B550 or X570?

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 13 Oct 2020 at 13:36

Don't buy the Asus one,as they CBA supporting their previous ones properly. MSI or Gigabyte seem like better bets IMHO.

sinkorswim · 13 Oct 2020 at 14:10

mickyflinn said:
Take a look at the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER if you register within 30 days you get 5 year warranty instead if 3 years.

thanks, I have ordered the msi 1660 super. It has gddr6 checked the zotac and it only had gddr5. Thanks for your help. They might have 3080's in stock later next year LOL

mickyflinn · 13 Oct 2020 at 15:48

sinkorswim said:
thanks, I have ordered the msi 1660 super. It has gddr6 checked the zotac and it only had gddr5. Thanks for your help. They might have 3080's in stock later next year LOL

Your welcome, it does have gddr6 but I'm sure you'll be happy with MSI.

zaphod-159 · 13 Oct 2020 at 22:07

BigBANGtheory said:
Except they cost more than a MSI MEG X570 Unify right now, which itself is a non-RGB variant of the MSI ACE retailing at £330, and a lot more than the Tommahawk X570

What are they actually offering here for the customer that X570 doesn't do already incl. price points?

Was about to ask this question. Why even go for x570 at this point? Is there a catch I'm missing somewhere?

BigBANGtheory · 13 Oct 2020 at 23:03

zaphod-159 said:
Was about to ask this question. Why even go for x570 at this point? Is there a catch I'm missing somewhere?

well B550 was supposed to be the value oriented PCIe4 alternative to X570 it benefits from not needing a chjpset fan but otherwise is restricted on the number of PCIe4 lanes it has to share. There are some really good B550 boards but they are more expensive than many of the X570 ones now they are coming down in price. :eek:

£ for £ B550 vs X570 you'd go with X570 surely, at least decent VRMs and cooling.

zaphod-159 · 14 Oct 2020 at 00:07

BigBANGtheory said:
well B550 was supposed to be the value oriented PCIe4 alternative to X570 it benefits from not needing a chjpset fan but otherwise is restricted on the number of PCIe4 lanes it has to share. There are some really good B550 boards but they are more expensive than many of the X570 ones now they are coming down in price.

£ for £ B550 vs X570 you'd go with X570 surely, at least decent VRMs and cooling.

So If I am interpreting this correctly, overclocking is tad bit more limited on the B550 no matter how high-end it might be?

Joxeon · 14 Oct 2020 at 00:42

zaphod-159 said:
So If I am interpreting this correctly, overclocking is tad bit more limited on the B550 no matter how high-end it might be?

Not really as both will overclock just fine, even my B450 can OC without issue.

zaphod-159 · 14 Oct 2020 at 02:49

I see. Any recommendations you guys can give me for a x570 around £250?

Joxeon · 14 Oct 2020 at 07:52

zaphod-159 said:
I see. Any recommendations you guys can give me for a x570 around £250?

The X570 tomahawk is a great board at just over £200

BigBANGtheory · 14 Oct 2020 at 08:31

zaphod-159 said:
So If I am interpreting this correctly, overclocking is tad bit more limited on the B550 no matter how high-end it might be?

No not necessarily, the B550 has less PCIe 4 lanes in its arsenal and CPU to chipset is PCIe 3. Where it starts to make a difference is connecting lots of cards, storage and peripherals... If say you only ever want to use 1x GPU and 1 x M.2 storage you wouldn't notice the difference but go higher than that the compromises on how B550 divides up the lanes starts to creep in.

For good overclock potential you basically need a £200+ board atm as that gives you the quality components that gives you the best chance for higher frequencies but also better cooling (less crashing). The Unify for example uses (I believe) a superior VRM controller to the Tomahawk that might make a difference or it may not.

I'd look at the MSI Tomahawk, Unify and the Gigabyte Aurous Elite. The new boards recently announced my MSI and Asus I think are all £280-£350, if you shop around you might get a Unify for £250. One thing the reviews don't tend to cover or have changed over time is the Unify price has come down from £300 to £260 and the Tomahawk has gone up £210+ due to its popularity.... so the lines are blurring. If you are on a budget Tomahawk is where I'd put my money, if you want more you pay more...

Joxeon · 14 Oct 2020 at 08:49

BigBANGtheory said:
No not necessarily, the B550 has less PCIe 4 lanes in its arsenal and CPU to chipset is PCIe 3. Where it starts to make a difference is connecting lots of cards, storage and peripherals... If say you only ever want to use 1x GPU and 1 x M.2 storage you wouldn't notice the difference but go higher than that the compromises on how B550 divides up the lanes starts to creep in.

For good overclock potential you basically need a £200+ board atm as that gives you the quality components that gives you the best chance for higher frequencies but also better cooling (less crashing). The Unify for example uses (I believe) a superior VRM controller to the Tomahawk that might make a difference or it may not.

I'd look at the MSI Tomahawk, Unify and the Gigabyte Aurous Elite. The new boards recently announced my MSI and Asus I think are all £280-£350, if you shop around you might get a Unify for £250. One thing the reviews don't tend to cover or have changed over time is the Unify price has come down from £300 to £260 and the Tomahawk has gone up £210+ due to its popularity.... so the lines are blurring. If you are on a budget Tomahawk is where I'd put my money, if you want more you pay more...

The tomahawk slightly outperforms the unify in VRM temps but that said they are both great boards.

BigBANGtheory · 14 Oct 2020 at 10:15

Joxeon said:
The tomahawk slightly outperforms the unify in VRM temps but that said they are both great boards.

VRM temps are both good, on the Unify you have extra M.2, extra PCIe x16 slot, better VRM controller, bluetooth 5.1, OC cmos reset, post code LEDs etc... Basically if you're intending to tinker, push the OC's and experiment with bios versions or believe you'll end up with 3 M.2 storage then the Unify has you covered that's what you are paying for. Does it mean extra performance? Probably not it means you can push for the extra performance and there are some nice bios updates on the Overclockers.net forums

Unify is the better board for a higher price just as the Godlike, Ultra and Extreme are better still but for an even higher price.

2StepSteve · 14 Oct 2020 at 11:09

BigBANGtheory said:
VRM temps are both good, on the Unify you have extra M.2, extra PCIe x16 slot, better VRM controller, bluetooth 5.1, OC cmos reset, post code LEDs etc... Basically if you're intending to tinker, push the OC's and experiment with bios versions or believe you'll end up with 3 M.2 storage then the Unify has you covered that's what you are paying for. Does it mean extra performance? Probably not it means you can push for the extra performance and there are some nice bios updates on the Overclockers.net forums

Unify is the better board for a higher price just as the Godlike, Ultra and Extreme are better still but for an even higher price.

Are these custom BIOS updates? Can you point me in the direction of them please.

Tomahawk has bluetooth 5.1 just to point out.

zaphod-159 · 14 Oct 2020 at 11:10

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm really liking the unify but not sure with MSI in the long term, I do highly prefer Gigabyte so I think I will also look at those, but they do seem to be more expensive.

BigBANGtheory · 14 Oct 2020 at 12:39

2StepSteve said:
Are these custom BIOS updates? Can you point me in the direction of them please.

Tomahawk has bluetooth 5.1 just to point out.

https://www.overclock.net/threads/msi-meg-x570-unify-overclocking-discussion-thread.1735952/page-84

yes on Bluetooth you are correct as they both use the same Intel Wifi chipset so both 5.1 some misinformation kicking around about that on both boards

Vogon · 15 Oct 2020 at 06:43

So back to the OPs original question.
I am considering a Tomahawk, but am still on the fence as to B550 or X570 version.
VRM wise they are the same, I don't need the wifi and I only have one NvME for OS which is gen 3 anyways. Main storage is currently a hybrid 2tb, but may in time get updated to an SSD.
I will look to be running a Zen 3.
Considering not many people can even tell the difference in sata SSD to NvME in a blind test and the cost difference is £50, what am I missing out on by going for the 550 ?

mickyflinn · 15 Oct 2020 at 07:50

Vogon said:
So back to the OPs original question.
I am considering a Tomahawk, but am still on the fence as to B550 or X570 version.
VRM wise they are the same, I don't need the wifi and I only have one NvME for OS which is gen 3 anyways. Main storage is currently a hybrid 2tb, but may in time get updated to an SSD.
I will look to be running a Zen 3.
Considering not many people can even tell the difference in sata SSD to NvME in a blind test and the cost difference is £50, what am I missing out on by going for the 550 ?

X570 have extra pcie lanes and more ports.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3582-amd-chipset-differences-b550-vs-x570-b450-x470-zen-3

Vogon · 15 Oct 2020 at 08:17

Which , as far as I can see, makes no odds to my setup.
Ill only be using one M2 and one sata, or at most 2 m.2 and 2 sata in the future, no add in cards apart from GPU.
I'll have 2 less USB 3.2 ports on the back,, but I am sure hubs will be available when more 3.2 devices become mainstream.

In terms of overclockability (if the new cpus even have much headroom) there won't be much, if any difference as the 2 tomahawk boards use the same vrms and have essentially the same memory oc speeds (again probably irrelevant as likely tied to the cpu).

Is that a fair assessment, or am I missing something ?

mickyflinn · 15 Oct 2020 at 08:24

Vogon said:
Which , as far as I can see, makes no odds to my setup.
Ill only be using one M2 and one sata, or at most 2 m.2 and 2 sata in the future, no add in cards apart from GPU.
I'll have 2 less USB 3.2 ports on the back,, but I am sure hubs will be available when more 3.2 devices become mainstream.

In terms of overclockability (if the new cpus even have much headroom) there won't be much, if any difference as the 2 tomahawk boards use the same vrms and have essentially the same memory oc speeds (again probably irrelevant as likely tied to the cpu).

Is that a fair assessment, or am I missing something ?

Yes that's correct.

Vogon · 15 Oct 2020 at 09:25

Cool thanks.
I may as well save myself £50 and avoid a potential point of failure/noise in future (chipset fan) and go with a B550