x570 or B550 for Ryzen 5000?

[bfar]

Sorry if this comes up a lot - I've been out of the loop on AMD motherboards for a while..

Looking at building a 3rd gen Zen system, for both gaming and productivity, to last 2-4 years. I have four or five SSDs including an M.2, and intend to add a next gen GPU in the late winter/early spring. If I can find the time I'll look into overclocking.

I'm eying up the MSI x570 Tomahawk, but I'm wondering is there any reason not to look at the latest B550 motherboards? Is there anything competitive there?

 

[mickyflinn]

X570 motherboards has 4 extra pcie4 lanes so if you add a second m2 drive it won't impact on thd gpu performance.

 

[Elevon]

X570 motherboards has 4 extra pcie4 lanes so if you add a second m2 drive it won't impact on thd gpu performance.

B550 still has one m2 slot at PCIE-4 speed and 2nd M2 slot, yes only PCIE-3 speed, so unless you are using two or more M2 all with PCIE-4 speed then you won't need it, B550 has no chipset fan as well, VRMs seem to be very robust as well in general on B550 .

End of the day you have to decide on what you need m2 and PCIE-4 wise, I know for me I won't need more then one.

 

[Firegod]

I was similar, was set on X570 but went with a B550 and saved some money. As mentioned, no chipset fan, and I didn't need the extra PCIE-4 lanes. My main M.2 is Gen3 anway, and the second M.2 is also Gen3. So both are running with 4 lanes (4x8GT/s). Not quite sure on @mickyflinn and the impacting GPU performance with a second drive. There is no mention of this in the B550 manual I have. The only point to note is that adding the second M.2 drive disables x2 of the SATA ports on this particular board. AFAIK the main M.2 and PCI slot are GEN4, and the second M.2 slot is GEN3.

B550 still has one m2 slot at PCIE-4 speed and 2nd M2 slot, yes only PCIE-3 speed, so unless you are using two or more M2 all with PCIE-4 speed then you won't need it, B550 has no chipset fan as well, VRMs seem to be very robust as well in general on B550 .

Agree.

 

[VonScar]

If you do get a B550, and want to use second slot for M2 in the future, might I suggest you go for a motherboard that only shuts down a couple of SATA ports?

I bought an MSI B550 Tomahawk, and according to professional reviews, and the manual, it will shut off PCI X4 x 1 slots and the secondary GPU slot if your plonk an M2 drive in the second slot.

I got the Asus Strix B550-E, because it has Wi fi 6, blue tooth 5.1, and I believe a useable second M2 slot for the future. Oh and £40.00 pounds off.

▷ Asus ROG Strix B550-E Gaming (AMD AM4) B550 A… | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)

Anyway, always best to research before you spend your cash...

X570 chipsets have annoying fans and the design is a year older than B550 chipset. There may be ones without fans but the best will have the little fan, which may break due to its small size.