From x670E Crosshair Hero to ... Gene ... yes, call me crazy while there's still time

Postmodum

Postmodum

Postmodum

Associate
Joined
25 Mar 2011
Posts
115
Location
Portugal
Soooooo, good afternoon my friends.

I'm at a crossroads here and fighting myself with what to do and the clock is ticking.
I know this is very personal and each one of us will have different opinions and or use cases for this situation, but I would love to have your opinions and suggestions ... or just call me crazy :D

So this is the thing, on the 28th of November I pulled the plug on a 7800x3D, 2x16 XPG ROG Lancer 6600CL32 A-Die, and an Asus x670e Crosshair ... Hero.

The issue is that I did not want the Hero, I wanted the Gene but was out of stock. Since it was out of stock ... EVERYWHERE ... I convinced myself that it would be a long shot to wait for a board that we did not know when stock would be available.
Fast forward to yesterday ... my go-to shop ( Caseking Portugal ), I got the news that there was stock of 1 Gene.

I made a reservation for 3 days ... BUT I'M FIGHTING MYSELF HARD about this choice. Why? I got a really good price for the Hero first. Second, the hassle of packing everything and returning it to Amazon ...

But why the Gene in the first place?
a) Well, wanted to experiment with a 2-DIMM board. I'm always tweaking my system, like most of us ... and if that GENE gets me more juice that would be one of the reasons.
b) I never use more than 1 PCIE and 2 NVMEs... and now only 2 DIMMs
c) Memory OC ... of course, it goes hand in hand with a)
d) Everyone says Gene is the x670E board to go, period. Even better than the Asus Extreme.

Then I have some reservations ... like that Gen-Z vertical card that will cripple the space around the memory ( there goes my ram cooler ... ) ... and the mATX itself, it will be my first mATX and I don't quite have a feeling about how that is daily.
Another wrong decision I made... was getting a 011D Evo XL ... I mean, it was not a wrong decision, but if I knew there was a Gene on the horizon I would have bought something smaller :D


The thing is, I have a 7800x3D and a 6600 RAM... So I won't be playing a lot with 2:1, more with 1:1 and I have no clue how much better Gene can be on 1:1 for example.
Finally, thinking about memory overclock and potential, maybe in the future with the Zen 5, Gene can have a leverage being only 2 Dimms for example.

A lot of buts...

So, my question to you ... am I crazy to have this indecision? Do any of you have experience with Gene ... or better with both Hero and Gene?
Am I overthinking it?
Is the performance difference not that big? Should I just keep the Hero and be done with it :D
I know I know ... I should have the answer to all of this, but just need a small push :D

Thank you for your time!
 
Gene is the board to overclock ram on, thats for sure, I wont be changing my Gene for anything unless they come out with a newer one in the near future, like a Gene X770, theres a reason you cant find it in stock anywhere :D

As for ram cooling, unless you are being stupid with voltage (like I am) im running 1.55v on mine, its running 6400mhz CL28, then you wont have to cool it, as long as you keep it to 55oC or below you'll be fine, if you do want to cool it, what I did was buy a couple of 40mm fans and use some double sided tape to stick them to the side of the Gen-Z card pointing down at the ram, ive since changed the heat spreaders on the ram for some Iceman copper ones which has allowed me to remove the fans as its dropped the temps by 6oC compared to the crappy G.skill aluminium heat spreaders.

Ive never been able to run 1:1 6600mhz, but thats down to the CPU IMC, over on overclock.net, no one is able to run it apart from the odd guy here and there, but you need a better than golden chip to do that with a titanium IMC in it, and theres no point running 2:1 at 6600mhz when this board easily does 8000mhz 2:1 or 6400mhz 1:1 both of which will out perform 6600mhz 2:1.

Obviously, the Gene is a 1-DPC board so has an instant advantage over a 2-DPC board straight away.
 
Jamin280672 said:
Gene is the board to overclock ram on, thats for sure, I wont be changing my Gene for anything unless they come out with a newer one in the near future, like a Gene X770, theres a reason you cant find it in stock anywhere :D

As for ram cooling, unless you are being stupid with voltage (like I am) im running 1.55v on mine, its running 6400mhz CL28, then you wont have to cool it, as long as you keep it to 55oC or below you'll be fine, if you do want to cool it, what I did was buy a couple of 40mm fans and use some double sided tape to stick them to the side of the Gen-Z card pointing down at the ram, ive since changed the heat spreaders on the ram for some Iceman copper ones which has allowed me to remove the fans as its dropped the temps by 6oC compared to the crappy G.skill aluminium heat spreaders.

Ive never been able to run 1:1 6600mhz, but thats down to the CPU IMC, over on overclock.net, no one is able to run it apart from the odd guy here and there, but you need a better than golden chip to do that with a titanium IMC in it, and theres no point running 2:1 at 6600mhz when this board easily does 8000mhz 2:1 or 6400mhz 1:1 both of which will out perform 6600mhz 2:1.

Obviously, the Gene is a 1-DPC board so has an instant advantage over a 2-DPC board straight away.
Click to expand...
Damn IT!!!! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE MY HEAD AWAY FROM THE GENE! :D Damn you! :D

Are you using it on an ATX/ATX-e case?
 
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Postmodum said:
Damn IT!!!! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE MY HEAD AWAY FROM THE GENE! :D Damn you! :D

Are you using it on an ATX/ATX-e case?
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LOL, sorry I cant lie lol, umm the 011D Evo XL is a bit of a big case really, the Gene will look tiny in it, im using the Lian Li 011 Mini Air in 5 slot mode, the the vertical GPU mount, a 240mm radiator in the side (intake) and a 280mm radiator in the top (exhaust), I then have 3 x slim 120mm fans in the bottom (intake) and 2 x 240mm fans in the front (intake)
 
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I found the Gene to be beautiful just a bit flawed in a few simple areas. Complete lack of controllable fan headers is one, second I had MAJOR problems fitting certain GPU’s due to the design of the board. My 7900XTX Nitro wouldn’t really fit, the backplate would hit up against the boards IO cover. Frankly amazed ASUS didn’t encounter similar problems when developing it. It’s a cool board, I just changed it to a Hero in the end. I’m not convinced the Gene is *that* much better at overclocking memory when the big limitation is with the CPU not the boards.

I also wonder if the total lack of stock is because ASUS are running it out? Might be wrong. Just has been out of stock for quite a while in a few places.

I think the Hero is the better more usable board.
 
rare said:
I found the Gene to be beautiful just a bit flawed in a few simple areas. Complete lack of controllable fan headers is one, second I had MAJOR problems fitting certain GPU’s due to the design of the board. My 7900XTX Nitro wouldn’t really fit, the backplate would hit up against the boards IO cover. Frankly amazed ASUS didn’t encounter similar problems when developing it. It’s a cool board, I just changed it to a Hero in the end. I’m not convinced the Gene is *that* much better at overclocking memory when the big limitation is with the CPU not the boards.

I also wonder if the total lack of stock is because ASUS are running it out? Might be wrong. Just has been out of stock for quite a while in a few places.

I think the Hero is the better more usable board.
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Are you able to run 2:1 on it ? thats a genuine question by the way, I know some guys cant run it at all at high ram speeds.

I wouldnt know about the GPU issue as ive always vertically mounted mine.
 
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image.png
 
sorry i thought i was replying to a prv message :D

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These 2 images are what i have right now on mine. nothing big but... also it's a 7800x3D :D
 
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Postmodum said:
sorry i thought i was replying to a prv message :D

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These 2 images are what i have right now on mine. nothing big but... also it's a 7800x3D :D
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You are good up to 1.45v on VDD and VDDQ without worry about temps, you also have loads of headroom on your soc voltage, mines constantly at 1.26v, I never bother changing it regardless of whether I'm running 8000mhz profile or 6400mhz profile.

Does your tPHYRDL match ? 36 on both sticks ?
 
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Sorry i thought i was replying to a private Message :D Duhh
Jamin280672 said:
You are good up to 1.45v on VDD and VDDQ without worry about temps, you also have loads of headroom on your soc voltage, mines constantly at 1.26v, I never bother changing it regardless of whether I'm running 8000mhz profile or 6400mhz profile.

Does your tPHYRDL match ? 36 on both sticks ?
Click to expand...
Yep, both sticks show the same timing.
 
Postmodum said:
It’s amazing how with my cooling it gives me 155, less than some AIOs
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Sorry ive not been about, been playing with the new beta bios for the Gene, I guess the USB problems and nvme problems were AMDs fault and not ASUS, as AMD released a new AGESA 3 or 4 weeks after the last one and all those problems have gone, I think ASUS would have fixed it sooner if it had of been there fault.

Ive set my cooler score manually to 200, but im delidded with a direct die water block, I was getting 180 cooler score with a normal water block when I had the lid on, I could probably go higher with DD to be honest.

Bios 1806 is definitely worth flashing on the Gene even though its still in beta.....it will probably end up as final without any further adjustments, i'll run a bios comparison tool and see if there any changes between the beta and the final, if everything remains the same then I wont bother flashing the official.

docs.google.com

AM5 AGESA/UEFI/BIOS Table - Ryzen SMU Table (AM5 AM4)

ASRock A S R o c k, # = BETA Version *xxxx* = Test Version All information is without guarantee of correctness and completeness © Reous Innox Agesa,ComboAM5Pi,ComboAM5Pi,ComboAM5Pi,ComboAM5Pi Jump to:,<a href="#gid=424527849&range=C31">A620</a>,<a href="#gid=1756438782&range=G...
docs.google.com docs.google.com
 
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Ok, got my Gene and finally installed.
So far my feedbacks in terms of layout is ... meh ... but i guess that would be expected from a m-atx. I like the simplicity of 2 Dimms, 1 PCI-e 5.0 ... would prefer to have 2 x m.2 on the board somehow though.
Really don't like how the Gen-Z blocks the airflow to the memory.
My guess is that, while you are tuning mem and having fun, it's a great board.
When you are finished with that, and you want a usable board for the daily routine, the Hero will be better.
So, i just discovered I need an Apex :D best of both worlds :D
 
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