What is the best computer motherboard with the most amount of ports for a work station?

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marcowayne

Member
Im into a high end build for video editing and i need megawatts of connectivity for external drives, peripherals and audio interfaces. I'm looking for the specific computer motherboard with the most amount of ports available till 2026. Ideally, I want something which has dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, at least, 10-12 USB ports on the rear IO as well as multiple 10GbE or 5GbE LAN ports. I've been glancing at the following two boards: ASRock Taichi and the ASUS ROG Crosshair series, but I was wondering if there are any 'hidden gems' out there of workstations boards which have even more [expansion?] What's the one record holder of the most IO of consumer/prosumer board(s) these days?
 
Should you desire the real record keeper, then you need not continue searching in consumer boards and buy ASUS Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE. It has two 10GbE LAN, USB4 (TB4-compatible) and a sufficient number of PCIe slots to add your 20 ports in case you felt like it. It is very costly, but to have as many lanes as this without a bottleneck it would not be possible otherwise with a pro video rig.
 
You are essentially ordering a personal jet when you are viewing the Taichi. The ASRock WRX90 WS Evo is the huckleberry in case you actually require the connectivity that is megawatts. It features two 10GbE and additional PCIe 5.0 slots on you will not know what to do with them. The Threadripper CPU just needs to be worth as much as a kidney to sell.
 
Frankly speaking, do you really need to insert 12 things into the back simultaneously, or you just are a USB porcupine? Simply purchase a good powered Thunderbolt dock and save one the workstation tax of 1000 dollars on the motherboard.
 
On the Intel side, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme is technically the king of IO as far as the consumer is concerned. It has the dual TB4 and 10GbE you desire as well as an insane number of M.2 slots. It is simply a work station board in a gamer track suit.
 
In case you want a “secretive treasure find the ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator WIFI. It is specially designed to target editors. It also includes the two 10GbE and 5GbE LAN that you requested as well as two USB4 / TB4 ports. It tends to be less expensive than the Crosshair series due to the lack of the RGB tax of a gaming product.
 
ASRock Z890 Taichi Aqua is a monster and it is water-cooled only. Unless you are doing a custom loop it is a very costly paperweight. However, it has great IO, but its maintenance is full-time.
 
Just a heads up, 10GbE gets HOT. Whether you use a board with two 10G ports such as the SAGE, ensure that there is real airflow over the VRM and chipset sinks otherwise your transfer rates will be limited in long renders.
 
Still on the Crosshair? The ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero is a good solid one and it has lots of ports with 10Gbps, nevertheless it is not the record holder. WRX90 boards in the workstation level are twice as fast as raw bandwidth.
 
I have been using ASRock Z890 Taichi Lite during the last one month. It has 12 USB ports at the back and two USB4. It is the most affordable "value" high IO that does not lead into the 1k and above workstation realm.
 
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