This allowed me to go with the Samsung 9100 2TB Gen 5 with two Samsung 990 Pro 4TB Gen 4. It maintains the GPU at 16x instead of 8x with this setup. This will definitely future proof me for at least 5 to 6 years. So far, the board works perfectly as is expected with ASUS boards. 

[FireflySparkles]

Great! Glad it works for you.

The worry for me is not being able to use both M2 5.0 slots without causing detriment to the GPU slot.

[Draugrs]

Unfortunately, using slot 2 and 3 with a M2 5 will cause the 16x to 8x on GPU. Honestly, slot 1 with a M2 5 and then using slot 4 and 5 with fast M2 4 you will not notice a difference to be honest at least I have yet to notice anything.  

[FireflySparkles]

Thanks for clarifying! Helps a lot.

[nemen]

every board is different, some use the lanes from the usb4 port. a youtube video or 2 will help to clarify which lanes are affected. or you could read it in the boards pdf manual. or you could just guess lol. id prefer not to guess