Intel Arrow Lake and AMD Ryzen 9000 motherboards listed from Maxsun — 31 products named, across five unannounced chipsets, all with 800-series branding

MaxSun Mini-ITX Motherboard
(Image credit: MaxSun)

MaxSun, one the lesser-known motherboard manufacturers (at least in the U.S.), published an entire list of new motherboard names to the Eurasian Economic Union, including a plethora of board models sporting Intel's upcoming 800-series chipset nomenclature — there are also some B850 and B840, though it's not entirely clear if those are both for AMD or not. (Spotted by harukaze5719 on X) These new model names are inevitably destined for MaxSun's upcoming LGA1851 motherboards supporting Arrow Lake-S processors, as well as new AMD 800-series boards for Zen 5 processors.

Model names published to the EEU are not guaranteed to be used in production models, so take this information with some salt. Nevertheless, there's a high chance that some or even all of the model names seen in MaxSun's EEU listing will be used in real motherboard SKUs.

MaxSun published a total of 31 800-series motherboard model names to the EEU, consisting of seven Z890 motherboard model names, a whopping thirteen B860 model names, four B850 model names, and a single B840 model name. There were five H810 model names, too.

Based on the names themselves, we can get a pretty good idea of each motherboard's capabilities. Out of the seven Z890 motherboard models, three appear to be flagship ATX models featuring MaxSun's iCraft nomenclature: the Vertex, Arctic, and Pacific. The last Z890 board on the list is the iCraft Z890 ITX, which is a Mini-ITX variant aimed at small form factor builds. An apparent mid-range Z890-A Terminator was also unveiled, as well as two lower-end Micro-ATX Z890 boards in the form of the ESport Z890M WiFi and the Challenger Z890M WiFi.

Most of the B860 boards appear to be Micro-ATX variants with only two being ATX boards, and two more being Mini-ITX. There's a wide range of model names in MaxSun's B860 lineup, including a single iCraft flagship model, three ESport versions, four Terminator models, five Challenger models, and a single Milestone variant. The rest of the lineup consists of mid-range/entry-level boards in Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX flavors.

Where things get interesting / confusing is in MaxSun's B850 and B840 chipset boards. The B850 will likely be the mainstream version for AMD's Zen 5 Ryzen 9000 CPUs for socket AM5, but B840... that one could be either AMD or Intel. Either way, that's a new tweak to the existing lineups — Intel currently has Z790, B760, and H770 chipsets for 14th Gen Raptor Lake (Refresh) CPUs. AMD has X670E, X670, B650E, B650, and A620 chipsets for Zen 4 socket AM5 CPUs. So where does B840 land? We're not sure, but one of the two brands will apparently be adding another chipset (at least).

Or it's possible (though unlikely) that all of these are Intel motherboards and it will expand it's chipset offerings with two additional B-class variants. Stranger things have happened. It's almost like nobody took the time to say, "Hey, having the same 800-series for our chipsets as our competitor is going to cause confusion." Why didn't AMD just go with Ryzen 8000-series CPUs and 7000-series? The world may never know.

Again, take this information with a grain of salt. For all we know, some of MaxSun's motherboard names might never be used for a shipping product, and that goes for the new chipset model names, too. We'll have to wait for an official Intel announcement to confirm its full 800-series chipset lineup, and likewise for AMD and its overlapping 800-series chipsets.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • ""Intel Arrow Lake-S 800-series motherboard lineup from MaxSun listed — new B850 and B840 chipset models target the budget sector
    The most interesting tidbit in MaxSun's lineup is the addition of the B850 and B840 chipset model names, alongside the B860 models. If these new chipsets pan out, Intel will have a whopping three B-series chipsets, nearly doubling Intel's chipset lineup for its next-generation CPUs.

    The most mysterious chipset of the bunch is B840. Intel has never had more than four chipsets in the past, so it'll be very interesting to see what this extra B series entry will bring to the table""

    Intel could have five new chipsets for LGA 1851, with three being B-series variants.

    Excuse me, what ? Those B850 and B840 motherboards are AMD chipsets for sure in my opinion. AMD is already switching to the 800 series nomenclature as well.

    For INTEL we have these :: Z890 / B860 / H810 chipsets, based on the LGA 1851 socket. So only 3 chipsets for now, not 5.

    Highly "unlikely" for INTEL to use the B850 branding.
    Reply
  • So, it's highly probable that the B850 and B840 motherboards are AMD chipsets, IMO.

    AMD B850 motherboards should be the follow-up to the B650 series while the B840 might just be a more cost-effective option. One more theory has popped up recently:

    Gossip in the AIB board forums point out that AMD is planning to drop the Extreme or E suffix from the mobo branding.

    There is a possibility that instead of using the "E" Extreme tag, AMD might just use something like X870 for the high-end, and B850 and B840 for the mid-tier segment.

    But the AMD B840M appears to be a new chipset.

    This could either be a typo, and/or some new chipset which we either don't know about. Hence the above theory and speculation has been under scrutiny, as some think AMD might drop the E suffix, and instead will release two chipsets instead, like B850 and B840.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    Metal Messiah. said:
    So, it's highly probable that the B850 and B840 motherboards are AMD chipsets, IMO.

    AMD B850 motherboards should be the follow-up to the B650 series while the B840 might just be a more cost-effective option. One more theory has popped up recently:

    Gossip in the AIB board forums point out that AMD is planning to drop the Extreme or E suffix from the mobo branding.

    There is a possibility that instead of using the "E" Extreme tag, AMD might just use something like X870 for the high-end, and B850 and B840 for the mid-tier segment.

    But the AMD B840M appears to be a new chipset.

    This could either be a typo, and/or some new chipset which we either don't know about. Hence the above theory and speculation has been under scrutiny, as some think AMD might drop the E suffix, and instead will release two chipsets instead, like B850 and B840.
    I've edited the article and headline. There's definitely something odd going on. I do wish AMD would have avoided the generation skip in branding, but that ship has apparently sailed.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU said:
    I've edited the article and headline. There's definitely something odd going on. I do wish AMD would have avoided the generation skip in branding, but that ship has apparently sailed.

    Thanks for the correction, jarred !

    Anyway, it may seem a bit odd at first, but if we go by AMD's nomenclature the B650 series would definitely have been succeeded by either B750, or 850 as in this case.

    Makes little sense for Intel to go for an Bx50-SKU mobo, if they already have an Bx60-class mobo chipset naming convention as used before ? But hey, I can't say for sure what Intel's marketing department plans to do next though, lol !

    B65B360
    B460
    B560
    B660

    So, let's wait and see how all this pans out. :)
    Reply
  • Yes.

    And since the B650E AORUS PRO X USB4 which was also recently showcased as a demo SKU having most of the 800-series chipset features, it further confirms that AMD is indeed using the B850 nomenclature.

    The details for Gigabyte's B650E AORUS PRO X USB4 matches the specifications of the upcoming AMD 800-series motherboards, and it is also the first AMD motherboard to feature the USB4 platform.

    It is AMD Ryzen "Granite Ridge" ready as claimed by Benchlife.

    https://benchlife.info/gigabyte-b650e-aorus-pro-x-usb4-motherboard-for-ryzen-9000-series/
    https://benchlife.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/b650e-aorus-pro-x-usb4_1.jpg
    Reply
  • thestryker
    I'm mostly curious what AMD is actually adding with these chipsets given that their X/B chipsets were already the same with just the second chipset in the case of the X. The only things I can really think of off the top of my head would be perhaps changing from the dual chipset configuration and adding USB4/WiFi7.

    On the Intel side of things Z690, H670, W680, Z790, W790 and H770 are all the same chipset just configured slightly differently so it'll be interesting to see if the ARL+ chipset is actually different.
    Reply
  • Guardians Bane
    Metal Messiah. said:
    Excuse me, what ? Those B850 and B840 motherboards are AMD chipsets for sure in my opinion. AMD is already switching to the 800 series nomenclature as well.

    For INTEL we have these :: Z890 / B860 / H810 chipsets, based on the LGA 1851 socket. So only 3 chipsets for now, not 5.

    Highly "unlikely" for INTEL to use the B850 branding.
    Dude.... Dig your handle!!!

    \m/
    Reply
  • I think the new B840 chipset could just be a trimmed down version of the current B550 chipset.

    And the AMD A620A chipset mobos based on the Promontory 19 silicon, were also just a rebadged B550 chipset. So the 840 might follow a similar route.
    Reply
  • TechyIT223
    Also unlike Intel, I hope these AMD boards are also backwards compatible with previous gen ryzen chips though
    Reply
  • AMD has already confirmed that it would support the AM5 socket until at least 2025.

    So no doubt some of these new motherboards will support previous generation of Ryzen 7000 series and other chips as well, albeit with a BIOS update/support.

    And, all current socket AM5 motherboards will also support the new Ryzen 9000-series processors when they're released, of course after a BIOS update, depending on the make/model of the mobo (including the release date/revision).
    Reply