X570 vs B550 for new build

[amjad175]

Hello,

I'm assembling a new system and would appreciate some motherboard recommendations for an AMD 5800x. Mostly work use;

1. Windows 10 / VMWare Workstation Pro.
2. One NVME m.2 ssd.
3. 3 x SATA HDDs for mass storage. (RAID not a requirement)
4. AMD RX580 (For VMWare passthru, not gaming).
5. 128GB RAM.
6. 10GBE PCIE network card.
7. ATX or E-ATX. (For future add-on cards, better airflow).

Not bothered about RGB or overclocking, it's going in a windowless case! Rock solid stability is top requirement. Based on the above would a B550 board suffice or is X570 required?

Thanks.

[[GSV]Trig]

What CPU you looking at, the x570 has a broader range of CPU support..

[Saracen999]

A hint might be

recommendations for an AMD 5800x

I'm planning a similar build (or purchase) so am interested in thoughts on this too. Currently planning B550 but can go up if the need justifies it. I doubt it does, for me.

[[GSV]Trig]

Missed that bit, was looking at the numbered points

If you have a need for PCIE 4 then x570 would be better, but, if you have a need for better NIC then there's a few B550 boards with 2.5Gb ethernet, I'd decide what the budget for the board was and then check the different feature sets that might make more difference than the 550/570 side of things.

[DanceswithUnix]

I think you just need to look by features. My last build went X570 because I wanted three x16 slots and I didn't find a B550 board that could drive a GPU, 25GbE network card and quad SDI video card at the same time.

RAM doesn't sound that tricky. We have an old Asus Gaming B350M (yes that old) board at work with 96GB of ECC ram in it.

[Corky34]

Personally if i was going to buy now i wouldn't buy x570, not that there's anything wrong with it it's just the extra cost that i regret, not that waiting a year for b550 was an option for me at the time.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The X570 has more PCI-E lanes but the chipset is a repurposed Ryzen I/O chiplet so does consume more power than the B550 chipset. Hence it requires use of a cooling fan,which kicks in during higher I/O loads - my only concern is if you intend to keep the motherboard over 5 years whether those fans are easy to replace. Apparently there is a new revision of the X570 which is passively cooled:
https://videocardz.com/newz/gigabyte...n3-warhol-cpus

WRT to what I would choose - I would probably get a B550 motherboard myself. Something like the MSI B550-A PRO or Tomahawk should do the trick IMHO.

[amjad175]

Thank you for all the replies. I thought the B550 chipset could support 1 PCIE Gen 4? I only need the 1 NVME gen 4 ssd installed. I am not sure if the GFX card + PCIE network card will be supported at full speed on B550 boards (with 1 gen 4 NVME).

I was leaning towards the newly announced Asus B550 ProArt Creator which has TB4. Thunderbolt isn't critical for me on a desktop but nice to have feature.

Cooling won't be a big issue for me, any thoughts on the Asus X570 Prime Pro in terms of stability and power delivery with AMD 5800X assuming the Asus B550 ProArt is not suitable?

Thank you.

[DanceswithUnix]

, any thoughts on the Asus X570 Prime Pro in terms of stability and power delivery with AMD 5800X assuming the Asus B550 ProArt is not suitable?

That's the motherboard I use at work, for the workstation with all the IO cards in it. I've been very happy with it.

The thing you might need to watch with motherboards is how many lanes you get to all the x16 slots, vs your requirements. Sounds like you should be OK here, but although a slot might be physically the size of x16 cards can work with fewer lanes so you don't actually get the full 48 lanes that three x16 slots would need to fully wire them.

With a 5800X that motherboard gives you a 8 lanes on the first and second slot (if you don't use the second slot, all 16 go to the first). The last slot is only really x4, but that should be fine for a 10GbE card (I'm running 25GbE so needed one of the x8 slots). Your graphics card should be fine on x8 if you use the second x16 slot.

The spec can be a bit confusing to read as the processors with built in graphics have a bunch of PCIe lanes missing.

[Saracen999]

....

The spec can be a bit confusing to read ....

You ain't kidding.

I used to be pretty clued up in this field .... like the time AMD sent me (unsolicited) one of each speed variant of their CPUs for test, when all I had requested was one specific chip for one commissioned article. While I appreciated the gesture, as a freelancer, I could only write articles I could get a commission for.

But I'm so out of touch these days, and despite a strong background, it's hard to get my head around the various feature-set permutations, be it mobo's, CPUs, storage, and worst of all GPUs, let alone work out what I need. I could have sworn I'd seen PCIe 4 on some (probably Asus) B550 boards, too but until I go check, I can't be sure. Which is a sign of general confusion. And that makes it VERY hard to know with any confidence just what to buy. Not helping is that my budget isn't hard-limited. Anything I set is going to be somewhat arbitrary and short of going to silly extremes, I can go as far as I feel necessary.

So if despite having a fairly good historical, but now out-of-date grasp, I'm finding it confusing as hell, I really feel for those members of the buying public that just want a decent machine at a decent price because they can really have no chance of understanding the limits of xyz spec at £ABC, and comparing it to alternatives. Talk about risking buying a pig in a poke.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thank you for all the replies. I thought the B550 chipset could support 1 PCIE Gen 4? I only need the 1 NVME gen 4 ssd installed. I am not sure if the GFX card + PCIE network card will be supported at full speed on B550 boards (with 1 gen 4 NVME).

I was leaning towards the newly announced Asus B550 ProArt Creator which has TB4. Thunderbolt isn't critical for me on a desktop but nice to have feature.

Cooling won't be a big issue for me, any thoughts on the Asus X570 Prime Pro in terms of stability and power delivery with AMD 5800X assuming the Asus B550 ProArt is not suitable?

Thank you.

This article from Gameresnexus will cover the differences better:
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3...450-x470-zen-3

Basically the B550 has no actual chipset PCI-E 4.0 lanes,and these come from the CPU SOC itself. The X570 has more PCI-E 4.0 lanes because the chipset provides extra PCI-E 4.0 lanes.



So you can have one PCI-E 4.0 16X device one PCI-E 4.0 NVME SSD. The total IIRC,is 24 PCI-E 4.0 lanes with a B550 and a Zen2/Zen3 CPU.



The X570 gives you 16 additional lanes for a total of 40 with a Zen2/Zen3 CPU. In both cases 4 of the PCI-E 4.0 lanes are used for chipset purposes,so that measn 20 are available to the end user for the B550 and 36 for the X570.

Also WRT to the motherboard anything over £150 isn't really worth it for a B550. That B550 you mentioned is $299 which means the motherboard might end up closer to £300 in the UK.

So with a Ryzen 7 5800X at £400,that would be nearly £700. Something like these bundles make more sense:
https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-7...pu-bundle.html

Also for closer to £750 you can actually get a Ryzen 9 5900X bundle:
https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-9...pu-bundle.html
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-.../Specification
https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-9...pu-bundle.html
https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-9...pu-bundle.html

[ik9000]

Wait for the rumoured x570s (passive cooled) boards to come out. Then go x570s and be happy you didn't compromise. Just make sure there is no BS heatpipe linking the VRM cooler to the chipset as so far as I can tell mine is warming the chipset rather than cooling it which is not ideal. Also check if ekwb are doing a custom water block for your board if that matters to you. I wish I'd gone Aorus master instead of the msi ACE that I got for that reason (and a few others too).

https://www.hexus.net/tech/news/main...oards-spotted/

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The problem is the cost of the motherboard. If the premium over the B550 is very high,I wouldn't bother with the X570 unless you really need multiple PCI-E 4.0 NVME SSDs,or tons of PCI-E 4.0 slots. If this is for gaming,and doing a bit of PS,etc instead of spending an extra £100~£200 on a motherboard,spend the extra on the CPU IMHO. I would rather have a Ryzen 9 5900X and a B550 motherboard for around £700~£750 than say a Ryzen 7 5800X and a X570 for not much less!!

[[GSV]Trig]

I bought both of my x570 boards used, one from Cockers for £150 and one on the bay for £136 with a 250Gb nvme drive, granted they are iTX Aorus boards so not quite the same as you're looking for but still, deals are out there..

[DanceswithUnix]

If this is for gaming,and doing a bit of PS,etc instead of spending an extra £100~£200 on a motherboard,spend the extra on the CPU IMHO.

The OP does have a "Not for gaming" comment against the RX580.

In case the OP comes back and reads this, that B550 creator board uses 4 lanes from a PCIe slot to drive the thunderbolt connector. Basically if you plug in a thunderbolt peripheral you lose I think one of the PCIe x16 slots. The B550 chipset just doesn't have enough lanes to work that board.

[MrJim]

Wait for the rumoured x570s (passive cooled) boards to come out. Then go x570s and be happy you didn't compromise. Just make sure there is no BS heatpipe linking the VRM cooler to the chipset as so far as I can tell mine is warming the chipset rather than cooling it which is not ideal. Also check if ekwb are doing a custom water block for your board if that matters to you. I wish I'd gone Aorus master instead of the msi ACE that I got for that reason (and a few others too).

https://www.hexus.net/tech/news/main...oards-spotted/

The Asus Dark Hero x570 is the only passively cooled X570 I know of (other than the Aorus Master):
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-...TksG6I8VPJlSVw

It's a bit pricey though at £499. It does beg the question as to why other motherboards aren't also passively cooled...the technology to do it is obviously around, & a heatsink plus a few heat-pipes can't be all that expensive?