An interesting report out today from Wccftech that ASUS’ B560 motherboards, targeted for Intel 10th and 11th Gen CPUs, is lacking a PCIe switch. This all important switch is typically used to switch PCIe lanes based upon what is populated in the system. These chips are what allow for additional M.2 slots in place of other PCIe expansion slots if you choose to populate the M.2. Well, without this switch the 10th Gen CPUs will always be down one M.2 slot. Something to consider if you’re in the market for one of these B560 motherboards.
On ASUS B560 motherboards, there is no M.2 switch to connect the slot to either CPU or PCH so the first slot is only available for use when running an Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPU. With 10th Gen CPUs, the first slot (which features a heatsink) will be disabled. Now including a PCIe switch does raise the cost but considering that ASUS asks a higher premium than other brands, there’s no reason as to why they shouldn’t provide this support when other manufacturers are doing so on cost-effective options. Only one entry-level B560 motherboard from ASUS has M.2 PCIe switches while the more expensive PRIME, TUF & ROG variants don’t feature it at all.
