Is the Asus Strix B650E-E my best bet?

Vertigo

Vertigo

Vertigo

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So I'm trying to spec a new AM5 build and, as expected, the motherboard is proving to be the hardest part. The B650E chipset looks a no-brainer so it's just a question of which one.

I have two specific requirements which are slightly complicating things. Firstly, I need three M.2 NVMe slots, which I don't think is too unusual.
Secondly is networking. I'm currently using a 10GbE NIC as basic gigabit Ethernet isn't fast enough for me. Now I know these boards come with a 2.5GbE NIC which would be sufficient for my needs but I'm concerned by reports of failures and general flakiness with them.
For that reason, and potential support for 10GbE again down the line, I'd like a board which could accomodate a PCIe NIC.

I was originally looking at the Asus Strix B650E-F as a decent midrange board at a good price (around £230 these days).
I then discovered that use of all three M.2 slots would prevent use of the bottom x16 (x4) slot which would seriously complicate the use of a NIC.

I then started looking at the B650E-E which seems to have dropped in price a lot since launch and is currently only about £30 more than the E-F.
This sports four M.2 slots and, whilst one of them is again mutually exclusive with the bottom x16 (x4) slot, I wouldn't need this fourth slot so it would leave the PCIe slot free giving me NIC options down the road should I need/want them.

All the remaining specs on the E-E look good, especially at its current price.
The only things putting me off are these reports of NIC issues and potential coil whine.

That said I can't really see many viable alternatives. The Gigabyte B650E Aorus Master is silly money, coming in around 50% more than the Asus E-E.

Does anyone have any advice or input? Should I just go for the Asus E-E?
 
This is the board I use for AM5. Worth considering? I think this is also the one @random_matt is suggesting.

I've had it for a few months now. No issues to report.

www.asrock.com

ASRock B650E Taichi Lite

Supports AMD Socket AM5 Ryzen™ 9000, 8000 and 7000 Series Processors; 24+2+1 Power Phase, 105A SPS for Vcore+GT with Enlarged Heatsink Armor; 8 Layer Server-Grade Low-Loss PCB; 4 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7600+ (OC); 1 PCIe 5.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x16; Graphics Outputs Options ...
www.asrock.com www.asrock.com
 
Vertigo1 said:
I've never really considered ASRock as I've read so many bad things about their boards in the past.

Are they better now?
Click to expand...
Way better, they get a bad rep cus of the olden days but have come a long way .

Could you not use your 10gb NIC card in the second GPU slot ?
 
mickyflinn said:
Way better, they get a bad rep cus of the olden days but have come a long way .

Could you not use your 10gb NIC card in the second GPU slot ?
Click to expand...

My current NIC is an old Intel PCIe 2 x8 card which is all but useless in modern boards. Sourcing a PCIe 3 x4 one would be relatively easy.

That said, is the Killer NIC on the ASRock a more solid/reliable option than the Intel one most boards seem to sport? If so then I wouldn't necessarily need to rely on an add-in NIC, at least until I need 10Gb speeds.
 
How much is the 10Gb NIC? You could buy the X670E Creator, which comes with the 10Gb onboard, very expensive though.

It's only B650, but the B650-Plus TUF second full-length slot is chipset linked, with 4 lanes, but your graphics card would have to be fairly compact. It does have a PCI-E 5.0 M.2 slot.

B650-A Strix has a PCI-E slot with 4 lanes at the bottom, but it shares lanes with one of the M.2 slots.

B650 Creator doesn't have 10Gb LAN unfortunately, but does have 2 ports.
 
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random_matt said:
B650 Taichi Lite is my recommendation for B650.
Click to expand...

Firegod said:
This is the board I use for AM5. Worth considering? I think this is also the one @random_matt is suggesting.

I've had it for a few months now. No issues to report.

www.asrock.com

ASRock B650E Taichi Lite

Supports AMD Socket AM5 Ryzen™ 9000, 8000 and 7000 Series Processors; 24+2+1 Power Phase, 105A SPS for Vcore+GT with Enlarged Heatsink Armor; 8 Layer Server-Grade Low-Loss PCB; 4 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7600+ (OC); 1 PCIe 5.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x16; Graphics Outputs Options ...
www.asrock.com www.asrock.com
Click to expand...

I'm starting to like the Taichi Lite a lot I must say. Don't seem to be able to find a manual download though, does anyone know where I can find this?

I have the infernal I225-V on my current board and am dismayed to find this still being used so much and still having major issues. This is one of the reasons I use a separate NIC. The Killer NIC on the ASRock is thus very attractive as it would negate the need for a separate NIC, at least for the foreseeable future.

The only thing that bothers me is that I'd need to use all three M.2 slots, meaning the second PCIe slot would be disabled. If I wanted to use this down the line for a 10GbE NIC, I'd be stuck.
 
Tetras said:
How much is the 10Gb NIC? You could buy the X670E Creator, which comes with the 10Gb onboard, very expensive though.

It's only B650, but the B650-Plus TUF second full-length slot is chipset linked, with 4 lanes, but your graphics card would have to be fairly compact. It does have a PCI-E 5.0 M.2 slot.

B650-A Strix has a PCI-E slot with 4 lanes at the bottom, but it shares lanes with one of the M.2 slots.
Click to expand...

An Intel X550-T2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NIC is about £120 on the bay.

This whole PCIe lanes thing with M.2 versus PCIe slots is damned annoying. Seems the only way round it is to go X670E which is expensive and overkill in every other way.
 
Vertigo1 said:
Seems the only way round it is to go X670E which is expensive and overkill in every other way.
Click to expand...
The X670E Creator does have some decent features, alongside the 10Gb & 2.5 Gb LAN, like USB4 on the rear I/O, but I agree, X670E is usually far more than I'd want to pay.

X670E Tomahawk and X670E-Plus TUF are usually some of the cheapest, don't know if they'd have a better PCI-E config, though when you add £120 for the NIC, the X670E Creator isn't bad value :o
 
Tetras said:
The X670E Creator does have some decent features, alongside the 10Gb & 2.5 Gb LAN, like USB4 on the rear I/O, but I agree, X670E is usually far more than I'd want to pay.

X670E Tomahawk and X670E-Plus TUF are usually some of the cheapest, don't know if they'd have a better PCI-E config, though when you add £120 for the NIC, the X670E Creator isn't bad value :o
Click to expand...
Being an onboard NIC, you can also WOL on the 10g connection.

Also, OP, look around to check for potential deals that might be around for stuff like this. I grabbed mine (Creater Wifi X670E) at £530 odd when it was first released last year, but I believe it is possible to find it for less these days. Subtract the cost of the 10g NIC, and you may find that its very close to the cost of the other boards you're looking at right now, with the convenience of not needing to look for getting a network card fitted in (and USB4 at least if the other boards don't have it). The only thing is, there's no RGB, so I don't know if that impacts on OP's descision making.
 
Whilst you're right about the cost when factoring in a 10g NIC, if I go the ASRock Taichi Lite route, I can do without the NIC completely and just rely on the in-built Killer one. I don't actually need 10g, 2.5g is enough for the foreseeable future, the potential purchase of a 10g NIC was only based on having to work round the atrocious I225-V Intel NIC.

The Creator Wifi seems to be about the £450 mark now which is cheaper than launch but still far more than I wanted to spend on a motherboard!
 
Vertigo1 said:
I can do without the NIC completely and just rely on the in-built Killer one.
Click to expand...
I believe the Killer NIC is just a rebranded Intel NIC, if you check Intel ark it says the E3100 is descended from the same Foxville product family as the problematic i225v and if you google the NIC there are the same threads about disconnections and instability.
 
I'm actually coming back full-circle to the Asus B650E-E.
See how I get on with the built-in 2.5g NIC and, if I have issues then I can source and fit a 10g NIC.

Whilst I like the look of the ASRock and hadn't previously considered them, my need to use all M.2 slots means I wouldn't have a functional spare PCIe so wouldn't have any options should the built-in NIC prove problematic.

The Creator is interesting but just too much money and overkill for me really.
 
One final piece of advice/info, whatever PCIe cards you're thinking of using, give them a measure now first and see if they can fit into the PCI slots given.

The reason I advise caution on this front, is because the GPU (usually going into the top slot) has of course, been getting bigger and bigger. So GPU's taking up 2.5 (3) slot space are now common, and going into 3.1 (4) or more space if not unheard of. This will of course render the second PCI slot useless if it's too close (it's the case on the Creator and from what I can tell, the E-E you're looking at too). So your card, whatever it may be, will need to be able to fit into the bottom slot.

Not a problem if you keep your GPU size reasonable, but if you should grab a chonky boy, well, it may cause problems for using the PCI slots below. Just a heads up. :)
 
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