MSI X870E Tomahawk or ASRock X870E Taich Lite for 9800X3D

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I'm looking for a board for a 9800X3D build and am torn between these two boards. There is £100 between them, but they look to have alrgely similar specs. Any thoughts or reccomendations would be appreciated.
 
From a quick look, the Taichi Lite does not have an Ez-Release mechanism for the top PCIe slot. Are you going to be using an air cooler? Because if so, getting the GPU out once it's in is going to be problematic.
 
From a quick look, the Taichi Lite does not have an Ez-Release mechanism for the top PCIe slot. Are you going to be using an air cooler? Because if so, getting the GPU out once it's in is going to be problematic.
I'll be water cooling on my current loop, so won't be a problem there.

I'm erring towards the MSI at the moment, just can't see what the extra £100 is giving me.
 
I'll be water cooling on my current loop, so won't be a problem there.

Nice!

I'm erring towards the MSI at the moment, just can't see what the extra £100 is giving me.

It looks like the extra £100 goes towards an LED readout for BIOS/Boot instead of 4 x coloured LEDs and 1 more PCIe Gen 5 slot instead Gen 4. You're right, that's a HUGE markup there for not a lot more. It's not even like the Asus Proart going to £499, as that one has onboard 10g, and all the same bells and whistles at least (and their version of Ez-Release).
 
X870E Nova does come in stock occasionally at different retailers, you just have to keep an eye out for them. I managed to snag one over Xmas in the UK whilst away for the holidays. It went out of stock after a couple of hours so you have to be quick.
 
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The Tomahawk is x870 not x870E

I opted for it because the PCIE lanes were the best for my needs - basically you can have 1x PCIE Gen 5 GPU and two PCIE gen 5 m.2 drives without sacrificing lanes.

Oh and it has proper full bandwidth WiFi 7, which the AsRock doesn't.
 
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