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. :)

ATF wrote: Also, how do I boot an old Windows install that's on a SSD with a MBR partition table? I've enabled CSM but the screen basically stays blank after the BIOS message.

Hard to tell if it is stalls at bios or os boot.

I would recommend converting to GPT and/or migrating this install to VM.

Edited by M440 - 28 minutes ago at 3:47am

ATF wrote: It's not that old, it's my regular W10 install from the old system. I'd rather not re-install Windows / all apps, though I'm aware it's recommended.

you don't have to install, in either suggestion i gave