That motherboard’s M.2 slot has its own heatsink, so you shouldn’t buy an M.2 SSD with a heatsink if you plan on installing it in that slot. Instead, get the model without one: https://www.newegg.com/western-digital-2tb-black-sn850x-nvme/p/N82E16820250247?item=N82E16820250247
I actually bought the exact same one you have listed and ended up having to pry the heatsink off. My fingers were very sore afterwards.
Oof, I didn't realize. Thanks for the heads-up!! That sounds painful, and probably pretty nerve racking!
Why the Micro ATX motherboard?
I think your case will fit a full sized ATX motherboard.
In my experience, Micro is more expensive. You're paying for compactness. Plus a full size could give you more RAM and PCI slots, for future expansion.
I don't really see myself doing much upgrading, haven't changed anything in my current setup since I got it. The four DIMMs should be enough, and I can't think of any PCI devices that I would want to add in. That and looking at their other offerings yields a bunch of nausea inducing RGB and jumps way up in price. I'm not dead set on this mobo, I was looking at recommendations for manufacturers and it seemed the consensus was that ASRock was a decent pick. If there's a different option that makes more sense then I'll pivot. My current setup is a Gigabyte that has some pretty bad issues, I can't even get into the BIOS anymore.
From your mention of preferring to give AMD your money over Nvidia, I'm going to guess you've got pro-consumer principles so I don't recommend ASRock. Check this out for further details.
Very informative, thank you for sharing!
I feel like my proposed build is objectively worse. Looking for people to tell me I'm doing the right thing lol.