Motherboard Recommendation for 5950x

[Krodmandoon]

I found a site that put me in a queue for the 5950x, now I am trying to decide on the other parts of my build, but I am getting stuck on the motherboard.  It's hard to justify the MSI Godlike, or even the ASUS Crosshair VIII Formula.  I don't want to put too much into a motherboard and I am looking more for a well balanced system that isn't cheap, but isn't pointlessly expensive either.

This is the plan so far:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor	$1239.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$169.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Royal 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL14 Memory	$374.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$349.99 @ Amazon
Case	Lian Li O11D XL-W ATX Full Tower Case	$345.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$124.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2605.94
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-04-18 06:17 EDT-0400

 

Graphics will have to wait as there is nothing available, but I plan on getting a high end 3080, maybe 3080 Ti if they come out by the time I can get a card, or a 3090 if I can convince myself it's worth the cost.

I would like to stick to the 200 - 300 dollar range, but will go higher if it's justified.  Thanks for the help.

[Omar.B]

11 minutes ago, Krodmandoon said:

I found a site that put me in a queue for the 5950x, now I am trying to decide on the other parts of my build, but I am getting stuck on the motherboard.  It's hard to justify the MSI Godlike, or even the ASUS Crosshair VIII Formula.  I don't want to put too much into a motherboard and I am looking more for a well balanced system that isn't cheap, but isn't pointlessly expensive either.

This is the plan so far:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor	$1239.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$169.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Royal 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL14 Memory	$374.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$349.99 @ Amazon
Case	Lian Li O11D XL-W ATX Full Tower Case	$345.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$124.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2605.94
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-04-18 06:17 EDT-0400

 

Graphics will have to wait as there is nothing available, but I plan on getting a high end 3080, maybe 3080 Ti if they come out by the time I can get a card, or a 3090 if I can convince myself it's worth the cost.

I would like to stick to the 200 - 300 dollar range, but will go higher if it's justified.  Thanks for the help.

here some options

1-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/tgsnTW/msi-mpg-x570-gaming-pro-carbon-wifi-atx-am4-motherboard-mpg-x570-gaming-pro-carbon-wifi 

 

2-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WKdrxr/msi-mag-x570-tomahawk-wifi-atx-am4-motherboard-mag-x570-tomahawk-wifi

 

3-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/cqsnTW/asus-rog-strix-x570-f-gaming-atx-am4-motherboard-rog-strix-x570-f-gaming

 

4-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fHxbt6/gigabyte-x570-aorus-pro-atx-am4-motherboard-x570-aorus-pro

 

[Krodmandoon]

40 minutes ago, Omar.B said:

here some options

1-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/tgsnTW/msi-mpg-x570-gaming-pro-carbon-wifi-atx-am4-motherboard-mpg-x570-gaming-pro-carbon-wifi 

 

2-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WKdrxr/msi-mag-x570-tomahawk-wifi-atx-am4-motherboard-mag-x570-tomahawk-wifi

 

3-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/cqsnTW/asus-rog-strix-x570-f-gaming-atx-am4-motherboard-rog-strix-x570-f-gaming

 

4-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fHxbt6/gigabyte-x570-aorus-pro-atx-am4-motherboard-x570-aorus-pro

 

Thanks for those options.  The Tomahawk and the Aorus pro are nice, they have 2 x 3.2 headers and a header for the Type-C on the front of the o11 Dynamic XL.  I just wish they could combine those things and add a few more high speed USB Ports.  Is there anything that would fit that bill? The Crosshair VIII formula has amazing USB options, but it's so damn expensive.

[Krodmandoon]

Any thoughts between the Gigabyte X570 AORUS MASTER and the MSI X570 MEG Unify?  

[Morgan MLGman]

23 minutes ago, Krodmandoon said:

Thanks for those options.  The Tomahawk and the Aorus pro are nice, they have 2 x 3.2 headers and a header for the Type-C on the front of the o11 Dynamic XL.  I just wish they could combine those things and add a few more high speed USB Ports.  Is there anything that would fit that bill? The Crosshair VIII formula has amazing USB options, but it's so damn expensive.

I use an MSI Prestige X570 Creation and it would fit everything you'd probably want. Have a look at the rear I/O:

I suggest you check it out.
 

 

Just now, Krodmandoon said:

Any thoughts between the Gigabyte X570 AORUS MASTER and the MSI X570 MEG Unify?  

Both are great, out of those two I'd probably get the Aorus Master one.

[Krodmandoon]

6 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I use an MSI Prestige X570 Creation and it would fit everything you'd probably want. Have a look at the rear I/O:

I suggest you check it out.
 

 

Both are great, out of those two I'd probably get the Aorus Master one.

Holy hell, that would be amazing, but looks like it's expensive, how much did you pay for it? Also, I looked it up and yours appears to label them all as 3.2 gen 2 in the white area, where as the one I found online only has 2 gen 2 ports and the rest are gen 1.  If its over 500 dollars, it's not really in my price range, but if it's close to that, could you link me your exact model?

[Morgan MLGman]

3 minutes ago, Krodmandoon said:

Holy hell, that would be amazing, but looks like it's expensive, how much did you pay for it? Also, I looked it up and yours appears to label them all as 3.2 gen 2 in the white area, where as the one I found online only has 2 gen 2 ports and the rest are gen 1.  If its over 500 dollars, it's not really in my price range, but if it's close to that, could you link me your exact model?

It's around $500: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KBmFf7/msi-prestige-x570-creation-eatx-am4-motherboard-prestige-x570-creation

It's also E-ATX but since it fits great in my standard O11D, it will definitely fit in the O11D XL.
Here are USB specifications for this board:

[Krodmandoon]

1 minute ago, Morgan MLGman said:

It's around $500: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KBmFf7/msi-prestige-x570-creation-eatx-am4-motherboard-prestige-x570-creation

It's also E-ATX but since it fits great in my standard O11D, it will definitely fit in the O11D XL.
Here are USB specifications for this board:

Weird, that also lists the 10 ports as gen 1, and only 1 gen 2 type A, but on the back of your board it shows SS10 on multiple ports.  Maybe I am mistaken on the assumption that gen 1 is 5gbps and gen 2 is 10gbps?

[Morgan MLGman]

7 minutes ago, Krodmandoon said:

Weird, that also lists the 10 ports as gen 1, and only 1 gen 2 type A, but on the back of your board it shows SS10 on multiple ports.  Maybe I am mistaken on the assumption that gen 1 is 5gbps and gen 2 is 10gbps?

Looking at the back of the board you'd assume that all of the red USB ports are 10Gbps because that's what "SS 10" means:

Quote

USB 3.1, released in July 2013, is the successor standard that replaces the USB 3.0 standard. USB 3.1 preserves the existing SuperSpeed transfer rate, giving it the new label USB 3.1 Gen 1, while defining a new SuperSpeed+ transfer mode, called USB 3.1 Gen 2^[4] which can transfer data at up to 10 Gbit/s over the existing USB3-type-A and USB-C connectors (1250 MB/s, twice the rate of USB 3.0).^[6][7]

USB 3.2, released in September 2017, replaces the USB 3.1 standard. It preserves existing USB 3.1 SuperSpeed and SuperSpeed+ data modes and introduces two new SuperSpeed+ transfer modes over the USB-C connector using two-lane operation, with data rates of 10 and 20 Gbit/s (1250 and 2500 MB/s).

According to Wikipedia both USB 3.1 and USB 3.2 can have 10Gbps transfer speeds. USB 3.2 just can be configured in a 20Gbps variant, combining transfer of two 10Gbps connectors into one USB-C connector.

[Archon0]

If you're planning on doing subtimings on your memory (particularly since you're already going with the optimal 2 sticks of dual-rank Samsung B-die), you should seriously consider the MSI MEG B550 Unify-X. It's a full-featured board, but it's claim to fame is its 2 DIMM slots, which is very rare amongst ATX motherboards. It's no slouch in the VRM department either: 14+2 direct with 90A smart power stages. At $299, it's hardly the cheapest option, but if you want to max out gaming performance, you'll be hard-pressed to beat the Unify-X.

 

Buildzoid is particularly fond of it too: 

 

[Krodmandoon]

8 hours ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Looking at the back of the board you'd assume that all of the red USB ports are 10Gbps because that's what "SS 10" means:

According to Wikipedia both USB 3.1 and USB 3.2 can have 10Gbps transfer speeds. USB 3.2 just can be configured in a 20Gbps variant, combining transfer of two 10Gbps connectors into one USB-C connector.

Interesting, thanks for the board recommendation, I will have to look into it more.

 

1 hour ago, Archon0 said:

If you're planning on doing subtimings on your memory (particularly since you're already going with the optimal 2 sticks of dual-rank Samsung B-die), you should seriously consider the MSI MEG B550 Unify-X. It's a full-featured board, but it's claim to fame is its 2 DIMM slots, which is very rare amongst ATX motherboards. It's no slouch in the VRM department either: 14+2 direct with 90A smart power stages. At $299, it's hardly the cheapest option, but if you want to max out gaming performance, you'll be hard-pressed to beat the Unify-X.

 

Buildzoid is particularly fond of it too: 

 

The reason I only have 2 sticks, is for the possibility of a future upgrade to 64GB of RAM. I do plan to play with timings and overclocking, but only to a minimal extent.  99.9% of the time it will be gaming and light to moderate workstation loads where stability and longevity are the goal.  I will look into the B550 chipset more, but at the moment I would prefer the X570.  Thank you tho.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, Omar.B said:

here some options

1-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/tgsnTW/msi-mpg-x570-gaming-pro-carbon-wifi-atx-am4-motherboard-mpg-x570-gaming-pro-carbon-wifi 

 

2-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WKdrxr/msi-mag-x570-tomahawk-wifi-atx-am4-motherboard-mag-x570-tomahawk-wifi

 

3-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/cqsnTW/asus-rog-strix-x570-f-gaming-atx-am4-motherboard-rog-strix-x570-f-gaming

 

4-https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fHxbt6/gigabyte-x570-aorus-pro-atx-am4-motherboard-x570-aorus-pro

 

The X570 Gaming Pro Carbon shouldn't be on anyones short list. The VRM is pretty awful.

[Krodmandoon]

1 hour ago, lee32uk said:

The X570 Gaming Pro Carbon shouldn't be on anyones short list. The VRM is pretty awful.

I think I have narrowed my search to just the MSI MAG Tomahawk WIFI, or the Gigabyte Aorus Master. I don't think I can justify the 600 dollar Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula. 

Do you have any opinions on these 2 boards value, I am leaning toward the Aorus Master, but if the MAG is a good deal for the price, I might take that.

[Morgan MLGman]

10 hours ago, Krodmandoon said:

I think I have narrowed my search to just the MSI MAG Tomahawk WIFI, or the Gigabyte Aorus Master. I don't think I can justify the 600 dollar Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula. 

Do you have any opinions on these 2 boards value, I am leaning toward the Aorus Master, but if the MAG is a good deal for the price, I might take that.

Both are similar. The Aorus Master seems to be a bit more high-end board in the lineup, but the Tomahawk Wifi is a good choice as well. Though both seem fairly entry-level considering you intend to put a 5950X in there.

[Krodmandoon]

4 hours ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Both are similar. The Aorus Master seems to be a bit more high-end board in the lineup, but the Tomahawk Wifi is a good choice as well. Though both seem fairly entry-level considering you intend to put a 5950X in there.

That's what I was afraid of lol.  I don't want to have an unbalance system with a 5950x and a cheap motherboard, but the only board I found that fits what I want at the higher end is the Crosshair VIII Formula, but since 99.9% of the time, it's going to used for gaming and workstation loads rather than overclocking and power user things, it feels a little overkill to me.  I could be wrong tho and I also don't want to feel crazy for putting a 5950x in a cheap board, I want a system that looks and is balanced for a system with that chip in it. Is $3000 without VGA too much of a limit for a build with the 5950x?  The Prestige Creator would work too, but for about the same price, I would rather have more rear gen2 USB ports.

[Morgan MLGman]

27 minutes ago, Krodmandoon said:

That's what I was afraid of lol.  I don't want to have an unbalance system with a 5950x and a cheap motherboard, but the only board I found that fits what I want at the higher end is the Crosshair VIII Formula, but since 99.9% of the time, it's going to used for gaming and workstation loads rather than overclocking and power user things, it feels a little overkill to me.  I could be wrong tho and I also don't want to feel crazy for putting a 5950x in a cheap board, I want a system that looks and is balanced for a system with that chip in it. Is $3000 without VGA too much of a limit for a build with the 5950x?  The Prestige Creator would work too, but for about the same price, I would rather have more rear gen2 USB ports.

I don't think there's an X570 board that has better I/O than the Prestige Creation, so a bummer there. There are boards with thunderbolt, but they sacrifice on other connectivity.

If you want something cheaper that'd fit the 5950X,you can look at these two:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pGXYcf/msi-meg-x570-ace-atx-am4-motherboard-meg-x570-ace
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZRBhP6/gigabyte-x570-aorus-master-atx-am4-motherboard-x570-aorus-master

[Krodmandoon]

11 minutes ago, _DeXTeR_ said:

Most expensive you find its yours

 

I'm not rich by any means lol, I want something practical but also high quality.  The Royal RAM is just to be flashy tho, I couldn't resist

[Krodmandoon]

Well hell, now I feel like it's between the Aorus Master and the Crosshair VIII Formula, someone convince me the Crosshair is the way to go and not simply because "well you spent that much on the chip, might as well spend that much on the MB.

[Krodmandoon]

1 hour ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I don't think there's an X570 board that has better I/O than the Prestige Creation, so a bummer there. There are boards with thunderbolt, but they sacrifice on other connectivity.

If you want something cheaper that'd fit the 5950X,you can look at these two:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pGXYcf/msi-meg-x570-ace-atx-am4-motherboard-meg-x570-ace
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZRBhP6/gigabyte-x570-aorus-master-atx-am4-motherboard-x570-aorus-master

Wow, I can't remember why I chose the Tomahawk over the Ace.  I think I mixed them up when I was tired late at night lol.  I think the Ace is what I determined to be the toss up with the Aorus Master.  But now I guess I am considering the Crosshair now.  The prestige has 2 more USB 2.0 on the rear, but appears to only have one 3.2 gen 2 and the rest are 3.2 gen 1.  The Crosshair lacks the 2 USB 2.0 ports, but has 7 gen 2 ports on the back plus 4 gen 1.  I would prefer to go with the gen 2 at a similar price point.  Assuming I can find it in stock anyway.  I would prefer at least 3 gen 2 ports for VR and DSLR Camera tethering, but I could make due with Gen 1 if the rest of the board worked.  I would also prefer 2 internal Gen 1 headers and a type C header for the Lian Li 011 XL, but again, I could make due with just one if I had to.  The Crosshair more than fits the bill, and the MSI MEG and the Aorus Master fit the bill exactly.  So I guess those 3 are my choices.

 

[Morgan MLGman]

I think the Crosshair is a waste of money if you're not into overclocking or those "gamer" features that ROG boards offer. I chose the Creation because it had all the features I wanted from a board, so it wouldn't be a downgrade from my previous Crosshair VI Extreme. It's not a good value board if that's what you're looking for.
 

The MEG ACE seems like a reasonable choice provided it fits your needs in terms of the feature set

[Krodmandoon]

15 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I think the Crosshair is a waste of money if you're not into overclocking or those "gamer" features that ROG boards offer. I chose the Creation because it had all the features I wanted from a board, so it wouldn't be a downgrade from my previous Crosshair VI Extreme. It's not a good value board if that's what you're looking for.

By Gen2 you mean 10Gbps? The ones on the Creation are 10Gbps "SS10", with the exception of two USB 2.0s. The I/O on the Creation is so rich because it ditches the 3rd M.2 slot bandwidth in favor of better rear I/O connectivity. Instead MSI gives you an M.2 Xpander PCIE card that can run two PCIE 4.0 M.2 SSDs if you need more than the onboard 2 slots.

Yes, I mean 10Gbps, Yours seems to imply that they are SS10, but on the website it shows different.  

 

 

The rear only has SS10 on the one port now

 

 

The details specify 10Gbps for just the one port, which they could have been a copy and paste error when pulling old specs from similar boards, but:

 

 

Gen 1 seems to cap out at 5Gbps on Type A, 10 and 20Gbps on gen 1 and 2 respectively require the 2 lanes of type C.  I could be wrong, and this is kind of nitpicking for my use case as VR will work on gen 1 and so will most of my high speed devices.  It just seems to me if this is true, that for a similar price point, the Crosshair has more SS10 options.

 

Feel free to correct me if I am missing something.

[Krodmandoon]

At this point it seems I need to choose between the Crosshair and the Creation, then between the MEG Ace and the Aorus Master.  Then pit those 2 winners against each other in a battle of "What makes sense to put a 5950x into".

[Morgan MLGman]

12 minutes ago, Krodmandoon said:

At this point it seems I need to choose between the Crosshair and the Creation, then between the MEG Ace and the Aorus Master.  Then pit those 2 winners against each other in a battle of "What makes sense to put a 5950x into".

Yeah the "SS10" markings are wrong on the board, only 2 ports on the rear I/O are 10Gbit and connected to the CPU. Apparently you could also do 10Gbit front USB-C but that goes through the chipset. The Creation also has 10Gig LAN if that's your thing

[Krodmandoon]

8 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Yeah the "SS10" markings are wrong on the board, only 2 ports on the rear I/O are 10Gbit and connected to the CPU. Apparently you could also do 10Gbit front USB-C but that goes through the chipset. The Creation also has 10Gig LAN if that's your thing

10Gig lan would me nice for in home streaming, but I don't do that too much, and I plan to make my old computer a HTPC.  I don't know if I can justify the 600 dollar price tag for my usage tho, this is such a hard choice.  As far as I/O goes tho, the Crosshair HERO has the same rear panel options, It's just lacking the second front panel Gen 1.  I could just get an add on card for that tho.  I appreciate your opinion here, do you think I would look silly putting a 5950x on the MEG, Master, or HERO? If not, with the greater I/O options of the HERO, I think that makes it the clear winner.

[Guest]

You shouldn't feel that you have to spend 'X' amount on a board just because you have a 5950X. Even a cheaper B550 board like the MSI B550 Tomahawk can easily handle that chip. I would say write down the features you want, and then narrow it down that way. You can always add things like a 10G LAN card if the board doesn't have it.

 

As for the Crosshair Formula that is only worth buying if you are doing a custom loop as it has a built in waterblock.

 

The X570 Unify/Ace/Tomahawk, Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master and X570 Crosshair Hero (Dark Hero) are all solid options.