Sapphire Pure X870A Review
Conclusion
Conclusion
The Sapphire Pure X870A is aptly named. Some times a manufacturer branches out and tries to over-egg the pudding. Or, worse still, do little and hope brand recognition shifts enough units. Sapphire have, instead, followed the path of their Nitro and other motherboard releases. The Pure is all the motherboard you actually need. Or, perhaps, all the motherboard most people will need.
We all love a motherboard dripping with connection options, screens, seven M.2 slots, a light show worthy of a rave and a box full of cables. The reality is we don’t need much of that. So if you’re not utilising it fully, why pay for it? Why not, instead, design a motherboard which is stripped back. Clean, simple, powerful. All adjectives that can be applied to the Sapphire Pure.
The white and silver aesthetic is crisp and clean. Go back and study the pictures. There isn’t anything out of place, and what there is is neatly placed and designed. Nothing is too cramped. You feel it’s been designed with care. Sometimes the models with less on them have the feeling the designers have just removed things. If you know cars from the 20th Century you’ll be familiar with lower models having blanked off switches, that just reminded you what was missing. The Pure rearranges the connectors so it looks like they’ve always belonged there. It’s a tough trick to pull off and Sapphire deserve credit for it.
How Does It Fare?
Naturally connection options are all well and good but performance is where the buck stops. Fortunately the buck is the only thing that stops as the Sapphire makes great use of our Ryzen 9 9900X to put out some competitive scores. The BIOS is easy to use and get things set up, and you’re rewarded with all the performance you can desire. We like how relatively cool everything was too. Sometimes more affordable ones can cut corners with cooling. Not here. Excellent.
The Sapphire Pure X870A combines an attractive design with plentiful performance and all wrapped up in an attractive price point. It wins our OC3D Gamers Choice Award.
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