Would it be worth it to upgrade to a B550/X570 motherboard from a B450 motherboard?

Chrispy_ · Feb 20, 2023

Kodehawa said:
Ok so I did buy a new board (ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING WIFI II)
<snip>
If you have a decent B450, stay on B450, but I imagine that was clear on this thread.

Definitely a huge upgrade going from entry-level barebones board to a premium board.

When the TUF series first appeared, they were decent quality but I've stopped buying anything TUF now because it's all just a different colour of the lowest-tier ASUS make. Arguably, their PRIME stuff which is supposed to be the bottom of their range, is actually better made than TUF now. ASUS have just cashed in on that TUF reputation their early products earned, and people are wising up to their scam - no doubt they're doing the same with STRIX but at present the STRIX stuff is generally still very good.

Kodehawa · Feb 20, 2023

freeagent said:
Yeah the -F Wi-Fi II is a nice board. Doesn't have Intel Lan or Wi-Fi, and has a TB header. I was going to buy it, but was like 320 beaver bucks at the time. I ended up snagging the XE locally on sale for just a little more than that board was at the time. The XE a sweet board, kind of like the -E but better. I have the first gen -F running as my sons rig. Its been solid for me as I ran the piss out of it, now it lives a boring life playing Roblox driving a 5600X with some really crap Adatas.

It does have Intel LAN, but WiFi chipset is an AMD-branded MTK chip. Sad part about the latter is that Windows doesn't have drivers for it by default, so if you need it on installation... tough luck.

Hopefully those drives don't hear you, they'll fail if they do hehe /j.

'Twas 170 bucks (not including import taxes and shipping, but still cheaper than any local option) here.

Chrispy_ said:
Definitely a huge upgrade going from entry-level barebones board to a premium board.

When the TUF series first appeared, they were decent quality but I've stopped buying anything TUF now because it's all just a different colour of the lowest-tier ASUS make. Arguably, their PRIME stuff which is supposed to be the bottom of their range, is actually better made than TUF now. ASUS have just cashed in on that TUF reputation their early products earned, and people are wising up to their scam - no doubt they're doing the same with STRIX but at present the STRIX stuff is generally still very good.

I realized. The B550 TUF stuff looks even cheaper and has worse VRM configurations than the B450 motherboards. Ugh, that's a pain for consumers.

Honestly I didn't expect the audio to be the standout part of the upgrade. It has so much less latency that I'm playing osu! better and don't need to adjust global offset anymore, lol.

Mussels · Feb 21, 2023

Chrispy_ said:
When the TUF series first appeared

Kodehawa said:
The B550 TUF stuff looks even cheaper and has worse VRM configurations than the B450 motherboards.

TUF and PRIME from asus are now code for "as bad as MSI's worst boards" - usually with extremely bad VRM and chipset cooling

I just went through fighting to get AMD wifi drivers for someone else as well, how odd they're not on windows update yet

System Name	Bragging Rights
Processor	Atom Z3735F 1.33GHz
Motherboard	It has no markings but it's green
Cooling	No, it's a 2.2W processor
Memory	2GB DDR3L-1333
Video Card(s)	Gen7 Intel HD (4EU @ 311MHz)
Storage	32GB eMMC and 128GB Sandisk Extreme U3
Display(s)	10" IPS 1280x800 60Hz
Case	Veddha T2
Audio Device(s)	Apparently, yes
Power Supply	Samsung 18W 5V fast-charger
Mouse	MX Anywhere 2
Keyboard	Logitech MX Keys (not Cherry MX at all)
VR HMD	Samsung Oddyssey, not that I'd plug it into this though....
Software	W10 21H1, barely
Benchmark Scores	I once clocked a Celeron-300A to 564MHz on an Abit BE6 and it scored over 9000.

System Name	Shinano
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Motherboard	ROG Strix B550-F GAMING WIFI II
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE
Memory	32GB DDR4 3200MHz
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 6700 10GB
Storage	970 EVO Plus 1TB \| A1000 480GB
Display(s)	Lenovo G27q-20 (1440p, 165Hz)
Case	NZXT H510
Audio Device(s)	Sony WH-1000XM4 \| Edifier R1000T4
Power Supply	SuperFlower Leadex Gold III 850W
Mouse	Logitech G305
Keyboard	IK75 v3 (QMK) \| HyperX Alloy Origins

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

Would it be worth it to upgrade to a B550/X570 motherboard from a B450 motherboard?

Chrispy_

Kodehawa

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator