BEST AM4 motherboard with legacy PCI?

[Aggravated Salmon]

I was browsing the newegg site for an am4 motherboard with legacy pci and my options were EXTREMELY limited. I have this very very expensive (450USD) Creative SB leagcy PCI sound card and I really want to use it on my upcoming RYZEN build but i have absolutely no idea what motherboard to choose. man, can't at least 1 mid end board have legacy PCI. i know it's old tech and stuff but come on, people are not going to use up the extra 2-3 pci-e slots. i think that they will capture a decent market share if they actually make a half decent ryzen motherboard with leagcy PCI (people with old but gold sound cards).

 

Anyway enough of the whining, my options are as follows (ignoring a320 and mATX):

Asus PRIME B350-PLUS (very badly reviewed at least on newegg which is where i'm buying from)

Asus PRIME X370-A (hugely horrendous price/performance) (terrible VRMs for a 130USD board)

Biostar B350GT5 (biostar always has been the most reliable board for me but it's apparently trash for ryzen) (no top vrm heatsinks)

Biostar X370GT5 (^^)

MSI B350 GAMING PLUS (it's fkin msi, my last msi board caught on fire and ALL of my MSI boards failed some way or another, also apparently has trash BIOS)

MSI B350 PC MATE (^^)

MSI B350 TOMAHAWK (^^)

MSI B350 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC (^^)

 

all i want is a reliable board that can keep a ryzen 7 1700x overclocked to hopefully 4ghz (liquid cooled by EVGA CLC 280) without VRMs going over 100 deg c and degrading the temperature sensitive capacitors beside the VRMs. this is gonna be a high end 1080 Ti build anyways. (btw i'll make sure every single place i can put a fan in my case has a fan installed so hopefully that can factor into the temperature of the VRMs) (of course onboard audio can be ignored)

 

what would you choose? thanks!

[NelizMastr]

It's called legacy for a reason, meaning it's technology that's considered obsolete for the general public. And that $450 sound card, I highly doubt it's still worth anywhere near that nowadays, but you didn't specify which exact type it is, so that's hard to guestimate  Chances are current motherboard audio has caught up or surpassed it.

 

Just pick a board that you like and just give it a whirl. 

[Aggravated Salmon]

Just now, NelizMastr said:

It's called legacy for a reason, meaning it's technology that's considered obsolete for the general public. And that $450 sound card, I highly doubt it's still worth anywhere near that nowadays, but you didn't specify which exact type it is, so that's hard to guestimate  Chances are current motherboard audio has caught up or surpassed it.

 

Just pick a board that you like and just give it a whirl. 

https://www.ebay.com/p/Creative-Sound-Blaster-X-Fi-Elite-Pro-sound-card-70SB055A00000/77210729

its 270USD used

[NelizMastr]

2 minutes ago, Aggravated Salmon said:

https://www.ebay.com/p/Creative-Sound-Blaster-X-Fi-Elite-Pro-sound-card-70SB055A00000/77210729

its 270USD used

And it's a sound card released in 2005. No offense, but that's a loooong time ago in technology  

[Aggravated Salmon]

3 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

And it's a sound card released in 2005. No offense, but that's a loooong time ago in technology  

yeah i totally understand but sound cards not really huh? if it is still 270USD used now, it should be pretty good right.

[NelizMastr]

1 minute ago, Aggravated Salmon said:

yeah i totally understand but sound cards not really huh? if it is still 270USD used now, it should be pretty good right.

When a product hasn't been in production for many years, you can't really say that anymore. If it's an exclusive or rare model for collection purposes, value rises. Chances are, that these were sold for $30 in like 2011. It's probably a decent card still, yeah, but I'm sure current sound cards on PCIe in a similar price range kick its ass into next tuesday.

[Aggravated Salmon]

9 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

When a product hasn't been in production for many years, you can't really say that anymore. If it's an exclusive or rare model for collection purposes, value rises. Chances are, that these were sold for $30 in like 2011. It's probably a decent card still, yeah, but I'm sure current sound cards on PCIe in a similar price range kick its ass into next tuesday.

can u quote me an example of the $30 thing. this cards destroys the audio of one of the asus skylake motherboard onboard audioi had the chance of testing on.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

31 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

It's called legacy for a reason, meaning it's technology that's considered obsolete for the general public.

There is no shortage of AM4 motherboards with PCI slots, though. It's not old enough. No reason to rush throwing his PCI card away when he can have his cake and eat it too.

 

29 minutes ago, Aggravated Salmon said:

https://www.ebay.com/p/Creative-Sound-Blaster-X-Fi-Elite-Pro-sound-card-70SB055A00000/77210729

its 270USD used

That's a listing. To find it's price used, you need to search for an auction, and see the winning bid. THe guy may keep that card at 270 forever without ever finding a buyer, for all you know. List prices on used items at eBay don't mean much.

 

34 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

 Chances are current motherboard audio has caught up or surpassed it.

I doubt it. I used to think the same, until I got a used soundcard from eBay (€25) for a motherboard with dead onboard audio. I went to test it it was working and was surprised by the difference in sound quality. Tried a different PC with same audio chip and I could confirm in real time it was not the same at all. Whehter there was something more software rather than hardware related, can't tell, but either way it turned out to be noticeable even for me (no fancy audio equipment around).

 

25 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

It's probably a decent card still, yeah, but I'm sure current sound cards on PCIe in a similar price range kick its ass into next tuesday.

I wouldn't lift my expectations that high, but yes, there's likely a newer, better card out there in the same price range or lower than that one when new. That's not free, though, while choosing the right motherboard for his parts is  

[Rackooo]

i would go for the crosshair 6 hero, and use its onboard audio, the sound and clarity is really nice. dont know what creative card you have but if  its old technology you are probably best off buying a board with good onboard audio, at least that is what i would do

[just_dave]

None of the boards you listed won't be able to stay at reasonable temps with 1700X at stock.

Overclocking it will burn your house down.

Prime B350 Plus/B350 PC M8 are your "best" options but with those i highly recommend undervolting/underclocking the CPU

[Aggravated Salmon]

13 hours ago, dave_k said:

None of the boards you listed won't be able to stay at reasonable temps with 1700X at stock.

Overclocking it will burn your house down.

Prime B350 Plus/B350 PC M8 are your "best" options but with those i highly recommend undervolting/underclocking the CPU

Mhmm damn. If I zip tie a case fan onto the VRMs, will the temps be under control? I mean it is a 4 vrms for vcore and it’s definitely capable of outputting more than 100 amps (r7 oc 4ghz). Only concern is the temperatures. That should solve it right?

[just_dave]

2 hours ago, Aggravated Salmon said:

it’s definitely capable of outputting more than 100 amps (r7 oc 4ghz).

R7 4GHz eats anywhere between 100-130A depending on load and voltage and that is just around the limit of these weak shit VRMs.

High-rpm 80mm fan should help a bit

[Vode]

3 hours ago, Aggravated Salmon said:

Mhmm damn. If I zip tie a case fan onto the VRMs, will the temps be under control? I mean it is a 4 vrms for vcore and it’s definitely capable of outputting more than 100 amps (r7 oc 4ghz). Only concern is the temperatures. That should solve it right?

As long as you cool the VRMs you will be fine.

 

Definitely put some aftermarket heatsinks on to them (bigger = better) and a small fan for good measure.

[Surgeman]

On 12/20/2017 at 9:10 AM, Aggravated Salmon said:

I was browsing the newegg site for an am4 motherboard with legacy pci and my options were EXTREMELY limited. I have this very very expensive (450USD) Creative SB leagcy PCI sound card and I really want to use it on my upcoming RYZEN build but i have absolutely no idea what motherboard to choose. man, can't at least 1 mid end board have legacy PCI. i know it's old tech and stuff but come on, people are not going to use up the extra 2-3 pci-e slots. i think that they will capture a decent market share if they actually make a half decent ryzen motherboard with leagcy PCI (people with old but gold sound cards).

 

Anyway enough of the whining, my options are as follows (ignoring a320 and mATX):

Asus PRIME B350-PLUS (very badly reviewed at least on newegg which is where i'm buying from)

Asus PRIME X370-A (hugely horrendous price/performance) (terrible VRMs for a 130USD board)

Biostar B350GT5 (biostar always has been the most reliable board for me but it's apparently trash for ryzen) (no top vrm heatsinks)

Biostar X370GT5 (^^)

MSI B350 GAMING PLUS (it's fkin msi, my last msi board caught on fire and ALL of my MSI boards failed some way or another, also apparently has trash BIOS)

MSI B350 PC MATE (^^)

MSI B350 TOMAHAWK (^^)

MSI B350 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC (^^)

 

all i want is a reliable board that can keep a ryzen 7 1700x overclocked to hopefully 4ghz (liquid cooled by EVGA CLC 280) without VRMs going over 100 deg c and degrading the temperature sensitive capacitors beside the VRMs. this is gonna be a high end 1080 Ti build anyways. (btw i'll make sure every single place i can put a fan in my case has a fan installed so hopefully that can factor into the temperature of the VRMs) (of course onboard audio can be ignored)

 

what would you choose? thanks!

I've been running the 1700x for about 9 months now with the Asus PRIME B350-PLUS,and so far it's been fairly stable straight out of the box.The worst hiccup I have encountered recently is the new bios that was released 3401 to support newer CPU's I have trouble with it power back on after a complete shutdown.If you get this board stick with bios 1002 until another release comes available after 3402.I was the same way.I have some legacy hardware that's PCI I still run today.That's a nice sound card by the way,and none of the onboard you will find even compares to some of these stand alone cards.

[SupaKomputa]

I use Biostar X370GT3 rock solid till now.

if VRM heatsink is your concern just slap some custom chip heatsink like these.

Only $1 a piece.

[pizapower]

Are there X470 motherboards with legacy PCI? I can't find anything.

[BobbyWF]

PCIe to PCI adapter https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-PCI-Express-Adapter-Card/dp/B0024CV3SA

 

[chrisNova777]

https://www.newegg.ca/asus-prime-a320m-c-r2-0/p/N82E16813132997

https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/PRIME-A320M-C-R2-0/

 

this motherboard has a legacy PCI slot on it; manufactured by ASUS

says it supports Ryzen Cpus

https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/PRIME-A320M-C-R2-0/HelpDesk_CPU/

[Mira Yurizaki]

On 12/20/2017 at 7:25 AM, Aggravated Salmon said:

https://www.ebay.com/p/Creative-Sound-Blaster-X-Fi-Elite-Pro-sound-card-70SB055A00000/77210729

its 270USD used

For $270 USD you can buy a Sound Blaster AE7, which would give you practically all of the features of the X-Fi plus more.

 

I was going to say software support is likely nil for such an old card, but it looks like Creative actually does have Windows 10 support for X-Fi cards.

 

EDIT: Software support on the OS side might be there, but software support else where may not be. Applications are more likely to support the AE series cards than the X-Fi cards these days.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Mira Yurizaki

[Aggravated Salmon]

mans still chatting up a 3 year old post

[temporalsounds]

AM4 motherboard with legacy PCI

 

After years same problem here for upgrade to AMD Ryzen.I own E-MU 1616m PCI soundcard longer time,the best Pro audio inetrface I ever have for good price ,but problem is,there are no PCI on new AMD motherboards.OK. So,let me explain why not reason to change to common soundcards for example like soundblaster,xsonar or integrated soundcard on the motherboard.

First is software.It is similar like graphic developers.But there are audio producers too.

I mean software like: Control panel of soundcard, native ASIO drivers (no Asio-for-all),WDM ,hardware connection and many possibilities of this soundcard...MIDI connection,MIC inputs,SPDIF output,input, 44.1khz,48,88.2,96,176.4,192kHz sample rates, etc...and the most important  reason to stay with this hardware is PatchMix panel DSP -Integrated hardware zero latency accelerated panel mix to setup and control your soundcard in many options.Great.

 

Common soundcards is for gamers,not for producers! I don't need any 3D,5.1 or 7.1 surround sound or some "Crystallizer"... 

There are so many videos,articles ,discussions about : ""Do you need soundcard in 2020 on your new motherboard ?"" ofcourse not.I don't......I am a gamer.

Do you need graphic card ? ofcourse not,I'm a music producer... magic circle....

Like you can see the example of mixpanel on the picture,that's very important to me,why this kind of PCI soundcard.

I would be apreciate ,if you never say,you don't need soundcard interface. Can you tell it to graphic designer? :"" You don't need Professional graphic card""?  ...there is integrated graphic in processor.....  

 

[hunsnotdead]

  

On 2/5/2020 at 3:12 PM, temporalsounds said:

Common soundcards is for gamers,not for producers! I don't need any 3D,5.1 or 7.1 surround sound or some "Crystallizer"

 

You or the OP also dont need any excuses, certanly not excessively long ones.  Reminds me of the old "So you only have PCI slot and want to game?" debate where the overexited kids just wanted people to throw out their mITX motherboards, and PCI expansion only OEM SFF rigs because PCI its useless. While they were not wrong, there was a task at hand and they all utterly failed at it.

 

Sad because the PCI graphic card market understandably shrunk to a minimum after 2000, so it wasnt that difficult to name the best videocard available: get an Hecules Gef MX, get a VisionTek Radeon 9100, get an Inno3D Gef FX5600/FX5700SE, get a Zotac Gef 6200, get a VisionTek Radeon X1300/1550, get a  Sparkle Gef 8500/9500 GT, get a Zotac Gef GT430/520/610 and thats it.

 

Instead of that we had hundreds of posts about how these are useless, and how everyone needed to just throw out anything that was not a current 400 USD top of the line video card and a current high end motherboard.

 

 

I too was eyeing modern motherboards with PCI slots, and around 2018 the masterplan could have worked with the flavour of the month Core i5 8400, and the good bang for the buck Asrock Z370 Pro4, the Gigabyte Z370 HD3P runner up, with MSI Z370 PC PRO being an all else fails backup. Then came the very slightly cheaper Gigabyte H370 HD3P, and the Asus H370-Plus and B360-Plus boards (at that point only the Asrock Pro4 was sold) and around mid 2019 the problem solved itself because no shop around sold PCI Socket 1151 boards anymore.

So around 2018 the AMD side had the MSI B350 Tomahawk, MSI B350 Gaming Plus and the Asus PRIME-B350 PLUS that looked like the best PCI option, and some random runners up like the MSI B350 PC MATE as the if all else fails option.

 

I was out of the loop since then, but some google-fu doesnt promise dozens of cheap B450 with PCI options for the extra cheap YD1600BBAFBOX Ryzen 5 1600->2600 processors floating around.

 

On 1/23/2020 at 5:55 PM, Mira Yurizaki said:

I was going to say software support is likely nil for such an old card, but it looks like Creative actually does have Windows 10 support for X-Fi cards.

 

Yeah Creative got soooo much flak in the Vista era that they really trying since, or at least nowadays. Even the very first X-fi cards(Elite Pro and the XtremeMusic/Fatality cards) from 15 years ago have less than 6 months old updated drivers for current version of Windows 10. This also means that 8 X-fi cards could be transferred and used in a modern motherboard.

Then most Auzentech cards, some ESI and Audotrak branded cards(Win8.1 drivers mostly work in 10), most of the Asus cards, and higher end stuff like Omega Claro Halo and Essence ST also would be much much better than anything a motherboard and the Realtek 1220 (though in reality most boards cheap out and use 892 and 885 like they are not even trying) wonder could bring to the table. And thats still barebones "better sound comes out of that hole" use cases, and not professional stuff.

 

On 1/23/2020 at 5:55 PM, Mira Yurizaki said:

EDIT: Software support on the OS side might be there, but software support else where may not be. Applications are more likely to support the AE series cards than the X-Fi cards these days.

 

Since good ol Vista, the applications are dumb as bricks and dont really require anything from the sound hardware. The days of  app complaining about "omg you dirty console peasant, you dont have 128 hardware 3D sound channels, how dare you click on my glorious PC icon, go back to PS3 you pleb" are far faar gone. Not like they could require anything since everyone and their dawg use onboard, use digital, or use Highest Of The Fidelities connected with platinum plated telepathy that on the hardware side are possibly simpler than AC97 chipsets from 99 that still needed to work in DOS.

 

So yeah were here to to use PCI not bury it.

[temporalsounds]

17 hours ago, hunsnotdead said:

Then most Auzentech cards, some ESI and Audiotrak branded cards(Win8.1 drivers mostly work in 10)

Thank you so much hunsnotdead for your respond !!! 

I found some nice 'modern' motherboard GIGABYTE C246-WU4 ,maybe to build my own ,,workstation'' .Its not for Ryzen, but 

Intel brand,thinking to put there Xeon 6/12 CPU (1151 socket).Oh no,Intel again That Gigabyte Z370 HD3P looks promissing too(better price!)

Yeah ,about that drivers,I agree with you.Fortunately that drivers(Win 7,Vista drivers) for E-MU soundcards works in Win10 too,,phew.

I own one Audiotrak soundcard (low profile) too.Drivers work fine.

I'm using W7 still...I know, support ended

OK,thanks again for nice reply

 

[hunsnotdead]

7 hours ago, temporalsounds said:

I found some nice 'modern' motherboard GIGABYTE C246-WU4 ,maybe to build my own ,,workstation'' .

 

Been searching a bit and the situation is quite dire. Looks like board makers totally canned PCI slots after B350/X370/Z370 (so after 2017 basically) and they were not enthusiastic about it even then. Not only that, but most what i mentioned went out of production and disappeared from the store shelves. 

Your board maybe the most up to date S1151 motherboard found in retail (supports everything from 8100 to 9900k plus some Xeon models nobody ever heard of , and C246 pretty much looks like a workstation version of the Z390), though im fairly sure there are some obscure OEM boards that have and possibly may get PCI at least for a short while. Word of warning, just today C246-WU4 got delisted around our parts so its possible it will disappear from other countries too, like the rest of them.

 

On the up side i found a board that is both AM4 with Zen 2 support, and sold everywhere in Central Europe for a decent-ish price (~100 euro) the ASUS PRIME X370-A

A fairly cookie cutter by X370 standards(oh dear those VRMs), and certainly meager compared to the X570 lineup(no chipset fan on it though), but its pretty much the only board with PCI thats still available. It theoretically supports the whole Ryzen 3000 line, but at least an R5 3600 really should not pose a problem.

[temporalsounds]

Hunsnotdead :"supports everything from 8100 to 9900k plus some Xeon models nobody ever heard of"...

 

Especially I was looking for Xeon E-2236  6c/12th,Cache 12 MB ,TDP 80 W  for this C246 M.B.

 

Ah yes,that Asus PRIME X370-A  looks great.(PCI slots included ) M.2 slot too.No chipset fan .I like it. I missed this one MB before.

edit: hmm,there is at first post of this topic hehe

The price is exactly €100,-  here in market, still avaiable.If this MB supports Ryzen 3000 ,that would be great !(updated bios).

I think,R5 3600 6c/12th would be good/best choice for me.

Thanks a lot.