Looking for some guidance on picking a mobo for Zen 3

Delicieuxz · October 27, 2020

I'm planning a 5800x system with an RTX 3080. As the rumour is that Zen 3's memory frequency sweet spot is 4000 mhz, I'm planning to have RAM of that speed.

I want to have the best performance, reliability, and convenience possible without wasting money.

I don't know what accounts for the large price-jumps between models, so I'd appreciate some feedback and recommendations.

Here are some boards I've just been looking at:

Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite - (AMD Ryzen 3000/X570/ATX/PCIe4.0/DDR4/USB3.1/Realtek ALC1200/Front USB Type-C/RGB Fusion 2.0/M.2 Thermal Guard/Gaming Motherboard)

Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming - ATX Motherboard with PCIe 4.0, Aura Sync RGB Lighting, 2.5 Gbps and Intel Gigabit LAN, WIFI 6 (802.11Ax), Dual M.2 with Heatsinks, SATA 6GB/S and USB 3.2 Gen 2

MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE - WIFI Motherboard (AMD AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 2, AC Wi-Fi 5, HDMI, ATX)

Asus AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus - (Wi-Fi) AM4 Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 & 3rd Gen Ryzen ATX Motherboard With PCIe 4.0, Dual M.2, 12+2 With Dr. MOS power stage, USB 3.2 Gen 2 And Aura Sync RGB lighting

What does the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero X570 have that makes it cost more than, say, the Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming - some additional lower-spec USB ports and a CMOS clear button? And is that VIII Hero X570 the same mobo as the VIII Dark Hero X570? They look the same, to me, but one doesn't have the "Dark" in the name.

What is m.2 socket 3, such as on the ROG Strix Gaming, vs m.2 socket 4, such as on the ROG VIII Hero?

I think that the Asus ROG Strix X570-E has a good feature-set: It support memory OCs up to 4400 mhz. It has lots of USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, USB 3.2 type-C. However, it is a bit pricey. It (and some other mobos) also includes an onboard water pump, which I wouldn't use - would it be throwing away money to buy it, then? The ROG Strix X570-E also has monitor connectors, which I shouldn't need. And while it has two m.2 slots, I think one of them will be blocked-off by an RTX 3080's shroud.

Delicieuxz · October 27, 2020

This MSI Mag B550 Tomahawk B550 mobo that LTT promoted in their RTX 3070 review looks pretty good, too.

I would prefer it if it had some gen 2 USB type-A ports, though.

The Gaming Edge version has 1 gen 2 type-A port: https://www.newegg.com/msi-mpg-b550-gaming-edge-wifi/p/N82E16813144324

But there's an overall a lack of USB3 ports for my interest.

Alphageek89 · December 17, 2020

From my finding the Dark Hero vs Hero are that the Dark Hero has a fanless chipset design where other x570 Mobos have active fan cooling, it has slightly upgraded VRM, and the Darken design. All of these adding to it's $20 premium over the regular Wi-Fi Hero's price.

You also lose the HDMI/Displayport outputs moving from the Strix to the Crosshairs, as you mentioned the Strix having. Though, I would argue past the price of the Strix you aren't looking at putting any Ryzen-G processors in these boards that would even make those useful. Even at the Strix level I wouldn't imagine most people were unless you just REALLY wanted a higher end board, but it wouldn't be my recommendation. For that 5800x, it won't know what to do with those video ports on the back of the Strix anyway so it doesn't matter much but it is something that is missing on the crosshair to fit those 4 lower spec USB ports on there.

As far as the M.2 being blocked off by the shroud, I wouldn't see this being a problem as long as the NVME you use doesn't have it's own heat sink. Something more important to keep in mind that I noticed is that while the Strix has one extra x1 slot, it is in a spot that would actually get blocked by the graphics card, be it a 3070 or 3080. I think even most GTX 16 series would block it if getting anything with decent cooling.

As for Socket 3 vs Socket 4. To my knowlege, Socket 4 isn't a thing. I think it was either a misread or a typo on someone elses end since both boards support Socket 3 PCI-E 4.0 x4.