Motherboard recomendations

josey99

josey99

josey99

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Joined
2 Jun 2009
Posts
104
I'm currently looking at getting a ryzen 3700x cpu and im looking for recomendations for a decent motherboard for it. I'm forced through circumstances to get a new upgrade. My cpu is dying in my current system. Ive had 2 bad rigs in a row, both intel so this time im going amd.

I need the extra slots. I have a couple of cards to accommodate. Apart from that its all good. I just want a stable system at stock. No overclocking.
 
josey99 said:
I'm currently looking at getting a ryzen 3700x cpu and im looking for recomendations for a decent motherboard for it. I'm forced through circumstances to get a new upgrade. My cpu is dying in my current system. Ive had 2 bad rigs in a row, both intel so this time im going amd.

I need the extra slots. I have a couple of cards to accommodate. Apart from that its all good. I just want a stable system at stock. No overclocking.
Click to expand...

What add in cards , storage drives going into it ?
And WiFi needed or Faster Lan ?
 
orbitalwalsh said:
What add in cards , storage drives going into it ?
And WiFi needed or Faster Lan ?
Click to expand...

Add in cards:
-SoundBlaster z audio card
-Tp link wifi card

I don't need wifi or faster lan.

Sorry just read that right. The storage drives are an m2 nvma pcie 3.0 1tb, a western digital 3d nand ssd sata and a 2tb Seagate barracuda sata hdd
 
josey99 said:
I'm wondering if this board would be a good one for running a 3700x. It's within my budget.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-mag-b550-tomahawk-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-359-ms.html
Click to expand...

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £314.94 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

Either of these would be good options, although I'd lean toward the Elite personally if only for the solid UK based customer support should you ever need it.
 
OZONE said:
Gigabyte has superior customer support and RMA than MSI?
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Yes. Rep in here does wonders for most. Why most people on the forum chose the board, even if they prefer looks of others . The power of one person's Customer service over brands . Rep chases Gigabyte and resellers RMA teams etc
 
orbitalwalsh said:
Yes. Rep in here does wonders for most. Why most people on the forum chose the board, even if they prefer looks of others . The power of one person's Customer service over brands . Rep chases Gigabyte and resellers RMA teams etc
Click to expand...
That is good to hear. I suppose I may go for a Gigabyte board and GPU for my next upgrade cycle.

Any brands to avoid in particular?
 
OZONE said:
That is good to hear. I suppose I may go for a Gigabyte board and GPU for my next upgrade cycle.

Any brands to avoid in particular?
Click to expand...

usually you look for features you need/want and good vrm if your going lot of cores.
I bought the msi b550 a-pro as I wont have more than 8 cores in that mboard and dont need more features.
even though it can handle 16 cores for my usage its not needed and if I went 16 cores I get the tomahawk version.
 
RBImGuy said:
usually you look for features you need/want and good vrm if your going lot of cores.
I bought the msi b550 a-pro as I wont have more than 8 cores in that mboard and dont need more features.
even though it can handle 16 cores for my usage its not needed and if I went 16 cores I get the tomahawk version.
Click to expand...

Both 10 phases. Just done differently. Toma has integrated MOSFET and Pro has sep Low and High side . 12 core Zen 3 nicely
 
Hi Josey
I have bought the 3700X and have the same question, which Motherboard? I also don't want to be overclocking if possible.
The main program I want to run will be Microsoft flight simulator just at medium settings.
The flight sim has radically changed from CPU being the main driver to GPU, so saving in other areas may be the best solution.
Was going to settle on the Tomahawk b450 Max @ £107 as even the 2080ti cards cannot max out PCI-e3 so do I really need PCI-e4 right now?
Not that I can afford top cards or 2080ti at this time.
But when I was thinking of future-proofing the next option was the Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE £143 or something like that, and would it be sensible to go B550 and spend a little bit less on a GPU.
Would I be restricting anything relating to the CPU by using a B450 chipset?
 
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riggie said:
Hi Josey
I have bought the 3700X and have the same question, which Motherboard? I also don't want to be overclocking if possible.
The main program I want to run will be Microsoft flight simulator just at medium settings.
The flight sim has radically changed from CPU being the main driver to GPU, so saving in other areas may be the best solution.
Was going to settle on the Tomahawk b450 Max @ £107 as even the 2080ti cards cannot max out PCI-e3 so do I really need PCI-e4 right now?
Not that I can afford top cards or 2080ti at this time.
But when I was thinking of future-proofing the next option was the Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE £143 or something like that? would it be sensible to go B550 and spend a little bit less on a GPU.
Would I be restricting anything relating to the CPU by using a B450 chipset?
Click to expand...

Would personally do b550 . Or if not overclocking A520 . Some boards designed better then b450 etc .

Btw. FS still is HEAVILY CPU bound... On top of GPU VRam.

Only uses 4 cores effectively across 8 threads so core speed is key . Memory latency too .

Again spend as much on GPU .

Eventually Nvidia and Microsoft along with AMD will get IO performance to outmatch Sony's PS5. Though will require PCIe 4.0 drive to out match it though m.2 PCIe 3.0 will do a good job too !

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wccfte...orage-are-coming-but-itll-be-a-while-yet/amp/

If you do intended to keep the mobo for 5/6 years and upgrade GPU once more to same level **80 then you'll see PCIe 3.0 be the limiting factor
 
Thanks for the info orbitalwalsh, I will be keeping this build for 5/6 years so will look more into the later Chipset boards.......... Damn more reading required.
 
riggie said:
Thanks for the info orbitalwalsh, I will be keeping this build for 5/6 years so will look more into the later Chipset boards.......... Damn more reading required.
Click to expand...

Flight sim has been designed to run for 10 odd years so has come out a bit like Crysis back in the days.
Think the fact it's DX11 as well, either shows how longs it's been in development or wanting to reach as many systems before going and hopefully DX12.2 .

Raytracing really would bring the thing grinding to a halt !
 
Yes, FS has come a long way and had a midlife crisis too, I can remember seeing FS version 1.0 in colour it was amazing.
Just a few more questions on any Mobo really, in the Manual for the Tomahawk Max is says: ''When the M.2 slot is populated, two SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports are disabled''. But if I use a Crucial P1 NVMe M.2 SSD it will run and 5x the sata speed because it is a direct PCIe connection, basically, if a motherboard sports a M.2 interface, it does mean it can be used for NVMe drives?
And with the new FS will it need, or benefit, from an NVMe drive?

My apologies josey99 for jumping on your thread.
 
riggie said:
Yes, FS has come a long way and had a midlife crisis too, I can remember seeing FS version 1.0 in colour it was amazing.
Just a few more questions on any Mobo really, in the Manual for the Tomahawk Max is says: ''When the M.2 slot is populated, two SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports are disabled''. But if I use a Crucial P1 NVMe M.2 SSD it will run and 5x the sata speed because it is a direct PCIe connection, basically, if a motherboard sports a M.2 interface, it does mean it can be used for NVMe drives?
And with the new FS will it need, or benefit, from an NVMe drive?

My apologies josey99 for jumping on your thread.
Click to expand...

not sure wiith the toma sorry . But m.2 have the ability to either run nvme or sata. if running sata they use up the sata ports. some times if you run multiple m.2 nvme they can also take up/disable sata ports.


few seconds. what WOULD make time fly is Nvidia RTXIO along with Microsoft Direct Storage . Their answer to Sony's insanely quick loading times. In theory would just be able to pretty much load up your plan and fly in an instant . BUT no indication on when FS willl move to DX12 as its got a 10 yr life span

cost of NVME 3.0 is more or less same as SATA SSD , so easy choice. hard to justify pricing of 4.0 nvme currently.
b450 vs b550... plan to keep your rig 4-10 years and change your CPU to RTX4*** or 5***/ RNDA 3.0 then you'll see yourself needing PCIe 4.0 at £500 entry level
 
Hi Orbitalwalsh
Thanks very much for all the info, the video was really interesting, it's so difficult to choose a board as there are so many, I am struggling to choose between X570 and B550
I keep coming back to this one, the ........ MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard @ £160
Or there is this one for the same price .... MSI X570-A PRO (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 CHIPSET MOTHERBOARD @ £160 (and you can control the chip-set fan)
I realise the X boards are designed for more control for overclocking so would that mean the components and VRM are a higher standard?
Or would the B550 be the most solid simple and reliable way to go?
 
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