Looking for a quality 3700X board, X570 or B450?

starmanwarz · 11 Oct 2019 at 16:28

I'm building a new gaming PC and I'm looking for a quality board. I probably won't be doing any overclocking for now as my time is limited. No need for Wifi.

CPU will be the 3700X, 5700 XT GPU, 16GB of RAM (not sure which to go for, 3200 C16 or 3600 C16) Seasonic G650 PSU and a Fractal Design S2 Define Vision case.

I have no idea what chipset I should be going for, all I know is that I'm looking for a high quality board that will last me a few years. My current board (Gigabyte UD4H) has served me very well so far, so I quite like Gigabyte.

The MSI Tomahawk max looks like a very popular choice but is it considered high quality? Is it even worth it going for a 570 board like the Aorus Elite/Pro and what are the benefits?

Quartz · 11 Oct 2019 at 16:36

If you're not overclocking, why do you want the 3700X?

starmanwarz · 11 Oct 2019 at 16:50

Quartz said:
If you're not overclocking, why do you want the 3700X?

I though that it's not worth doing as the gains are minimal? I might OC in the future but I doubt it's worth it.

EsaT · 11 Oct 2019 at 21:57

For normal gaming use PC there aren't that much major differences between B450 and X570.
X570 boards support PCI-express v4 which might give some percents of advantage in year or two with high end GPUs.
Also X570 boards have enough PCIe lanes for two NVMe M.2 slots without lane sharing.

VRM wise any X570 board worth of considering is lot stronger (~at level of best of X470) and has also higher efficiency/lower losses.
Though 3700X at stock isn't power hungry and B450 Tomahawk's VRM would be comfortable with up to 100W load.
After that it would start getting hotter.
Gigabyte's B450 boards again have scam level VRMs good for only 65W CPU.

Again in X570 situation is reverse with MSI clearly wanting to ride on old reputation and used copypasta VRM...
Which is crap in X570 terms when both Asus and Gigabyte (except Gaming X) improved lot using modern design high efficiency VRMs with also lot higher current handling capability.

AWPC · 11 Oct 2019 at 22:05

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asro...4-x570-chipset-atx-motherboard-mb-16r-ak.html
This is superb for the price looks great as well. I also have a 3700X its a perfect combo IMO

Gray2233 · 11 Oct 2019 at 22:43

I'd take the Gigabyte Aorus Elite over that Asrock board at that price range.

LoadsaMoney · 12 Oct 2019 at 15:20

Ive got the Gigabyte Aorus Pro, cracking board, no complaints.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...4-x570-chipset-atx-motherboard-mb-57v-gi.html

nukemdukem · 12 Oct 2019 at 16:46

I got the gigabyte x570 aorus pro wifi.

Its really good, except for 2 issues.

If other people agree i would be interested to hear - which i found specific to my asus gfx 980 graphics card and this motherboard:

1) It wont fit into the pci-e 16 slot, as the heatsink and fan for the mb chipset, prevent it from fully clipping into the pcie slot. I'm not sure but i tihnk this might be due to the age of my graphics card and how low it sits.

2) That meant i had to use a pcie 8 slot further down, if you want to use USB Type C, the actual connector gets blocked by the graphics card so cannot be used

Not sure if anyone else has experienced this.

Other than that, its been very stable and no issues.

starmanwarz · 12 Oct 2019 at 16:59

EsaT said:
For normal gaming use PC there aren't that much major differences between B450 and X570.
X570 boards support PCI-express v4 which might give some percents of advantage in year or two with high end GPUs.
Also X570 boards have enough PCIe lanes for two NVMe M.2 slots without lane sharing.

VRM wise any X570 board worth of considering is lot stronger (~at level of best of X470) and has also higher efficiency/lower losses.
Though 3700X at stock isn't power hungry and B450 Tomahawk's VRM would be comfortable with up to 100W load.
After that it would start getting hotter.
Gigabyte's B450 boards again have scam level VRMs good for only 65W CPU.

Again in X570 situation is reverse with MSI clearly wanting to ride on old reputation and used copypasta VRM...
Which is crap in X570 terms when both Asus and Gigabyte (except Gaming X) improved lot using modern design high efficiency VRMs with also lot higher current handling capability.

So, for B450 go with MSI
for x570 go with Gigabyte/Asus
B450 Tomahawk Max will be more than enough for general gaming usage.

There's almost a £150 difference between the Aorus pro and the Tomahawk Max, I guess the MSI makes a lot more sense, right?

LoadsaMoney said:
Ive got the Gigabyte Aorus Pro, cracking board, no complaints.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...4-x570-chipset-atx-motherboard-mb-57v-gi.html

That's the board I'll be getting if I decide on the 570 chipset.

May I ask why you chose this over the much cheaper Tomahawk Max or similarly prices boards? Do you think its overkill having such an expensive board for "just" a 3700X?

EsaT · 12 Oct 2019 at 21:17

starmanwarz said:
There's almost a £150 difference between the Aorus pro and the Tomahawk Max, I guess the MSI makes a lot more sense, right?

At the moment PCI-express v4 certainly doesn't give advantage.
And would need major improvement to GPU power to take clear advantage from extra bandwidth.
Unless there's going to be changes in GPU usage increasing bandwidth need.
But for use M.2 drives X570 has advantage with more PCIe lanes.

As for X570 boards don't see much reason to look more expensive than Prime X570-P or X570 Aorus Elite.
VRMs are such good that you could drop in 16 core 3950X into them. (3900X under full load starts pushing upper limit of "comfort zone" of B450)

Aorus Elite even has full connectivity for front connectors of the case: Two USB3 headers (4 USB-A ports) and USB-C header.
And for PCIe slots one x4 slot and two x1 slots without interfering with graphics card's slot mechanically or by taking PCIe lanes.
Prime X570-P lacks USB-C header, but has two USB header...
While more expensive Asus boards lack second USB header. With Prime X570-Pro going for 1xUSB+1xUSB-C headers, while TUF X570 lacks also USB-C.

Quartz · 12 Oct 2019 at 21:41

EsaT said:
At the moment PCI-express v4 certainly doesn't give advantage.

Even with PCIe v4 M2 drives?

EsaT · 12 Oct 2019 at 21:55

Quartz said:
Even with PCIe v4 M2 drives?

Don't think many home users have actual use for that extra speed.
X570 boards allowing more NVMe drives again is something which can become advantage if needing more storage space, or adding bigger drive later.

starmanwarz · 13 Oct 2019 at 16:26

Tomahawk Max it is then?

Infiniteey · 13 Oct 2019 at 16:30

starmanwarz · 13 Oct 2019 at 20:13

I'm also searching for RAM and I could possibly pay more for 16GB of 3600 RAM than the motherboard itself, isn't that a bit weird?

Infiniteey · 13 Oct 2019 at 21:10

starmanwarz said:
I'm also searching for RAM and I could possibly pay more for 16GB of 3600 RAM than the motherboard itself, isn't that a bit weird?

RAM prices are dropping, if you looked 12 months ago, prices were over double. :cool:

Minstadave · 13 Oct 2019 at 21:21

EsaT said:
Don't think many home users have actual use for that extra speed.
X570 boards allowing more NVMe drives again is something which can become advantage if needing more storage space, or adding bigger drive later.

This is the main benefit. Slap a GPU, add in cards and 3 nvme drives and you're still full speed on everything.

Minstadave · 13 Oct 2019 at 21:23

Quartz said:
If you're not overclocking, why do you want the 3700X?

It's the cheapest 8 core?

easyrider · 13 Oct 2019 at 22:05

I’d go for the Gigabyte X570 Elite....for £189 , I went for the pro for the 50 quid extra...

The Elite and the 3700x is a great combo for the money and allows a future upgrade path for more cores and threads without VRM issues and instability.

Minstadave · 13 Oct 2019 at 22:14

easyrider said:
I’d go for the Gigabyte X570 Elite....for £189 , I went for the pro for the 50 quid extra...

The Elite and the 3700x is a great combo for the money and allows a future upgrade path for more cores and threads without VRM issues and instability.

The Elite does look like the stand out option.