After the Raptor Lake massacre, I was 100000000% ready to go AMD and then Zen 5 happened. What a clusterfuck of a disappointment.

And I'm not just talking the CPUs. I'm also talking about the delayed release of the "new" (not really) X870(E) boards. As if the delay wasn't bad enough, AMD completely fucked up the boards by enforcing USB 4.0 via CPU lanes.

Due to this genius idea by AMD, every X870(E) board has lane sharing to hell and back. It is completely ridiculous. You could gift me a X870(E) board and the only purpose I'd have for it would be to sell it on eBay. The boards are complete garbage thanks to AMD.

So, I guess I could have gone the X670E + 7800X3D route until the 9800X3D becomes available but meeeehhhhh. Buying a 2+ year old board doesn't exactly sound enticing. And the fucking 7800X3D is sold for scalper prices here in EU. You used to be able to buy them for €329 (including 19% VAT in my country) just a few months ago and now the price exploded to over €400 recently because people are currently buying 7800X3Ds instead of the lame-ass 9000 series CPUs.

I have no idea how AMD managed to fuck it up this bad. Did they receive money from Intel or something? With all the issues that Intel are facing at the moment, AMD could have hit the most epic home run in the history of home runs. They had a free penalty shot with no goalie and simply missed. There is unfathomable incompetence at work here.

Personally, I'm forced to stick with Intel against my will. I guess I have no choice but to buy an Arrow Lake system in November. At least those CPUs will be 100% made by TSMC so Intel can not fuck up too much (hopefully).

To AMD, all I have to say is: git gud ... then maybe some time in the future (Zen 6 or AM6) we shall meet again, but under the given circumstances, Zen 5 is not even an option for me. Easiest hard pass ever.