AM5 Motherboard advice

[klinki]

Hi, I'm building a new PC for work and very light occasional gaming.
I already have most parts, except the motherboard which I'm bit struggling to pick. (I'm getting some used and spare parts from colleague).

My idea is to stick to AM5 platform as long as possible and I'd like to upgrade to the highest generation future CPU this platform will allow. Probably Zen 6 or some Zen 6 refresh. So I'd like to pick some motherboard that could last for a while. I don't necessarily need PCI-e 5.0 but it might be good idea to get it just to be future proof. But only if it doesn't come with too much price addition. I don't need USB4.

My price limit is around 280$ and I'm trying to aim for the best value for money.

I will not be doing overclocking, quite the opposite, this CPU seems to run very well in 105W mode without sacrificing too much performance. So I will probably run it in that configuration.

I have been recommended GIGABYTE X870 AORUS ELITE AX but it feels too pricy and doesn't add much value over the x670 generation AORUS. But problem with GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX is it has some really bad reviews on Amazon, reddit and so on. Also it has very high return rate so it feels unreliable. And there is also the Gigabyte coil whine. Is that still issue?

Another motherboard that was recommended to me by a friend is ASUS ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming. But there has been some issues with ASUS boards lately and I don't like much the way ASUS handled it. Also it doesn't have front USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port which ASRock boards have and which is in the case. But that's not a blocker, just a nice to have thing. I assume it would run at half speed, so 10GBit instead of 20 which 2x2 port would provide.

Based on some research it seems ASRock is the brand to go right now. I like the ASROCK B650E STEEL LEGEND WIFI - in my country I can get it for 275$. But I can get ASROCK X870 Pro RS WIFI for even better price - 262$. Not much difference and I like the fact it has newer chipset, but PRO RS is lower tier then Steel legend so I'm not sure if there wouldn't be any quality sacrifices? I checked some reviews and it seems it should have the same VRM configuration like 870 Steel legend which is pricier.

I'm not really experienced with motherboard so I would appreciate any advice. I assume VRM will be very important factor to run such a power hungry CPU as 7950x is.
As this will be work pc, I need stability.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 4.2 GHz 16-Core Processor ($594.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($99.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 AORUS ELITE AX V2 ATX AM5 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($59.00 @ iBUYPOWER)
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Rev 2.0 GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact TG Light Tint ATX Mid Tower Case ($124.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX-750 ATX 3.0 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1377.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-11-03 14:52 EST-0500

 

[eidairaman1]

Go look at AsRock offerings

 

[soulphie]

Hey, i dont know how it is where you are from but here where i live the Asrock B650 Steel Legend is cheap (180€) and supports PCIE 5.0 16x and same for 1 NVME. It also has 4 Dimm Slots so personally i dont see any reason to go for something else, its the most Bang for buck board there is if you dont wanna go for the Asrock B650 HDV m.2 for around 100€. But that one does nocht have pcie 5.0 on the GPU slot.

 

[Assimilator]

If you plan to stick with AM5 as long as possible then you should buy the newest, most high-end board you can afford.

I personally would not bet on AM5's longevity though; Zen 6 needs a more capable IO die to not be DOA, more IO means more socket pins, and there's no way of knowing whether AM5 has enough spare/unused pins provisioned to cover that extra IO. If not, an entirely new socket will be required.

 

[TheLostSwede]

If you plan to stick with AM5 as long as possible then you should buy the newest, most high-end board you can afford.

I personally would not bet on AM5's longevity though; Zen 6 needs a more capable IO die to not be DOA, more IO means more socket pins, and there's no way of knowing whether AM5 has enough spare/unused pins provisioned to cover that extra IO. If not, an entirely new socket will be required.

Except if you need a lot of PCIe/M.2 slots, since X870/E has fewer than X670/E in general, due to the USB4 host controller taking four lanes from the CPU.

 

[Glina]

A few questions come to mind regarding your build.

Why get X3D for occasional gaming? No way could leverage the performance with a RTX3060. How about 9900x or 9950x? Both cheaper and stronger in productivity tasks. (-$50 to -$100)
Noctua is top, but you could get a Thermaltake Assasin for less than half the price and equivalent performance. (-$50).
Memory could benefit from an upgrade to DDR5-6000 CL30. (+$50).
How about a faster SSD? WD SN770 for a slight performance boost (+$10). Or go larger. 1TB fills up fast these days.
PSU seems expensive and a bit overkill. Pretty sure you can get equivalent quality for less (-$50). How about a Corsair RM750x https://www.newegg.com/corsair-rmx-...tified/p/N82E16817139271?Item=N82E16817139271 . You can also scale down to 650W or even 550W unless you need headroom for a 200W+ GPU later on.
You could use those savings to get a more future proof GPU, a larger SSD or whatever you fancy.

I guess that leaves us with the motherboard. Choose based on features. It's all that matters. If you don't need USB4, PCIe5 etc, don't overpay. Gigabyte is a solid brand. So is Asus, MSI and so on.

 

[Launcestonian]

The B650 Aorus Elite boards are a very good line of motherboards. There bios support is outstanding. Even catering to enthusiasts with HVM (high voltage mode) for RAM overclocking unlike a certain X670E motherboard form Asrock that does not support it!

 

[klinki]

If you plan to stick with AM5 as long as possible then you should buy the newest, most high-end board you can afford.

I personally would not bet on AM5's longevity though; Zen 6 needs a more capable IO die to not be DOA, more IO means more socket pins, and there's no way of knowing whether AM5 has enough spare/unused pins provisioned to cover that extra IO. If not, an entirely new socket will be required.

Well yeah I do plan to stick with AM5 for as long as possible, but I care a lot about price / performance ratio. I don't want to overpay for something I don't need. USB4 is great example of such a thing. I have very little need for USB4. I don't work with multimedia and I barely connect external storage to my computer. In fact, I don't remember when was the last time I did that

I'd rather get more PCIe/M.2 slots then USB4.

You are right, Zen 6 must be more capable with IO, but I believe AMD had that in mind when they designed the AM5 socket. I think they recently confirmed it will be still AM5.

A few questions come to mind regarding your build.

Why get X3D for occasional gaming? No way could leverage the performance with a RTX3060. How about 9900x or 9950x? Both cheaper and stronger in productivity tasks. (-$50 to -$100)
Noctua is top, but you could get a Thermaltake Assasin for less than half the price and equivalent performance. (-$50).
Memory could benefit from an upgrade to DDR5-6000 CL30. (+$50).
How about a faster SSD? WD SN770 for a slight performance boost (+$10). Or go larger. 1TB fills up fast these days.
PSU seems expensive and a bit overkill. Pretty sure you can get equivalent quality for less (-$50). How about a Corsair RM750x https://www.newegg.com/corsair-rmx-...tified/p/N82E16817139271?Item=N82E16817139271 . You can also scale down to 650W or even 550W unless you need headroom for a 200W+ GPU later on.
You could use those savings to get a more future proof GPU, a larger SSD or whatever you fancy.

I guess that leaves us with the motherboard. Choose based on features. It's all that matters. If you don't need USB4, PCIe5 etc, don't overpay. Gigabyte is a solid brand. So is Asus, MSI and so on.

Thanks for advice, I got used CPU and RAM from my colleague for a very decent price. And I had that WD SSD lying on my table :-D I will eventually buy additional drive but there is no rush for that. I can wait for some Black Friday deals or maybe I could wait even longer for some reasonably priced PCIe 5 drive.

Funny thing, the Seasonic PSU is much cheaper in store I'm ordering from then the Corsair one. I think it is because they have the old revision of Seasonic. They have also the new one, the 2024 revison, but that one is much pricier. Yeah you are right I could scale down, but I'd rather have some room for possible future improvements. Also the PSU can run in fanless mode when it is running at lower usage.

RTX 3060 12GB is there because I want to experiment with LLM. I don't want to buy too powerful card as I don't know if local LLM will be good enough for anything. But I'd like just to try. 3060 with 12GB VRAM is absolutely sweet spot and in fact is more capable in terms of LLM then the 4060 (because it has lower memory bus). And 4070 is much more expensive and doesn't improve LLM performance that much.

So with regards to motherboards, from what I can understand basically both ASUS and Gigabyte should be fine, right? ASRock seams to be (at least from comments on reddit and various forums on internet) also quite good, but problem with it is it's motherboards are very basic IO wise. And better equipped motherboards are more expensive then ASUS/Gigabyte ones.