Motherboard for ryzen 5 2600?

Yo Whats Up · April 24, 2018

So, at first I was going to go for the i5 8400 because of the price difference with the ryzen 5 2600 and the superior gaming performance, but then I remembered that I can sell the cooler of the ryzen 5 2600 which equalizes the prices, and then I read some reviews which say that the 2600 is very close to the i5 8400, but since I'm gaming at 1080p@60 there's going to be a very small difference in fps and I might as well take the 12 threads that just demolish intel's 6. Now the question is, what motherboard to get? According to this quick comparison that I found in google, I definitely don't want A320 since it can't be overclocked, I checked the prices of x470 and they're over the top, so I probably don't want a x470 either. I lose out on storemi but according to what I read about it, it's basically only useful when you don't have enough storage on your ssd so that you can leave a part of the ssd empty and the storemi tech dynamically moves data from hdd to ssd when you need to use that data, and then moves it back when you're no longer using it, prioritizing data based on how much you use it, and it also creates a 2gb ram disk. But I can already do the latter by myself, and I don't have storage issues anyway, anything that I want to be on my ssd is already there. Then there is the supported ram speed being increased, but the ram can already work faster than what is supported, right? Something like intel's xmp except amd equivalent. I'm not gonna use more than 1 gpu so that's one reason why I might not need an x370. I don't know what pci-e lanes are for and if I'm gonna need 8, or is 6 enough? Same thing for sata 3.0, I remember sata being used for the drives? Do I need 4 or is 2 fine? B350 has 4 3.1 usb ports but my only usb usage right now is my mouse and keyboard so that makes 2 ports, I guess the b350 is enough then? I want to oc my ryzen as much as possible, I have a gigantic lucifer k2 cooler along with two very fast 120mm fans on two opposite sides of the heatsink, one intake and one exhaust, the exhaust goes directly out of the case, it's as good as liquid cooling if not better so temperatures won't be a problem for me at all, I want to squeeze as much oc as possible from this chip, till the last drop. Is there a benefit getting a x370/x470 for that or is the b350 the same in terms of overclocking capability? Is there anything I missed? What about the models? Which ones should I consider, keeping in mind the price as well? Should I wait for B450 motherboards?

SpaceGhostC2C · April 24, 2018

8 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

I read some reviews which say that the 2600 is very close to the i5 8400, but since I'm gaming at 1080p@60 there's going to be a very small difference in fps

There will be more like zero difference, since both are capable of more than 60FPS. Even weaker CPUS than both would do, it's just a matter of having a good enough GPU and good to go.

8 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

According to this quick comparison that I found in google, I definitely don't want A320 since it can't be overclocked, I checked the prices of x470 and they're over the top, so I probably don't want a x470 either. I lose out on storemi (...)

It looks like B450 could be the sweet spot for you, but they haven't launched those yet.

8 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

Then there is the supported ram speed being increased, but the ram can already work faster than what is supported, right?

Yes, but you also get better memory support and support for faster ram above the "official" number (think official is 2666 vs 2933, OC is 3200 vs 3600).

8 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

I'm not gonna use more than 1 gpu so that's one reason why I might not need an x370. I don't know what pci-e lanes are for and if I'm gonna need 8, or is 6 enough?

You use them for PCIe devices (the ones tha tfit on the expansion slots), and PCIe M.2 drives. Basically, for one GPU you don't need to think too much about it (even for 2, some may argue). It's only a problem if you need to plug many additional devices, each of which requires very high bandwidth for your purpose (like, I don't know, you want to build a server with tons of 10Gb ethernet ports at full speed).

8 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

Same thing for sata 3.0, I remember sata being used for the drives? Do I need 4 or is 2 fine?

You need as many ports as drives you are going to hook. For one drive, one port is enough, for an SSD, an HDD, and maybe an ODD, 3 is enough. If you want to plug 8 HDDs, then you need 8 (or to put a PCIe SATA controller to get more ports).

8 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

B350 has 4 3.1 usb ports but my only usb usage right now is my mouse and keyboard so that makes 2 ports, I guess the b350 is enough then?

Yes. Running out of USB is so specific that you would already know if that was your case

8 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

I want to oc my ryzen as much as possible, I have a gigantic lucifer k2 cooler along with two very fast 120mm fans on two opposite sides of the heatsink, one intake and one exhaust, the exhaust goes directly out of the case, it's as good as liquid cooling if not better so temperatures won't be a problem for me at all, I want to squeeze as much oc as possible from this chip, till the last drop. Is there a benefit getting a x370/x470 for that or is the b350 the same in terms of overclocking capability?

It's mostly the same. Manufacturers will often use better VRM (power delivery for the CPU) on higher end boards, but at this point those boards are way overkill for Ryzen CPUs. The reason is that before the temperature or the VRMs become a limiting factor, you run out of OC headroom because Ryzen just won't do it. First gen will do 4.0, 4.1 if very lucky, 2nd gen will do 4.2, 4.3 if very lucky. At those frequencies, you are not drawing that much power, nor heating up that much (stock cooler probably won't do 4.2 or 4.3, but beefy aftermarket will).

Still, for better peace of mind, you would want to get a good motherboard on the VRM department for overclocking. But chipsets don't matter for that, only build quality choices by the manufacturer. A good B350 (or B450 when available) will do.