Asus TUF Gaming B860M-Plus WiFi review

pcgamer.com:

Up to now, anyone wanting to build a new gaming PC with an Intel Core Ultra 200S processor has been forced to choose a Z890 motherboard, and the cheapest of those is only just under $300. Intel's new B860 motherboard chipset, aimed at the mainstream market, is supposed to address this by offering fewer features but at a lower price tag. The Asus TUF Gaming B860M-Plus WiFi retails around $210 so is it worth considering?

To answer that question we first need an understanding of what the fundamental differences between the two chipsets are, so let's break it down into what each one is capable of supporting.

Even just a cursory glance at this table shows that the B860 is a far less capable chipset compared to the Z890 but it's not really any different to how it was with previous generations. Considering that AMD allows CPU overclocking with its B850 chipset (and yes, the names are all far too similar), the fact that Intel is still sticking with memory-only overclocking with the B860 is very anachronistic.

While the B860 chipset doesn't support USB4, there's nothing to stop a motherboard vendor from adding such a feature to a mid-range model. However, to do so, four PCIe lanes out of the supported 14 would be required for 40 Gbps, so it's unlikely that you'll see many B860 motherboards sporting USB4, if any.

Socket: Intel LGA1851
Chipset: Intel Z890
CPU compatibility: Intel Core Ultra 200S desktop
Form factor: microATX
Memory support: DDR5-4800 to DDR5-8800+ (OC), up to 256 GB, CUDIMM supported
Storage: 3x M.2, 4x SATA
USB (rear): 1x USB 3.2 Type-C 20 Gbps, 2x USB 3.1 Type-A 10 Gbps, 4x USB 3.0 Type-A 5 Gbps, 1x USB 2.0
Display: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x DisplayPort-via-USB
Networking: Realtek 2.5 Gbps LAN, Wi-Fi 7
Audio: Realtek 7.1
Price: $210 | £289 | AU$570

In the case of the Asus TUF Gaming B860M-Plus WiFi, eight of the 14 PCIe 4.0 lanes are used for two of the M.2 slots (the primary M.2 slot is a CPU PCIe 5.0 connection), which leaves just six lanes for