We are literally just hours away from the official launch of the most eagerly anticipated processor series in quite a while – yes, of course, I’m referring to AMD’s Ryzen series. The new Ryzen 7 series processors have already caused quite a storm, promising performance that is more or less equal to most of Intel’s HEDT series chips while retailing for a faction of the price. If Amazon pre-orders are anything to go by, Ryzen should fly off the shelves and become an instant hit with PC building enthusiasts around the world.

However, as well as being in the market for a new AMD processor, early adopters will also need to make a big decision regarding what AM4 platform motherboard to opt for. To clarify things from an ASUS perspective Geoff Gasior has put together a comprehensive AM4 motherboard guide for the Edge Up ASUS website. Geoff covers each of ASUS’ AM4 boards in detail, exploring he chipsets, features and price points involved for each:

Meet the AM4 motherboard platform

“Ryzen has everything you’d expect: lots of powerful CPU cores, a dual-channel DDR4 memory controller, and 16 PCI Express 3.0 lanes for graphics. But it also boasts expanded I/O in the form of integrated USB and storage controllers, including a quad-lane interface for NVMe SSDs. Bringing this connectivity into the processor puts devices in the center of the action—and frees them from sharing interconnect bandwidth with everything tied to the chipset.

“The AM4 family shares a selection of chipset sidekicks that act as I/O hubs. These “south-bridge” components all have native USB 3.1 connectivity capable of hitting speeds up to 10Gbps; SATA ports that can be configured in RAID for added performance, redundancy, or both; and PCIe 2.0 lanes for slots and devices with lower bandwidth requirements. Bandwidth to the processor is more important, so the chipsets are linked to the CPU with a speedy four-lane PCIe 3.0 interconnect.

Catch the full and very detailed ASUS AM4 motherboard article here on the Edge Up ASUS website. Chime in with your thoughts in the forum link below and tell us which ASUS AM4 board has caught your eye.