ASUS TUF Gaming B650E-PLUS WiFi (AM5, ATX, PCIe 5.0)

Our analysis

On paper it shares a lot with the GIGABYTE B650 EAGLE AX: AM5, ATX, four RAM slots, three M.2 slots and Wi-Fi 6E. The E in B650E is what separates them: it guarantees a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for the graphics card, which a plain B650 like the EAGLE does not, and ASUS adds 2.5 GbE against 1 GbE and a 20 Gbps rear USB-C against 5 Gbps. It is our value pick among AM5 boards, for a Ryzen gaming build where the money should go into power delivery and connectors rather than lighting.

What stands out

• Three M.2 slots, all with heatsinks. One Gen5 and two Gen4, so a fast boot drive and two game drives each get their own cooling.
• A solid power stage. A 12+2+1 layout with 80 A DrMOS, which is where we think a motherboard should spend its budget.
• Fast USB-C. A 20 Gbps port at the rear and a 10 Gbps header for the front of your case.
• BIOS FlashBack. A board from older stock can be flashed without a CPU, so a new Ryzen still boots on build day.

Where it falls short

• Wi-Fi is 6E rather than 7, and wired networking is 2.5 GbE; the MSI B850 Gaming Plus offers Wi-Fi 7 and 5 GbE.
• It has no USB4 ports of its own, only an internal header for an add-in Thunderbolt (USB4) card, while the X870 AORUS Elite has two USB4 ports at the rear.
• Four RAM slots are tempting, but our motherboard guide explains that top memory speeds are rated for two sticks, so filling all four can slow the memory down.

Look elsewhere if

You plan on three or four NVMe drives or want USB4 for an external enclosure: the GIGABYTE X870 AORUS Elite WiFi 7 brings four M.2 slots and dual USB4. If the fastest wired connection matters more to you, the MSI B850 Gaming Plus WiFi has a 5 Gbps LAN port and Wi-Fi 7.

The five checks we run before even looking at the chipset are in How to Choose a Motherboard in 2026.