I got told to wait, I did- Should I go for the b550 mobo?

[trevb0t]

Look at the trend from X470 vs B450. There are very few reasons to buy an X470 board, when a solid B450 can overclock the entire CPU lineup, supports SLI / Crossfire (don't do this anyway...), etc.

 

There are AM4 units that always stand out for their value proposition, and they are:

• Pro 4
• A-Pro
• Tomahawk

They hold up. If you've got a budget to keep in mind, don't count on X570 price drops giving you that level of value with little extra functionality. 

[Chris Pratt]

21 minutes ago, Yashiees said:

 

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-b550-gaming-x-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-58w-gi.html

 

guessing this mobo would be good for me then, I can buy a internet card and maybe put an elgato later on. Just wondering if it'll all fit adding my gpu

Looks like a good board, and it seems to have decent VRMs, especially since B-series boards aren't strictly meant for overclocking. However, again, the ASUS TUF X570, for example, has even better thermals, especially if you intend to overclock, and I assume has roughly the same price. I'm not in the UK, but the price of the linked board converted to USD is roughly the same price as this X570 in the US.

 

I mean you're not going to really go wrong either way, but I don't think B550 has enough of a value proposition at this point. There's also something to be said for the fact that the boards are brand spanking new. I'd almost say keep waiting, as hard as that is, just to give reviews some time with these boards to tell how they hold up. MSI, for example, complete screwed the pooch with their X570 boards, for the most part, with some actually even failing in review testing. Just because manufacturer usually makes good boards doesn't mean they didn't make a flop this time around.

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Looks like a good board, and it seems to have decent VRMs, especially since B-series boards aren't strictly meant for overclocking. However, again, the ASUS TUF X570, for example, has even better thermals, especially if you intend to overclock, and I assume has roughly the same price. I'm not in the UK, but the price of the linked board converted to USD is roughly the same price as this X570 in the US.

 

I mean you're not going to really go wrong either way, but I don't think B550 has enough of a value proposition at this point. There's also something to be said for the fact that the boards are brand spanking new. I'd almost say keep waiting, as hard as that is, just to give reviews some time with these boards to tell how they hold up. MSI, for example, complete screwed the pooch with their X570 boards, for the most part, with some actually even failing in review testing. Just because manufacturer usually makes good boards doesn't mean they didn't make a flop this time around.

Why would you think that the B series boards are not meant for overclocking ? The MSI X570-A Pro is absolute crap as are all the other MSI X570 until you get to the Tomahawk. So the chipset is irrelevant in regards to overclocking. And B550 has some high end boards like the B550 Aorus Master and B550 Taichi etc which will easily cope with an overclocked 3900X/3950X.

 

As for value I would say that B550 is a better option than X570 if it is a few Quid/Dollars cheaper. You are not really missing out on anything by going with B550 instead of X570. Having said that B450 boards like the ones mentioned above are still good enough for the majority if they want to save as much as possible. Just a matter of looking at the features you need and weighing up the price difference.

[Yashiees]

3 hours ago, lee32uk said:

The X570 Tomahawk is supposedly around the $200 price point, but there is no price on pcpartpicker. The B550 version is a bit cheaper.

 

The UK prices are around £180 and £220 for the B550/X570 Tomahawk. The TUF wifi is £220 in the UK so not worth it over either MSI board.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-b550-gaming-x-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-58w-gi.html 

£140 for this, 

 

this a good mobo?

[Nena Trinity]

B550 with about same or equal VRM is around so you can save some money in exchange of some features you may not want?

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Yashiees said:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-b550-gaming-x-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-58w-gi.html 

£140 for this, 

 

this a good mobo?

The X570 version is a bit meh so it probably isn't much better. The ASRock B550 Pro 4, MSI B550-A Pro and Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite are all probably better options. Also depends on how long you want to wait as some are not due until around the 26th June or  first week of July. 

 

Maybe wait for more boards to appear and reviews as Buildzoid usually does a chipset breakdown.

[Chris Pratt]

18 hours ago, lee32uk said:

Why would you think that the B series boards are not meant for overclocking ? The MSI X570-A Pro is absolute crap as are all the other MSI X570 until you get to the Tomahawk. So the chipset is irrelevant in regards to overclocking. And B550 has some high end boards like the B550 Aorus Master and B550 Taichi etc which will easily cope with an overclocked 3900X/3950X.

 

As for value I would say that B550 is a better option than X570 if it is a few Quid/Dollars cheaper. You are not really missing out on anything by going with B550 instead of X570. Having said that B450 boards like the ones mentioned above are still good enough for the majority if they want to save as much as possible. Just a matter of looking at the features you need and weighing up the price difference.

Because they literally aren't. That's what the chipset designation means. X is for overclocking, B is for budget. Granted, the lines have blurred significantly. There's premium B-series boards that beat out X-series and bottom-dollar X-series that are worse than B's. Still, on par, X-series boards will pretty much always have better VRMs and thermals than B-series boards, because that's the entire point. As far as MSI goes, they just borked their entire X570 board line-up from launch. I don't consider that representative of X570. The X570 board line up of the other manufacturers has mostly been good to great.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

Because they literally aren't. That's what the chipset designation means. X is for overclocking, B is for budget. Granted, the lines have blurred significantly. There's premium B-series boards that beat out X-series and bottom-dollar X-series that are worse than B's. Still, on par, X-series boards will pretty much always have better VRMs and thermals than B-series boards, because that's the entire point. As far as MSI goes, they just borked their entire X570 board line-up from launch. I don't consider that representative of X570. The X570 board line up of the other manufacturers has mostly been good to great.

Still doesn't mean you can't overclock on them just because they are less expensive. Boards like the B450 Tomahawk and B450 Gaming Pro Carbon would be perfectly fine for up to a 3900X. Probably even a 3950X as it doesn't pull much more anyway. And if you look at the new Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master that has the exact same VRM as the X570 version. So if that isn't meant for overclocking then I am not sure what is.

[Chris Pratt]

1 hour ago, lee32uk said:

Still doesn't mean you can't overclock on them just because they are less expensive. Boards like the B450 Tomahawk and B450 Gaming Pro Carbon would be perfectly fine for up to a 3900X. Probably even a 3950X as it doesn't pull much more anyway. And if you look at the new Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master that has the exact same VRM as the X570 version. So if that isn't meant for overclocking then I am not sure what is.

Never said you couldn't overclock on them. I said X570 is better for overclocking, because it generally is. Yes, there's exceptions. Yes, there's cross-over. However, the B450 and especially B550 boards with with thermals that match X570 are also the most expensive in those lines. if you're paying as much for a B550 board as an X570, then it makes even less sense to go with the B550. That goes double for B450, at this point.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Never said you couldn't overclock on them. I said X570 is better for overclocking, because it generally is. Yes, there's exceptions. Yes, there's cross-over. However, the B450 and especially B550 boards with with thermals that match X570 are also the most expensive in those lines. if you're paying as much for a B550 board as an X570, then it makes even less sense to go with the B550. That goes double for B450, at this point.

It might be better on certain boards. That is the only difference. As long as you choose a board that has a good enough VRM then it doesn't matter if it is a B or X chipset.

 

The B550 boards are still cheaper than the X570 equivalents. And also no stupid chipset fan on B550 so that is another plus. 

[Yashiees]

16 hours ago, lee32uk said:

It might be better on certain boards. That is the only difference. As long as you choose a board that has a good enough VRM then it doesn't matter if it is a B or X chipset.

 

The B550 boards are still cheaper than the X570 equivalents. And also no stupid chipset fan on B550 so that is another plus. 

I dont really know what VRM means on a mobo, I'm sadly not that educated on motherboards or any type of pc stuff - Only just the basic stuff and tiny in depth knowledge of stuff.

As its my first build, I'm still confused about if my pc will have any audio. or if audio in and audio out will work.. and many more other stuff.

[Chris Pratt]

VRM mean Voltage Regulator Module. It's what steps down and regulates the voltage from your power supply to the CPU. There's the overall quality of the VRM and then how many phases, or how many modules it's distributed over. Higher end boards have more phases, generally, evening out the power draw and ensuring the individual modules don't get overworked. In a nutshell, the more phases the better your stability, especially on overclocked workloads, but even if you're not overclocking, proper power regulation is essential to things like allowing your CPU to reach its boost clocks.

 

Audio used to require a separate card, but it's largely been subsumed by the motherboard for some time now. Separate audio cards are for niche scenarios like for actually mastering audio resources. Your mobo I/O will have plugs built in for audio in/out, and there's an HD audio connector on the mobo for connecting any plugs.l on the front panel of your case, assuming it has some. It's mostly a plug and play affair, though.