The battle of the chipsets - B550 vs X570 - which to get?

[Tsviki]

Hello!
So around a year ago, I've bought a new awesome gaming rig with a 3600X and a B450 board.
I haven't expected it to come that fast, but I've managed to put my hands on a new fast and cool PCIe 4 M.2 drive, and now I obviously need to get a new motherboard to support it.

My question is, B550 vs X570! since these two chipsets exist for some time now, I wonder what will be the better option.

 

First of all, ill probably use the board on stock settings (ill probably set up a fan curve and enable PBO, but unlikely ill OC the CPU.

 

I've found an X570 board (Aorus Elite Wifi) and a B550 board (Aorus B550 Elite), and the prices of both boards and pretty much the same (both around 200$ each, new in box, just not from an official store).

 

So what board should I go with considering the fact they are both new in the box? If that matter, my next upgrade to the rig will probably be a new Ryzen 7 CPU (either 3000 or 5000, depends on the price), and I might upgrade to 32GB RAM as well, adding 2 sticks to my current 8x2 3200Mhz setup or buying 2x16 kit 3600Mhz if I end up buying a 5th gen CPU.

 

Thanks to everyone who will be able to help me make a good choice!

[Misguided Penguin]

It comes down to the features you need honestly. The X570 motherboard supports more PCIe 4.0 lanes than the B550 does (B550 only supports 20 4.0 lanes so a new GPU and your new M.2 will use all of your 4.0 lanes), and X570 board you listed in particular also has WiFi. Honestly if they are the same price I would just go ahead and pick up the X570 board but if you find another decent B550 board for cheaper I would go for that.

[Tsviki]

1 minute ago, NZgamer said:

Sounds like you only need a B550 board but if an X570 board is the same price as a B550 then definitely get an X570

Yeah, when it comes to features I know ill need only a B550, but since they are the same price, wanted to make sure ill make the right choice

[Tsviki]

1 minute ago, Misguided Penguin said:

It comes down to the features you need honestly. The X570 motherboard supports more PCIe 4.0 lanes than the B550 does (B550 only supports 20 4.0 lanes so a new GPU and your new M.2 will use all of your 4.0 lanes), and X570 board you listed in particular also has WiFi. Honestly if they are the same price I would just go ahead and pick up the X570 board but if you find another decent B550 board for cheaper I would go for that.

I wish I had more options, but in the current state of things, the market on my country is just bad, really bad, these are the only two boards ive found that worth the money (200$ for the X570 is a steal considering the fact its 270$ msrp). Ill probably end up getting the X570, thanks!

[Stahlmann]

B550 is everything 99% of all people need. X570 is pretty much only relevant if you need more PCIe 4 expansion than the 1 16x slot and 1 m.2 slot you get with B550. Normally i'd say always go for B550, but if they're the same price you might aswell go with X570 instead.

[mariushm]

x570 has the benefit of chipset creating pci-e 4.0 lanes, while the b550 chipset creates pci-e 3.0 lanes. 

 

So with both motherboards, the lanes coming from cpu (first pci-e x16 slot and the m.2 connector) are pci-e 4.0, but the ones from the chipset are different (2nd m.2 connector, pci-e x1 and bottom pci-e x16 - electrically x4) are pci-e 3.0 on B550.

 

x570 also has a couple more lanes compared to b550 but if they're used for something depends on implementation. 

 

Downside of the x570 chipset is that if you actually use pci-e 4.0 from the chipset, it needs active cooler, so the fan on chipset needs to spin... and the fan is a potential point of failure.

 

between the two... i'd go with the b550 model even though the vrm heatsink on the x570 is probably a bit more beefy, so in theory it could handle very power hungry cpus better.

 

pros and cons 

 

only one video output on the x570 - only matters if you'll end up using a cpu with integrated graphics .. so B550 +1

no bios flashback button on x570 but special usb port for install bios without cpu, bios flash button on b550 (put bios on usb stick, press button even if no cpu in socket, you get bios updated) so B550 +0.5 

wifi on x570, not on b550 but you get extra slots to put wifi cards in, still..   x570 +1

2 extra usb 2 ports on the x570 ... not enough of a plus to score it

only 2 pci-e x16 on the x570 (2nd is pci-e 4.0 x4 from chipset),  3 pci-e x16 on the b550  (the 2nd is pci-e 3.0 x2 and 3rd is pci-e 3.0 x1 I think, and may be disabled if 2nd m.2 is used i think, but nevertheless it's there if needed)  so b550 +1

 

usb type c 10gbps front panel header on x570,   no header on b550   (I think there's one on b550 aorus elite V2)  so I guess x570 +1 

 

standard 1gbps lan on x570 , 2.5g ethernet on b550 so b550 +1

 

 

So for me,   2.5g ethernet + 3 pci-e slots + no need for fan on heatsink  beats  the type c 10g front panel header and the extra 2 usb 2.0 ports on the back

 

 

 

 

 

[Tsviki]

5 minutes ago, mariushm said:

x570 has the benefit of chipset creating pci-e 4.0 lanes, while the b550 chipset creates pci-e 3.0 lanes. 

 

So with both motherboards, the lanes coming from cpu (first pci-e x16 slot and the m.2 connector) are pci-e 4.0, but the ones from the chipset are different (2nd m.2 connector, pci-e x1 and bottom pci-e x16 - electrically x4) are pci-e 3.0 on B550.

 

x570 also has a couple more lanes compared to b550 but if they're used for something depends on implementation. 

 

Downside of the x570 chipset is that if you actually use pci-e 4.0 from the chipset, it needs active cooler, so the fan on chipset needs to spin... and the fan is a potential point of failure.

 

between the two... i'd go with the b550 model even though the vrm heatsink on the x570 is probably a bit more beefy, so in theory it could handle very power hungry cpus better.

 

pros and cons 

 

only one video output on the x570 - only matters if you'll end up using a cpu with integrated graphics .. so B550 +1

no bios flashback button on x570 but special usb port for install bios without cpu, bios flash button on b550 (put bios on usb stick, press button even if no cpu in socket, you get bios updated) so B550 +0.5 

wifi on x570, not on b550 but you get extra slots to put wifi cards in, still..   x570 +1

2 extra usb 2 ports on the x570 ... not enough of a plus to score it

only 2 pci-e x16 on the x570 (2nd is pci-e 4.0 x4 from chipset),  3 pci-e x16 on the b550  (the 2nd is pci-e 3.0 x2 and 3rd is pci-e 3.0 x1 I think, and may be disabled if 2nd m.2 is used i think, but nevertheless it's there if needed)  so b550 +1

 

usb type c 10gbps front panel header on x570,   no header on b550   (I think there's one on b550 aorus elite V2)  so I guess x570 +1 

 

standard 1gbps lan on x570 , 2.5g ethernet on b550 so b550 +1

 

 

So for me,   2.5g ethernet + 3 pci-e slots + no need for fan on heatsink  beats  the type c 10g front panel header and the extra 2 usb 2.0 ports on the back

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the detailed replay!
honestly, 2.5G ethernet is not a big deal for me since my house supports up to 100MB on LAN (kill me please, but thats what I deal with), I wont use an APU so I dont care for the I/O video outputs, BIOS updates are annoying no matter a button or not, so I dont care doing a few more steps to make an update), 3 PCIe slots are cool but Ill probably never use 2, so I really dont need 3, USB-C is always nice, but ill need to buy a new case anyway to use it in this case..

Considering the current state and my needs, ill end up getting the X570