Cheap X570/Z590 Motherboards, are they worth it?

[Zarax]

I'm referring to models like MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus, GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Elite, MSI Z590-A Pro or similar sub-£200 motherboards.

Are they any good for a 5900/11900k class CPU and a 6800xt GPU? I don't intend to overclock but I do want to use an hefty air cooler (like a Dark Rock Pro 4).

 

[mickyflinn]

If your going Amd then there are plenty of b550 motherboards that are quality unless you need the extra pcie4 lanes of the x570.

The x570 tomahawk Wi-Fi is one of the best £200 motherboards below that they have crappy vrm cooling.

 

[Zarax]

I never got clearly the difference between the two, I won't have anything exotic but I need something reliable for 5+ years.

 

[mickyflinn]

I never got clearly the difference between the two, I won't have anything exotic but I need something reliable for 5+ years.

X570 has more pcie4 lanes so you can run 2x pcie4 m2 drives without limitation.

B550 you can run 1 x m2 at pcie4 and 1x pcie3 for most people b550 is enough.

Msi b550 tomahawk is a solid choice or Msi b550 ganmng edge wifi if you need wifi.

 

[Zarax]

Is the VRM better on X570?

 

[sy-core]

I've been looking at this recently and unless your looking at X570-E, you may as well go for the Crosshair VIII, and make sure you have the one with wi-fi built in if you need it.

 

[Borealis]

I won't comment on Intel, as I've been out of the loop with their boards for a while (only recently switched from an Intel X99 build to AMD X570). I've got a 5800X on a Gigabyte Aorus X570 Pro and it's been utterly rock solid. Bear in mind that the 5800X can draw just as much power as the 5900X - the 5800X is an oddity in that as an 8-core chip it has the same TDP as both the 5900X twelve-core and 16-core 5950X. Plus it like to run at high boost speeds making it even hotter!

The Crosshair is utter overkill for most users unless you're planning on serious overclocking. For someone running at stock speeds, a good B550 board or something like the MSI X570 Tomahawk WiFi/Gigabyte X570 Pro WiFi is more than adequate.

 

[Joxeon]

Is the VRM better on X570?

The VRM is generally better on B550 boards in the sub £200 price bracket vs x570's in the same bracket.

 

[Audioboxer]

I had a Strix F-Gaming which died and I did a sideways move to a B550 Unify X. Glad I did, it's better than the Strix F, was cheaper than buying another Strix F and has the benefit of better VRMs/overclocking.

I have a 2TB Corsair MP600 which is more than enough running off PICE 4.0 for years to come. I've stuck in a slower PCIE 3.0 NVMe drive in the bottom slot and my graphics card still runs at x16.

The X570s might be a good look if you want fanless like the B550, but you're going to pay top £ for it. If the aim is sub £200, I'd honestly recommend some of the newer B550 boards over X570 unless you can get an amazing deal on a second hand Dark Hero or something. Maybe a Gigabtye X570 Master.

 

[Zarax]

Thanks, I will look for B550 board reviews then.

 

[EsaT]

Thanks, I will look for B550 board reviews then.

If you're not going to need high PCIe bandwidth for some heavy workstation stuff, B550 does fine and gives strong modern VRMs down to £150 price level.
Unlike Intel AMD doesn't cripple it in memory speed support.

In X570 Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite is the cheapest board I consider good.
It has very solid strong VRM and chipset cooler is well designed and capable to passive cooling, if you have good case cooling.
MSI X570 Tomahawk is another good X570 choise with even better chipset cooler and crazy overkill VRM.
Lower Gigabytes cheap in old design VRM and start stripping everything to minimum.
And most other X570 MSIs have crap VRM for the money.
Asus again has failure timer chipset cooler designs from rear hole of brand overhype marketroids and can't do without fan in gaming PC.

 

[Zarax]

Once upon a time Asus was the good motherboard brand, it's sad that now they appear to be a bad option...

 

[EsaT]

Once upon a time Asus was the good motherboard brand, it's sad that now they appear to be a bad option...

Never buy brand sticker, because they all suck and sooner or later try to scam you.

In B450 Asus had literally scam level VRMs good only for 65W TDP CPUs and Gigabyte was barely better. (slightly less marketing excrements sabotaging VRM cooling)
MSI again was the hero with only competent VRMs for the price level.
Come X570 and MSI takes the consumer scamming torch carrier role and uses literal copypasta VRM from £100 level B450 boards in over half of their X570 boards. (only later released Tomahawk is worth of buying)
While Asus and Gigabyte improve VRMs. Asus even has modern VRM in their lowest X570 board, but chipset cooler designs are from anus.

At least in B550 there was no active chipset cooler for Asus to screw up and same price range models can be considered equal.
But who knows what next round of motherboards brings...
Or do all manage to keep suits of bean counting and marketroids firearm range away from product design.


Another example of brand not guaranteeing quality is graphics cards.
Radeon 5700 XT cards of Asus were basically cooking their memories because of unfit coolers.
(TUF was literally burning its memories from alive)
Something which would have been easy to detect in basic QC Asus clearly didn't do.


In PSUs situation is common with many hyped brands selling also standard cheapos.

Or in SSDs with Samsung having gross brand overpricing for tech in nearly every drive.
And also others having those substandard tech for the price models.


You simply have to always look for particular product in question.