Motherboard and RAM recommendation for 9800x3d? For gaming (up to £500)

[Nexus18]

As per title, any advice please, budget wise, maybe up to about £500 in total (happy holding out till black friday for cheaper prices). Motherboard wise, I'm not picky which brand, always heard asrock had awful support and drivers but this gen they seem better? Usually just gone with msi and had no issues. I have currently got 32GB ram and this does me for my needs so probably don't need anymore.

Will be going with a 5080 fe and just got 1 nvme drive atm but would like to have 2 in total in the future. I also need 5 SATA drives.

Thanks.

 

[deviation]

Is RTX going to be ON though

Any B850 is going to do what you need it to. Unless you care about multiple NVME's running at full speed, and USB4.0. If so go X series, but I think it's a bit of a rip off/con personally, considering those features should have been standard these days.

 

[Tetras]

I also need 5 SATA drives.

That's tricky. The Tomahawk from the last gen (B650) had 6, but the current gen is only 4 and I'm not sure I could recommend a board without PCI-E 5.0 graphics anymore.

X670E Carbon solves that problem, but £300 is a lot to pay.

 

[deviation]

Would it not be better to just get some bigger SATA drives, and get rid of some of the 5 that you've got? I'd rather that than loose out on a better motherboard that doesn't break the bank.

 

[Tetras]

Would it not be better to just get some bigger SATA drives, and get rid of some of the 5 that you've got? I'd rather that than loose out on a better motherboard that doesn't break the bank.

If OP wanted to take a punt on the B650 Tomahawk, there are reports that (some?) B650 boards actually do have PCI-E 5.0 slots, but they just can't advertise them with it.

 

[Nexus18]

I could drop the sata drives tbf as will be buying a new external soon so would have 3 sata drives.

Also, will these mobos support amds next gen cpus? Or is that a completely new chipset/socket?

What about RAM? Is amd still picky on this and volts/speed? Or would any DDR 5 set do?

Is RTX going to be ON though

Any B850 is going to do what you need it to. Unless you care about multiple NVME's running at full speed, and USB4.0. If so go X series, but I think it's a bit of a rip off/con personally, considering those features should have been standard these days.

RTX ON ALWAYS!!!!!

 

[Tetras]

Also, will these mobos support amds next gen cpus? Or is that a completely new chipset/socket?

Zen 6 is pretty much confirmed to be on AM5. There are rumours that Zen 7 will be supported by AM5 too, though I find that hard to believe unless it is just a refresh or will have a memory controller that supports multiple types.

What about RAM? Is amd still picky on this and volts/speed? Or would any DDR 5 set do?

Ideally, the recommendation is still 6000 C30, but it doesn't have to be if there's a better deal.

 

[deviation]

I could drop the sata drives tbf as will be buying a new external soon so would have 3 sata drives.

Also, will these mobos support amds next gen cpus? Or is that a completely new chipset/socket?

What about RAM? Is amd still picky on this and volts/speed? Or would any DDR 5 set do?

RTX ON ALWAYS!!!!!

Yeah just get rid of them and replace them with a single drive of the same total capacity or a couple as required?

6000MT/s is the sweet spot for AM5 IIRC?

#RTXfetish

 

[Nexus18]

How about this for components?



Also, I have an asus essence stx 2 sound card, which I think is still arguably one of the best for sound so not sure there is any motherboard audio that can match?

 

[Tetras]

How about this for components?

Sure, they're fine. You could go cheaper with the board (e.g. B850 Tomahawk), but if you want USB4 then X870 is needed.

£170 for 32GB is very ouch though, I'd be prepared to buy C40, C36 or C32, or maybe a 6400 kit, if you can get a better price or better capacity deal.

 

[Nexus18]

Sure, they're fine. You could go cheaper with the board (e.g. B850 Tomahawk), but if you want USB4 then X870 is needed.

£170 for 32GB is very ouch though, I'd be prepared to buy C40, C36 or C32, or maybe a 6400 kit, if you can get a better price or better capacity deal.

Shows how out of date I am, didn't even realise usb 4 was a thing What even uses usb 4? I thought usb c was the latest?

Only just picked that ram as read that c30 6000mhz is the sweet spot for 9800x3d? I guess it's the g skill brand asking the extra premium... Any links to RAM you recommend? I'm not too bothered about capacity but if there is more RAM for better price and no issues with stability etc. I am good with that too.

 

[deviation]

Shows how out of date I am, didn't even realise usb 4 was a thing What even uses usb 4? I thought usb c was the latest?

I mean I did mention it straight away when you posted

Any B850 is going to do what you need it to. Unless you care about multiple NVME's running at full speed, and USB4.0. If so go X series, but I think it's a bit of a rip off/con personally, considering those features should have been standard these days.

Either way, I'll let you off in this instance, as you're mind's memory is reserved to only consume 'RTXON' critical information, so it's understandable that something irrelevant such as USB ports, wasn't stored in your memory banks

 

[Tetras]

Any links to RAM you recommend? I'm not too bothered about capacity but if there is more RAM for better price and no issues with stability etc. I am good with that too.

At the moment stock seems to be disappearing and I can't link elsewhere, but really just a case of "whatever looks good".

At OCUK, 32GB with RGB I guess the PNY kit or for higher capacity, the Corsair. Many of the kits have been pulled or had the price jacked up recently.

Shows how out of date I am, didn't even realise usb 4 was a thing What even uses usb 4? I thought usb c was the latest?

I have no idea, maybe more stuff will come out later. USB4 is the main reason to buy X870, if you don't want it then it is more likely to get in the way (due to lane sharing shenanigans).

The Sapphire board is one of the best priced right now, but we don't know what they will be like with BIOS and software updates.

Also, I have an asus essence stx 2 sound card, which I think is still arguably one of the best for sound so not sure there is any motherboard audio that can match?

I'm not much for sound, but I'd caution about finding a suitable slot. Modern boards are very lane starved. Would be annoying to buy and find out later it doesn't fit.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04561) = £79.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance XMP 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-05105) = £175.99
• 1 x Sapphire Nitro+ B850A WiFi 7 (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05688) = £158.00

Total: £421.97 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

 

[Nexus18]

I mean I did mention it straight away when you posted



Either way, I'll let you off in this instance, as you're mind's memory is reserved to only consume 'RTXON' critical information, so it's understandable that something irrelevant such as USB ports, wasn't stored in your memory banks

Haha, so you did! #RTXON does occupy all my memory tbh

At the moment stock seems to be disappearing and I can't link elsewhere, but really just a case of "whatever looks good".

At OCUK, 32GB with RGB I guess the PNY kit or for higher capacity, the Corsair. Many of the kits have been pulled or had the price jacked up recently.


I have no idea, maybe more stuff will come out later. USB4 is the main reason to buy X870, if you don't want it then it is more likely to get in the way (due to lane sharing shenanigans).

The Sapphire board is one of the best priced right now, but we don't know what they will be like with BIOS and software updates.


I'm not much for sound, but I'd caution about finding a suitable slot. Modern boards are very lane starved. Would be annoying to buy and find out later it doesn't fit.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04561) = £79.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance XMP 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-05105) = £175.99
• 1 x Sapphire Nitro+ B850A WiFi 7 (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05688) = £158.00

Total: £421.97 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Thanks! Didn't even realise sapphire were making MBs now too! But yes, I would prefer to stick to well tested and used mb brands so will stick with msi probably. Will do some reading on the pci lanes to accommodate my essence stx 2 too or try and get a mb with sound nearly as good as the soundcard.

 

[Tetras]

Will do some reading on the pci lanes to accommodate my essence stx 2 too or try and get a mb with sound nearly as good as the soundcard.

The main things to watch are: do the M.2 slots disable a PCIE slot and is the PCIE slot far enough away from the graphics card?

I think sound cards only need 1 lane, right? But that's another potential problem, because the physical size of the slot has little relation to the lanes available electrically.

 

[deviation]

Haha, so you did! #RTXON does occupy all my memory tbh

You're forgiven, but there needs to be some space in that memory for boobs surely? A man cannot live on RTX alone?

 

[Nexus18]

The main things to watch are: do the M.2 slots disable a PCIE slot and is the PCIE slot far enough away from the graphics card?

I think sound cards only need 1 lane, right? But that's another potential problem, because the physical size of the slot has little relation to the lanes available electrically.

That's correct, I only need the 1 lane for the essence stx 2 card. With the size of gpus these days, definitely need some spacing!