The boards we'd pick for a DMA card right now are X870 on AMD (AM5) and Z790 on Intel. The ones we see the most trouble with are B550 and some 850 series boards. Any board from 2020 or newer can work, this is just where problems show up the least and the most.
The boards we'd pick
On AMD it's an X870 board for AM5, and on Intel it's Z790. That's what our team tells people when they ask which board to buy for DMA. Which brands and exact models work best within those is TBD, so if you're about to buy one, post it on the support forum and we'll tell you what we think.
The ones that give trouble
B550 is the one we hear about the most. Some B550 boards work fine and some don't get on with DMA at all, which is why we call them mixed everywhere else on the site. Some 850 series boards give trouble too, and which ones exactly is TBD, so check with us before you buy one for DMA.
What every build needs
Every build needs a board from 2020 or newer. On AMD that's B550 and A520 or newer, like the 600 and 800 series, and on Intel it's the 400 series (like Z490, B460 and H410) or newer. Private and MiTM also need an Intel 11th gen or newer processor for Vanguard. How to find your motherboard and CPU generation shows how to read your chipset in a minute.
If your board doesn't work
If yours doesn't work with your build, we fix it or replace it, and in the very rare case it still doesn't work after that, we refund you, and our terms have the exact wording. To get that started, open a ticket in our Discord with your board model and what happened. If your board doesn't work with DMA at all, RDMA reads your main PC's memory over Ethernet, so there's no card to fit.
Pick the right slot too
Even on a good board, the card can drop out in a slot that shares lanes with an M.2 drive you use. Which slot to actually pick covers it, and Your Main PC has everything else your main PC needs.
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