AM5 board advice

rare

rare

rare

Soldato
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Seems to be a bit of a lack of AM5 motherboard threads? Anyhow, looking for some thoughts/advice.

Thinking of getting an AM4 board ahead of the x3d releases, I already have a z690 board in another system and it looks like AM5 would support at least another round of CPU releases.

Ideally I want to use 3/4 NVME drives without impacting the GPU, it looks to me like some b650 boards will reduce the PCIE speed when using more than 2/3 nvme’s?

With that in mind I’m thinking x670e. I already have 32GB (2x16) of Kingston Fury DDR5 6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEK2-32) and ideally I would want to get another set at some point. I’m aware some boards don’t seem to like 4 full dimms? Is anyone running 4 with success at XMP with those kinds of speeds?

My shortlist is:

X670E-A strix (around £400)
X670E-F strix (can get for £370)

These look like exactly the same board just different colours?

Otherwise, is there anything else anyone recommends? Would love a start button/code readout but seems like you have to spend a lot more to get that. I do like the look of the b650-e master but not a fan of potential limitations with the PCIE lanes…?
 
Im leaning towards the X670E-F strix I see it currently for £364.20 , I find MSI and Gigabyte dont offer as much at this price range my current board has start and code readout but I hardly ever needed to use them so can live without them for how much extra I need to pay to have them , you can fault find by led anyway
 
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Asus seems the best value no restrictions using m.2 and comes with 2 m.2 gen 5 , to get the same on MSI MPG X670E Carbon WIFI £539.99 vs £364.20 for Asus , Asrock personally dont like the look of them and also dont offer as much for around the same price range only offer 1 gen 5 m.2 might as well get the ASUS ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi for £274.16

currently have msi x570 unify with start and code led on board and rarely ever needed to use them so can live without them
 
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I ordered the Strix X670E-F in the end, it seemed like the best middle of the pack option at around £370, still not what I would class as ‘cheap’ but feature wise it seems to make sense. The X670E-E is substantially more expensive, has a few extra features like 110A vs 90A but I really can’t see any of these being meaningful. And at that price point you might as well just get a Hero - but really not sure the Hero is worth an extra £260 over the Strix-F to me…

Now I just need to wait for some CPU’s to launch :)
 
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rare said:
I ordered the Strix X670E-F in the end, it seemed like the best middle of the pack option at around £370, still not what I would class as ‘cheap’ but feature wise it seems to make sense. The X670E-E is substantially more expensive, has a few extra features like 110A vs 90A but I really can’t see any of these being meaningful. And at that price point you might as well just get a Hero - but really not sure the Hero is worth an extra £260 over the Strix-F to me…

Now I just need to wait for some CPU’s to launch :)
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What DDR5 did you go for?
 
Mr G said:
What DDR5 did you go for?
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I haven’t decided yet - or maybe I have, it depends…I have a z690 board in another system (or will be soon) and I may use the DDR5 I already bought in that. Otherwise, I have a set of Kingston Fury Beast 6000 CL36 32GB (2x16GB - KF560C36BBEK2-32) that I might use.

If I use that in the z690 board then I will need to get some more DDR5. Might just end up buying the same ram again, it looks decent value compared to some brands. Though I would ideally like 64GB in the X670 system.
 
rare said:
I haven’t decided yet - or maybe I have, it depends…I have a z690 board in another system (or will be soon) and I may use the DDR5 I already bought in that. Otherwise, I have a set of Kingston Fury Beast 6000 CL36 32GB (2x16GB - KF560C36BBEK2-32) that I might use.

If I use that in the z690 board then I will need to get some more DDR5. Might just end up buying the same ram again, it looks decent value compared to some brands. Though I would ideally like 64GB in the X670 system.
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Contemplating on the 5600 kit myself as performance wise hardly any difference between them.
 
Mr G said:
Contemplating on the 5600 kit myself as performance wise hardly any difference between them.
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It’s probably more likely to run perfectly fine at XMP as well. The only thing I still need to do some reading on is if there is a sweet spot for speed/timings if filling all 4 dimm slots.
 
rare said:
It’s probably more likely to run perfectly fine at XMP as well. The only thing I still need to do some reading on is if there is a sweet spot for speed/timings if filling all 4 dimm slots.
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I've been doing some deep dives into speeds, etc and that i'm unsure of as I only intend in running 1 kit. Might be an idea to get 1 large capacity kit than running 4?
 
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Mr G said:
I've been doing some deep dives into speeds, etc and that i'm unsure of as I only intend in running 1 kit. Might be an idea to get 1 bigger kit tgan running 4?
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Think you might be right, 2x32 if I really want 64 instead of 4x16. Less chance for problems?
 
rare said:
Think you might be right, 2x32 if I really want 64 instead of 4x16. Less chance for problems?
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Agreed, i might be wrong but I did see some threads awhile back reporting issues with 4 banks of DDR5 but that could be BIOS compatibilities, etc? Think this was Intel thou?
 
It's not so much problems, more that the IMC on the CPU will only go to the default max speed of 3600MT (typically 3600Mhz) and won't go a drop over easily when all banks are fully populated with "Dual Sided" DRAM. (Essentially 4 x 2 or 8 ranks populated)

What's dual sided DRAM these days on DDR5? Anything that is 16GB or smaller is single sided. Once you get a 32GB DDR5 unit, it is (currently) almost guaranteed to be a dual sided unit.

So whilst you stay within 4 ranks or 4 single sided RAM modules only, you can essentially push them to the fastest speed they are rated for. So 6000Mhz RAM should in theory be possible to run at 6000Mhz.

So the maximum capacity you should go with is 64GB for memory unless if you're doing anything that needs more capacity from it. As 4 x 16GB modules (in ranks) whether 4 x Single sided, or 2 x Dual sided, remains 4 ranks used only on the IMC.
 
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Personally, I went with the Asus Proart X670E Creator WIFI motherboard.

It's £530 odd here on OCUK, but when you factor in the difference between this board and the "entry" X670E motherboards which is often around £300 to £350, the difference is largely the 10gbe connection, and USB4/Thunderbolt connection. Both of these if desired at a later point, requires cards to be slotted into the motherboard PCIe lanes, and thus takes up space and slots that may reduce m.2 slots down in speed.

Then of course, the price, the typical price of a 10gbe card (or at least a decent one) is around the £100 mark. The USB4/Thunderbolt card is also similarly around £100. So for the price of purchasing these cards separately and then installing them (and using up slots and possible lane sharing), it works out a bit cheaper and more cost effective to purchase this over a lower priced board. This is even more apparent once you realise many GPU's are starting to go the multi-slot cooler approach, meaning you have GPU's that take up 3, 4 or even 5 slots for cooling the GPU. You will not be able to install anything other than the GPU in such instances.

So that's why I went with this board for my AM5 system over getting a cheaper priced X670E motherboard. However, that's also because I am on the cusp of upgrading my network to a few devices with 10gb connections, so that's a plus for me. Speaking of which, this motherboard, like so many others that just lists "Intel Ethernet/Network port" is the dreaded I225-V chip, but is a revision 3, which supposedly has fixed the issues from previous revisions. I've not used it, as I just use the 10gb connection.

With regards to the Q-Code vs Q-LED, in most cases the LED is enough to guide you to where you will need to make adjustments. Sometims the Q-Code doesn't help at all. Whilst a rough guide to where the problem stopping the system from booting may help diagnose issues quicker. So I wouldn't worry about the loss of the Q-Code dusplay when you have the Q-LED (or equivalent from your motherboard manufacturer).
 
I went for the B650E-E as it has 4 m.2 slots, 2 can run gen 5 but drops the gpu to 8x. I will probably only use 3 gen 4 drives. I could have got a X670E for the same price but wanted Q-Code just in case it has issues. overall, its ok but had 2 lockups, one in Lost-Ark, my last PC had that so probably the game, the other was today using Firefox, this has me more concerned.
 
Mr G said:
That's not good news?
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I just did a factory reset install on the GPU driver as the lost-ark crash may have done something. I was also using Power Saver mode in windows as it dropped idle power 10W and the Nvme was 10C cooler, strange thing is Power Saver mode increased CineBench score by 1K? Anyway, back on balanced now, hope it stops the crashes.
 
FredFlint said:
I just did a factory reset install on the GPU driver as the lost-ark crash may have done something. I was also using Power Saver mode in windows as it dropped idle power 10W and the Nvme was 10C cooler, strange thing is Power Saver mode increased CineBench score by 1K? Anyway, back on balanced now, hope it stops the crashes.
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Thinking of an AM5 setup myself and hearing a lot about hard locks lately, BIOS updated?
 
Mr G said:
Thinking of an AM5 setup myself and hearing a lot about hard locks lately, BIOS updated?
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Only had 1, well 2 but lost-ark has the issue on my am4, always in the same place with 30 players so that can be ignored as a software issue. I think the one in windows might be a power saver mode thing, been fine for 2 week before changing to that, stopped using windows power saver years ago as it’s the least reliable mode.
 
FredFlint said:
Only had 1, well 2 but lost-ark has the issue on my am4, always in the same place with 30 players so that can be ignored as a software issue. I think the one in windows might be a power saver mode thing, been fine for 2 week before changing to that, stopped using windows power saver years ago as it’s the least reliable mode.
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Did read that am AGESA update was causing system hangs, can't pinpoint where I read it too...
 
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