Motherboard recommendations?

[Cb2394]

So,  I'm in the process of upgrading my PC, trying to do stuff in relative order and creating a budget to be able to set aside when bonus season/income tax season arrives. 

 

That said, I currently have a 1700x that likes to cruise at 4.1 ghz at 1.41v on a gigabyte b350 gaming 3. Reading up though on the gaming 3 has brought to my attention that,  although sufficient for my previous 1200, it might not be quite up to snuff for the 1700x.

 

So, my question for recommendation for a good mobo for this CPU. I'm definitely looking for robust OC support, good price to performance, and something I won't burn to a crisp if my chip won the lottery and likes to continue to OC after I install a custom water loop that I plan to purchase at the same time as a mobo.

 

I've been looking at the gigabyte x450 gaming 7, seems like a good investment, but I also don't quite know what to look for and what to avoid.

 

Any advice, recommendations or criticism is welcomed,  thank you in advance. 

[NunoLava1998]

A B450-F Strix or X470-F Strix, while expensive, is pretty good and supports ryzen 2nd gen

[Cb2394]

45 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

A B450-F Strix or X470-F Strix, while expensive, is pretty good and supports ryzen 2nd gen

 

The x470-F, and by assumption the b450-F, are actually more inexpensive than the x470 gaming 7. The reading I've done though seems to be consistent though in advising against a b350/450 for any of the ryzen 8 cores, is this a correct rule of thumb. 

 

Being only a $30usd price difference,  is the a compelling reason to go with the x470-f strix over the x470 gaming  7?

[NunoLava1998]

2 minutes ago, Cb2394 said:

 

The x470-F, and by assumption the b450-F, are actually more inexpensive than the x470 gaming 7. The reading I've done though seems to be consistent though in advising against a b350/450 for any of the ryzen 8 cores, is this a correct rule of thumb. 

 

Being only a $30usd price difference,  is the a compelling reason to go with the x470-f strix over the x470 gaming  7?

The STRIX is from ASUS (better BIOS) and much better for overclocking, and GIGABYTE AM4 boards are usually bad quality (hell the K7 had a BIOS bug that made some CPUs go to 1.7V, keep in mind 1.4-1.5V is very bad and 1.5V+ is unacceptable)

[Cb2394]

17 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

The STRIX is from ASUS (better BIOS) and much better for overclocking, and GIGABYTE AM4 boards are usually bad quality (hell the K7 had a BIOS bug that made some CPUs go to 1.7V, keep in mind 1.4-1.5V is very bad and 1.5V+ is unacceptable)

Okie dokie on the mobo, thank you for the new information,  I watch a few GN videos and read some reviews that praised the x470 gaming 7 as best in show, I like to verify and ask others though so I'm not shooting myself in my foot.  

 

Question about your voltage statement though, I thought that was revised to 1.40-1.45 being safe as bios is now auto boosting to 1.38 by themselves

[Princess Luna]

5 minutes ago, Cb2394 said:

Okie dokie on the mobo, thank you for the new information,  I watch a few GN videos and read some reviews that praised the x470 gaming 7 as best in show, I like to verify and ask others though so I'm not shooting myself in my foot.

The Gaming 7 IS the best X470 motherboard there is, ASUS is all about marketing nowadays with their overpriced ROG branding, don't bother.

 

The only way I'd be okay with going ASUS for a Ryzen system like you want would be finding a good deal on the Maximums line up for x370 for cheap, user or not.

 

And all of this only matters if you're going with a Ryzen 7 and wants to extract the maximum performance off it.

[Cb2394]

17 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

The Gaming 7 IS the best X470 motherboard there is, ASUS is all about marketing nowadays with their overpriced ROG branding, don't bother.

 

The only way I'd be okay with going ASUS for a Ryzen system like you want would be finding a good deal on the Maximums line up for x370 for cheap, user or not.

 

And all of this only matters if you're going with a Ryzen 7 and wants to extract the maximum performance off it.

I do have a Ryzen 7 1700x, as stated in my original post.  And O.C. is sinking its hooks in me,  I think I spend equal time right now tinkering with O.C. settings as I do utilizing my PC and I definitely want to squeeze it for what it's worth. Right now my cooling and I'm assuming my mobo is holding it back, as it held 4.1ghz at 1.43v stable through 12hrs of aida64 stress test. I backed it down though because it was too hot for my comfort, although it didn't throttle from what I saw.  Honestly,  it's still too hot for my complete comfort, between 83c-86c depending on the room under full load. 

 

And thank you for the added information. Would the gaming 7 be your recommendation or would you place my money elsewhere? 

[Princess Luna]

Honestly, 4.1ghz already is where the first gen Ryzen CPUs tops at, you won't get more frequency using the best motherboard on the market you'll only at best reduce the voltage a little bit by doing so.

 

I wouldn't spend money on this, the performance gains are non-existing keeping your current CPU, just wait for Ryzen 2 with the 7nm architecture and upgrade stuff then... it's the best money management.

[Cb2394]

54 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

I wouldn't spend money on this, the performance gains are non-existing keeping your current CPU, just wait for Ryzen 2 with the 7nm architecture and upgrade stuff then... it's the best money management.

 

Well my wife is wanting my "old" 1200 for a light duty workstation, figured I'd pair it with my current gaming 3.

 

But with what you're saying,  the gaming 3 and the 1700x should be safe to run together, ie the oc shouldn't break the board, and it'd be smarter to buy her a more inexpensive b350/450 board and to hold myself over until the ryzen 3000 series and/or x570 boards, assuming they'll be backwards compatible, correct?

 

[Princess Luna]

2 hours ago, Cb2394 said:

1.38

If you are only hitting 1.38v now with the clocks you have that are satisfactory to you then yes you can keep every thing as it is and put together an inexpensive system for your wife.

 

a H310M with a i3 8100 also is a lovely pick for light duty that should prove reliable and offer good longevity if you wanna given Intel a chance there, good thing is that if she won't be gaming the Intel HD Graphics on it is sufficient by every means.

 

And waiting for the x570 chipset might be good, it seems it'll be the first chipset to support PCI-e 4.0, true enough no GPU still saturates 16x 3.0 but having more alternatives the better.

[Cb2394]

31 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

a H310M with a i3 8100 also is a lovely pick for light duty that should prove reliable and offer good longevity if you wanna given Intel a chance there, good thing is that if she won't be gaming the Intel HD Graphics on it is sufficient by every means.

Shite, I didn't even think about Intel,  thanks for pointing that out.  Makes better sense then buying a cheap GPU. That'd give me a back up mobo and CPU just incase of a worse case scenario or troubleshooting my system as well. Does someone pay you for this? Cause they should. 

[Princess Luna]

17 minutes ago, Cb2394 said:

Does someone pay you for this? Cause they should. 

Aw thank you kindly, very meaningful of you.

 

Wish you good luck with your future build, I'm sure she'll love it!