Motherboard for 7800x3d

[MrAlbertrocks]

I'm planning on upgrading to AM5 this november-december but i've had a really hard time trying to find a good mobo to pair the 7800x3d with. I'm using my system primarily for gaming and really don't need a lot of fancy stuff, but i also don't want to buy something that's going to be outdated or give me issues. 

 

It seems like every time i like a board there's people saying to stay away from it, ASUS for example, i was also thinking about a b650 gigabyte aorus elite but people say all gigabyte boards have awful coil whine issues, i really don't know what to do i just want something that works. I'm not an overclocker (I just plan on using EXPO on a CL 30 6000mhz ram). I also would like at least 1 gen 5 nvme slot and at least 2 gen 4. I also don't really know if i need PCIe 5.0. I know it doesn't really have a use right now as all GPUs are 4.0, but since i usually upgrade my system (apart from GPU) every 5-7 years, i don't know if it's a good idea to have PCIe 5.0 or just stick with 4.0. 

 

Budget is the usual, around 200, unless there's a more expensive option that has a MUST for my needs (Considering i want to keep it for at least 5 years).

[PDifolco]

The go to AM5 boards are the Aorus B650 Gaming or Elite, $200-$220

Above that X670 boards are $300+

[Alex Atkin UK]

54 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

The go to AM5 boards are the Aorus B650 Gaming or Elite, $200-$220

Above that X670 boards are $300+

I actually avoided Gigabyte as they seemed to have a more insidious problem with the SoC voltage than ASUS did.  As in it gets set too high during POST (before the BIOS setting is activated) which as we know can take a while, so all that time its wearing out the CPU.  Also changing it in the BIOS wasn't always working properly either.

 

ASUS are fine now, in fact I feel more comfortable using them given after all the bad press they are unlikely to make such a huge mistake again any time soon.  Its when vendors get complacent that you have problems.

[PDifolco]

9 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I actually avoided Gigabyte as they seemed to have a more insidious problem with the SoC voltage than ASUS did.  As in it gets set too high during POST (before the BIOS setting is activated) which as we know can take a while, so all that time its wearing out the CPU.  Also changing it in the BIOS wasn't always working properly either.

 

ASUS are fine now, in fact I feel more comfortable using them given after all the bad press they are unlikely to make such a huge mistake again any time soon.  Its when vendors get complacent that you have problems.

Interesting, I didn't read any report of dead CPU on Gigabyte boards as they have in specs SoC voltage, but maybe they can wear out the CPU over time..

On Asus side the (non M) B650 Strix looks nice at $220, it even has better PCie slots than the Aorus Elite which is pretty poor 

[Alex Atkin UK]

29 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Interesting, I didn't read any report of dead CPU on Gigabyte boards as they have in specs SoC voltage, but maybe they can wear out the CPU over time..

On Asus side the (non M) B650 Strix looks nice at $220, it even has better PCie slots than the Aorus Elite which is pretty poor 

That's what I meant by insidious, its a problem that will take a lot longer to actually know if its a problem or not, as its only happening during POST so it will prematurely age the CPU rather than outright melting it.

 

Maybe it only was an issue with a specific board, chipset and BIOS, but it was enough to make me nervous as you need to probe the vsoc with an oscilloscope to see if its happening.  I think it was this video:

 

Incidentally, I got the ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI.

[MrAlbertrocks]

So recommendations? this only proved my point, it seems like there's always an issue no matter where i look. I understand that ASUS issues where almost half a year ago so it's not hard to believe everything is fixed now, but i still don't know which MOBO suits my needs best. Do i need b650? x670? b650e? Which brand, what model? Is PCIe 5.0 worth it considering i want to keep the system for at least 5 years?.  I know it's a lot of questions but it does get pretty tiring trying to do research and just going in circles for weeks, every time i decide for a board i google it and discover people telling me to avoid them.

[Bagzie]

15 minutes ago, MrAlbertrocks said:

So recommendations? this only proved my point, it seems like there's always an issue no matter where i look. I understand that ASUS issues where almost half a year ago so it's not hard to believe everything is fixed now, but i still don't know which MOBO suits my needs best. Do i need b650? x670? b650e? Which brand, what model? Is PCIe 5.0 worth it considering i want to keep the system for at least 5 years?.  I know it's a lot of questions but it does get pretty tiring trying to do research and just going in circles for weeks, every time i decide for a board i google it and discover people telling me to avoid them.

I had some issues a while back with my MSI board being a bit finicky with my ram expo but that's on me since I mistakenly got Samsung b die which is the worst ddr5 , Even so its been very stable since I got a bios update about 2 months ago.

 

Which I'm very happy with considering it was one of the cheapest options.

 

The soc issues are not an issie now as long as you update to the lastest bios which you absolutely should be doing.

 

Have a watch of this.

 

 

Suffice to say they are all pretty good apart from the ASUS boards which have royally messed up with the VRM's.

[MrAlbertrocks]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

That's what I meant by insidious, its a problem that will take a lot longer to actually know if its a problem or not, as its only happening during POST so it will prematurely age the CPU rather than outright melting it.

 

Maybe it only was an issue with a specific board, chipset and BIOS, but it was enough to make me nervous as you need to probe the vsoc with an oscilloscope to see if its happening.  I think it was this video:

 

Incidentally, I got the ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI.

The rog strix b650e-f looks nice and as far as i can tell checks all the marks on my OP, since you have it can you tell me if you've had any issues with it with the current BIOS? I'm talking about the usual stuff i see online, does the ram run smoothly at 6000mhz? does it have any instability issues?  I'm using Gskill Z5 neo cl30 6000mhz.

[Bagzie]

4 minutes ago, MrAlbertrocks said:

The rog strix b650e-f looks nice and as far as i can tell checks all the marks on my OP, since you have it can you tell me if you've had any issues with it with the current BIOS? I'm talking about the usual stuff i see online, does the ram run smoothly at 6000mhz? does it have any instability issues?  I'm using Gskill Z5 neo cl30 6000mhz.

That's Hynix memory which is known to run alot better than Samsung on AM5 , You should be good.

 

Also that board has a 12 phase 60 amp VRM design so won't have the same issues as the cheaper asus boards which are absolute garbage.

 

 

[MrAlbertrocks]

6 minutes ago, Bagzie said:

I had some issues a while back with my MSI board being a bit finicky with my ram expo.

 

But since the last bios it's been rock solid stable.

 

Have a watch of this.

 

 

The MSI  MAG b650 tomahawk was/is maybe an option as it is way cheaper than other options, but it lacks PCIe 5.0 and gen 5 M.2 slots (i think it has only 2 gen 4). As i'm planning to use it for such a long time i think it's smart to invest in a higher end mobo.

[Bagzie]

9 minutes ago, MrAlbertrocks said:

The MSI  MAG b650 tomahawk was/is maybe an option as it is way cheaper than other options, but it lacks PCIe 5.0 and gen 5 M.2 slots (i think it has only 2 gen 4). As i'm planning to use it for such a long time i think it's smart to invest in a higher end mobo.

Looking at the spec list i think only the M.2 slots are Gen 5.

 

Should not be much of an issue since the 4090 currently sees negligible performance drop on gen 3 for example.

 

Still its a nice board and having access to faster drives is always nice.

 

MSI B650 Gaming Plus WiFi AM5 ATX is a solid board if you want to go the no frills just works option , In my experience drive speed only really matters when transferring between 2 drives or looking at big numbers in benchmark software but maybe in the future it will matter more.

[GuiltySpark_]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NQHkDEcgDPm34Mns3C93K6SJoBnua-x9O-y_6hv8sPs/edit#gid=2064683589

[Alex Atkin UK]

58 minutes ago, MrAlbertrocks said:

The rog strix b650e-f looks nice and as far as i can tell checks all the marks on my OP, since you have it can you tell me if you've had any issues with it with the current BIOS? I'm talking about the usual stuff i see online, does the ram run smoothly at 6000mhz? does it have any instability issues?  I'm using Gskill Z5 neo cl30 6000mhz.

I never even bothered to reinstall the OS, I just flashed the latest BIOS and installed the latest AMD drivers.

 

The only issue I had was misunderstanding ASUS stupid BIOS options for EXPO.  

 

I tried "EXPO I" and it wouldn't POST, because ASUS stupidly have that as "ASUS tweaked" mode whereas "EXPO II" worked perfectly, even though I have RAM not on the motherboard supported list (Corsair Vengeance 2x32 GB DDR5-6000 CL30 CMK64GX5M2B6000Z30).  I would have gotten GSkill but its hard to find at a reasonable price in the UK.  Turns out my RAM matches the timings Gamers Nexus use, so I'm happy with that.

 

The important thing for me was that the PCIe slot would be 5.0 for future upgrades and 64GB RAM as I always like to have twice as much as generally recommended as it improves fast-travel loading speeds in games (if you are re-loading areas you have already been).

 

Starfield went from 6 seconds or so loading times on my 5950X to 1-2 seconds. 

[MrAlbertrocks]

Thanks for all the replies, sheets and videos, i think i'm closer to making a decision now, leaning towards the asus rog strix b650e-f and the MSI mag b650 tomahawk. Since i'll be using it for gaming i don't there there's a big difference between m.2 5.0 vs 4.0, there's almost no difference between a 3.0 even. I still haven't decided if PCIe 5.0 is worth the extra 50$ on the asus board, but i'll probably go with one of those two.