Time for a new Motherboard!? Upgrade advice needed

superleeds27 · 5 Oct 2019 at 10:47

So it looks like the Gaming 3 B350 I have at the moment is probably on its way out. Booted me into the Backup BIOS yesterday for no reason, one of the USB slots seems to be dead too.

Looking for something new that will house my 1600X and then a 3600. (might do the board and CPU at the same time)

Rest of the system:

CPU - AMD1600X
RAM - Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHZ.
GPU - Gigabyte 2070 SUPER
PSU - EVGA Supernova P2 650

Would ideally need SPDIF too. Noticed some of them don't have this!

Budget - Don't want to go too mad! Something that's decent and gets the job done. Won't be over locking!

Any advice would be appreciated.

an0nym0us · 5 Oct 2019 at 11:05

superleeds27 said:
So it looks like the Gaming 3 B350 I have at the moment is probably on its way out.

When did you buy the motherboard? Gigabyte motherboards should have a 3 year warranty if bought in the UK.

superleeds27 · 5 Oct 2019 at 11:10

an0nym0us said:
When did you buy the motherboard? Gigabyte motherboards should have a 3 year warranty if bought in the UK.

Hmm. June 2017 I think.

I'd still rather update the motherboard regardless of whether I did the RMA. Want something a little more future proof!

an0nym0us · 5 Oct 2019 at 11:32

MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £119.99

It has BIOS Flashback feature and S/PDIF.

It'll need a BIOS update before a Ryzen 3600 would be able to work though.

an0nym0us · 5 Oct 2019 at 11:33

Also worth doing RMA for your old motherboard, then selling it off to offset cost of new motherboard.

superleeds27 · 5 Oct 2019 at 12:28

an0nym0us said:
Also worth doing RMA for your old motherboard, then selling it off to offset cost of new motherboard.

That was my thinking. Be easier to sell if it actually fully functions!

Don't the MSI BIOS's have issues at the moment though? Slow boot etc?

an0nym0us · 5 Oct 2019 at 15:49

superleeds27 said:
That was my thinking. Be easier to sell if it actually fully functions!

Better test it when you get it back, just to make sure there aren't any problems before you sell it.

superleeds27 said:
Don't the MSI BIOS's have issues at the moment though? Slow boot etc?

Many people have been running 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs with MSI B450 motherboards without issue. If the new motherboard does have problems, then just return it.

superleeds27 · 6 Oct 2019 at 11:03

an0nym0us said:
Better test it when you get it back, just to make sure there aren't any problems before you sell it.

Many people have been running 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs with MSI B450 motherboards without issue. If the new motherboard does have problems, then just return it.

Any thoughts in the x570 lineup?

Was thinking of:

TUF GAMING X570-PLUS
AMD Ryzen 3600

The TUF qualifies for £35 cashback, so that brings the cost down to £165. Probably makes more sense to go down that route for the sake of another £40 over the B450?

an0nym0us · 6 Oct 2019 at 14:17

superleeds27 said:
TUF GAMING X570-PLUS
AMD Ryzen 3600

The TUF qualifies for £35 cashback, so that brings the cost down to £165.

It's a good motherboard and £165 after cashback is a very good price. The WiFi version of the X570 TUF is normally only slightly more expensive than the non-WiFi version, so if the cashback also applies to the WiFi version then it's also worth considering. Main downside of both of these motherboards is they don't have BIOS Flashback feature.

superleeds27 · 6 Oct 2019 at 14:30

an0nym0us said:
It's a good motherboard and £165 after cashback is a very good price. The WiFi version of the X570 TUF is normally only slightly more expensive than the non-WiFi version, so if the cashback also applies to the WiFi version then it's also worth considering. Main downside of both of these motherboards is they don't have BIOS Flashback feature.

Yeah that's true, but surely the flashback thing wouldn't be an issue, as such?

an0nym0us · 6 Oct 2019 at 14:32

superleeds27 said:
Yeah that's true, but surely the flashback thing wouldn't be an issue, as such?

For most people's use cases, unlikely to be an issue.

superleeds27 · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:24

an0nym0us said:
For most people's use cases, unlikely to be an issue.

Just noticed you get the ROG Gladius II mouse free as well. To sweeten the deal a little more.

Worth swapping the RAM or will what I have do for the time being?

Edit: After looking around, people have complained about the GPU sitting right above the chipset fan. Could be an issue.

Hmm

an0nym0us · 7 Oct 2019 at 00:34

superleeds27 said:
Edit: After looking around, people have complained about the GPU sitting right above the chipset fan. Could be an issue.

The chipset and its fan do seem oddly positioned right under where a GPU would go. However, I've read some people with this motherboard still having reasonable chipset temperatures after heavy gaming sessions, so not really sure there's any conclusive evidence on whether there's an issue there or not. You could always test it out immediately upon receiving the new motherboard and return it if it does have issues.

superleeds27 · 8 Oct 2019 at 10:53

an0nym0us said:
The chipset and its fan do seem oddly positioned right under where a GPU would go. However, I've read some people with this motherboard still having reasonable chipset temperatures after heavy gaming sessions, so not really sure there's any conclusive evidence on whether there's an issue there or not. You could always test it out immediately upon receiving the new motherboard and return it if it does have issues.

Suppose it depends really on the card and the rest of the system's airflow too

superleeds27 · 12 Oct 2019 at 17:51

an0nym0us said:
The chipset and its fan do seem oddly positioned right under where a GPU would go. However, I've read some people with this motherboard still having reasonable chipset temperatures after heavy gaming sessions, so not really sure there's any conclusive evidence on whether there's an issue there or not. You could always test it out immediately upon receiving the new motherboard and return it if it does have issues.

Went for the X570 AORUS Elite in the end with the 3600.

Is there anything in particular I should be enabling in the BIOS that might not be enabled by default? Or increase performance/cooling?

I've enabled XMP and that all seems to be fine

an0nym0us · 12 Oct 2019 at 18:22

superleeds27 said:
Went for the X570 AORUS Elite in the end with the 3600.

Is there anything in particular I should be enabling in the BIOS that might not be enabled by default? Or increase performance/cooling?

I've enabled XMP and that all seems to be fine

The first thing I'd do is update the BIOS to at least the one with the AGESA 1.0.0.3 ABBA update in it, as there were quite a few improvements since launch. I've assumed you've installed all the relevant drivers.

After that, make sure the system is stable under default BIOS settings by running a stress test such as Prime95. This enables you to check that you're new hardware is free from any out of the box faults. Make sure you monitor temperatures though, because these types of stress tests are extremely taxing on the system.

If everything seems fine, then enabling XMP is the simplest way of overclocking RAM. There's likely to be some additional performance that can still be unlocked by manually adjusting RAM settings, but most users probably prefer a set and forget approach. XMP is still an overclock though, so make sure you test system stability again after enabling XMP.

Adjusting fan curves in BIOS is also a good idea to reach your desired cooling performance for a given noise tolerance.

Other than that, the remaining default settings should be good enough for most users. Check your CPU boost clocks are as per advertised though by doing some Cinebench testing.

superleeds27 · 12 Oct 2019 at 19:06

an0nym0us said:
The first thing I'd do is update the BIOS to at least the one with the AGESA 1.0.0.3 ABBA update in it, as there were quite a few improvements since launch. I've assumed you've installed all the relevant drivers.

After that, make sure the system is stable under default BIOS settings by running a stress test such as Prime95. This enables you to check that you're new hardware is free from any out of the box faults. Make sure you monitor temperatures though, because these types of stress tests are extremely taxing on the system.

If everything seems fine, then enabling XMP is the simplest way of overclocking RAM. There's likely to be some additional performance that can still be unlocked by manually adjusting RAM settings, but most users probably prefer a set and forget approach. XMP is still an overclock though, so make sure you test system stability again after enabling XMP.

Adjusting fan curves in BIOS is also a good idea to reach your desired cooling performance for a given noise tolerance.

Other than that, the remaining default settings should be good enough for most users. Check your CPU boost clocks are as per advertised though by doing some Cinebench testing.

Thanks.

Bios was updated before I even touched anything else/installed Windows etc.

XMP has been done and I've ran a few heavy games and haven't got any issues, but I'll run what you suggested to check.

Drivers are all up to date as is Windows.

Used the crappy Gigabyte software to look at the fan curves, currently set them to the silent profile and it all seems good/cool enough. Idle at 25-30. Haven't checked when gaming but I could hear everything ramp up, so assuming it's all okay!

Will try Cinebench too

superleeds27 · 12 Oct 2019 at 21:06

I noticed that the CPU Fan kept kicking in when i wasn't really doing much? Installing a program etc. This made the temperature spike into the low 50's?

Done a bit of a Google and seen people advise to change the AMD Ryzen Balanced power plan - minimum cpu performance to 5%. It seems like the original setting of 85% meant the CPU wasn't turning cores off.

As suggested here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/cnoxgy/ryzen_3000_series_bioswindows_settings/

an0nym0us · 13 Oct 2019 at 00:44

superleeds27 said:
Used the crappy Gigabyte software to look at the fan curves, currently set them to the silent profile and it all seems good/cool enough. Idle at 25-30. Haven't checked when gaming but I could hear everything ramp up, so assuming it's all okay!

Personally, I prefer to use the BIOS to adjust CPU and case fan curves because it means having one less piece of software. It's a good idea to monitor temperatures with something like HWiNFO though so that temperatures under load aren't getting too hot. Stress tests such as Prime95 add unusually high amounts of load to the CPU and RAM (depending on the test), so temperatures can be extremely high depending on your cooling setup.

superleeds27 said:
I noticed that the CPU Fan kept kicking in when i wasn't really doing much? Installing a program etc. This made the temperature spike into the low 50's?

Are you using the stock CPU cooler? But sounds reasonable anyway since installing a program will add a small load to the system.

superleeds27 said:
Done a bit of a Google and seen people advise to change the AMD Ryzen Balanced power plan - minimum cpu performance to 5%. It seems like the original setting of 85% meant the CPU wasn't turning cores off.

As suggested here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/cnoxgy/ryzen_3000_series_bioswindows_settings/

I'm still using 2nd gen Ryzen, so I don't have the AMD Ryzen Balanced power plan option. I was under the impression it was the default option under Windows, but maybe I misinterpreted what had been written about it previously. Definitely try using it to see if idle and boost frequencies are in line with expectations though.

superleeds27 · 13 Oct 2019 at 08:43

an0nym0us said:
Personally, I prefer to use the BIOS to adjust CPU and case fan curves because it means having one less piece of software. It's a good idea to monitor temperatures with something like HWiNFO though so that temperatures under load aren't getting too hot. Stress tests such as Prime95 add unusually high amounts of load to the CPU and RAM (depending on the test), so temperatures can be extremely high depending on your cooling setup.

Are you using the stock CPU cooler? But sounds reasonable anyway since installing a program will add a small load to the system.

I'm still using 2nd gen Ryzen, so I don't have the AMD Ryzen Balanced power plan option. I was under the impression it was the default option under Windows, but maybe I misinterpreted what had been written about it previously. Definitely try using it to see if idle and boost frequencies are in line with expectations though.

I'm using the Ben Nevis cooler with the Noctua thermal paste. They recommended one dot in the middle and one in each corner. By the time I got the heatsink on and clamped down it will have slide around a little.on top, so in theory will have spread. (Nothing was spilling over the side of the CPU)

Maybe it's just a BIOS issue that will be sorted in the next version. Someone else on here seems to have the same issue, same board and CPU.

I also enabled Global States in the BIOS.

In terms of cooling. Two 140 fans in the front and a 140 at the back. Fractal R5 case. The three fans are Arctic P14.

Two at the front running around 400-600 and the back around 500-700.

Back is based on the VRM temp next to the CPU. One at the front based on the GPU PCIe temp and the other based on the sensor at the bottom front corner