ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming WiFi-6 ATX Motherboard: The Best Motherboard for Me?

[WallacEngineering]

I believe I have found the best value-for-money motherboard that meets all of my needs, however I wanted to see what you guys thought of this board. There are a few reasons I want this board which will be explained, however first its obviously important to know what build this motherboard will be used for. Well, recently I started a thread looking for suggestions as to how to go about repairing my damaged PC. This thread can be found at the following link and will explain the situation as well as what I plan to do for the new build: 

 

 

 

Here is a link to the MotherBoard is question: https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b550-f-gaming-wi-fi-model/

 

Here are the prices for the motherboards I am most interested in:

Gigabyte Aorus B550 Elite V2 WiFi-6 AX ATX - $190 USD

Gigabyte Aorus B550 Pro WiFi-5 AC ATX - $200 USD

ASUS ROG B550-F WiFi-6 AX ATX - $210 USD

 

Now then, with that out of the way, there are quite a few reasons why I think this particular board is the best value for my needs:

 

1.) 6-Layer PCB and good RAM overclocking puts this board right up where I need it in terms of performance, getting my Trident Z 2 x 16GB 3200Mhz RAM sticks up to 3600+ MHz shouldn't be too much of an issue and believe me, for my favorite game the RAM speed is EXTREMELY important, as just getting the ram to run at 3200 instead of default 2133 increased my performance in game by a whopping 25% as far as frame rates and stutters go. The game is VERY CPU intensive and so RAM speed actually does make a significant difference.

 

2.) The impressive VRM and VRM-Heatsink layout means that pushing my 3700X CPU to the limit shouldn't be an issue for it, and even once I get a 5900X, mild overclocking shouldn't be an issue for that, either.

 

3.) Its got a solid amount of connectivity with 3 x USB 3.2, 2 x USB 3.1, 2 x USB 2.0, and 1 x USB-C 3.2 Gen2 ports on the rear I/O panel plus support for USB 3.2 Case connectivity and absolutely maxes out the AMD B550 chipset as far as SATA Drives and PCI-E lanes to the CPU.

 

4.) WiFi-6 AX on board is a fantastic feature as I haven't been able to hard wire for over 2 years now. While the Gigabyte Aorus Pro AC motherboard may seem like strong competition for this board, the ASUS rocks just as solid overclocking ability while also upgrading from WiFi-5 AC to WiFi-6 AX for just $10 more, a solid investment of a measly 10 bucks to improve my gaming experience if you ask me.

 

So there you have it, some very strong reasons why I think this motherboard is perfect for my new build, but the whole reason for this thread is that I am open to suggestions as to what motherboard you guys would think is best. As far as I can see, the Aorus Pro AC and Elite AX V2 from Gigabyte are the only real competition but the downgrade to WiFi-5 AC on the Pro, then the weaker 4-Layer PCB plus weaker VRM cooling on the Elite makes the ASUS victorious in every way. Let me know what you think and what motherboard you run!

[lgcas]

9 minutes ago, WallacEngineering said:

I believe I have found the best value-for-money motherboard that meets all of my needs, however I wanted to see what you guys thought of this board. There are a few reasons I want this board which will be explained, however first its obviously important to know what build this motherboard will be used for. Well, recently I started a thread looking for suggestions as to how to go about repairing my damaged PC. This thread can be found at the following link and will explain the situation as well as what I plan to do for the new build: 

 

 

 

Here is a link to the MotherBoard is question: https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b550-f-gaming-wi-fi-model/

 

Now then, with that out of the way, there are quite a few reasons why I think this particular board is the best value for my needs:

 

1.) 6-Layer PCB and good RAM overclocking puts this board right up where I need it in terms of performance, getting my Trident Z 2 x 16GB 3200Mhz RAM sticks up to 3600+ MHz shouldn't be too much of an issue and believe me, for my favorite game the RAM speed is EXTREMELY important, as just getting the ram to run at 3200 instead of default 2133 increased my performance in game by a whopping 25% as far as frame rates and stutters go. The game is VERY CPU intensive and so RAM speed actually does make a significant difference.

 

2.) The impressive VRM and VRM-Heatsink layout means that pushing my 3700X CPU to the limit shouldn't be an issue for it, and even once I get a 5900X, mild overclocking shouldn't be an issue for that, either.

 

3.) Its got a solid amount of connectivity with 3 x USB 3.2, 2 x USB 3.1, 2 x USB 2.0, and 1 x USB-C 3.2 Gen2 ports on the rear I/O panel plus support for USB 3.2 Case connectivity and absolutely maxes out the AMD B550 chipset as far as SATA Drives and PCI-E lanes to the CPU.

 

4.) WiFi-6 AX on board is a fantastic feature as I haven't been able to hard wire for over 2 years now. While the Gigabyte Aorus Pro AC motherboard may seem like strong competition for this board, the ASUS rocks just as solid overclocking ability while also upgrading from WiFi-5 AC to WiFi-6 AX for just $10 more, a solid investment of a measly 10 bucks to improve my gaming experience if you ask me.

 

So there you have it, some very strong reasons why I think this motherboard is perfect for my new build, but the whole reason for this thread is that I am open to suggestions as to what motherboard you guys would think is best. As far as I can see, the Aorus Pro AC and Elite AX V2 from Gigabyte are the only real competition but the downgrade to WiFi-5 AC on the Pro, then the weaker 4-Layer PCB plus weaker VRM cooling on the Elite makes the ASUS victorious in every way. Let me know what you think and what motherboard you run!

The B550-F is a good board, the Pro AC is what I have. There have been some issues with the Aorus pro boards regarding Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cutouts as well as USB cutouts (although some people have reported them going away in newer BIOS revisions such as F12). However, there have been some reports of the same issues occuring in other boards like the B550-E so that is something to think about. It is also worth noting that, for a lot of people, these issues may go away when switching PCIE to gen 3 (when using new gpus like RTX 3000) or switching off global c-states and/or manual ram oc rather than XMP. Other theories point towards it being an AMD/Agesa issue and not one that Gigabyte (or any other companies with the issues) can fix entirely by themselves.

On the other hand, I have not used the B550-F but it was going to be my initial choice, but when I saw that the AC had more USBs (and some people also prefer the power delivery heatsinks); but the AC has been performing just fine for me, voltages and clocks have been fine on my 5600x and I have not run into any VRM issues (however I am running at stock, I doubt you would see a vast amount of difference between the boards if you are running at stock). I've got some Micron-E die cl 16 3600mhz ram running at advertised speeds and timings with XMP despite the lack of QVL support (new SKU from December), but that is not really as impressive; furthermore, it is also very similar to the rest of the vengeance SKUs so there's that too.

Edit: as for Wi-Fi, it's fast enough for me, regretfully I can only run at 2.4Ghz so I cannot compare it to my 5Ghz asus AC86 USB dongle-but I reach the speeds expected by my provider/router.

[WallacEngineering]

32 minutes ago, lgcas said:

The B550-F is a good board, the Pro AC is what I have...

Well thanks for the input. WiFi-6 does give you a stronger connection and better speeds of course provided your router has WiFi-6 capability. My provider is my apartment lol and the router is not located in my unit but they do have WiFi-6 broadcast and I have noticed a bit of an improvement as the current damaged MoBo also supports WiFi-6 and so I have been able to test it. Its not a huge difference but gaming on WiFi already sucks as it is for lag so I would rather not step back down to WiFi-5 if at all possible.

 

I have not heard of these issues with the Gigabyte and ASUS boards, very strange, something I will have to take note of for sure, thanks for that.

 

I am definitely overclocking, Star Citizen is an EXTREMELY demanding game and it demands the absolute best in performance, so the best I can get with safe daily voltages while retaining decent temperatures on high-end air cooling is what I always go for.

[mr cheese]

Hey there! I'm actually a 5900X user with the Aorus Elite AX V2 B550 you were thinking about. I will say, you definitely want that 6-layer PCB in the Aorus Pro and B550-F. My memory overclocking is abysmal at best, I have no idea how to get it to work without a BSOD or outright crash.

 

The Aorus Pro AX comes with Wi-Fi 6, not just Wi-Fi 5, according to their webpage so there's that for you.

 

The Aorus Pro has a newer revision, the V2, which I would honestly recommend over the originals, but there's no Wi-Fi version of that, so you'd need your own add-in card. However, I can speak for the quality of Aorus boards, and their BIOS, and say I can recommend it, I know the Pro has much better VRM cooling than I have (which is troubling considering I'm running 1.370V) ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking with GamersNexus recommends the B550 Aorus Pro V2 which is why I'm here recommending it myself, and if you want that Wi-Fi built in, the v1 should work more than well enough for you. You also get a more advanced VRM cooling solution on the Aorus Pro than the Strix, so you could realistically push any damn speed you wanted to extremely comfortably. I can personally vouch for Gigabyte VRMs myself.

 

I hope this helps!

[freeagent]

I don't have the WIFI board, but the F is great. Solid board, really good with ram, no problem with voltage or cooling. 3600 C12-4400 C16 she is a ripper for sure. Its been good to a noob like me.

[WallacEngineering]

On 2/15/2021 at 12:29 PM, DaJakerBoss said:

Hey there...

Ya I saw that the Aorus Pro was strongly recommended and thats why I consider it the only real competition to the ASUS board. I would definitely get the V2 if they had a WiFi board. Its a must for me unfortunately because add-in WiFi-6 cards are just stupidly expensive and USB adapters have poor signal strength in general so... WiFi built into the board is definitely the way I want to go.

 

Luckily the ASUS board is just as strong at overclocking as the Aorus Pro is. I love BuildZoid myself! But ya it looks like the ASUS board is the way to go.

[WallacEngineering]

I am just about ready to place the order, take a look:

 

PC Parts List for New Build:

 

Already Have: CPU, GPU, RAM, Storage

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

GPU: AMD-Radeon/Power Color Red Devil 5700-XT

RAM: 2 x G.Skill Trident Z 16GB 3200MHz sticks

Storage: Corsair MP600 NVME 4.0 1TB Boot Drive, 2 x 2TB SATA-III SSDs, WD 7200RPM 8TB HDD 

MoBo: ASUS ROG B550-F Gaming WiFi-6 AX ATX

Case: Phanteks Eclipse P500A

Case Fans: 5 x 140mm Artic Bonix Black - 3 x Front Intake, 1 x Rear Exhaust, 1 x Top Exhaust

CPU Cooler: Noctua D15-S Cromax Black

CPU Thermal Paste: Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut

Power Supply: Seasonic Focus PX-850W Platinum

Extra 1: LinkUp 20cm Right Angle PCI-E 4.0 Riser Cable for Vertical GPU Mount

Extra 2: Orico PCI-E 3.0 x 4, 7 x USB 3.0 Expansion Card

Extra 3: High Gain WiFi Omni-Directional, Adjustable Antennas

Grand Total: $790 USD

Future Target CPU and GPU: Ryzen 9 5900X and AMD-Radeon/Power Color Red Devil 6800-XT

 

Note: The Power Supply may seem a bit overkill now but it wont be in the future. I always overclock at least a bit and with a 5900X CPU and 6800-XT GPU on board and overclocked I will be drawing just under 700 watts at full CPU and GPU load. So even a 750 watt would be cutting it a bit close considering possible power spikes and other possible future upgrades or additions. Basically an 850W PSU means I shouldn't have to worry at all no matter what I upgrade too in the future unless for some odd reason I decide to run a multi-GPU system.

[mr cheese]

11 hours ago, WallacEngineering said:

I always overclock at least a bit and with a 5900X CPU and 6800-XT GPU on board and overclocked I will be drawing just under 700 watts at full CPU and GPU load.

I will say, with my 5900X pulling as hard of an overclock as i can manage (4.8GHz all-core at 1.37V) I only draw about 160-175W iirc, so it's surprisingly good with power.

[WallacEngineering]

18 hours ago, DaJakerBoss said:

I will say, with my 5900X pulling as hard of an overclock as i can manage (4.8GHz all-core at 1.37V) I only draw about 160-175W iirc, so it's surprisingly good with power.

Ya it is certainly the 6800-XT that poses the issue for power, not so much the CPU. Its the same story on just about any build with a standard desktop CPU. Desktop CPUs just aren't that thirsty.

 

But the 6800-XT is just as thirsty as an RTX 3080, maybe even a bit more overclocked. There have been reports of 6800-XTs drawing 400 watts when overclocked. Ya this latest generation of GPUs drinks power like its water. But I suppose the 50% performance jump is worth dealing with the thirstiest cards we have seen in many generations.

 

But ya man you can push the 5900X a bit farther than that. A few people have seen 200 watts out of it so you should be able to push a tiny bit more. 4.8 All-Core is pretty good though for sure, but for gaming try Precision Boost Overdrive offset overclocking instead. It can be really beneficial for pushing those few core past 5GHz when needed. Can't help but be a bit worried by the voltage reports tho, PBO doesn't seem to care about safe voltage whatsoever, even my 3700X regularly pushes past 1.45V .

[mr cheese]

2 hours ago, WallacEngineering said:

A few people have seen 200 watts out of it so you should be able to push a tiny bit more.

Unfortunately I don't have the cooling capacity for that, the EVGA CLC 280 with 2 NH-A14's at full speed just cannot keep the system cool at 1.4V or higher sustained, which is what I need to be able to complete a stable CB R23 run (10 minutes at 180W is not a great time for that cooler, and you can'tt remove the 90 degree automatic system shutdown). Also, I keep a manual overclock on for all cores because I mine Monero with my CPU (lol I don't have to pay for power at this school ) and 1.34V at 4.7GHz all-core (the most stable and power-efficient config I can manage) hashes about double what my 1050ti can hash for Ethereum so I'll take it.

 

Whenever I get done fucking around with crypto I'll definitely be pushing it higher with PBO, shit works wonders

[WallacEngineering]

On 2/19/2021 at 11:18 AM, DaJakerBoss said:

Unfortunately I don't have the cooling capacity for that, the EVGA CLC 280 with 2 NH-A14's at full speed just cannot keep the system cool at 1.4V or higher sustained, which is what I need to be able to complete a stable CB R23 run (10 minutes at 180W is not a great time for that cooler, and you can'tt remove the 90 degree automatic system shutdown). Also, I keep a manual overclock on for all cores because I mine Monero with my CPU (lol I don't have to pay for power at this school ) and 1.34V at 4.7GHz all-core (the most stable and power-efficient config I can manage) hashes about double what my 1050ti can hash for Ethereum so I'll take it.

 

Whenever I get done fucking around with crypto I'll definitely be pushing it higher with PBO, shit works wonders

Ya Ive never messed with Crypto I don't really care enough about it and I make good money at work anyway so I would rather just spend my free time gaming but Ive thought about it. Perhaps one day Ill build a secondary system to try crypto out when I feel like it.