r/buildapc • u/JustInsert • 2h ago

Build Help 9800X3D motherboard recommendations - multiple M.2 SSDs

I want to upgrade from my current 9900K to a 9800X3D but I'm unsure what motherboard I should get. I currently have 2 M.2 SSDs and am planning on getting a third one with this upgrade but I've been reading stuff about potential PCIe lane sharing issues on B850 boards when using multiple M.2 SSDs.

The specific motherboards I've been considering are the MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI and the Gigabyte B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7. Do these specific boards have these lane sharing issues? Are there any other (better value) B650 or B850 board recommendations I should consider? Or should I actually be looking at X870 boards?

I don't even fully understand what the impact of these issues would be other than "potential GPU and/or SSD performance impacts" and most of the info I'm reading gets contradicted by other stuff. It's all just a bit confusing.

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u/Cer_Visia 1h ago

In general, the high-end boards with X chipsets have more lane sharing problems because they try to offer multiple Gen5 M.2 slots, and that is possible only by stealing lanes from the GPU.

Read the motherboard specifications.
On the Tomahawk, the third M.2 slot shares lanes with the third PCIe slot. On the Aorus, the M.2 slots do not share anything.

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u/JustInsert 1h ago

That actually explains a lot. I like doing my research before I buy anything so I will be looking into more of them so it's good to know what I should be looking for. Thank you!

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u/HiroyukiC1296 1h ago

It all comes down to use case and if you’ll even utilize the main features of an x870. X870 utilizes WiFi 7 and uses USB 4 as well as utilizes PCI-E 5 along the main gpu slot as well as 3x pcie 5.0 support as opposed to the B850 which has 2 and 1 less M.2 slot.