Two European retailers on Wednesday listed ASRock’s family of motherboards based on AMD’s X670E chipset and designed for the upcoming Ryzen 7000-series processors(opens in new tab). However, unlike all AMD X670E-powered mainboards we have encountered, some of ASRock’s X670E platforms are not prohibitively expensive, according to two retailers.
For AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors in AM5(opens in new tab) packaging, ASRock will offer five motherboards based on AMD’s X670 Extreme chipset and, for now, will not offer any vanilla X670 platforms, as the company revealed in early August(opens in new tab). Instead, the family includes two dreadnoughts, X670E Taichi Carrara and X670E Taichi mainboards aimed at devoted enthusiasts and overclockers without budget limitations, and X670E Steel Legend, X670E Pro RS, and X670E PG Lightning for everyone else.
Indeed, ASRock’s flagship X670E Taichi Carrara and X670E Taichi mainboards are the most expensive in the company’s family as they cost €693 ($578 without VAT) and €661 ($550 without VAT) in France, according to a screenshot published by @momomo_us(opens in new tab), a hardware leaker with an excellent track record. Admittedly, over half a thousand dollars is still quite a lot for a motherboard, but it is considerably cheaper than the $1300 ~ $1500 range we have seen with X670E mainboards from Asus(opens in new tab) and MSI(opens in new tab).
Perhaps more important is that ASRock’s cheapest X670E PG Lightning will cost €334 ($278 without VAT) in France and £311.62 ($298 without VAT) in the U.K., which is a range for AMD X670-based platforms from Asus and MSI. Other family members will also not be too expensive by today’s standards: the X670E Pro RS will cost approximately €373 ($311 without VAT), and the X670E Steel Legend will retail for about €412 ($343 without VAT).
We summarized the data in the following table:
| French Price | French Price without VAT | U.K. Price | U.K. Price without VAT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X670E Taichi Carrara | €693 | $578 | £647 | $618 |
| X670E Taichi | €661 | $550 | £617 | $589 |
| X670E Steel Legend | €373 | $343 | £385 | $368 |
| X670E Pro RS | €412 | $311 | £290 | $331 |
| X670E PG Lightning | €334 | $278 | £312 | $298 |
It is hard to say why ASRock’s X670E motherboards are considerably cheaper than mainboards based on the same chipset from other vendors. Some 20 years ago — ASRock was a maker of budget motherboards. Still, in recent years the company has become a supplier of relatively high-end products aiming demanding gamers and overclockers.
Formally, ASRock’s flagship X670E platform will be its Aqua-badged product designed for enthusiasts with custom liquid cooling systems, and this one could approach the $1000 range. Meanwhile, ASRock’s X670E PG Lightning is entering vanilla X670 territory with its sub-$300 price. Assuming that prices are correct, it looks like not all premium AM5 motherboards will carry a ridiculously high price tag.
With the availability date of AMD’s new platforms coming closer, more retailers will begin to list motherboards based on AMD’s X670 and X670 Extreme chipsets. However, we yet have to see the prices of AM5 motherboards from Biostar and Gigabyte.
Source: tomshardware