Recommended AM5 boards approx £200

michty_me

michty_me

michty_me

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I'm toying with the idea of moving from AM4 to AM5 and just pricing things up really at the minute. I've currently got a rig strix X570E which has been ideal to be honest.

My only really requirements are:

- Solid power delivery and VRM.
- Cool running VRM.
- Ability to run 2-3 NVME drives without affecting the lanes.
- Minimum 2.5Gbe port

I think I'll maybe avoid Asus and Asrock due to issues we had seen earlier with them and 9000 series chips but happy to be corrected. I can stretch up to around £250.
 
Which CPU are you thinking of?

From what you've said, pretty much any full-size B850/X870 board would do the job, though X870 has USB4 which can cause complications (with lane sharing).

michty_me said:
I think I'll maybe avoid Asus and Asrock due to issues we had seen earlier with them and 9000 series chips but happy to be corrected. I can stretch up to around £250.
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The issues reported with Asus were very early on, with the 7000 CPUs. I wouldn't be worried about them now, except the B850/X870 boards were way overpriced on release (similar boards were around £100 more expensive).
 
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Tetras said:
Which CPU are you thinking of?

From what you've said, pretty much any full-size B850/X870 board would do the job, though X870 has USB4 which can cause complications (with lane sharing).


The issues reported with Asus were very early on, with the 7000 CPUs. I wouldn't be worried about them now, except the B850/X870 boards were way overpriced on release (similar boards were around £100 more expensive).
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At the minute I'm unsure, Probably a 9000 non-X3D just now and upgrade to the next gen X3d or towards the end of AM5 depending how a 9600X/9700X/9800X fairs over time.
I would happily pay a bit more for a solid board really if its going to last a few upgrades and if Asus boards are fairly reliable again, I will consider them.
 
michty_me said:
At the minute I'm unsure, Probably a 9000 non-X3D just now and upgrade to the next gen X3d or towards the end of AM5 depending how a 9600X/9700X/9800X fairs over time.
I would happily pay a bit more for a solid board really if its going to last a few upgrades and if Asus boards are fairly reliable again, I will consider them.
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Don't get the ones where you have to remove GPU by slanting the card out lol....damage it
 
michty_me said:
I've been looking at the Google spreadsheet that kicks around of comparisons and even more confused now :cry:
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About what part(s)?

michty_me said:
I would happily pay a bit more for a solid board really if its going to last a few upgrades and if Asus boards are fairly reliable again, I will consider them.
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AM5 boards have been overbuilt since release, so there's really not a benefit to paying more. The only time you lose performance is if the VRM throttles and you'd need a really bad one (probably under £100, at this point) to throttle with an entry-level CPU like the 9600X, or even a 9800X3D.

It is true that some run a lot cooler than others, but even then, I'd only look for 8(+) layers and a high-end VRM if I was using a 12/16 core for heavy CPU-intensive tasks that run for hours. Desktop use (like browsing, office tasks) and gaming it'd be a waste.

Generally, reliability is a pointless thing to pursue, in my opinion, because you could spend £500 and get a lemon where the LAN doesn't work or a cap was wrongly installed, or spend £100 and it lasts problem-free for 15 years.

My baseline would be something like this:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £177.98 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

If that lacks features you want, then step it up from there. I like the price of Sapphire's B850 board too, but they don't have much to go on with motherboards and we don't know how well it'll be supported with BIOS updates, which might be an issue if you wanted to buy a 10800X3D on release, or if there's some kind of security or Windows issue that needs addressing promptly.
 
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Tetras said:
About what part(s)?


AM5 boards have been overbuilt since release, so there's really not a benefit to paying more. The only time you lose performance is if the VRM throttles and you'd need a really bad one (probably under £100, at this point) to throttle with an entry-level CPU like the 9600X, or even a 9800X3D.

It is true that some run a lot cooler than others, but even then, I'd only look for 8(+) layers and a high-end VRM if I was using a 12/16 core for heavy CPU-intensive tasks that run for hours. Desktop use (like browsing, office tasks) and gaming it'd be a waste.

Generally, reliability is a pointless thing to pursue, in my opinion, because you could spend £500 and get a lemon where the LAN doesn't work or a cap was wrongly installed, or spend £100 and it lasts problem-free for 15 years.

My baseline would be something like this:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £177.98 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

If that lacks features you want, then step it up from there. I like the price of Sapphire's B850 board too, but they don't have much to go on with motherboards and we don't know how well it'll be supported with BIOS updates, which might be an issue if you wanted to buy a 10800X3D on release, or if there's some kind of security or Windows issue that needs addressing promptly.
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Thanks, probably what I needed to hear to be fair. I don't need top of the line or high end really.

I can't see me ever needing a 16 core CPU but would like to keep something open for a possible 12 core X3D chip down the line.

Deciphering a high end VRM, this bit confuses me with what's decent, What's mediocre and what's pants.
 
michty_me said:
Thanks, probably what I needed to hear to be fair. I don't need top of the line or high end really.

I can't see me ever needing a 16 core CPU but would like to keep something open for a possible 12 core X3D chip down the line.

Deciphering a high end VRM, this bit confuses me with what's decent, What's mediocre and what's pants.
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If we take one of the cheapest full-size B850 boards (or at least, it was, around ~£150) Gigabyte's Eagle, it has 6-layer PCB and 8 phases, rated to 55A (Gigabyte says 60A, spreadsheet says no). That's enough for anything if we're talking about gaming, but it did get hot with a 9950X (16 core), running Cinebench for 1 hour in HUB's testing (83C).

As a baseline board, it is still "good enough" and I'd not have any concerns about using it for gaming, but would I run CPU-intensive tasks on it for hours and hours? No. Worth buying something better there.

These are fairly expensive B850 boards (~£200), I guess you could call them high-end: TUF B850-Plus and Tomahawk Max. They're both 8-layer and 14 phases (rated to 80A). Boards with similar specs in HUB's roundup were like.. 60C or less in the same test, so I have no concern.

This one is a high-end board (£300+), Strix X870-F. It has an 8-layer PCB and 16 phases (rated to 110A). This is in silly season territory, it is overspec for any current AM5 CPU.
 
Tetras said:
If we take one of the cheapest full-size B850 boards (or at least, it was, around ~£150) Gigabyte's Eagle, it has 6-layer PCB and 8 phases, rated to 55A (Gigabyte says 60A, spreadsheet says no). That's enough for anything if we're talking about gaming, but it did get hot with a 9950X (16 core), running Cinebench for 1 hour in HUB's testing (83C).

As a baseline board, it is still "good enough" and I'd not have any concerns about using it for gaming, but would I run CPU-intensive tasks on it for hours and hours? No. Worth buying something better there.

These are fairly expensive B850 boards (~£200), I guess you could call them high-end: TUF B850-Plus and Tomahawk Max. They're both 8-layer and 14 phases (rated to 80A). Boards with similar specs in HUB's roundup were like.. 60C or less in the same test, so I have no concern.

This one is a high-end board (£300+), Strix X870-F. It has an 8-layer PCB and 16 phases (rated to 110A). This is in silly season territory, it is overspec for any current AM5 CPU.
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Excellent! Thanks for the write up. I'll spend some time looking at prices and compare to what I need. So essentially, a B850 should be suitably sufficient for gaming predominantly.
 
michty_me said:
Excellent! Thanks for the write up. I'll spend some time looking at prices and compare to what I need. So essentially, a B850 should be suitably sufficient for gaming predominantly.
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Yup, pretty much! But if you buy a high(er) end B850 board like the TUF-Plus or Tomahawk Max you can just forget about the VRM and use what you want. They're technically superior to an entry-level X870 board like Gigabyte's Eagle (apart from no USB4).
 
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Tetras said:
Yup, pretty much! But if you buy a high(er) end B850 board like the TUF-Plus or Tomahawk Max you can just forget about the VRM and use what you want. They're technically superior to an entry-level X870 board like Gigabyte's Eagle (apart from no USB4).
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Thanks for taking the time to explain it all and point me in the right direction. I'll take a look at them in the morning.
USB4 worth giving up on or worth looking at?
 
michty_me said:
Thanks for taking the time to explain it all and point me in the right direction. I'll take a look at them in the morning.
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No worries, let us know if you have questions about the spreadsheet.

michty_me said:
USB4 worth giving up on or worth looking at?
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It is a bit niche right now. I'd consider it if you use external storage and other high speed devices (maybe VR?).
 
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