Soldato
That's decent RAM also from what I've read.
MSI's X570 Tomahawk May Become Go-To OC Board??
- Thread starter DebbieY
- Start date
That's decent RAM also from what I've read.
What, you can just slap in a new motherboard now without doing a full OS, driver & program reinstall??I ordered one of these earlier today, going to be fun this weekend doing a motherboard swap. Hope windows won't mind too much
Soldato
Yep, although I was already on a AMD chipset. (X470) Plain sailing and everything works just as before, just installed the latest AMD drivers once I'd changed over 
What, you can just slap in a new motherboard now without doing a full OS, driver & program reinstall??
You can, I did swapped motherboard last week but both boards use x570. Only took few minutes for Windows to setup drivers and settings.
But more hardware or platform changes are likely take longer to set.
Soldato
I've got one of these on order but am now unsure if I should have plumped up the extra £50 for the MEG Unity. Main difference is for the BIOS reset button and LED status read out, extra M2 and extra PCIe slot (the latter two differences I doubt I'd use).
I see the Thomahawk fairs a bit better in thermals in reviews by a couple of degrees.
Do you Tomahawk owners find yourself needing to short the BIOS reset pin often? As I can see that getting old quickly. On another forum there are some whinging about how the BIOS doesn't automatically default to factory if the board fails to POST due to BIOS settings.
I see the Thomahawk fairs a bit better in thermals in reviews by a couple of degrees.
Do you Tomahawk owners find yourself needing to short the BIOS reset pin often? As I can see that getting old quickly. On another forum there are some whinging about how the BIOS doesn't automatically default to factory if the board fails to POST due to BIOS settings.
I was going to get the Tomahawk, but after 1 month on pre-order with no clear indication of stock arrival I spent the extra money for the Unify, as I had the rest of the components around me. I have used the BIOS reset button a few times; mainly when overclocking and the memory timings wouldn't boot. But there is the option in the BIOS to reset after a particular amount of times of failed boot/post, however haven't used it as it was quicker to just press the button.
I definitely didn't need the extra inputs, but the one difference I appreciate is the audio chipset is slightly better on the Unify.
So, as a Unify owner, I'd say go for the Tomahawk, unless you really need those extra inputs.
I definitely didn't need the extra inputs, but the one difference I appreciate is the audio chipset is slightly better on the Unify.
So, as a Unify owner, I'd say go for the Tomahawk, unless you really need those extra inputs.
I thought there is no point overclocking the Ryzen for gaming?
Do any X570 or B550 boards have great onboard sound? Not spending £200 on a soundcard or DAC would be fantastic.
Driving AKG 702s and iLoud micro monitors. Source is COD MW and music (flac / 320kbps mostly)
Do any X570 or B550 boards have great onboard sound? Not spending £200 on a soundcard or DAC would be fantastic.
Driving AKG 702s and iLoud micro monitors. Source is COD MW and music (flac / 320kbps mostly)
I only recently got a pair of 'good' headphones (DT770s) so don't have another reference in terms of a DAC/soundcard, but the sound using my onboard sound on the Unify is fantastic and goes pretty loud (normally I'm at 45-50% for good sound, anything more it becomes deafening and only needed for movies where there's dialog).
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Soldato
@M1k3H thanks for your input. I already have an external DAC that I will be using, so wouldn't be using the onboard.
I guess it boils down to do I think the BIOS reset button and BIOS read out are worth it for £50 more. I'm leaning towards probably not. Once things are stable with OC and RAM timings I won't be touching it again.
I guess it boils down to do I think the BIOS reset button and BIOS read out are worth it for £50 more. I'm leaning towards probably not. Once things are stable with OC and RAM timings I won't be touching it again.
Soldato
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I'm running my system pretty much stock (only applying XMP profile as an "OC"), so I haven't had to short the reset pin at all. Just tested BIOS flashback for the hell of it as well, that works fine.
Thanks. I might ask in sound central as do know onboard sound is getting better. Is ‘Unify’ a type of motherboard?
Yes sorry, it’s the MSI X570 Unify. Think it’s meant to be the next model up from the tomahawk.
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Thinking about buying this board for my nearly complete build (just waiting on CPU (5800x) and GPU (3080).
My question is reading reviews on amazon there is somebody having slow boot times (20 seconds to get past bios) and he is using pcie 4 nvme like I will be. After googling around a lot of users having the same issue with ryzen boot times but not sure if this has been sorted now with a bios update as I can't see anything recent with the same issue?
My question is reading reviews on amazon there is somebody having slow boot times (20 seconds to get past bios) and he is using pcie 4 nvme like I will be. After googling around a lot of users having the same issue with ryzen boot times but not sure if this has been sorted now with a bios update as I can't see anything recent with the same issue?
Soldato
I'm not sure if its any help, but I have two Samsung 970evo nvme drives installed (500Gb & 1Tb) and boot to windows takes 15 secs according to Task Manager. Although I believe these drives are PCIe Gen 3.0 x4
I'm running the latest bios and my bios boot time according to task manager is 12.5 seconds. It certainly speeded up abit from the very first bios. NVme PCIe 4.0 drive here.
Also my rather old Sata disc burner drive was holding it back by a few seconds, it's so rarely used that I've pulled the sata connector out.
Also my rather old Sata disc burner drive was holding it back by a few seconds, it's so rarely used that I've pulled the sata connector out.
Slower boot times (compared to Intel) is just a thing on Ryzen. The only thing Intel is ahead in come November, lol. 12-14 seconds is roughly what it should be as tangey said on a cold boot.
On the Asus board I had there was an option in misc called like "Post delay startup" to give you time to press the Del key. It defaulted to I think 4 seconds and minimum was 1. That could save you 3 seconds startup time if MSI has that too.
On the Asus board I had there was an option in misc called like "Post delay startup" to give you time to press the Del key. It defaulted to I think 4 seconds and minimum was 1. That could save you 3 seconds startup time if MSI has that too.
Planning the same thing, not run an AMD CPU for best part of 20 years
Moving over all my current kit, so only having to replace the MB, CPU & waterblock.
Might treat myself to a new 980 pro SSD for Windows as well.
Soldato
should have said, my 15 sec boot is on the original bios, I've not upgraded yet.