AOOSTAR has set the tone in this budding MoTD market by unleashing the first set of motherboards to feature AMD's powerful new CPUs the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D and 9955HX "Zen 5". These M-ATX boards bring enthusiast-grade mobile processors to the desktop, serving as a compelling price-performance option for builders.
High-End 'Zen 5' CPUs Bloated on a Desktop Board
The AMD Zen 5 CPU pre-installed massively draws your interest to these motherboards. Both chips are designed for high-performance laptops but are now available in this format for desktops.
- CPU Models: AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX and the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D with 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache.
- Core Architecture: 16 "Zen 5" cores and 32 threads.
- Clock Speeds: Up to 5.4 GHz.
- Cache: The standard 9955HX has 64 MB of L3 cache, while the 9955HX3D doubles that with an additional 64 MB of 3D V-Cache for an enormous total of 128 MB.
- TDP: By default, this is 55W maximum but can be configured to operate up to 75W.
Specifications of the AOOSTAR motherboard
The motherboard itself carries some modern features to support the powerful CPU:
- Power Delivery: 10-phase VRM design with dedicated heatsinks;
- Expansion Slots: One full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for GPUs and an additional PCIe 4.0 x1 slot;
- Storage: Two Gen5 x4 M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs (with heatsinks) along with two SATA III ports;
- Memory: Two DDR5 UDIMM slots supporting up to 128GB total capacity;
- CPU Cooling: The CPU has a vapor-chamber baseplate, while the board is equipped with standard AM5 retention, broadening the compatibility with many coolers;
- Connectivity: It is supposed to be powered with 8-pin connector; I/O is supposed to have 7.1 channel audio and various USB ports.
Pricing and Value Proposition
AOOSTAR prices the MoTD boards as a great value. The combo of the board and CPU is exceedingly competitive against the desktop CPUs by themselves.
- AOOSTAR Ryzen 9 9955HX3D MoTD Board: $649 US (~4799 RMB)
- AOOSTAR Ryzen 9 9955HX MoTD Board: ~$499 US (~3799 RMB)
The 9955HX3D MoTD combo sells for about $50 less than the desktop Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU by itself for context. The standard 9955HX version for $100 less has specs virtually identical to the desktop 9950X, making these very attractive considerations for performance-based builds.
Availability
AOOSTAR looks to share more details about the upcoming sales of the motherboards. With this release, AOOSTAR also gets ahead of competitors like Minisforum, which had previously teased a similar MoTD product.
