What is a chipset?
The motherboard chipset is a collection of components and circuits on the motherboard whose purpose is to connect the CPU to and of the components and peripherals attached to the motherboard, to allow all of these components to communicate with each other.
What are the differences between chipsets?
Chipsets can have many differences, some of the main points would be how many USB ports along with what standard/speed they would run at, how many and what generation of PCIe slots available at specific generations, SATA port availability, as well as how many M.2 slots and what PCIe generation they run at. Some chipsets will also have a different amount of PCIe lanes, affecting how many components you can add. Another major difference is overclocking support, some chipsets don’t support CPU overclocking at all. The chipset will also determine processor compatibility along with the socket. Some CPUs may require a BIOS update to be compatible as most manufacturers currently support a socket for more than one generation. One of the biggest differences right now between many current generation motherboards is to what extent they support PCIe 5.0 devices.
Despite the chipset supporting a specific function or version of a feature, it doesn’t necessarily mean the motherboard manufacturer will build the motherboard with all of the available features though. So, it is best to check the specific motherboard page for what features have been implemented to see if they fit your needs in your custom desktop, although generally there are baseline features for each chipset that have to be implemented for the manufacturers to even label the motherboard with that specific chipset.
Examples of some differences on modern chipsets
Some examples of modern chipsets are AMD’s original chipsets for the AM5 platform, B650, B650E, X670, and X670E. All of these chipsets have the potential to have a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot, but only B650E and X670E can have a standard PCIe 5.0 x16 slot. Then between the B650 and X670 chipsets the main difference is X670 has almost double potential USB ports. Both chipsets are also AMD’s first to offer DDR5 memory support.
What Chipset do I need?
Personally, in my own gaming PC I have the Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX V2. Gigabyte offers a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot on this motherboard, which while I don’t have a drive that can utilize those PCIe lanes currently, having the option in the future will be nice. This PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot is not required for B650 motherboards however, it is an optional requirement that Gigabyte implemented for this model. The previous model didn’t support a PCIe 5.0 M.2 actually. It’s all large upgrade from what I had previously, the Gigabyte GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI, which only had PCIe 3.0 support for both the M.2 slot and PCIe slot. It was also a move from DDR4 memory to DDR5.
In the end though, the chipset choice is going to depend on what you want out of your custom computer. Balancing between what performance you need and the cost of what each chipset offers on various motherboards. If you have any questions or confusion about what chipset may be best suited for your needs, feel free to reach out to our sales team with any questions you may have regarding configuring your next PC.