B860 & Z890 Explained – Which Chipset for Core Ultra 200 Series?

Intel’s new B860 chipset motherboards are here, and I’m here to explain why you probably want one of these over a Z890 board instead. Intel generally offers three chipsets per generation of CPUs. The ZX90 class boards are the top end, overclockable, and most feature-rich. Then there’s the BX60, that’s the mid range, then the HX10 which are the low end boards. B860, then, is the one in the middle, the balance between budget and features. Unfortunately, unlike AMD’s chipsets which I did a video on last week – check that out in the cards above – Intel does actually segment their boards pretty hard, with the biggest limitation on the non-Z boards being a lack of overclocking support, even on the unlocked K series chips. Now they have relented a little recently, and you can now do full memory overclocking on these B860 boards, and there is a little control for the CPU too, including power limits, voltages and core ratios, but it’s definitely a more stripped-back experience compared to the Z890 boards. The main thing here though is that the CPUs that are launching alongside these chips – the non-K SKU parts – can’t be overclocked anyway, so unless you are buying a K SKU part, that’s already a point for the B series chipset – and frankly with how few people actually overclock their CPUs, even if you have a K SKU part, you’re still probably better off getting a B860 board anyway.

The majority of B860 boards – this B860-PLUS WIFI board from Asus included – have over-specced VRMs to handle not only the high end power consumption these Core Ultra 200 series chips still command, but decently higher. This TUF board – which is meant to be Asus’ mode mid to low end range – has 16 total VRM phases, which is just insane, especially on a board that can’t really overclock. I mean it has two 8 pin EPS CPU power connectors, each of which is generally happy to run a little over 300 watts. The 285K tops out at 250 watts of boost power. You’d have to be pushing the very top end chip considerably harder to exceed the need for one 8 pin, so yeah this VRM setup is overkill – and most B860 boards are similar. The VRMs are not a problem here.

Storage wise you get three total M.2 slots here – the top one connected directly to the CPU, and the lower two running via the chipset like usual. The top M.2 slot still supports PCIe Gen 5 – evidenced by the silk screen on the board telling you that should you run a Gen 5 SSD in there, it’ll disable the SATA ports, much like running Gen 4 drives in either of the lower slots will do. You even get WiFi 7 and 2.5Gb ethernet on this board, so there really isn’t that much difference. The only major difference is that the Z890 TUF board I have replaces the one 20Gbps USB C port for two Thunderbolt 4 ports. It does also have a second M.2 slot connected to the CPU for four in total. Basically if you want a little more connectivity a Z series board is for you – think workstation use – whereas your average gamer is better off with a B860 board. 

It’s worth noting the CPU compatibility here. Z890 and B860 boards are currently only compatible with Intel’s newest Core Ultra 200 series chips thanks to the almost identical but slightly different LGA 1851 socket, up from LGA 1700 for the last few generations. Much like previous generations, it’s expected that this socket and these boards will only last for one more chip launch before being end-of-life’d. That means that, with a BIOS update, these boards should support the Core Ultra 300 series chips, but are unlikely to let 400 series chips work in them. That’s in stark contrast to AMD who seems to have a pathological need to have a long service life from their boards, with support guaranteed for at least three more years, and if their AM4 track record is anything to go by, probably a couple more after that too. What this does mean though is that the older 12, 13 and 14th gen chips don’t work in these boards. You’ll need a B760 board instead if you want something like a 14400 or 14600K. 

The biggest reason to get a B860 board over a Z890 board is price. Even looking at the last generation of boards, MSI’s cheapest B760 option is almost £100 cheaper, and even model for model, the B760 Tomahawk is still £70 less than the Z790 Tomahawk, and for what? For almost everyone building a new system with these boards, there is functionally no real-world difference between these boards. Yeah the Z790 can overclock and has some more IO, but basically no-one is going to make use of all of that IO. So, why spend more? For around £100, that’s basically a free 2TB M.2 SSD, or a considerably higher end CPU, or maybe even a tier up of graphics card. You will get much more value out of any of those than a few extra unused ports on a motherboard. 

And the good news is, B860 boards are still really well equipped. This B860-PLUS WIFI has everything I’ve mentioned thus-far, the overkill VRMs, 2.5G ethernet, WiFi 7, triple M.2 slots, memory overclocking support, and even some nice features like Asus’ easy PCIe slot lock – this is a new design that I have to assume is a bit easier to manufacture and install, just being a single large plastic arm that means you can more easily unlock a GPU and slide it out, should you need to anyway. While the M.2 heatsinks still need a screwdriver to remove, every single M.2 slot has toolless M.2 slots for the drives themselves which is great – and the screws are captive in the heatsinks making is a lot less tedious than it used to be to install and remove them. It even appears to have dual BIOS chips, and the BIOS flashback button on the back meaning even if you buy a 300 series CPU when they are out, you can flash the BIOS without the CPU installed to update it to support those new chips. Pretty cool right?

So yeah, in short, don’t waste your money on a Z series motherboard. Unless you are genuinely going to overclock, or you need a workstation amount of IO, a B860 board is your best choice for a Core Ultra 200 series CPU right now. Save your money and put it somewhere more useful, like more storage or an index fund. Your choice.