Arrow Lake and Zen 5 motherboards should be getting cheaper soon — Asus files a slew of budget Intel and AMD boards with regulators

Asus has registered over 60 motherboards at the EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission) per Harukaze at X – in preparation for CES 2025, where Intel and AMD are expected to announce budget 65W Arrow Lake and Ryzen 9000 CPUs alongside affordable motherboards for the masses. Interestingly, there’s also the mention of a new B850E chipset that AMD never formally revealed.

The latest X870 and Z890 motherboards are far out of reach of the average customer as they’re oriented towards enthusiasts. Following tradition, Intel and AMD will announce their budget CPUs and motherboards for mainstream customers at CES. As it stands, AM5 is still more affordable than LGA1851 – mainly due to the existence of last-gen 600-series motherboards. It is crucial for Intel that these budget-friendly boards hit shelves to boost LGA1851 adoption rates. On the flip side, PC builders looking to snag AMD’s latest Zen 5 processors need not worry, as Ryzen 9000 CPUs can slot into existing A620, B850, and X670 motherboards.

The EEC filing reports that Asus is prepping a large number of budget motherboards—for both AM5 and LGA1851—expected to arrive by Q1 2025. On the Intel side, we have the H810 and B860 chipsets for consumers as well as the business—and workstation-oriented Q870 and W880 chipsets.

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AMD’s end of the ring features the already-revealed B840, B850, and a mysterious B850E chipset. For context, AMD never announced a B850E chipset as the primary distinction between B650 and B650E last generation was the mandatory inclusion of an x16 PCIe Gen 5.0 slot for the GPU, but that’s now included on the base B850 this time around. This is likely a typo, or perhaps AMD is working on an “Extreme” variant with some other neat features because the “E” suffix in this list has only been mentioned on high-end ROG Strix motherboards.

As far as platform support goes, AMD’s AM5 socket will be supported into 2027 and might be compatible with Zen 6 as well. Intel hasn’t made a formal statement regarding the longevity of LGA-1851, which has left many early adopters shirked. All in all, expect official announcements from AMD and Intel at CES 2025, with supply following in the next couple of weeks.