Motherboard VRM Tier List v2 (currently AMD only)

[Entropy.]

16 hours ago, Bhushan Misal said:

What would be a good motherboard for the duet of R5 5600X and 3060Ti ?

Probably a b550-a pro from MSI, It'll depend on your specific situation. 

[Entropy.]

Any reasons why you'd would go with other S tier boards over the b550 aorus master? IO? Aesthetics? Slightly better power delivery? Better ram overclocking? Connectors? Gimmicks?

[Jurrunio]

25 minutes ago, Brok3n But who cares? said:

Any reasons why you'd would go with other S tier boards over the b550 aorus master? IO? Aesthetics? Slightly better power delivery? Better ram overclocking? Connectors? Gimmicks?

Other boards are X570 so they get more connectivity (after all chipset has double the bandwidth). B550 Master will most likey beat other 4 DIMM boards for overclocking though.

[EnfermeraSexy]

What about MSI B550 Torpedo? It's at 140€ this week and I don't know if I should buy it or the MSI B550-A Pro, which is at 136€

[Haro]

6 minutes ago, EnfermeraSexy said:

What about MSI B550 Torpedo?

It uses the same VRM as the Tomahawk and performs basically the same in that regard, so it's in Tier S. 

 

6 minutes ago, EnfermeraSexy said:

I don't know if I should buy it or the MSI B550-A Pro, which is at 136€

At that price difference, the Torpedo should be better. 

[Shinku443]

I was thinking of copping an AORUS 550 Master to upgrade from my Crosshair VI for my 3800x (i'm getting really weird stuttering and i think ive ruled out everything but mobo so im gonna try replacing it). I mostly use my PC to game like 80% and coding/workstation stuff maybe 20% (have a work laptop i use). Would this be overkill though? I'm OCed at 4.3ghz @ 1.3v right now IIRC. But i was seeing a lot of bad reviews of the AORUS dying after a couple months of use and needing to reset the CMOS each time it happens, is this still the case?

[Entropy.]

1 hour ago, Shinku443 said:

I was thinking of copping an AORUS 550 Master to upgrade from my Crosshair VI for my 3800x (i'm getting really weird stuttering and i think ive ruled out everything but mobo so im gonna try replacing it). I mostly use my PC to game like 80% and coding/workstation stuff maybe 20% (have a work laptop i use). Would this be overkill though? I'm OCed at 4.3ghz @ 1.3v right now IIRC. But i was seeing a lot of bad reviews of the AORUS dying after a couple months of use and needing to reset the CMOS each time it happens, is this still the case?

Your problem most likely Isn't the motherboard. You've checked your drivers, did a fresh install of windows/your games, ect? The Aorus master *probably* is overkill for what you need, I might recommend the b550 aorus elite/v2, whichever is cheaper, Iirc the warranty services from gigabyte aren't the greatest Either, but it still should be fine. If something goes wrong with the motherboard their support still should be able to sort it out. 

[Shinku443]

41 minutes ago, Brok3n But who cares? said:

Your problem most likely Isn't the motherboard. You've checked your drivers, did a fresh install of windows/your games, ect? The Aorus master *probably* is overkill for what you need, I might recommend the b550 aorus elite/v2, whichever is cheaper, Iirc the warranty services from gigabyte aren't the greatest Either, but it still should be fine. If something goes wrong with the motherboard their support still should be able to sort it out. 

Yeah updated bios, and all drivers, I've tried fresh windows installs, using process lassoo, messing with HPET stuff, lowering oc, turning off oc, increasing oc, swapping GPU and PSU, memtest on ram, different cables, different monitors....everything I could basically think of

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, Shinku443 said:

Yeah updated bios, and all drivers, I've tried fresh windows installs, using process lassoo, messing with HPET stuff, lowering oc, turning off oc, increasing oc, swapping GPU and PSU, memtest on ram, different cables, different monitors....everything I could basically think of

including chipset drivers?

[Shinku443]

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

including chipset drivers?

yep yep

[tmzwalker]

Hi, I'm currently a bit hesitating about choosing which motherboard to go with my first build around 5800x and a 3080 GPU. Since I don't have old CPU and someone said that getting motherboard now with the current bios for 5000 series is a gamble, I would like something that has a USB flash bios. I'm a bit torn and need that little push between these motherboards:

- ASUS ROG Strix B550-A/F wifi (~$230)

- Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro AX (~$235) * what's the difference between AX vs AC version? AC is ~$5 more expensive.

- MSI B550 Gaming Carbon wifi (~$250) 

* pricing is USD equivalent from my country's price.

 

I want to have a front USB-C cable for the Lancool II Mesh case so probably it's between the last 2. I'm not sure whether I'll use more PCIE-4 lane, but the x570 considerations within similar price are tuf gaming X570-plus wifi for ~$230 (the pro version isn't available in my country), Strix X570-F which is currently discounted for ~$220 within next 12 hours, and Aorus Elite x570 wifi for ~$270. I saw people always recommending the x570 Tomahawk as well but there is none of that in my country. Any other suggestions outside of those are also welcomed.What I will be doing with the PC other than gaming is to train a deep learning model as well if that can be taken into consideration.

 

I am sorry if I post in the wrong place. Cheers.

[Jurrunio]

56 minutes ago, tmzwalker said:

what's the difference between AX vs AC version?

Wifi difference, AC is the one we have for years while AX is the faster one.that replaces AC. Wifi 5 and 6 respectively.

 

If both Carbon and Aorus Pro has enough ports for you, I prefer MSI's software and updates. Carbon also comes with AX Wifi support

[basriwizz]

Anyone knows What tier does MSI B550 Unify belong to? I couldn't see it in Tier lists or B550 Speculation list.

There are also not enough reviews for this board.

[Haro]

38 minutes ago, basriwizz said:

Anyone knows What tier does MSI B550 Unify belong to?

It'd be in Tier S. 

[CalmOfDawn]

The NZXT N7 B550 was just announced. Overclock3d has a review:

 

https://overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/nzxt_n7_b550_motherboard_review/1

 

It has an intel ax201 wifi 6E m.2 card, front usbc, 6 sata. I'm thinking of getting this for my new NAS build if the early reviews pan out ok. So far so good, and I hear Asrock did the base design.

 

I want to hear more about the sustained thermals and lifetime. They better not have cheaped out on the caps.

 

If anyone has more info that could help sway the decision I'd appreciate it. Since NZXT's fire hazard pcie riser fiasco I'm a bit concerned about their technical QA quality.

 

[Jurrunio]

3 hours ago, CalmOfDawn said:

The NZXT N7 B550 was just announced. Overclock3d has a review:

 

https://overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/nzxt_n7_b550_motherboard_review/1

 

It has an intel ax201 wifi 6E m.2 card, front usbc, 6 sata. I'm thinking of getting this for my new NAS build if the early reviews pan out ok. So far so good, and I hear Asrock did the base design.

 

I want to hear more about the sustained thermals and lifetime. They better not have cheaped out on the caps.

 

If anyone has more info that could help sway the decision I'd appreciate it. Since NZXT's fire hazard pcie riser fiasco I'm a bit concerned about their technical QA quality.

 

PCs draw noticeably more power than a proper NAS, keep this in mind.

 

The capacitor bank and fan header layout does resemble a B550 Steel Legend (only a guess since no one took apart their board yet), but I'm not sure about the heatsink. Not that the Steel Legend's heatsink is any good, but NZXT is imo a fashion company.

[Rovanne]

Hi, I'm new on the forums. I've been doing a lot of research in the last few days since I'm planning on upgrade from my i7 2600k. I was decided on buying the B450 Aorus Pro, and then I found this topic (great innitiative BTW, couldn't thank you enough). Then I started to look at B550 and X570 nicely ranked boards on the list and most of them are quite expensive for me right now, specially because I don't need most of the extra features and I'll start this build with the R5 1600AF, and the only reason to buy an expensive mobo would to safely upgrade to at least an R7 3700 in an unknown future. So, I've been looking for B450 boards with ALC1200 codec and bios flashback and found the TUF Plus II which I suppose to have better quality VRMs than the first Plus, but I'd like to check if anyone here knows if this is true. I also found the Tomahawk Max II and the Aorus Elite V2 at the same price, but those don't have the ALC1200.

[Jurrunio]

2 hours ago, Rovanne said:

but I'd like to check if anyone here knows if this is true

Yes, only because the heatsink is better.

 

2 hours ago, Rovanne said:

don't have the ALC1200.

makes no difference, "bad" and "good" onboard audio are not so different. To get actual benefit in audio quality you first need a high end audio system and then an external DAC.

[Rovanne]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Yes, only because the heatsink is better.

Oh, well... So I guess it doesn't make a lot of difference. Looks like the Tomahawk is still the best cheap choice then.

[Mr.Meerkat]

Between these options, which ones would people rather go for? 

Asrock:

- B450 Gaming-ITX (£100) <- Might as well get the aorus pro if I go with this.

- B550M-ITX (£120) <- leaning towards the most

 

Gigabyte: 

- B450 I AORUS PRO (£81) <- el budgeto version but it's so much cheaper...

 

MSI: 

- B450i Gaming (£100) <- doesn't fit colour scheme at all.

- B450i Gaming max (£108) <- ditto above

 

It's going to be paired to a 3700X under a dual 240mm loop so overclocking (not too severe) will be happening (plus RAM OCing ofc). The gigabyte is super tempting as it's soooo cheap but of course, the less than ideal VRMs isn't great. Leaning the most towards the B550M-ITX as the VRM design seems to be okay whilst unlike the MSIs (red...how to clash white/blue 101), it actually kinda fits my colour scheme as well.  Any thoughts? 

[Mateyyy]

56 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Between these options, which ones would people rather go for? 

Asrock:

- B450 Gaming-ITX (£100) <- Might as well get the aorus pro if I go with this.

- B550M-ITX (£120) <- leaning towards the most

 

Gigabyte: 

- B450 I AORUS PRO (£81) <- el budgeto version but it's so much cheaper...

 

MSI: 

- B450i Gaming (£100) <- doesn't fit colour scheme at all.

- B450i Gaming max (£108) <- ditto above

 

It's going to be paired to a 3700X under a dual 240mm loop so overclocking (not too severe) will be happening (plus RAM OCing ofc). The gigabyte is super tempting as it's soooo cheap but of course, the less than ideal VRMs isn't great. Leaning the most towards the B550M-ITX as the VRM design seems to be okay whilst unlike the MSIs (red...how to clash white/blue 101), it actually kinda fits my colour scheme as well.  Any thoughts? 

The only board that has a clear advantage when it comes to power delivery over the rest is the B450I Gaming Plus from MSI; the rest are about in the same ballpark. Off the top of my head, the VRM on the Asrock B550 might be a little better than what's on the Gigabyte B450, but considering how anemic its VRM heatsink is, it's not like the slightly better components will make much of a difference in the real world anyway.

 

Realistically, for a 3700X, any of those boards should work, so I wouldn't really worry too much about it. Memory overclocking could be kind of hit or miss on these cheap boards though. 

Again, the MSI board should be the best in terms of overclocking (likely including memory), but if you can't get over its looks, then I'd just get one of the other boards.

 

Another option would be Gigabyte's A520I AC. It's a very decent board for the money (I'd say it's better than at least the Asrock and Gigabyte B450 boards you mentioned), but the catch with A520 is the finnicky overclocking, as in you'll most likely have to mess with the BCLK to boost your CPU's frequency further. Though it's not like manual overclocking got you a whole lot in the way of extra performance with Zen 2 CPUs anyway.

[Mr.Meerkat]

10 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

-snippy snip-

So the TLDR is get the Aorus I guess. I know sacrificing the VRMs for colour scheme isn't grea but tbh, I'm not too concerned about VRMs as my B350M mortar artic (not known for good VRMs) handled my 1700@3.95GHz and 3700X@4.25GHz without anything exploding (or the VRMs getting excessively hot)  so I guess as long as it's not thermalling then just get the cheapest  

[feponic122]

Why the B450-F is rated 75A, while the much cheaper MSI B450-A Pro MAX 125A? ASUS boards look better to me.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

12 minutes ago, feponic122 said:

Why the B450-F is rated 75A, while the much cheaper MSI B450-A Pro MAX 125A? ASUS boards look better to me.

 

 

Lower milliohm is better. Also no doublers on any of these 4 boards.

[YanbiZ]

yay