NZXT has announced its AMD AM5 B650E line-up of motherboards, and in classic fashion opted to concentrate on only one aluminium-clad offering, available in either black or white. The N7 series is synonymous for a simple, clean and aesthetically pleasing design in a world of gaming centric, all-RGB offerings. This is why it blends so seamlessly with most components and motherboard chassis.
The design remains largely the same as previous generations; meaning a large, all-encompassing metal shroud in either black or white, marrying the feature-rich AMD AM5 B650E chipset and components. Interesting to note, the previous N7 B550 was created in collaboration with ASRock, and we wonder if this would also be the case.
On to specs, the motherboard features a 16+2+1-power phase design with 90A Smart Power Stage. Plenty enough to power a Ryzen 9 7950X. Alongside the socket reside four DIMM slots for up to 128GB of dual-channel DDR5 RAM with support for both XMP and AMD EXPO memory profiles.
There’s one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, two PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and a Key E M.2 socket that houses a Wi-Fi 6E card with support for Bluetooth 5.2.
For onboard storage, there are three other M.2s – one PCIe 5.0 x4, one PCIe 4.0 x4 and a single PCIe 4.0 x2, and also four SATA 6Gbps ports, totalling up to seven drives of potential high-speed storage.
Rear I/O features five analog outputs and a single S/PDIF output for audio, powered by a standard Realtek ALC1220 codec, a single HDMI output for integrated Radeon Graphics, a plethora of USB ports, a single 2.5Gb, and buttons for CMOS and BIOS flashback.
Moving on, there are two USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A. Unfortunately, you’ll have to go X670 for coveted USB 4.0 support.
On to pricing and availability, N7 B650E is currently listed as ‘coming soon’ on NZXT’s official website, with a sticker price of $349.99, which is quite the sum for a third-tier board and certainly on the high side of pricing encountered thus far.
