Which AM4 Ryzen motherboard to buy?

[OZJZERO]

I'm looking to build a new PC to replace my current i5 2500k.

The Ryzen 2600X has caught my eye - seems quite cheap and performs well for the price.

Now the question is... which motherboard do I pair it with?

I was originally going to buy the Asus Strix X470 in view of upgrading to Ryzen 3, but I wondered if I was better off buying a cheaper B450 and replacing the entire MOBO when Ryzen 3 is released?

[Corky34]

Personally I'm waiting for the 5 series in the hope that board makers up their game a bit, particularly with regards to mATX and power delivery.

There's nothing wrong per se WRTG the 4 series as there are some decent boards but they do seem to follow the same sort of design (style over substance) as Intel boards and there's fewer of them if you want anything smaller than ATX.

I guess what you decide to buy comes down to if you need to upgrade now or can wait 4-5 months until R3 is meant to be released.

[proaudio]

I'm looking to build a new PC to replace my current i5 2500k.

The Ryzen 2600X has caught my eye - seems quite cheap and performs well for the price.

Now the question is... which motherboard do I pair it with?

I was originally going to buy the Asus Strix X470 in view of upgrading to Ryzen 3, but I wondered if I was better off buying a cheaper B450 and replacing the entire MOBO when Ryzen 3 is released?

I can recommend the ASUS Prime X370 Pro. Good BIOS, stable mobo, lots of expansion options.

[Ozaron]

I can recommend the ASUS Prime X370 Pro. Good BIOS, stable mobo, lots of expansion options.

If you do choose an X370 board for 2600X, or any other 300 series motherboard, make sure from the store that it's BIOS compatible.

Don't really expect that 500 series AM4 boards will differ that much from 300 or 400, but if you are intending to get a Ryzen 3000 CPU, and it's only a few months away, maybe just wait? Unless your 2500K is dead of course, and you need something now. Even then I'd pick a 1500X or similar, cheaper stopgap.

[scaryjim]

... Unless your 2500K is dead of course, and you need something now. Even then I'd pick a 1500X or similar, cheaper stopgap.

tbh a Ryzen 5 1400 - available now for < £100 - has roughly the same performance as an i7 3770k - in other words, its as good as the best drop in upgrade on s1155. Compared to the OP's i5, it would give a small performance boost in lightly threaded tasks, and a big one in heavily threaded tasks (thanks to its SMT).

If the plan is to go Ryzen 3000 when it launches, but you honestly can't wait before buying something, I just can't see the point in spending > £100 when the 1400 is available for less...

[proaudio]

If you do choose an X370 board for 2600X, or any other 300 series motherboard, make sure from the store that it's BIOS compatible.

Yep forgot to mention that. BIOS compatibility is a must.

[DanceswithUnix]

I can recommend the ASUS Prime X370 Pro. Good BIOS, stable mobo, lots of expansion options.

I went with the Prime X470 Pro. Seems good so far.

Yeah I could have waited, but I was finding with recent patches Elite was hitting a wall in VR with all cores maxing out causing sensor fails on the headset. Also, I'm always a bit hesitant to buy very new technology until it has had a few months to shake the bugs out as this is a working machine not just for gaming. So I got a 2600X, the price wasn't superb but I am up and running again. If in future I want to upgrade to a 3000 series, hopefully it will work in this mobo and the 2600X will be a good upgrade for any other PC in the house.

Now I just have to convince Windows that my old 7 Pro license is still valid.

[skidu]

I just got the x470 f Strix and 2700x, spent far too long deliberating whether to wait for zen2 (i'm also on a 2600k)

The difference is well worth it, I mainly do games design and 3d rendering so performance was worth while - if it's just for gaming, i'd hold out a little longer.