B550 or X570?

sinkorswim

sinkorswim

sinkorswim

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Thanks to advice received from forum members I have ordered a MSI B550 carbon motherboard, seems to fit the bill but am unsure about overclocking potential . However been watching a lot of videos and am wondering if I should upgrade to an X570? Been watching as many videos as I can and am more confused than before.

Don't need wifi and can buy a Bluetooth dongle, but if included at a reasonable price I don't mind paying a little extra.

I would like an Asus or MSI with bios flashback, either ATX or eATX, Been looking at the MSI X570 carbon wifi (extra £50), the Asus ROG strix X570-F gaming (extra £70) or the one I am leaning towards MSI X570 Tomahawk wifi (extra £30) from the OC shop.

Would like something that has good thermals for overclocking and 2 x m.2 PCie 4.0 (with heatsinks) and decent connectivity on the back IO panel also needs a front type c internal connector as I am getting the Lian Li mesh with a front type c. I am sure I will get into overclocking as I learn but nothing to extreme. Not sure of the release date for the next gen amd but I think it is this month so I will a little to get one.

Any advice greatly appreciated.
 
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I'm in a similar boat. The X570 Tomahawk is one of the boards I'm considering, and probably one of the best lower teir priced X570 boards out there, but I'm not sure I'd swap a B550 for it if I already had one.

My understanding is that with the B550 you are typically getting slower USB and obviously only one PCIe @ 4.0 off the CPU - but there are very few practical applications for PCe 4.0 so it isn't a big deal.
B550 also has limitations with regards to the second M.2 slot/Expansion slots/SATA ports where some of these might be disabled depending on the board confirguration when using both M.2 slots.

The x570 has the drawback of the chipset fan and apparently bugged SATA performance - some of the x570 boards (notable by MSI) have pretty terrible VRMs.

Both support zen2 & zen3, the X570 has more support for previous generations.

Those points aside I would imagine the carbon would not limit your overclocking potential, on paper it supports higher frequency memory than the tomahawk - although that is pretty irrelevant with Ryzen. I would say it is more about what features you want from the board and the price – especially as the carbon is nearly costs the same.

If you can’t return/cancel the carbon, I personally would not be rushing out to buy a new X570 board.
 
RandomMonkeH said:
I'm in a similar boat. The X570 Tomahawk is one of the boards I'm considering, and probably one of the best lower teir priced X570 boards out there, but I'm not sure I'd swap a B550 for it if I already had one.

My understanding is that with the B550 you are typically getting slower USB and obviously only one PCIe @ 4.0 off the CPU - but there are very few practical applications for PCe 4.0 so it isn't a big deal.
B550 also has limitations with regards to the second M.2 slot/Expansion slots/SATA ports where some of these might be disabled depending on the board confirguration when using both M.2 slots.

The x570 has the drawback of the chipset fan and apparently bugged SATA performance - some of the x570 boards (notable by MSI) have pretty terrible VRMs.

Both support zen2 & zen3, the X570 has more support for previous generations.

Those points aside I would imagine the carbon would not limit your overclocking potential, on paper it supports higher frequency memory than the tomahawk - although that is pretty irrelevant with Ryzen. I would say it is more about what features you want from the board and the price – especially as the carbon is nearly costs the same.

If you can’t return/cancel the carbon, I personally would not be rushing out to buy a new X570 board.
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I am just watching a video on youtube which says what many others have said that the x570 carbon is not good, the x570 tomahawk seem to get decent thermals from many people??? OC has let me update my order so getting the X570. (might dabble in a minor OC when I am more knowledgeable). Hoping to get a hold of a new zen 3 CPU and will just use my old graphics card from my pre-build system for a while till prices settle.

Not sure if I should update it to the Asus x570-f gaming?
 
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The lower end MSI X570 boards (i.e. everything below the unify) are considered to have poor VRMs - that doesn't mean necessarily mean they aren't fit for purpose, just that better options exist.
MSI rectified that with the X570 Tomahawk which was released quite a lot later, and put in a massively overkill VRM to try and save some face.

By contrast, the MSI B550 boards appear to have respectable VRMs across the range - seemingly MSI learnt their lesson on the X570.
The B550 Tomahawk and Gaming Edge (essentially a Tomahawk WiFi) have the same VRM as the X570 tomahawk with two less phases.
I think the B550 Carbon has a beefier VRM but a different implementation (International Rectifier instead of Intersil)

I would say it is unlikely you would have any issues with power delivery even when overclocking on either the X570 Tomahawk or the B550 Carbon IMO.
I can't comment on the Asus board as I didn't look in to their lineup above the TUF, but it would depend on the features. I don't see an awful lot of point in the top end X570 boards, but perhaps Zen 3 will change that. Somehow I doubt it.
 
RandomMonkeH said:
The lower end MSI X570 boards (i.e. everything below the unify) are considered to have poor VRMs - that doesn't mean necessarily mean they aren't fit for purpose, just that better options exist.
MSI rectified that with the X570 Tomahawk which was released quite a lot later, and put in a massively overkill VRM to try and save some face.

By contrast, the MSI B550 boards appear to have respectable VRMs across the range - seemingly MSI learnt their lesson on the X570.
The B550 Tomahawk and Gaming Edge (essentially a Tomahawk WiFi) have the same VRM as the X570 tomahawk with two less phases.
I think the B550 Carbon has a beefier VRM but a different implementation (International Rectifier instead of Intersil)

I would say it is unlikely you would have any issues with power delivery even when overclocking on either the X570 Tomahawk or the B550 Carbon IMO.
I can't comment on the Asus board as I didn't look in to their lineup above the TUF, but it would depend on the features. I don't see an awful lot of point in the top end X570 boards, but perhaps Zen 3 will change that. Somehow I doubt it.
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Thankyou. I have changed my order to a x570 tomahawk but I am unsure if I should got for the asus board. It comes with a free pcie bluetooth adapter and wifi. Unsure as it is an extra £40 but I want to make sure as I get the mobo right. I want to get as much use out of it as possible. If I am correct it also does not have the onboard fan which I do t particularly want. Just not sure if it is worth the extra £40?
 
mickyflinn said:
What goes the Asus game ing f offer over the tomhawk ?
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From what I see better thermals and overclocking ability, 2 extra sata ports. Also passive cooling on the chipset heatsink. I need to look into it more. Will watch some more gamer nexus and other reviews first. The tomahawk seems to tick all the boxes just wondering about future proofing as much as I can at my budget.

As always looking for any advice, input.

Far too many choices and it gets confusing.
 
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sinkorswim said:
Far too many choices and it gets confusing.
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This is such a good point. I got the X570 and it’s great and all but a B550 is also just as good.

that being said, having a decently overkill motherboard that’ll last a long time is fine by me.

Zen 3 is coming and who knows how much juice you’ll need for those chips.

edit: just thinking that an overclocked 3900X or 4900X, 32gigs of DDR4 3600 and a TUF 3080, all overclocked would probably deserve a beefy X570.
 
sinkorswim said:
From what I see better thermals and overclocking ability, 2 extra sata ports. Also passive cooling on the chipset heatsink.
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I can't comment on the thermals or overclocking but I believe it still has an active cooling chipset - the fan is just hidden under the shroud.
The only X570 boards I am aware of that have passive cooling solutions are the Aorus Xtreme and the ASRock Aqua - however I know people have modded x570 boards with passive coolers as there doesn't seem to be any really good reason why have to be fan cooled.
 
JollyJamma said:
This is such a good point. I got the X570 and it’s great and all but a B550 is also just as good.

that being said, having a decently overkill motherboard that’ll last a long time is fine by me.

Zen 3 is coming and who knows how much juice you’ll need for those chips.

edit: just thinking that an overclocked 3900X or 4900X, 32gigs of DDR4 3600 and a TUF 3080, all overclocked would probably deserve a beefy X570.
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Wont be running a 3080 not really into games.

RandomMonkeH said:
I can't comment on the thermals or overclocking but I believe it still has an active cooling chipset - the fan is just hidden under the shroud.
The only X570 boards I am aware of that have passive cooling solutions are the Aorus Xtreme and the ASRock Aqua - however I know people have modded x570 boards with passive coolers as there doesn't seem to be any really good reason why have to be fan cooled.
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Not sure will call oc to ask their advice. I am getting a 1tb m.2 4.0 so what to go the best I can at first. Also looking at the rx 5700tx for my gpu. But can wait a while for that.
 
sinkorswim said:
I have updated to the x570 tomahawk but wondering if I should go for the Asus x570 gaming -f?

Will check out more reviews all the reviews in the oc shop for the tomahawk are very positive. I just want to make sure I get it right as I want the mobo to last as long as possible. Cant wait for the zen 3 to be released to see what the prices and specs are.
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I currently own a MSI board. I don’t rate their feature set that highly. Only got it as it is a MAX board so offers upgrade route to zen 3.

MSI b550 and X570 offerings aren’t as well featured for the same price as ASUS or Gigabyte. For some reasons they deliberately limit the amount of PCIE 4 lanes available to secondary PCIe16 slot or gimp out on the chipset/m.2 slot. MSI x570 boards (other than the god like, unify and tomahawk) have horrific VRM and heat sinks suck that the boards will not run 3900x with PBO without thermal throttling if you don’t have a literal fan blowing over the VRM. Then there is the issue of price. For what you are getting in terms of features, MSI price is always at the top of the product stack ie you pay the highest price for the same amount of feature as competitor

ASUS gaming offers much better value tbh
 
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pc-guy said:
I currently own a MSI board. I don’t rate their feature set that highly. Only got it as it is a MAX board so offers upgrade route to zen 3.

MSI b550 and X570 offerings aren’t as well featured for the same price as ASUS or Gigabyte. For some reasons they deliberately limit the amount of PCIE 4 lanes available to secondary PCIe16 slot or gimp out on the chipset/m.2 slot. MSI x570 boards (other than the god like, unify and tomahawk) have horrific VRM and heat sinks suck that the boards will not run 3900x with PBO without thermal throttling if you don’t have a literal fan blowing over the VRM. Then there is the issue of price. For what you are getting in terms of features, MSI price is always at the top of the product stack ie you pay the highest price for the same amount of feature as competitor

ASUS gaming offers much better value tbh
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Is the MSI B550 Tomahawk a mistake then? Was leaning in that direction, but perhaps I should have a rethink...
 
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