Motherboard for 11600k? Needs optical audio.

[Xuse]

Been pulling my hair out last couple of days looking at motherboards.

I can't go too cheap as I need optical out.

ASROCK b560 steel legend
MSI MAG B560 Torpedo

Two possible options. I considered rolling AMD to see if the motherboards were cheaper, but they weren't really, not with optical out at least.

[Terbinator]

What is the rest of the setup you need optical for - is there another solution, perhaps?

Best bet might be trying to get a cheap soundcard off a forum or Ebay with optical out. Cheapest internal one on Scan is almost £50...

What size are you after?

Asus TUF ATX - £150 https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus...sb-32-gen2-atx

[Xuse]

Need optical out to connect it to my Yamaha A-S501 Amp (so it uses the Yamaha's DAC, instead of the boards) That's how I've got it working on my current board and I do like the setup.

Size motherboard? ATX. That motherboard seems better, but not that I'm really up to date on what to look for in a board these days.

I'd even consider AMD if there were cheaper boards, but from a quick glance that doesn't seem to be the case.

Right now all I have is

3070 FE
Corsair RM850x
Lancool II mesh performance case.

The rest of the build is still much up in the air, but I did like the price / performance of that particular intel cpu.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I also hope you don't go OTT on what you pay for a Core i5 11600K,as like the Ryzen 5 5600X they are a tad pricey for 6C CPUs. Unless you need the improved IGP,I would try to look for a Core i5 11400F if you can get one for around £150,and have a GPU already.

MSI are also doing cashback too:
https://www.cclonline.com/product/34...ipset/MBD3096/

Also if you shop around you can get a Core i9 10900 for around £280:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174830269...=10001&mkevt=1

[Xuse]

Where can you get a 11400F for £150? Cheapest I can see is £200 on CCL. Most of those motherboards are m-atx, no? Where do you find this information?

B560 and H570 boards seem massively under-reviewed but I'm probably just looking in all the wrong places.

[Xlucine]

Often boards without an optical out on the back panel have a digital audio header. This plugs into a thing that goes in a PCI slot (purchased separately) and typically gives you optical and digital audio out.

The cards that convert the header into optical aren't super common, I got mine on ebay direct from china. There's not much to them (it's essentially just a mechanical plug and an LED to transmit the data) so they're cheap

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Where can you get a 11400F for £150? Cheapest I can see is £200 on CCL. Most of those motherboards are m-atx, no? Where do you find this information?

B560 and H570 boards seem massively under-reviewed but I'm probably just looking in all the wrong places.

Scan have the Core i5 11400F on pre-order for the 3rd of August for £150. Its worth a punt IMHO,as when both are tweaked,the Core i5 11600K is not really that much faster,and a Core i5 10600KF(£175) is cheaper,and not really much slower if you want to overclock. Plus the Core i5 10400F tweaked is also really fantastic value at around £135:

https://static.techspot.com/articles...ch/Average.png

Missed you said ATX later on! Hardware Unboxed tested a lot of Intel B560 motherboards a while back.

The ASRock Steel Legend will be a derivative of the ASRock B560 PRO4 with improved heatsinking:
https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/mainb...-steel-legend/
https://adoredtv.com/asrock-b560-ste...alf-the-price/

The MSI B560 Tomahawk and B560 Torpedo seem almost the same motherboards,but the latter is currently £140 at Box. The B560 Tomahawk gets excellent reviews,so I suspect the Torpedo will too. There is an MSI cashback promotion(put wrong link in before):
https://www.cclonline.com/product/34...board/MBD3083/
https://uk.msi.com/Promotion/Z590-B5...Promotion-2021

An MSI B560 Torpedo with any 6 core Intel CFL or RKL CPU gets £35 cashback from MSI.

However,the issue is that you can get B550 motherboards with optical out for slightly less money:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-GAMING-...df_B08B4V6H3N/

A Ryzen 5 5600X can be had for £245:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Ryzen-5...mputers&sr=1-3

So if you are inclined to spend over £200 on a 6C CPU,you might as well get a Ryzen 5 5600X. MSI is also running a cashback promotion on B550 motherboards:
https://uk.msi.com/Promotion/b550-li...m-gamers-dream

But I would take Core i9 10900 over a Core i5 11600K,or a Ryzen 5 5600X. Given the consoles have 8 Zen2 cores,I can see as time progresses more games needing it. We went from a Core i5 7600K demolishing a Ryzen 5 1600X in 2017,to the latter catching up 3 years later and that was with the old consoles. The new ones have essentially something close to a Ryzen 7 3700X/Ryzen 7 4700G.

You might give up some performance for current games,and need extra cooling but I expect the Core i9 will hold its own in a few years.

The Ryzen 7 5800X price seems to have gone up sadly - they could be had for £310~£340 on offers a few months ago. Having said that it is the best 8C CPU you can get,and I can't see it being a limitation for quite a while.

[Xuse]

You've given me a lot to think about, but more importantly I'm beginning to open up to the possibility of using mATX, but having never used mATX before I wouldn't be sure what to look out for. Cooler clearance? Ryzen is tempting, but I'm still nervous about building with AMD again after bending some pins on an old Athlon XP 3200+ back in the day.

The only problem with the Asrock is the 1 year warranty.
With MSI I've been warned off them due to bad build quality (?) and poor motherboard software.

Would it be ridiculous to buy a more expensive motherboard? Always been partial to gigabyte, unfortunately cheapest one I can find is nearly £200. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08XNG23H1 Probably pretty stupid though considering new intel cpus are at most a few months away. (Frustrating)

It would be good if I could get over my AMD fear there's a gigabyte board cheap with optical. https://www.cclonline.com/product/33...board/MBD2950/

Sorry for being so indecisive. (I have ADD)

[Xuse]

One last question before I make a decision. How terrible would it be to use my 3070 right now with my old 4690k and wait until October when the new CPUs come out and do a proper build that'll last me a long time?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

MSI did have issues 10 years ago,but seem to have improved a lot over the last few years and made some of the best motherboards now,especially WRT to VRMs and VRM cooling.

If you do want to see what is out in the next few months,I suppose you could wait and then try and spend a bit more if there is something better. However,I would still look to collect parts,as things such as PSUs,etc seem to be relatively cheap ATM. It might the effect of the GPU shortage and warmer weather is leading to less interest in buying many parts now.

[Xuse]

I've got a new PSU sitting here RM 850x (£110), along with a Lian Li II mesh performance case (£95). If there's a really good deal I'll do a build, but if I can wait I can do a build that lasts me hopefully as long as this one has (7 years)
I'm leaning towards waiting. I'm assuming it would still be worth using the 3070 with my old CPU even with the performance loss?

[ik9000]

I've got a new PSU sitting here RM 850x (£110), along with a Lian Li II mesh performance case (£95). If there's a really good deal I'll do a build, but if I can wait I can do a build that lasts me hopefully as long as this one has (7 years)
I'm leaning towards waiting. I'm assuming it would still be worth using the 3070 with my old CPU even with the performance loss?

YES. It's not "loss" just think of it as having more in the tank for the future. Like a decent car that can do 150mph but is having to do 70 (cough) on the motorway. It doesn't mean the car is worse than a ford Ka that can just about do 80 tops with a following wind down-hill. It will still be zippy and a nicer ride. It could just do Mwhoarrrrr when it's allowed off its leash.

You can also undervolt it for the time being and get it running cooler and quieter too without any real penalty.

[Xuse]

The only thing making me hesitant to do it is I took my PC to bits the other day to get at the old cooler (in case I reuse it) but I was also pretty careless and vacuumed near the mobo (never touched the actual mobo) and there's been a few times now I've had full lock up and freezes (having never had one before in 7 years) the first time I turned the PC on after rebuilding the fans went on etc then it turned itself off after 10 seconds. I waited a minute then powered it back on, this time it worked fine so I moved it back into my room and hooked everything up. Powered it back on and this time I got no signal on the monitors. I double checked the cables and checked GPU etc. Powered it back on and it went fine except when logging in to Windows the screen artifacted and I thought it was going to freeze again, but it continued. Then today I put another drive in and after logging in to windows it locked up once more. After powering it on again it worked fine.

I'm wondering if it was damage from static electricity or something still isn't seated correctly. Temps are fine across the board.