B850M-X [WiFi] quick review.

terribleperson wrote: I am satisfied because I got a highly capable motherboard that met all my requirements (mainly a 4.0 x4 slot in addition to the x16) for a very low price. Even accounting for the price of an external audio solution, it was an excellent deal. I can't buy an accessory to fix an unsuitable PCIe distribution. I have since purchased a Behringer UCA222 for $19 which solves my audio issue.

Exactly. The performance of a chipset PCIe 4x4 NVMe slot was half that of an NVMe drive in an adapter plugged into the CPU PCIe 4x4 slot. (I checked it over a year ago?”maybe it's better with BIOS updates or the B850.)

You don?™t know what kind of controllers you?™ll be able to install in three years, so having PCIe 4x4 wired to the CPU is a must. I suspect running USB4 controllers through a chipset 4x4 lane is nonsense, even today.

I have better sound cards in my monitors than the onboard one.

It's crazy that people still buy ATX boards in 2025 with an inferior PCIe lane configuration and think they have more features. :)