Obtaining recommendations for Building a new rig.

[acertey]

finally lay my hands on a powercolour hellhound RX 6700 XT. Motherboard wise a bit of headache, having a really tough choice. I am aiming for a 5600X processor, saw a few B550 motherboard:

Asus TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WIFI) -$274
Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (WI-FI) - $328
ASUS Tuf Gaming X570 Pro WiFi - $350
Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (WIFI) - $346
Asus TUF Gaming B550-M-ZAKU Wifi - $347

i was leaning towards the Asus TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WIFI), due to the budget price. I am planning to use a fractal design meshify C case. Any thoughts?

 

[NightRaven49]

$300 for a mobo isnt really that budget, is it?
anyway, since ur just using a 5600x, i dont think u should sweat so much over the mobo, neither should u spend so much. i would recommend the msi b550 a-pro, just $220 at tradepac. in fact, id argue that getting a good quality b450 board will suffice with a bios flash.

 

[tigerwoods]

for 5600x, Asus TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WIFI) -$274 is good enuff

 

[acertey]

great, and can i check with you guys for other parts do you get from Amazon?

Was wondering if for the samsung evo 980 500 gb local vs amazon warranty

 

[midlusionz]

great, and can i check with you guys for other parts do you get from Amazon?

Was wondering if for the samsung evo 980 500 gb local vs amazon warranty

usually i store power till got sales on amazon then buy.

 

[acertey]

Finally did it, will be playing with it later. Thanks bros for the help rendered.

 

[soltrdc]

Gonna risk stepping on a few toes here but sorry I don't agree with the rationale of "B550 is good enough for 5600X".

Motherboard is about features. Saying a cheap motherboard goes with a cheap processor is missing the point. All Zen 3 chips offer the same features. The only difference between R5/7/9 is number of cores, number of chiplet dies (doesn't matter below R9) and TDP. All these have little to do with motherboard unless you are building a system purely for pushing limits. I daresay even a A520 board will run the 5900X just fine out of the box.

Now to the motherboard. 一分钱一分货, you get what you pay for. And pay for what you need, otherwise you will end up paying more in the future. One very simple example: many low end boards offer only wireless AC while most mid-end and above today offer wireless AX. You can get AC today but one day when you want to upgrade to AX, it's an extra $30 - $45. Then so many other things:

- how many PCIe lanes does it have and at what bandwidth? Nowadays with M.2 SSD becoming more common, this is becoming more important. PCIe lanes are shared with SATA and GPU also
- what kind/how many internal I/O headers does it have? E.g. USB 3.0, USB type-C
- how many fan headers does it have? It can mean the difference between buying additional fan splitters/hub, which will set you back anywhere between $10 - $50 all in.
- what kind of on board cooling does it have? E.g. VRM, M.2, etc
- what rear panel I/O does it have?
- does it have clear CMOS/BIOS flashback button? You may think this is nothing but it can mean the difference between saving your ass and bringing the board in for servicing when some settings go awry
- what onboard networking/audio chipset does it have?
- do you like the BIOS?
- what accessories does it have? E.g. some have cheapo antenna (I'm looking at Asus) while others have better build quality (Gigabyte is good)
- what are the placement of the ports? Is it going to be a problem for installation in your choice of casing?
- is it compatible with your choice of CPU cooler? Some boards have non-standard backplates or components on the back side that interfere with 3rd party installation bracket.
- etc etc etc

The CPU is just the engine of the car, so to speak. The car is a lot more than just the engine. As I mentioned in the Ryzen 5000 thread, not all mobo are created equal, even with the same chipset. Why does AsRock make two B550 boards for example (M vs. Phantom Gaming) So yeah it's really too superficial to say "cheap CPU get cheap mobo". After all, apart from core count and TDP, the 5600X also offers everything that the 5950X does. You save a couple $100 now, but after you upgrade here and there, add this add that, may end up spending even more than getting a good mobo from the start. If you have already chosen the mobo, then this is a done deal but for those who are still shopping, do give more consideration.

 

[NightRaven49]

im gonna be frank and say ur post was pretty confusing to read, since ur initial premise appeared to be about choosing the right type of mobo for the cpu but then largely argued about mobo features, so the conclusion didnt do anything to address ur opening statement. i do agree that there is a lower bound on what u should be spending on ur mobo since spending more on quality now outweighs having to buy extra parts (or even a new mobo) in the future should there be issues arising from having a cheaper mobo.

 

[soltrdc]

im gonna be frank and say ur post was pretty confusing to read, since ur initial premise appeared to be about choosing the right type of mobo for the cpu but then largely argued about mobo features, so the conclusion didnt do anything to address ur opening statement. i do agree that there is a lower bound on what u should be spending on ur mobo since spending more on quality now outweighs having to buy extra parts (or even a new mobo) in the future should there be issues arising from having a cheaper mobo.

That's my point. One should choose a mobo based on the features it offers, instead of "matching with CPU", because how does it even match? Just because a CPU has less cores/speed doesn't mean the user won't benefit from the additional features of a higher end mobo. When comparing Zen 3 with Zen 3, there is nothing about the 5600X that will limit it's potential when paired with a high end mobo, as compared to a 5950X. On the other angle, there's also no features on the high end mobo that will be limited just by putting a 5600X instead of a more expensive chip. 5950X offers 10 more cores and higher clock speed, that's all. It doesn't offer additional features over the 5600X, so concluding that a better mobo is unsuitable for the 5600X based on price of CPU doesn't make much sense. If the mobo has features you want, even a $1000 one is worth it to pair with the 5600X.

 

[Yongkit]

my experience for DIY setup for mobo features with "Clr CMOS button" / "BIOS Flashback" / "start button" / "reset button" / "Q-code" ready on the mobo save me lots of time when i play with CPU & RAM OC.

most of time i can self-troubleshoot

 

[NightRaven49]

That's my point. One should choose a mobo based on the features it offers, instead of "matching with CPU", because how does it even match? Just because a CPU has less cores/speed doesn't mean the user won't benefit from the additional features of a higher end mobo. When comparing Zen 3 with Zen 3, there is nothing about the 5600X that will limit it's potential when paired with a high end mobo, as compared to a 5950X. On the other angle, there's also no features on the high end mobo that will be limited just by putting a 5600X instead of a more expensive chip. 5950X offers 10 more cores and higher clock speed, that's all. It doesn't offer additional features over the 5600X, so concluding that a better mobo is unsuitable for the 5600X based on price of CPU doesn't make much sense. If the mobo has features you want, even a $1000 one is worth it to pair with the 5600X.

when i recommend mobos, i generally look more at budget than at the cpu in qn. cos most of the time, ppl who get the lower tier cpu generally want to provision more budget on say the gpu, and therefore will generally skimp on the mobo as well. and for most ppl, mobo features isnt a high priority since all they need is something to hold all the parts (cpu, gpu, ram etc) together and wont care for flashy features that they wont use most of the time, so a cheaper mobo will do the job just fine. i would wager ppl would spend more on cpu and gpu first before splurging on the mobo and ram, since the former would have more tangible benefits, so i disagree with ur assertion that pairing a $1000 mobo with a 5600x is worth it, even with the features. personally, id spend that $1000 on a 5900x and then consider between a b550 or x570. its just a case of it just so happens that ppl who get x cpu generally have x mobo, and ppl who get y cpu have y mobo, but from my view its more of a money thing than an active consideration.

 

[Koenig168]

The balanced approach is the way to go. Does not make sense to spend S$1000 on a MB to match 5600X. If I must have that thousand dollar MB, I'll pony up the cash for a better CPU.

 

[Yongkit]

I think perhaps we could misinterpreted his statement, if I understand correctly what he meant was if the motherboard have a very unique features that worth $1000 which does not downgrading the cpu performance example like the mobo have smart AI through voice control request that can help us fine tune the performance of system than it was worthy purchase. The key point was feature set offer by the mobo.

I could be wrong playing too much cyberpunk with AI Skippy

 

[soltrdc]

I think perhaps we could misinterpreted his statement, if I understand correctly what he meant was if the motherboard have a very unique features that worth $1000 which does not downgrading the cpu performance example like the mobo have smart AI through voice control request that can help us fine tune the performance of system than it was worthy purchase. The key point was feature set offer by the mobo.

I could be wrong playing too much cyberpunk with AI Skippy

This is what I meant.

Budget is of course a consideration when choosing the motherboard, but saying a mobo is suitable for so-and-so CPU is simply way too superficial. Earlier in the thread, someone suggested "even B450 is enough for 5600X". Okay, but what is the justification for it? Just price? Just cos someone chooses a 5600X doesn't mean the cheapest course is the best course. My e.g. below:

I was running a 5900X on a B550 ITX board. I wanted to switch to a ATX board because I want to install a second GPU (my requirement). Additionally, my main GPU is to be on the bottom PCIe slot because of cooling setup. At first I decided just change B550 to B550, got the MEG Unify B550. But I realize my GPU would potentially be bottlenecked on the bottom slot as B550 doesn't have that much bandwidth, only the first PCIe slot is 4.0x16 while the second one is 3.0x4. So I decided to change to a X570. This is already the first switch due to feature requirement. Okay so then I was looking at the MSI MPG X570, Asus TUF X570, Gigabyte Aorus Pro and Aorus Master. Going into the detail of each mobo, I found only the Aorus Master supports PCIe bifurcation at 4.0x8 . So that's what I got in the end. It cost almost $100 more then the B550 MEG Unify, and more than $100 over the TUF/MPG/Aorus Pro, but the thing is it offers what I need! Literally any of the above boards will support my 5900X without problems but the CPU is not the only important thing. Another thing I had to decide between was whether to have a HDMI/DP out on the rear I/O as I might want to use an APU in the future. Many B550 boards have this but few X570 do! In fact I hesitated a bit between the TUF X570 vs. the Aorus Master because the TUF has HDMI+DP out while the Aorus Master doesn't! But in the end I decided the x8 bifurcation was most important and got the Aorus Master.

So you see, there are many MANY considerations when buying a motherboard that go way beyond price. I read the user manual of all of those above motherboards before I decided. Make sure it suits my needs and don't have some surprises down the road. Did you know the B550 MEG Unify has an extra 8-pin PCIe power connector on the board? Why is it there? Can you do without it? If you need it does your PSU have sufficient 8-pin rails to connect? Just get cheap, sure, but down the road you may find yourself limited by the choice and end up needing to spend anyway, often more than if you just got the better one at first.

We are building an integrated system here, not just running computing chips, that's my point. The system has to be able to do what you want and need it to do. And note that in this case, the CPU is irrelevant - what I needed was 2 PCIe slots at x8 speed, it doesn't matter if I was running a 5600X or even a 3300X! So that's the thing - the mobo IS the system, and the system should match what you want it to do, within your suitable budget. Simply saying X mobo is best for Y CPU because of price alone, just misses the big picture.

 

[NightRaven49]

Earlier in the thread, someone suggested "even B450 is enough for 5600X". Okay, but what is the justification for it? Just price?

that would be me as well. my justification would be based largely on cost too, given that b450 boards do cost a lot less than b550 while still offering enough for most people. not a lot of people can saturate pcie3 bandwidth for nvmes, let alone pcie4, and pcie4 as of now plays no role in gpu performance. so in my view, b450 is the much better option, given that u can find b450 boards with the same feature sets as b550 boards but at a lower price point, or have a b450 board with more features than a b550 board at the same price point. u do have to flash the appropriate bios for it to work with zen 3, but i feel it is worth the cost savings.

i see where u are coming from with ur features argument, but in most of the cases i see here on the forums, most people just want to build a simple pc without such unique demands as urs. so just cpu, mobo, gpu in primary x16 slot and nvme and call it a day. as such, i dont see much of anything wrong offering this kind of advice, especially since it makes decisions a whole lot easier, rather than having to agonise over many many boards. of course, if there are special requirements, then u should adjust ur search criteria accordingly.

 

[soltrdc]

in most of the cases i see here on the forums, most people just want to build a simple pc without such unique demands...and call it a day. as such, i dont see much of anything wrong offering this kind of advice, especially since it makes decisions a whole lot easier, rather than having to agonise over many many boards. of course, if there are special requirements, then u should adjust ur search criteria accordingly.

Of course you are right about this and it's perfectly fine to want such a system. The only thing is you can't make a proper recommendation without first finding out what the user wants/needs.

Also, this is a forum after all, and furthermore is "Hardware Clinic". I believe people come here to learn more and find specific help, otherwise might as well just buy from S.I. and call it a day. I just started seriously building for 3 months, still considered a noob, but I have read much from others here that help me in my learning. Hopefully we all can learn from each other!

 

[NightRaven49]

The only thing is you can't make a proper recommendation without first finding out what the user wants/needs.

like i mentioned, most of the time, people just want to build a normal pc which generally tends to follow a general arrangement, so in these general situations applying occam's razor would work out nicely without having to overspend on things they would not need. if in the process of deciding the builder wants this specific feature then can seek help again.

its good to have this discussion, though it could have been made a separate thread instead of hijacking this one

 

[midlusionz]

So TS, got pic of your new pc liao? xD

 

[congster2]

like i mentioned, most of the time, people just want to build a normal pc which generally tends to follow a general arrangement, so in these general situations applying occam's razor would work out nicely without having to overspend on things they would not need. if in the process of deciding the builder wants this specific feature then can seek help again.

its good to have this discussion, though it could have been made a separate thread instead of hijacking this one

Can extract the key points and put it as a sticky!

 

[acertey]

Hi folks, though i am not the thread starter but i received a lot of help. I am super happy with the setup and ability. Things are moving like a blaze, super worthy upgrade. In additional, many thanks to the bros who given great advice.